Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

I started this week with one blog topic in mind since it would be around Thanksgiving when I would post it.  I worked on it when I got enough power to the computer I could type it up.  I planned to pen a blog on being thankful for the use of the house at the site and all the things that made it so nice compared to the tiny house I used to live in. But as I walked to the bus stand today I felt I should change the story for which I am giving thanks.  Those who know me well, know I like a good place to live and running water but I am comfortable living on the ground in a tent somewhere.  So giving thanks for the creature comforts is great it just is not me so to speak.  Like I said I am thankful for them, but there are things I find more important in this life. When I used to walk at my other site, I had locations where kids would run out to greet me and ask I take their picture so they could see themselves on the view screen (they were not big on getting the...

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."--Nelson Mandela For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, some of this discussion will be a refresher from some of the previous blogs.  But since I am picking up new readers who are interested in the Tumaini Primary School in Kiruani that Blessed2BlessU Ministries, Inc. is working with.  First Tumaini means Hope in Kiswahili.  For many in Tanzania, there is hope in the prospect of having their children receive a quality education.   Unfortunately, as I have discussed over the years a quality education is still difficult to find in Tanzania.  That is why I have become so excited working with this ministry because they are working to provide just that. The problems many people used to face in Tanzania was cost.  Only about 5 years ago did the government make primary school education free and only in the last 2 years has a secondary school education been free....

My pardons to Was (Not Was) on the use of their song phrase but I really wanted a song title to talk about walking here.  There were many to choose from Ronettes' Walking In The Rain; Katrina and the Wave's Walking On Sunshine; Johnny Cash's I Walk the Line to the Bangles Walk Like an Egyptian and about fifty others.  I choose this one because it was fun and a little cheesy.  Look it up on Youtube for a laugh. I have written blogs in the past about walking and will most likely do it again in the future.  Why?  Because I walk a lot here.  To quote Hippocrates, "Walking is Man's best medicine."  Not sure how true that it is but I have dropped many a pound due to the walking regimen that is the way things are here.   I embrace the walking lifestyle most of the time.  There are times when it tires me out.  Some days you just don't want to walk into town but if you want some food you have to.  Even at my previous site, when I ha...

I have done a couple of blogs on organization in the past and also talked about pairing down to what is essential.  I have talked about one of my favorite shows, Tiny House Nation on FYI network with John and Zack.  John's main focus on the show is to help prepare the family for living in the tiny house.  On the surface that sounds really simple, but the reality often is that they want to take everything and have everything in a tiny house that they have in a full size or oversized house.  One of the big things about the show is having less stuff so you can focus your attention on what really matters and on having experiences. In the military this was easy.  You had one bag for each type of deployment and that was what you lived out of for that deployment.  More importantly, everything had a place in your bag, your various pockets of each pair of pants or shirt.  That way you knew where it was when you needed something.  You practiced relentless...

Most that know me also know about my love of all things concrete.  From concrete canoes to translucent concrete in buildings, I have always loved concrete as both a building material with structural properties but also as an artistic element. When my parents first moved into their house in the Rolling Green retirement community, I did several upgrade projects for them.  The hardest was the back patio expansion.  Partly it was harder because the person in charge of approving architectural changes would not let us pour concrete to the existing concrete curbs.  Instead only to the building extents.  This meant there were about two feet between the patios and the existing concrete curbs.  We came up with a pretty decent solution of using river rock and concrete stepping stones that can be easily moved to fill the space.   Mom wanted to stain the back patio and seal it to hide some of the rust stains from her furniture.  I have stained co...

A couple of odds and ends before I get into the meat of today's topic.  I have installed a bike rope pulley system to store my parents large A frame ladder. I have started working on their garage floor and have cleaned the siding on the outside of the house Now the  big news:  I have accepted a chance to be a missionary engineer with Blessed2BlessU Ministries, Inc. out of NC.  Specifically, I will be working on their project KATIE (Keeping All Tots In Education) not to be confused with Kisses from  Katie.  This project is in Kiruani, Tanzania which is roughly 1 hour below Moshi.  It is in a Maasai Tribal area, in fact it was the local Maasai tribe the donated 22 Acres for the Tumaini Maasai School Campus.  They are currently building a Primary (Elementary and Middle school) at the site.  They have  classrooms, an office and a house for the headmaster of the school as well as a kitchen, bathrooms and a bored well water system. ...

I am sorry I have not been as bloggy as normal while I am at home.  (yes I know that is not a word but in today's culture that seems to be ok)  I have been busy with filling out applications online for jobs that are filled in less than 24 hours.  I have also kept myself busy helping around my parents house and trying to relax on a vacation.  So I am going to do one of those odds and ends type of blogs. Cleaning up my parents garage has proven to be a bigger job than I originally anticipated.  At first I thought we were mainly just going to clean up what is there so we could see the floor again and clean the stains off.  But then mom wanted to pare down her seasonal decorations for the house.  She is keeping her seasonal decorations for the Summerside community in Rolling Green (she decorates their entrance sign and then at Christmas the entire neighborhood stop and street signs).  But after last year's removal and storage of Christmas decora...