Team Busyness

We’re right in the midst of the kids’ vacation home from school. We’re so thankful to have a team from Bob Jones University here to help us out. They’re teaching several sessions during the day to keep the kids busy. If they weren’t here, Karen, Beth, and I would have to be entertaining them all day long!

While the team is a huge help to us, there is still work for us to do. We’ve been doing a lot of cooking to help feed them. This past Saturday in particular was quite busy for me and Beth as the team was at the Serengeti and Karen was sick. Beth’s morning began at 6:00 am; I joined her at 8:00 am. We managed to keep the kids on the property the whole day! We survived the day by taking a few breaks here and there. The weary travelers arrived home at 9:00 pm. The kids that had stayed home rushed out to welcome them back. Beth and I might have been even more excited than the kids about their return home!

If you’re interested in following the team’s blog while they’re here, their blog website is http://blogs.bju.edu/africateam/.

Sorry this isn’t long, but I wanted to give a short update. Unfortunately, with the team here, my energies haven’t been focused on my blog.

The Root of the Problem

Our city water supply has been pretty low over the past month. The kitchen, guest house, and kids’ houses haven’t had running water in all that time. We do have 4 large 3000 liter containers on the property that also fill with city water. We’ve been scraping the bottom of those containers for a while now. It’s wonderful how God always provides for our needs. We had one day where we had no water in our backup containers. That night, we got a wonderful heavy rain, just in time to meet our need!

 

Well, we think we finally managed to get to the root of the water problem, literally. Ferdinand, our manager, took some of the boys to investigate the water pipes that bring in the city water. Apparently, there are some tree roots that have pushed through and broken parts of the pipe. Yesterday, to our delight, Karen and I noticed that the city water was flowing and that our four tanks had filled up over half-way! We’re hopeful that the water remains consistent over the next month as we have a team coming from the States to help us while the children are home on break.

 

Speaking of the team, we have much preparation to do in the next week and a half. They’ll be arriving next Saturday. We’re hopeful that they will be able to learn some language and culture to make their time here more profitable. They will also be working with the children, keeping them busy while they’re home from school. Please pray this would be a good experience for all involved and that God would give us all the strength and energy we need to keep up with the kids!

5 New Gifts from God

This past week has been quite a change from our normal pace. On Saturday, we got 5 new children—1 girl and 4 boys. This new little ones are 4 and 5 years old and are much younger than our other kids. It’s been a transition for the new kids, the old kids, and the staff. We’re very thankful, though, for how all of the kids are adjusting and adapting. Some of our younger boys are surprising us with the care and responsibility they have developed for the new little ones. I think the transition has been a good wake-up call for some of the boys.
 

Our new little ones have quite the personalities. Of course, they are still adjusting to the 50 other kids here, so when all of the kids are home from school, the little ones are quite reserved. When only the 5 little ones are home, however, their personalities definitely come out. They are not all shy little ones. Neema, our little girl, is quite the ringleader. She has joined her sister here at Tumaini, so that’s special for both of them. Before the little kids came, Neema warned all of the little boys that they would have to listen to Jasmine, Neema’s sister, once they arrived at Tumaini since Jasmine is the boss. While Jasmine may like to think she is the boss, she definitely is not!
 

Jacobo is our quiet, reserved little one. We’ve discovered that he is quite ticklish, so a little tickle brings out quite the giggle. Kelvin is a fun package of energy. He also has quite a charming personality and is up for cuddles when he sees us. Joseph can be quite a handful. He loves to climb and play. He especially enjoys chasing after our chickens. He’s working on obeying and listening when we call him. Anthony is in between the two extremes. Sometimes he can be really calm, other times, not so much!
 

We’re so thankful for these new little ones God has given us. Please pray for wisdom as we seek to raise them for God’s glory!
 

Holding Down the Fort

Tuesday was quite an eventful day. Beth had several things to do in town, so she left Karen and me in charge. Since the Gasses are currently in Nairobi, we really were holding down the fort, so to speak. (Of course, we had our great staff and assistant manager working, so Tumaini was a well-oiled machine.)

