Mission Team Visit #1 (yep I am that hopeful)
Today the first mission team to visit while I have been serving here as a full time missionary boarded the plane home. From their comments they all had a wonderful time, saw and participated in some amazing things. Many expressed interest in coming back or staying connected with the ministry in the future. I hope to recap some of the great things they participated in during this blog since my work with them has kept me from keeping in touch with the folks back home.
Saturday:
So I had gotten into town Friday afternoon and had some things to take care of before the first team members arrived starting with getting the truck aligned which has been difficult in Singida. It took several tries to get it aligned and each time we had to take it on a test drive to see if it was any better. Problem was that we were in the middle of "rush hour" on a road under construction. Needless to say my nerves were pretty shot by the time we needed to go get the first two team members arriving Saturday evening/night. Nathan and Blake were flying in from Boston where they had been prior to traveling over to Tanzania. They arrived fairly close to time and we (William and I) got them back to the Raha Leo our hotel in Arusha.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we started semi-early with a trip out to Moshono for church at Arusha Vineyard then over to Fifi's Cafe for lunch where they still have not figured out to order sugar free sodas. By the time we finished eating it was time to go get the rest of the team. Blake stayed behind with me to take care of dinner orders and getting sodas for the team when they arrived. There is now pizza delivery in Arusha but it comes with a lot of conditions and extra costs but this was still the best way to set things up since William was driving the truck out to the airport along with the two safari trucks. Everyone arrived and we started getting to know each other a little while digging into semi decent pizza (by Arusha standards).
Monday:
Everyone's first full day in Tanzania was spent driving to Singida. The ministry truck served as the luggage truck for the team since it was easier to load than putting everything on top of the safari vehicles. Nathan rode with me and William rode with the team in the Safari vehicles. We stayed the night at the Aqua Vitae hotel which is part of a group of hotels owned by the same folks who own the Stanley I like to eat at a lot. Funny thing was that I made specific requests for hot showers and sugar free sodas. Most of the showers were hot which for Singida is a major accomplishment but the waitress said there were no sugar free sodas. Fortunately I packed some with me and went and got one out of the room. The next morning however I found out they had the exact drink I was asking for sitting in the cooler in the restaurant. No wait staff would ever investigate on a customer's behalf though-that would be way too much trouble. Welcome to Tanzania. Fortunately I was the only one who wanted them.
Tuesday:
This was the first day at the actual site where the team would be working. Using the safari vehicles the drive was closer to one hour each way as opposed to the normal 1.5 hours each way it takes me. We had set up a short devotional period every morning with the staff and locals from churches and our team normally providing a scripture reading.
After the devotional the team split up into the rabies clinic teams and the children's ministry teams. The rabies clinic team lead by Dr. Dan Randall, a veterinarian in the Greenville, SC area, went out with veterinarians from the local district government to vaccinate dogs against rabies. Tanzania has around 1,500 deaths from rabies every year. (source: http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0002510). They only have the canine rabies so vaccinating the dogs can hopefully work to prevent those deaths in our area. This has been going on for four years now with each year going to different locations in the valley area and expecting to cover the area every three years. Our team provides the vaccinations to the local veterinarians and then goes out and does the paperwork needed for each dog vaccinated to have a certificate proving they were vaccinated. They also do a presentation at each site talking about the hazards of rabies and what to do if they see a dog acting strange or are bitten. The first day the team vaccinated 184 dogs before 1 pm.
The children's ministry team went to the preschool on site and did the story of Noah and lots of crafts for the kids. As is typical the first day the kids are not sure what to do because crafts are not something they do here. Neither is coloring so often they require a lot of help to get started on the first day. Normally by the end of the week the older kids are more outgoing around the team and are quicker on the uptake for craft time.
The kids left at noon and the group stopped to eat lunch under the sausage tree (so named because the seed pods look like huge sausages hanging down). After lunch the rabies team rejoined us and we started working on the site. One group worked on the solar power for the preschool building including wiring everything up for lights and the AC inverter. The rest started work on the interactive learning station cutting up old plastic pipes and painting them to make a xylophone.
Wednesday:
The second day on site started off great with Pastor David and Ringo from the church in Arusha, Arusha Vineyard Church, joining us since they were traveling through from Mwanza. They came out and went around with the rabies crew and visited the overall site and saw the work we were doing and joined in to help as well.
The rabies crew had 105 dogs today and gave out over 100 pairs of eyeglasses donated by Ken Knox in Simpsonville recently.
