Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

Overall  sketch of the planned playground area.  The border is the extent of the area with sand.  This takes into account safety zones around high activity areas.  Due to the low activity the imaginative play area may be moved outside the sand area.  The future soccer field (small) will be to the left and the school is to the right. Those who follow me on facebook found out I spent the last week under the weather, maybe a better description would be under the mountain but that is not a real saying.  Regardless I did not really get any physical work done this week.  I did come in to town and got two packages-one from a South Korean friend who had been here for two years which included items for a lot of our Peace Corp friends as well as some Korean treats for me (something I have never had actually).  The other package was glasses from Mauldin UMC's confirmation class via Virginia who has so wonderfully kept that ministry going along with Dick...

  Primary school kids at eyeglass distribution point-wanted picture with Twiggy the Twiga who you can barely see at the flagpole. The first time I was asked to do eyeglasses was on a medical mission trip to Panama in 2002.  I was mainly along for crowd control and hauling luggage and the fact I loved the thought of being in the jungle again.  I was prepared to help in many ways from cleaning things, carrying things, using my stern face that still seemed to instill obedience in those I could not talk to.  I was not prepared to do eyeglasses.  This was my second mission trip and first medical trip.  We had just spent our first night in the mountain jungles where trucks had trouble climbing the steep inclines to the point we often got out and pushed them up the mountain.  We were getting things set up to start to see patients when the leading doctor asked if I would take the suitcase full of eyeglasses and distribute them.  I have never bee...

This last month has been busy, exciting, sometimes overwhelming and once again a beautiful reminder of the blessings I have in my life not only from the perspective of what is available to me in the states but also the love of those who support and believe in me. Let me start with some of the reverse culture shock then I will talk more about the wonderful things that happened during my trip home. I have been well prepared for the life I led in Tanzania because I believe myself to be very adaptable.  One of the best things to come out of my military training is the ability to accept conditions as what they are and deal with them.  With that said there were some definite changes in how I saw life when I came home to visit for the holidays and renew my visa.  First-at no time have I ever set in my parents house and asked for a blanket to cover me unless I was deathly sick but time and again after living in Tanzania temperatures I asked for a blanket when not active and I...

Virginia, a church member at Mauldin United Methodist collected eyeglasses and mailed them over along with a few goodies for me in the box.  There were 60 pairs of glasses and the staff at the medical clinic jumped on the chance to start distributing them.  They started at the local flea markets that pop up once a week and set up a suitcase of those glasses along with a small collection that had been left before.  This not only allows the clinic to go to the community to serve them but acts as advertisement that we are source for eyeglasses in the valley instead of having to go to Singida.  She is currently collecting more as part of her daughter's Girl Scout group.  The sign simply says Eye Care Glasses. Phyllis, another church member has taken some of my photos and done paintings of them.  From that she has created notecards which she is selling to help raise support for me while I serve here in Tanzania.  The cards are being sold through...