Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

The last four weeks we have been putting on Spelling Competitions at the school.   Every Thursday during the normal “debate” time, which is never an actual debate but instead a time when students have to speak at the front of the class to recite something they have learned, we have been going class by class with the competition.     Ester is the letter champion for the Baby class As you can imagine, the Baby and Middle preschool classes was not so much about spelling as inclusion with the rest of the school.   We had them come up to blackboard and write letters.   After we went through the alphabet, we gave them simple words they see regularly like “cow” but allow their teacher to coach them through the process.   In the end their level of competition is more about who can follow instructions in a timely fashion than the actual ability to spell.   Eugene is the letters champion for the Middle preschool class The first real lev...

I guess I should start by telling you what a fundi is.  The original meaning of the word was someone who is a specialist in some type of work.  It was the word for someone who could repair a phone, a welder, a carpenter.  It has since been used more generally.  It can still mean someone like a welder but also someone who builds a building is now a fundi.  A person you hire to dig a hole in the ground is a fundi. Over the l ast month I have hired two different type of fundis to help at the school.  One was a typical fundi and one was not.  Let me describe how things went with both and see if you can guess which is the normal type and which is not. fundi one with his one tool Fundi One was hired to install the solar systems and wire up all the outlets at the school.  Normally this is a project I would do, but after my illness in September I was not up to go crawling around in the attic space for a week or two which is how long it would tak...

This last week I have had visitors from Missouri as part of Devoted Ministries.  They have a canal project in another part of the country but have also visited our school before it became a fully functioning school and wanted to visit again.  They also were helping Pastor Stephano and Compassion International with a sewing ministry. In addition they visited with the church Sunday morning for worship. They spent a day at the school visiting our classes. As there trip came to an end and asked if I could set up a Safari. So to Heff and Cheeky Monkey to take everyone to Tarangire National Park.  We have had some unusual rain patterns and so temps were a bit cooler and the ground wet.  It was still a great safari. I have struggled with the next part tonight as I try to decide what part to tell you about and if I should include any photos from this part of the ...