Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

When I return to the site each year, I got with a game plan.  I am an Engineer and a soldier (you never really leave that behind) so I always have a game plan.  Of course each year when I arrive at site that game plan has to be adjusted.  Sometimes because of weather, sometimes because we have to start back at the beginning on some of the lessons learned on site (like using door locks without breaking them), sometimes a change the locals make without telling anyone because no one was there to remind them they need to plan those changes. Regardless the reasons I always have to make adjustments.  This year the majority of adjustments have to do with the fact that the work on the team last year and the one this year will take time away from my personal projects like making my tiny house better.  The other major adjustments have to do with the fact being sick while I was home meant no walking.   Take into account something most folks don't know about T...

I have mentioned in blogs before about how at times it is difficult to write a specific blog or topic but never more so than this one.  It was not my best trip home.  I got some type of cold early on and it stayed with me the whole time making me a weak the entire trip.  America is in its most fragile state I remember with everyone living on headlines and soundbites and not actual truths and stories and that applies to both sides of the aisles.  The country has become one of believe as I do or you must be evil again on both sides of the political aisles. The problems with the cell service getting cut off.  There was also a problem of a personal nature that I will not go into detail on to protect others but it did cause me great grief  and emotional pain. So how do I write a blog about my time at home with those things constantly coming to the forefront of my mind.  I am going to focus on the positive things that happened while I was home.  The...

Christmas is coming!  What a wonderful time of year where we all act our best and try to be a bit nicer.  It is also a great time of year to think about your favorite charities as part of your gift giving.  The idea of alternative gift giving is not new.  Families have been practicing for as long as I have been around and most likely before.  I think Heifer International was one of the first to formalize the idea into a cataloge.   Some churches even do special alternative Christmas gift events so you can find the charity you want to support.   It is a wonderful idea to give money to help others as a way to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  Like we actually get the overall idea of what his time on earth was about.  I want to encourage everyone to consider doing at least one alternative Christmas gift this year.  Even if that donation is not to the ministry I work with.  There are a lot of them. Here are some good ...

Last week was a trip to the big city for a quick weekend to pay deposits for the 2017 mission team and to visit the Christmas Fair.  It is a fun event that makes one think of similar events back home.  It was much needed as I have been preparing end of year reports and that is a strange mix of getting a lot of useless data and fighting to get useful data. I put up an offer for those wanting to go to the fair.  Several PCVs wanted to go along, which is why I will be working hard not to mention the name of the big city since they don't have permission to go there and also the reason for it being such a short trip as some needed to get back to schools since they are teachers.  I ended up with a truck full.  The trip there was uneventful but the trip back was full of people puking and a lot of stops by police to only be waived on.   The fair features various crafts, professionals and other groups on display often selling something.  There are food ve...

This week had a couple special moments to it.  First it rained on monday.  If you want to know what I mean by rain there is a video below.  The noise you hear so loudly is the rain hitting the roof of my "house". The second is a visit by long time friend and engineering colleague, Frank DeVita, PE.  He and his brother-in-law have been working on starting a ministry in Kiruani.  You can learn abou their minisitry at  http://b2buministries.org /  They have a clean water bored well and are currently building a primary school in addition to the various mission teams that come over to work and preach around that area.   Frank and his contractor, Abraham, visited mid week and I met them in Singida then drove them out to our site where the three of us discussed various building techniques and ideas we have for getting rid of bats.  I was happy when they told me they could not even smell the bats in our medical buildings which is a major i...

What oh what should I write about this week.  I know what I don't want to write about because I have spent so much time trying to explain the election system, media, why people are rioting and why it is wrong that I am exhausted from the conversation.   Yesterday was Veterans day.  It was a different one for me this year.  It was first very hard to be proud of my service as I read messages on facebook after the election that were from all sides of the election and filled with hate.  A great quote from G.K. Chesterton sums up why that is so important:  "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." This year's celebration has also been different because I have been contacted by voices I have not heard from in many years.  Most of the people I served with and all my closest brothers have died.  So when I heard from some of the support staff from my days in service I was shock...

Today I want to bring back an issue we have discussed in different ways in the past.  Most notable was a discussion of the electricity usage for the country vs the state of SC during the constant blackouts during last year's hydroelectric plant shut down. So this time let's talk about the specific use of a household in SC.  According to  http://www.electricitylocal.com/states/south-carolina/  the average residential home in SC uses 37.3 kiloWatthours per day.  For those that struggle with the metric system, that is 37300 Watt hours per day. With the contributions by the mission team in September, we have now installed solar powered generated electricity to all of our buildings .  Each major building and several smaller ones have their own power generating stations (not substations) totaling 475 Watts of production.  After taking in efficiency and number of direct sunlight hours I calculate that is 3.6 kiloWatt  hours per day.  So our en...