Travel, food, churches and having Kiernan Shipka read to our kids

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 some variety to my diet at the site. 

Then there were these gems that I had never seen before.  4 hamburger patties in a can with onion broth.  No it did not sound super appealing, but the desire to have ground beef on site is too strong so I got them and tried it.  You know how fast food joints are always making fun of the other fast food joints burgers?  Well the burger they make fun of is in this can.  It really did not taste like meat, though the broth was decent.  I even tried mixing up some powder cheese to put on them but it added nothing to it.  The bad part is how expensive these were, $7.50 after the exchange rate.  Of course that is not as bad as cereal ($8 a box) and soup can ($5 a can).  Fortunately I make my own soup and I live without cereal especially since all they really have are the sugar high kids cereals.

I did find this for a decent price and snatched it up without reading it.  It is full of sugar.  But oh did it taste great.

I got back to school and we have slowly gotten back into a rhythm.  This week for our "Reading with Barnabas Bear" program, I played the Storyline Online video of Kiernan Shipka reading "The House Jane Built" written by Tanya Lee Stone and illustrated by Kathryn Brown.  It is a true story about Jane Adams and the work she did in Chicago.  It was a great story to discuss with the kids, because they always assume everyone in the USA is rich and wants for nothing.  To explain that we have people who go hungry and need a place to sleep or access to clean water is a difficult task. 

I have spent a lot of my travel time putting together first grade spelling lists to create our first spelling bee at the school on November 8th.  I have also put together a math competition for the following week.  I was able to find inexpensive coloring books and coloring pencils to offer as prizes.  I am trying to make the math competition final stage about using math they have learned in a way not presented on the black board.  I will be curious to see if any can figure it out.

Then on Sunday I got to church early again.  Church starts sometime between 9:45 and 10:30.  The later I arrive the early it gets started and the earlier I arrive the later it gets started.  I got there this time about 10:05 and it got started at 10:25.  But just as it got started, Pastor Stephano came up and asked if I wanted to join him at another church he needed to go visit.  This was the Sunday that all the Assemblies of God churches take a special collection for their Bible college.  He had to go this church to collect the money and deliver the message.  His role is pretty high up in the church hierarchy because I have been at his church close to 20 times and have only seen him there 3 times and two of those were special events like the children's program.  Normally he is off at a pastor's meeting or leadership conference.

The church we went to had about 18 people, with about half of those kids, there in a church with half constructed walls and a roof over about half the footprint of the church.  I found out the church is actually a year and a half old.  As is typical in places like Tanzania, they are building the church as they get money for materials or labor. They are less than half way done with the construction.  What I always find interesting is if you look at the left hand corner of the picture you can spot a audio center with speaker .  Priorities here are never what I would make them.

Till next time, and pray I regulate how much of the tea I drink to keep from going into a sugar coma.