The children's ministry once again did a story and crafts. This time it was David vs Goliath and they were using the "stones" that I made out of concrete for the kids to paint which fortunately went well. In addition during story time Nathan volunteered to be Goliath and the kids threw paper stones at him. He gets an A+ plus on acting.
The solar group continued their work on the pre-school and we added drums (made from old dehydrated milk cans) and maracas (made from rocks and used mushroom cans) to the music station on the interactive learning center. They also did the bowing pins from old water bottles for frisbee bowling and let the kids try it out. They also started the bean bag toss cans that will be over the frisbee bowling.
Thursday:
Today the team vaccinated 70 dogs. The number was most likely down due to a government event over three days for the national torch to pass through the area and everyone was required to come out and cheer it on.
Today's children's ministry program included everyone getting their picture taken using the instamatic camera so they got the print and a chance to see it develop.
The work on site today included finishing up the bean bag toss, making tambourines from bolts and washer and plastic lids for 5 gallon buckets and finishing up the solar in the pre-school. They even got started on the math station part of the interactive learning station. They also had a group making one of the seats for the teachers using recycled soda bottles as bricks.
Friday:
The rabies clinic had over 60 dogs today.
The children's ministry got to make necklaces and I was personally glad this was an end of the week thing. The kids did great making them but now they were used to the team and doing crafts so it was easier than if we had tried this early in the week. Interestingly a group of ladies stopped by at lunch wanting to make necklaces as well.
The work included finish up the math center, adding a bunch of creative decorative painting to the learning station, making tic-tac-toe games, making a bench seat out of regular red mud bricks, making rainsticks (yes making our own rainsticks out of old plastic pipe) and starting the solar on the tool room. Almost forgot we put the roofing on the bench seat.
Saturday
The torch was gone and the dogs were back. They did 344 dogs today and totaled over 700 for the week.
We started the day off in Children's ministry by watching and Akili and Me educational cartoon. These are the preschool version of Ubongo Kids I have mentioned earlier. This was great using our new solar power system installed in the preschool. We watched a music video for jump and run and then a read along story about five chicks trying to get a mango fruit from a tree in both Kiswahili and English. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0TLvo891eEEM6HGC5ON7ug
We all had a lot of fun playing and cutting up with the kids on our final day. Many of the team were concerned the kids would not want come to school on Saturday since they normally did not, but I was certain they would be there and happy to be there since that mean something fun to do instead of work to do.
I tried to get all the kids including the very shy girls to smile really big for pictures with mixed results since some looked more like they were trying to do a Joker face.
One of my favorite pictures is of the young boy who decided Blake was now his best friend and he just could not leave his side.
And the kids planted two trees they are now responsible for near the preschool area.
The work crews in the afternoon painted our medical clinic a light blue. This was the first building with walls smooth enough to use rollers. Interestingly you can buy rollers but no roller trays here. So I had some brought over from the states. I was worried because rollers waste a lot of paint opposed to the brush but the get the job done a lot faster especially with 6 or 7 folks helping.
They nearly finished the job in one afternoon which would have taken me three or four full days by brush.
The Welch boys also did some soil testing around the site.
Sunday-
We worshipped at the church that meets in the minsitry's preschool building. The team's pastor got first hand experience in dealing with William who told her about two days before that she would be doing the sermon. (He has done that a lot over the years).
We ate lunch on the ridgeline overlooking the valley. Then I took them shopping for Kitanga which are the bright colored cloth and on a tour of our local market. I think it is important for teams to see those. Our market here is like many in that it is a maze of tight walkways and overcrowded areas to purchase vegetables and rice. It has dirt floors and leaky roofs though many I have seen are just tarp roofs. The market here though is very clean compared to many I have seen. For example the meat butchers are in small single rooms separated from the market and the fish are actually in bowls on the street. It is nothing like the ones were everything is jammed together and the smell can overwhelm even me.
After the market we went down to the lake for communion. Some on the team may have been more excited about the wine part of communion than the communion sacrament.
Monday-
The team decided to do something different and used the day of travel to Ngorongoro crater safari park to travel through the Lake Manyara park on safari. Since it is on the way it simply took a couple hours longer and of course park fees.
This park is known for the tree climbing lions however we did not see any of those.
I strongly recommend teams in the future consider this or doing Tarangire which is home of the elephant herds.
Tuesday-Safari day at Ngorongoro crater
Wednesday
The team went to visit a school where Martha teaches bible study once a week and see the kids there as a member had donated bibles to the study.
