Paul and Lee are Back!

Paul and I made it back to America. We flew out of Dar at 11:00pm last Thursday and flew into Miami on Friday night. I slept well on the plane, Paul wasn't quite as lucky. Erin and Goat drove us to Gainesville that night and we arrived at about 3am. The cookies and milk was a wonderful snack, thanks Mrs. Benton. I want to thank all of you who came to the welcome home party. It was so excited to see all your faces and here about what is going on on this side of the earth.
I am definitely going to miss Tanzania. I can't wait to get another opportunity to serve over there again. All the kids are amazing. They have a heart full of faith, love, discipline and hope. It was incredible hearing the stories and lives of my new friends. One of my friends, Dennis, took me aside the day before I left to tell me his heart wrenching story, and afterwards he told me not to forget him. I don't think I could forget him or any of them for that matter. Each one of them made such a huge impact on me that I really don't know how to express my thanks.
They are "watoto wa Mungu" (Children of God). They lived it out like no one I have ever seen. It was so beautiful and genuine. I couldn't help but see that God sees me as His child and cares for me as much as he cares for all of his children. God used the my friends in Tanzania to show me what my relationship with God was supposed to look like. So incredibly awesome. It is kind of hard to explain, you really just have to experience it to know what I am talking about.
Let me recap what we did while we were there. After we got acclimated to the time change, culture, schedule of the day, we planned out what we wanted to do and what the next steps were for the Center. We came up with some objectives and goals for our time. Hezekia has such a huge vision for this place and there is so many things that need to happen. It was fun trying to figure out what would work and what was reasonable.
While we were in the city our goals were to:
-Teach the staff computer programs
-Quicken: to keep the budget and finances in order (Joan and Ima now use it)
-CD label and design: for the new CDs and DVDs that they are producing (Ima is theman)
-and basic how to use a computer efficiently
-Interact with the kids to improve their English: we taught them songs and played
games and just hung out with them. awesome!
-teach some of the students computer skills (Kasimu and Omary know how to type
-Share ideas with the staff and students
-build bunks for the new compound (2 were built, more still needed)
-tables for new compound (2 were built, more still needed)
while at the shamba:
-Teach math class
-Teach English class (we focused a lot on writing and grammar)
-work in the garden
-learn to cook Chapate and mandazi
-Teach informally outside of class by just talking in English.
-Teach guitar
-find and purchase and transport material to Shamba
-teachers cottage
-plaster(finished)
-flooring (we filled it with sand and the flooring will go in soon)
-ceiling board (we have the material but not enough time)
-Painting (didn't get that far)
-build bunk beds(2 were complete and 6 more almost ready for assembly)
-classrooms
-electrical wiring put in (complete)
-ceiling board frames (complete)
-ceiling board (we have the material but not enough time)
-Guest house (two bedroom/two bathroom)
-foundation (complete)
-walls (complete)
-roof (complete)
-plaster (complete)
-flooring (we filled it with sand and the cement was to be put in soon after we left)

It was so incredible. Working, studying, and just hanging out with the kids was by far my favorite part of my time there. I want to thank you all for you help in supporting this kids.
We are raising money for the irrigation system through these shirts that rosaloves.com designed and is now selling. So if you want a sweet shirt for an awesome cause go to their website.
Love you guys,

Lee

Beginnings and Endings.

Hello again friends and family.

Scott from Tanzania here. The past week has been wonderful. We've been at the shamba and the weather has been, dare I say it, cool at times. I woke up with a chill on at least two different mornings. The shamba is doing amazing. The guest house is going up so quickly. It may be done in the next two weeks- we'll see. Everyone has been healthy save for the few stomach-aches. Getting used to the oily food here has been difficult for me.

However, the one delicacy that I have come to love is Passionfruit juice, which can be bought by the glass for 30 cents at a bar about two minutes from the city center. It comes cool and bright orange in a tall glass mug with a plastic bendy-straw. I've only had it twice, but I savor it each time. So refreshing. You can feel it resting in your stomach and cooling your innards for at least an hour after consumption. Nothing quite like it.

Sadly, Lee and Paul are leaving for the States tonight. Their flight is at 10:50pm. Everyone is really sad to have them leave, including me. They've had an amazing time here in Tanzania, and it's really cool to see how much they have come to know the students and teachers here. On Tusesday morning at the Shamba, the students gave them a royal farewell complete with songs, speeches, and special prayers. It was very heartfelt.

Evy and Alex from Orlando (UCF) arrived safely in Dar last week and will be working hard on the art program for the next four weeks. We're going to do batik and tie-dye with the students at the shamba.

Chris and I are returning to the Shamba tomorrow. On Saturday I will start filming the drama that the students have created. I'm used to droll high school dramas in the USA, but this one is amazing. They get reallly into it. Hopefully I'll be able to load a preview in the next few weeks, we'll see.

I want to thank everyone for your prayers and kind thoughts. I am out of time on the computer, so I'll update in a week or two.

Love love love,
Scott!

Tumeja! We have arrived.

Chris and I arrived on Thursday night and have been in the city since then. We missed our connecting flight in Zurich and had to stay in the city for a day. Things here are very different than the US. Food and medicine are super cheap, but books cost $40-50. Very backwards from the USA. The first whole day we had here, Chris accidentally drank some kerosene (it was put into an empty water bottle to be used while staining wood.) We had to take him to he hospital where he laid in a room on an IV drip for 1.5 hours, flushing the chemical out of his system. The whole hospital visit and everything cost about $30- at a nice hospital. He was back up on his feet the next day, so all is fine. Thank you for your prayers.

Yesterday we went on a Safari in Mikumi National Park. We saw elephants, baboons, starlings, giraffes, zebra, hippos, and water buffalo. It was pretty amazing. Our friend Noah was our guide; he is in school to become a Safar guide, but so far as I'm concerned, he already is. Instead of paying for a Safari truck, we took a taxi from Morogoro (about an hour from the park) and drove around in that- all five of us (Chris, Paul, Lee, Noah, and I) crammed in tight. It was so much fun.

In about an hour we are going out to the Shamba center. We spent the morning gathering supplies for building bunk beds and desks. We will be working on those for the next 9 days before Paul and Lee take their leave for the USA. The kids are very excited about me filming a drama that they have prepared. The kids are amazed at Chris' arm muscles and insist on arm-wrestling him, ten against one. It is a hilarious sight.

I'm out of time at the Internet Cafe, so no time to load pictures. Talk to you all later.

Love love love,

Scott