Kids Playing, more rain, hot temperatures and interesting "safety"

This week is a little bit of an odds and end discussion as I get ready to come home while applying for a work permit again.  Last year got my visa schedule out of sync with everything else meaning it is up Thursday.  This trip will be a little more extended for several reasons.  The first being that I am applying for a work permit with the new ministry and will need to allow a couple of months for that process.  Another reason being that I have not had a chance to speak to many groups about the new ministry since I joined it and I need to not only bring everyone up to date but will be looking for some new groups to speak to.  The last reason is that school is closed in June so no real reason to rush back with nothing going on at the school.

The most important of those reasons is one of the odds and end I want to talk about this week.  Speaking Opportunities.  I need to fill up my two months at home with as many as possible.  I not only want to engage groups I have spent time with before about this new ministry but also I am really hoping to branch out to new groups.  I am willing to travel to places to speak such as Columbia, Charleston, Greenwood, Clemson, NC, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky possibly.  I have a couple of dates already scheduled.  I will be speaking to a circle at Mauldin United Methodist on April 23 and the youth group on May 9th.

Having been in Tanzania for over 4 years now, I need my friends to help me find these potential speaking engagements.  While we always hope a a speaking engagement will turn into  potential financial support for the ministry, that is not how I look at a speaking opportunity.  I think it is as important for people to know about what we are doing and to pray for our ministry.  Typically if we take care of those two items the financial backing will happen.

If you have a group (does not just have to be a church group) that would like more information about our school and the ministry here in Tanzania, please contact me at steveintanzania@gmail.comsteveintanzania@gmail.com.  I will be in the US from April 20th to around the third week of June.

The kids have enjoyed playing some games as school starts back up.

This is "who is my friend" similar to duck duck goose but they go around asking who is their friend and then tag someone and they have to run around the circle and get to the open spot while that "friend" gets up and chases them.  Yes I did play and they loved that because they could run almost the full circle before I could get up off the ground.

Some of the other odds and ends going on in Moshi lately is the rain I talked about several weeks ago in this blog.  We are blessed that all the kids have returned from their illnesses related to the weather and are back at school.  Unfortunately the destructive nature of the rains has not backed off yet.  It has rained almost everyday for the month of April and many of those rains are very heavy.  In fact, several more drainage culverts have been damaged causing the road travel to be rough.  One village lost 6 houses but fortunately no one was injured.  The flood sediment even caused one home to be a trap for the occupants until the doors could be dug out.  The buildings at our site are still good though water did crest over the patio and enter the headmaster's house.  

flooded fields

Interestingly though the temperatures are still very high.

7:35 am temp just below 90 degrees F

9:57 PM and it is at 100 degrees F still

We have the always safe work practices of a majority work construction site:

scafolding?

I guess it is good they all weigh about 100 lbs because there is no way it could hold me

Then the always fun ways to tow a vehicle.  Once when a safari vehicle got stuck they used the spring black strips cut from inner tubes to attach another vehicle to pull it out.  This guy used the strain wire they use to tie down the metal roof structure to the house structure to pull a minivan.