Day by Day

Greetings all! I was recently reprimanded by my sister for not updating our blog more often, and because the stories are too short. This, says the person who makes it her business to make fun of all my stories for being much too long…

Life is just moving along day by day and it does not always feel like we have anything news worthy to write about. So I just decided to share some of our recent photos and a bit about what goes on in our everyday lives here in Ngongongare…

This in Enoch (Enochi). Global Vessels brought a mission group to Havilah to continue work on the next two children’s homes and among them was Enoch’s sponsor from the U.S. She brought him the new sweatshirt he is sporting in this photo. He has no idea who or what a cookie monster is, but is very proud of his new digs all the same!

This is Dorcas…waiting by the front gate. The other day I came outside and found her dressed in her American pants (otherwise known as jeans) and school shoes; she was carrying in her bag a pair of pj’s, a toothbrush, and a hair brush (which is an essential item for a girl with a bald head).

“Dorcas, where are you going,” I asked.

“America. You are going to call Uncle (who is our cab driver), he is going to take me to town, and I am going to get on a big plane to go to America.”

“Oh, ok. By Dori!”

We had joked around about going to ‘America’ the day before. I told them that there are such things as doughnut shops and inside there might be 20 or 30 different types of doughnuts. AND, there are such things as ice cream shops which might have up to 50 different flavors to choose from. “WHHOOOAAAAA! Let’s go now, please?”

I thought I made it pretty clear that no one would be going anywhere. But apparently Dori woke up at 5 am the next morning, put on her best clothes, used lotion on her face an arms (which is a notable detail for the girl who won’t wash her own face), packed a bag and went to wake the house mother up to tell her good bye. She was told to go back to bed, but returned to Sarah’s door every 15 minutes pleading to be let out of the house so she could catch her plane. I was pretty darn cute, but at the same time I really felt for her because I know what it is like to really want to get up and go somewhere when there is absolutely no where to get up and go.

So……….we begged Ned to take us to a near by lake! This was pretty exciting. The largest body of water any of them have seen was the mud puddle created in the road during the rainy season. (They were so excited about that mud puddle that we actually let them go swim in it- but don’t tell anyone.)

Our first boat ride… maji kubwa (big water)!!! Fun, but not as relaxing as the booze cruise.

View of Kilimanjaro from the boat.

Mama Emily’s turn!

We have been taking a few kids at a time on special field trips, which usually involve getting to ‘go out’ to eat. We bought the girls swim suites with the intent of taking them all swimming, but the weather has been so awful that so far only 3 kids have gotten to experience an actual swimming pool. But this does not stop the one-time swimming veterans from showing the others how it is done. They had spread a blanket out on the living room floor and were taking turns running and jumping into the pool/blanket. The event was made complete by wearing proper swimming suites over their pajamas.

This is not the best photo, but it is the tail end of the local village military regiment performing their afternoon cross training. They run/march by our house about once a week singing military songs and carrying fake riffles carved out of bamboo or sugar cane or something. They are such a rag tag bunch of the kids and young men that it is hard to imagine them coming together in uniforms and protecting us in the case of an ‘event.’ This is why we are happy that in spite of everything else, Tanzania is a very happy and peaceful place!