Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

Welcome back to Conversations with Barnabas Bear. A couple of items up front, the conversation is fictional (hopefully that was obvious) but are pulled from some of my conversations and observations during my time here in Tanzania.  The main purpose of these is to help everyone get to know the people in Tanzania a little bit better while having a little bit of fun.  These stories are told from Barnabas' point of view. We are headed back home.  It has been a weird year with the multiple trips home, having one ministry end and a new one startup.  It has been even more hectic than normal with Steve (I understand it confuses some when I call him dad) getting hit by the motorcycle in Arusha then coming back to work on the solar of the headmaster house only to have to make a last minute trip back to town to get a part for the inverter.  He was really busy wiring the house, doing final inspections on buildings under construction and saying goodbye to everyone.  I took lots of naps like

Merry Christmas a little early.  Yes, it is that time of year though I am pretty certain you folks in the States are much more aware of that than I am.  My hotel in Arusha has a 1-foot high tree with presents under it.  That is the only decoration I have seen and it is interesting since the owners, who live at the hotel, are Muslim. At this time when everyone is busy trying to buy presents, trying all the various flavors of the Christmas season and of course for us Clemson fans, getting ready for the playoffs.  I always like to take a blog and remind people about alternative gift giving.  There are pro groups at this like Heifer International and Samaritan's Purse.  But even small groups like to remind you that you can give a gift to them in honor of someone.   In that vein, I have made up some JPG images of a one-sheet card you fold into a quarter fold card.  The idea is simple.  If you want to give a gift in honor of someone then you download the card image you like, pri

This week in the blog (yes, I know I am not actually getting them out weekly right now) I wanted to talk a little about life at the new site.  This project is very different for me because I am currently not hands-on involved with any of the actual work going on.  Instead of focusing on budgeting for the next year, participating in the long-range planning of capital projects, learning about my new community and walking with a group of 20 something children most of the time.   view from front of house First, let’s talk about the weather some.  I cannot get a defined answer on what is rainy season here.  In almost all the areas I have visited in Tanzania there are a defined set of months when you know you can get rain and months you know there will be no rain.  It is their version of summer and winter.  Exceptions apply of course, especially along the coast where you are more likely to get rains throughout the year.  In Yulansoni it was late November through April where you coul

I started this week with one blog topic in mind since it would be around Thanksgiving when I would post it.  I worked on it when I got enough power to the computer I could type it up.  I planned to pen a blog on being thankful for the use of the house at the site and all the things that made it so nice compared to the tiny house I used to live in. But as I walked to the bus stand today I felt I should change the story for which I am giving thanks.  Those who know me well, know I like a good place to live and running water but I am comfortable living on the ground in a tent somewhere.  So giving thanks for the creature comforts is great it just is not me so to speak.  Like I said I am thankful for them, but there are things I find more important in this life. When I used to walk at my other site, I had locations where kids would run out to greet me and ask I take their picture so they could see themselves on the view screen (they were not big on getting their picture taken before

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."--Nelson Mandela For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, some of this discussion will be a refresher from some of the previous blogs.  But since I am picking up new readers who are interested in the Tumaini Primary School in Kiruani that Blessed2BlessU Ministries, Inc. is working with.  First Tumaini means Hope in Kiswahili.  For many in Tanzania, there is hope in the prospect of having their children receive a quality education.   Unfortunately, as I have discussed over the years a quality education is still difficult to find in Tanzania.  That is why I have become so excited working with this ministry because they are working to provide just that. The problems many people used to face in Tanzania was cost.  Only about 5 years ago did the government make primary school education free and only in the last 2 years has a secondary school education been free.  When they say free it

My pardons to Was (Not Was) on the use of their song phrase but I really wanted a song title to talk about walking here.  There were many to choose from Ronettes' Walking In The Rain; Katrina and the Wave's Walking On Sunshine; Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line to the Bangles Walk Like an Egyptian and about fifty others.  I choose this one because it was fun and a little cheesy.  Look it up on Youtube for a laugh. I have written blogs in the past about walking and will most likely do it again in the future.  Why?  Because I walk a lot here.  To quote Hippocrates, "Walking is Man's best medicine."  Not sure how true that it is but I have dropped many a pound due to the walking regimen that is the way things are here.   I embrace the walking lifestyle most of the time.  There are times when it tires me out.  Some days you just don't want to walk into town but if you want some food you have to.  Even at my previous site, when I had the truck I normally walked

I have done a couple of blogs on organization in the past and also talked about pairing down to what is essential.  I have talked about one of my favorite shows, Tiny House Nation on FYI network with John and Zack.  John's main focus on the show is to help prepare the family for living in the tiny house.  On the surface that sounds really simple, but the reality often is that they want to take everything and have everything in a tiny house that they have in a full size or oversized house.  One of the big things about the show is having less stuff so you can focus your attention on what really matters and on having experiences. In the military this was easy.  You had one bag for each type of deployment and that was what you lived out of for that deployment.  More importantly, everything had a place in your bag, your various pockets of each pair of pants or shirt.  That way you knew where it was when you needed something.  You practiced relentlessly pulling reloads from the spot yo