Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

One of my favorite YouTube videos other than Jeff Dunham and Achmed the Dead Terrorist is a water charity having Africans read people's problems from what is normally referred to the First World but I typically refer to as the Minority world since those that live in those conditions are in the minority. So I have talked about my trouble sleeping during this time of the year (not a minority world problem a veteran problem) but how I cope with it in town sometimes leads to minority world problems.  For example I have been in town most of this week getting things done before I come home for the holidays.  Only my Virtual Private Network has not been working all week and Netflix knows I am in Africa so they will not let me access their site to watch programs at 2 AM when I finally give up trying to sleep and look for something to do to occupy my time.   On the other hand I have always been pretty good at working through the nights at least until I can't focus my eyes any

This week we are back working on the house or more accurately sharing some items from previous weeks because rain and the need to get end of year information together before I travel home has taken over my schedule. That is right it is that time of year again-both end of year reports and traveling home for Christmas/renewing paperwork.  While I don't have to renew my visa this time I do have to renew my International driver's license which is only good for a year.  This time around I also have to make sure I am set for a new two year commitment (the limit through United Methodist IVM program).  I will be stateside December 16th until January 19th not including flight days.  I hope to see everyone then and if you would like for me to speak to your group please contact via my email to the right. Back to this weeks episode-decorating the house or at leas the kitchen area.  While on vacation with the family we went to Zanzibar where I picked up a couple of carved wood frames.

This blog is actually about a work project on the site to repair the main entrance gates but I don't feel I can adequately cover the topic without discussing the concept of security here in Tanzania to a Tanzanian.  The concept of keeping what is mine is strongly ingrained into most of Africa.  Yes in most of the world people take common sense measures to protect things they own like lock their doors when they leave or lock up their cars. So what I have been struggling with as I worked on rebuilding the gate is the misconception of security here by creating items of show instead of items of real physical security.   The rebuilt gate after being primed and 1st coat of paint Let me start by telling you what was asked for in our gate and then describing to you the reality of the situation.  While determining the project and how to best utilize our resources those from the Tanzanian side of the discussion talked about a strong, secure gate that would prevent bullets from hitting

This weeks blog is getting back to working on the house and the next couple of weeks will be a mix of the house work and site work.  This is a very busy time of year on site as I am trying to wrestle information out of staff to start our end of year reports all while trying to get several projects both personal and site completed before I depart for the states in December.  With all that I was not able to do a video edit for this weeks episode so sorry you have to actually read it. One of the issues I have talked about in the past with a tiny house and renovating it is not having any room to put things while you work on one room or another.  It honestly has begun to pile up on me as I try to handle some of the work to be done.  The kitchen actually got to the point where I was having trouble walking through without knocking something over.  Add that to always having to work from the floor or unsteady stacks of boxes while I cook and I decided it was time to tackle the kitchen stor

Was not sure what to actually title this post as I am probably going to ramble a little bit as I have lots of little things on my mind at the moment and I am too tired to try and sort them out.  So see if you can keep up with the direction changes. Those who know me pretty well know I don't enjoy the months of October and November too much because I rarely get a decent sleep during this time frame.  This starts lightly in late September and normally wraps up around mid December.  However with all the travel and activities of the family vacation here in Tanzania I only had mild issues in September and early October, but it seems to be making up for those days with a vengeance.  Add that to the fact a lot is going on in the country and I am pretty far behind on my self inflicted work schedule (that means I set it and I give myself crap about not keeping up with it).  These problems infest many other areas of my life such as my creativity outlets as I am drastically behind in my nov