After that it was the Tanzanite Experience and shopping at the Cultural Heritage Center before heading to the airport.
After they left I took the truck in for some service work and got this great sunset on my walk back to the hotel.
So I had gotten into town Friday afternoon and had some things to take care of before the first team members arrived starting with getting the truck aligned which has been difficult in Singida. It took several tries to get it aligned and each time we had to take it on a test drive to see if it was any better. Problem was that we were in the middle of "rush hour" on a road under construction. Needless to say my nerves were pretty shot by the time we needed to go get the first two team members arriving Saturday evening/night. Nathan and Blake were flying in from Boston where they had been prior to traveling over to Tanzania. They arrived fairly close to time and we (William and I) got them back to the Raha Leo our hotel in Arusha.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we started semi-early with a trip out to Moshono for church at Arusha Vineyard then over to Fifi's Cafe for lunch where they still have not figured out to order sugar free sodas. By the time we finished eating it was time to go get the rest of the team. Blake stayed behind with me to take care of dinner orders and getting sodas for the team when they arrived. There is now pizza delivery in Arusha but it comes with a lot of conditions and extra costs but this was still the best way to set things up since William was driving the truck out to the airport along with the two safari trucks. Everyone arrived and we started getting to know each other a little while digging into semi decent pizza (by Arusha standards).
Monday:
Everyone's first full day in Tanzania was spent driving to Singida. The ministry truck served as the luggage truck for the team since it was easier to load than putting everything on top of the safari vehicles. Nathan rode with me and William rode with the team in the Safari vehicles. We stayed the night at the Aqua Vitae hotel which is part of a group of hotels owned by the same folks who own the Stanley I like to eat at a lot. Funny thing was that I made specific requests for hot showers and sugar free sodas. Most of the showers were hot which for Singida is a major accomplishment but the waitress said there were no sugar free sodas. Fortunately I packed some with me and went and got one out of the room. The next morning however I found out they had the exact drink I was asking for sitting in the cooler in the restaurant. No wait staff would ever investigate on a customer's behalf though-that would be way too much trouble. Welcome to Tanzania. Fortunately I was the only one who wanted them.
Tuesday:
This was the first day at the actual site where the team would be working. Using the safari vehicles the drive was closer to one hour each way as opposed to the normal 1.5 hours each way it takes me. We had set up a short devotional period every morning with the staff and locals from churches and our team normally providing a scripture reading.
After the devotional the team split up into the rabies clinic teams and the children's ministry teams. The rabies clinic team lead by Dr. Dan Randall, a veterinarian in the Greenville, SC area, went out with veterinarians from the local district government to vaccinate dogs against rabies. Tanzania has around 1,500 deaths from rabies every year. (source: http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0002510). They only have the canine rabies so vaccinating the dogs can hopefully work to prevent those deaths in our area. This has been going on for four years now with each year going to different locations in the valley area and expecting to cover the area every three years. Our team provides the vaccinations to the local veterinarians and then goes out and does the paperwork needed for each dog vaccinated to have a certificate proving they were vaccinated. They also do a presentation at each site talking about the hazards of rabies and what to do if they see a dog acting strange or are bitten. The first day the team vaccinated 184 dogs before 1 pm.
 |
| Dr. Dan Randall explaining the rabies clinic presentation |
 |
| the team |
The children's ministry team went to the preschool on site and did the story of Noah and lots of crafts for the kids. As is typical the first day the kids are not sure what to do because crafts are not something they do here. Neither is coloring so often they require a lot of help to get started on the first day. Normally by the end of the week the older kids are more outgoing around the team and are quicker on the uptake for craft time.
 |
| remember these kids faces for the pictures at the end of the week and the change |
The kids left at noon and the group stopped to eat lunch under the sausage tree (so named because the seed pods look like huge sausages hanging down). After lunch the rabies team rejoined us and we started working on the site. One group worked on the solar power for the preschool building including wiring everything up for lights and the AC inverter. The rest started work on the interactive learning station cutting up old plastic pipes and painting them to make a xylophone.
The first problem-the screw to hold the wire was stripped out so the team members re-engineered it with a rivet.
 |
| xylophone |
Wednesday:
The second day on site started off great with Pastor David and Ringo from the church in Arusha, Arusha Vineyard Church, joining us since they were traveling through from Mwanza. They came out and went around with the rabies crew and visited the overall site and saw the work we were doing and joined in to help as well.
