Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

First I hope and pray everyone is safe.   The Corona Virus continues to dominate my news feed and Facebook wall.   From humor to apocalyptic predictions it is all there seems to be to talk about right now.   While I have tried to   post things on Facebook not related to the virus or at least somewhat tongue in cheek humor (all those posts about the goats not following safe distance rules could have been about people here as well).    Tanzania has experienced their first case, a Tanzanian woman who traveled out of country, when she returned she passed through the airport screening process no problem but a couple of days later started to have symptoms. They have tracked down everyone she encountered and tested/quarantined them.   But then another two cases who were in country and did not meet her.   Then another 3 cases.   Today we are up to 13 but what is missed is that is 13 out of 273 tested.   In a country like Ta...

This is Mery's bible story book she got a year and a half ago.  She has worn the cover and several  pages off of it in that time.  During times like this it is good to make sure we spend time daily reading the Bible and communicating with God.  While it is ok to be afraid of this virus, you can find comfort and strength in your beliefs. I need to be honest about a couple of things at the beginning of this blog.  I have mainly seen just numbers dealing with the pandemic and am not sure why this virus outbreak has caused such an uproar and disruption to the world (I do mean world here).  I assume it must be a non-tangible bit of information, something that cannot be quantified because the numbers don't match previous plain flu outbreaks much less avian or swine flu. Secondly, I struggled with what to write about with all of this going on.  Countries closing their borders and cancelling flights, entire states closing their school systems, the NBA ca...

As soon as I wrote that title I realized I would have to differentiate from what I mean and Reading, 'ritin and 'rithmatic version of the 3 Rs.  I am talking about the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle version.  No this is not going to be a change your whole to life to no plastics and no fossil fuel consumption or we are all going to die talk.  While I don't give in to the hysteria doom and gloom viewpoints of some, I do believe in a reasonable attempt to reduce our impact on the planet.  I also believe more in the follow my example approach to things than do what I say approach.  With that in mind, many of you are familiar with my previous blogs about storing things in which I reuse as many waste products as I can.  I will cover the reuse portion later in the blog.  Right now I want to talk about the fun I have been having learning to recycle plastic using some very rudimentary tools. The above is a heart shaped future necklace or bracelet charm made com...

We have just wrapped up February's monthly testing and awarded top student honors.  I want to share those with you and then I will go into some prayer requests for the site and the country. From the Baby Class we had a tie at first place between Ramadhan (left) and Ibrahim. Also in Baby class we had a tie at 3rd place between Michael (left) and Maulidy. In the Middle class we had Ester (pictured middle) Wilson (pictured left)  tied for 1st place and Angela in 3rd place.   In Pre-Unity Class, 1st place was Zoe (pictured right), Elisha (pictured second from right), Angel (2nd from left) and Samson (left) all tied for 2nd place. For Standard 1 it was Isaya in 1st place (pictured right), Jackson in 2nd place (pictured middle) and Elisha in 3rd (pictured left). Standard 2 we once again have Nice in 1st place (pictured right), Baraka in second place (pictured second from right.  Clara and Dorice tied in third place (statistical...

So temperatures here continue to be in the 90s with high humidity though we have not had any rain this week.  As I mentioned before I am forgoing the refrigerator so I can have power for the fan at night.  Yes I understand the physics of a fan blowing hot air around but moving hot air is better than static hot air, at least mentally. So what does one do when it is this hot all the time, because it is this hot for most of the year.  Well let me preface this by saying I am not normal and leave it at that. First up is I bake bread in the house.  I purchased an camping oven because it folds up, fits in the luggage and can be used to bake items as well as recycle plastic (another blog).  Unlike ovens in one's house it is not insulated to keep the heat internal so it heats up the house a good bit.  However I am having trouble keeping the bread from molding and I am making some in the house.  So far I have only done the no yeast style bread and one...

While I will be the first to say testing is not always the best method of determining how someone is doing in school, I also recognize that it is difficult to change a culture that only understands testing.  Testing is a time consuming process that takes up a half a week of classroom time every month. I still enjoy recognizing the students that do well with testing.  I console those that missed getting a prize by a mere point or less.  I wish I knew a better way, but until we can scan the brain to see what people have learned I guess it is testing. The girls continue to rule in our highest grade, Standard 3.  Though there was a slight change in order.  Teresia (far left) was 1st place this month.  Gladness in the middle was second and Grace was third.  The boys just cannot hold ground in the top three it seems.  That is their teach Twaha with them. In Standard 2, Nice (left)  took back 1st place from Dorice (middle) who kept the pre...