Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

This week we encountered some strange weather.  After a couple of weeks hitting into the 100s the weather broke Monday afternoon in a strange wind storm that made visibility about 5 feet due to the sand storms.  Overnight it started to rain and by the next morning the temperature had dropped to the 50s where it stayed almost all week.  It was not until yesterday that the sun peaked out and started to show itself from the cloud cover.  Personally I loved the cooler temperatures though morning baths were eye opening and I had to moderate my power consumption since there was almost no sun all week to recharge the solar system.  In fact the highest percentage of power from the panel that I got was 5 all week. During our "Reading with Barnabas" program this week we featured a video from another daughter, Lily, from my high school friend.   She read the group Dr. Suess' Cat In the Hat.   The kids get really excited when they see me walki...

This last week has been overflowing with activity and so many big things started that I am going to have work them all into the next couple of blogs.  First up is our normal Reading with Barnabas segment.  This week we used two videos.  The first was a second video made by my High School friend's daughter, Lila.  She and her sister have made several more for me to use.  The one I used this week was short, so I added in another video from Storyline Online featuring Reid Scott reading "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" written and illustrated by William Steig.  The kids are loving have someone close to their own age reading books for them.  They also loved watching Sylvester, a donkey and animal they are very familiar with, shaking with fear and hugging his parents.  I also got a couple of videos sent to me via Facebook that I have to download still featuring horses which I think the kids will love seeing someone ride a horse.  I just ho...

I had a friend from high school be the first to help me out with the Virtual Mission Trip I proposed back in June.  He recorded his daughter reading Dr. Seuss's "Hop with Pop."  The kids really enjoyed having someone close to their own age read a story to them.  But I think what was more fun was all the rhymes in the story and having a try to practice saying some of them after she finished reading the book to them. So a big thanks to my high school friend Jerry Burke and his daughter Lila for being our first to do this.   This is also a great example of using the power of Facebook for good.   Jerry and I recently reconnected through our high school's conversation about the 30 year reunion.    Wow hard to believe that was over three years ago.   I have had several folks ask me to do a blog on how to make a video and upload it.   That is a little more complicated than what I can do on site.   I have put together some vid...

I want to start off this blog on a positive note because it will take a dark turn (for me-you will probably laugh) later.  This week our story was read by Kevin Costner and Jillian Estelle and was called "Catching the Moon" written by Crystal Hubbard and illustrated by Randy duBurke.  It is the childhood story of Marcenia “Toni Stone” Lyle Alberga who was the first female to play on an all male professional baseball team.  It was a great story and offered me the chance to discuss baseball with the group as well as the determination it takes to break down barriers of gender and race.  An issue that is still all too common here. (d) the correct answer would make the sentence "We feel smell of carcasses by carcass"  This week I spent some time addressing some of the errors the teacher's introduce by simply copying the errors found in their textbooks.  It is common to find spelling errors and issues of poor grammar as well as mathematical mistakes in t...

First I thought I would bring up a story I told everyone last June about Kindness and how difficult it was to wake her up on the bus ride home.  I really wish I had a video of the teachers trying to wake her up after she fell asleep in the debate class Thursday afternoon.  It was the best laugh I have had in a while.  They finally got her up after about 20 minutes of work. Yes I missed putting out a blog last week because I was traveling for my required leave the country every 90 days trip.  Once again I went to Nairobi for a couple of days and then returned.  I did spend a couple of days in Arusha along the way to reconnect with some friends and do some food shopping.  Arusha used to be a great place to get some food that is like what I get at home but when Nakumatt closed up all that was over.  Now they have two new supermarket type stores open in Arusha (one in the old Nakumatt building).  They both have some items I really want to add ...