The rabies crew had 105 dogs today and gave out over 100 pairs of eyeglasses donated by Ken Knox in Simpsonville recently.
The children's ministry once again did a story and crafts. This time it was David vs Goliath and they were using the "stones" that I made out of concrete for the kids to paint which fortunately went well. In addition during story time Nathan volunteered to be Goliath and the kids threw paper stones at him. He gets an A+ plus on acting.
 |
| same girl as yesterday |
The kids playing the xylophone
Ringo playing the entire music station.
Thursday:
Today the team vaccinated 70 dogs. The number was most likely down due to a government event over three days for the national torch to pass through the area and everyone was required to come out and cheer it on.
Today's children's ministry program included everyone getting their picture taken using the instamatic camera so they got the print and a chance to see it develop.
The work on site today included finishing up the bean bag toss, making tambourines from bolts and washer and plastic lids for 5 gallon buckets and finishing up the solar in the pre-school. They even got started on the math station part of the interactive learning station. They also had a group making one of the seats for the teachers using recycled soda bottles as bricks.
Friday:
The rabies clinic had over 60 dogs today.
The children's ministry got to make necklaces and I was personally glad this was an end of the week thing. The kids did great making them but now they were used to the team and doing crafts so it was easier than if we had tried this early in the week. Interestingly a group of ladies stopped by at lunch wanting to make necklaces as well.
Those last two photos are of the girls who were all no smiles the first day and now they are posing.
The work included finish up the math center, adding a bunch of creative decorative painting to the learning station, making tic-tac-toe games, making a bench seat out of regular red mud bricks, making rainsticks (yes making our own rainsticks out of old plastic pipe) and starting the solar on the tool room. Almost forgot we put the roofing on the bench seat.
This is the abacus part of the math station where they represent their answers or work on counting. Those are the bushings I had to have replaced on the truck.
Saturday
The torch was gone and the dogs were back. They did 344 dogs today and totaled over 700 for the week.
We all had a lot of fun playing and cutting up with the kids on our final day. Many of the team were concerned the kids would not want come to school on Saturday since they normally did not, but I was certain they would be there and happy to be there since that mean something fun to do instead of work to do.
I tried to get all the kids including the very shy girls to smile really big for pictures with mixed results since some looked more like they were trying to do a Joker face.
One of my favorite pictures is of the young boy who decided Blake was now his best friend and he just could not leave his side.And the kids planted two trees they are now responsible for near the preschool area.
The work crews in the afternoon painted our medical clinic a light blue. This was the first building with walls smooth enough to use rollers. Interestingly you can buy rollers but no roller trays here. So I had some brought over from the states. I was worried because rollers waste a lot of paint opposed to the brush but the get the job done a lot faster especially with 6 or 7 folks helping.
They nearly finished the job in one afternoon which would have taken me three or four full days by brush.
The Welch boys also did some soil testing around the site.
Sunday-
We worshipped at the church that meets in the minsitry's preschool building. The team's pastor got first hand experience in dealing with William who told her about two days before that she would be doing the sermon. (He has done that a lot over the years).
We ate lunch on the ridgeline overlooking the valley. Then I took them shopping for Kitanga which are the bright colored cloth and on a tour of our local market. I think it is important for teams to see those. Our market here is like many in that it is a maze of tight walkways and overcrowded areas to purchase vegetables and rice. It has dirt floors and leaky roofs though many I have seen are just tarp roofs. The market here though is very clean compared to many I have seen. For example the meat butchers are in small single rooms separated from the market and the fish are actually in bowls on the street. It is nothing like the ones were everything is jammed together and the smell can overwhelm even me.
After the market we went down to the lake for communion. Some on the team may have been more excited about the wine part of communion than the communion sacrament.
Monday-
The team decided to do something different and used the day of travel to Ngorongoro crater safari park to travel through the Lake Manyara park on safari. Since it is on the way it simply took a couple hours longer and of course park fees.
This park is known for the tree climbing lions however we did not see any of those.
I strongly recommend teams in the future consider this or doing Tarangire which is home of the elephant herds.
Tuesday-Safari day at Ngorongoro crater
Wednesday
The team went to visit a school where Martha teaches bible study once a week and see the kids there as a member had donated bibles to the study.
After that it was the Tanzanite Experience and shopping at the Cultural Heritage Center before heading to the airport.
After they left I took the truck in for some service work and got this great sunset on my walk back to the hotel.
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