Wednesday began the first of three rounds of fumigation in the buildings on our property. All of the missionary homes and Tumaini buildings are getting sprayed over a course of three weeks. Yesterday, in preparation for the fumigation, Karen and I readied the Eads’ house—covering and putting things away. Neither of us had yet been present during a fumigation, but Jana left detailed instructions to help us prep their house. Now, we feel much more confident about preparing our house for the fumigation when our turn rolls around in a few weeks.

Our second planned event of the day was the sale of some extra furniture. We have some office furniture stored right now that we no longer need. A few weeks ago, Karen, Beth, and I took measurements and pictures of the furniture to put into a pamphlet. Karen put together a nice brochure, and Beth sent it out to a list of businessmen in town. Well, less than two hours after Beth had sent out the email, she received a reply—for the entire lot of furniture! Needless to say, we were all in shock over how God worked the situation! Incredibly, the buyer also wanted to pick up the furniture right away. So, yesterday, the purchaser came to pick up the furniture. Karen and I were there to greet him—and to move all of the furniture to his vehicle. Thankfully, we were able to grab Tumaini’s assistant manager to help move some of the larger items.

After our heavy work-filled morning, Karen and I trudged back to our house, ready to enjoy our fan and some down-time. No sooner were we heating up our lunch then we heard a large vehicle pull onto the property. Karen looked out the window and discovered it was a school bus full of children—not our children. We headed back outside to figure out who had come. After greeting the bus driver and the teacher in charge, we discovered that this random school had made a special collection of food to give to an orphanage for Easter. Apparently, they were looking for a different orphanage, but after driving around for a while, they had no success in finding it. Instead, they found Tumaini.

The head teacher was clearly tired of driving around and decided they would just give the food to us. She called the girls off of the bus and had them bring all of the food. There were bags and boxes of bread, tomato paste, tea, oil, flour, and water. There were even special treats of juice and candy! The girls were disappointed that all of our children were away at school, but they still gave us the food. I grabbed my computer and showed them a few pictures of our kids, hoping to make them feel a little better about not meeting the Tumaini kids.

What an exciting day we had. I was so thankful to see how God worked. He answered our prayers regarding the sale of the furniture above and beyond what we asked. And he provided abundantly with the special gift of food. What a reassurance of God’s care and provision for us as we continue persevering in faith!

Late Night

Last night was one of those nights when the kids got home really late. Beth was in town and passed them on the side of the road on her way home, so she called us with a heads-up. Apparently, the bus was having engine problems. It was about 6:50 pm when the kids finally arrived home. Karen and I decided to help out and begin filling water buckets before the kids arrived home. Well, when the kids finally arrived home, we kept asking them to bring their water buckets. They weren’t really listening; I figured they were just more focused on finally eating dinner. A few kids told us they had water in their houses. Finally, Karen and I went to check the houses. Sure enough, the kids had running water. So much for our attempts at being helpful! 

We got the kids to eat and then herded them off to their houses. We then attempted the divide-and-conquer method to help with homework. Beth and Karen started out in the little girls’ house, and I started off in the little boys’ house. That was definitely an exhausting experience! The little boys’ can be very needy, and like Beth says, they tend to go crazy as soon as they enter their house. Thankfully, Karen came to relieve me, and I headed to the much calmer, more focused older girls’ house. We finally reached a point where we told the kids we weren’t going to help anymore and finally headed home around 9:20. I’m so thankful most of our days aren’t like that!

Likizo Break

The kids were home this past week for their quarterly break. (I’m not sure what best to call the break—Mid-term break? Mid-semester break? Spring break? Hence, quarterly break.) When the kids are home for these breaks, we like to keep them occupied. So, we set up a schedule of classes for the kids and put them to work. Of course, work for the kids also means work for us! We spent several weeks prior to the break preparing our schedules, classes, and worksheets. When Monday arrived, we were as ready as we could be.

Jeni and Maiwe, our two tutors, are such a great help. Jeni took the younger kids (Prep-Std 2) in the mornings. Maiwe got each of the other standards at least twice. We really wanted him to focus mainly on teaching Swahili during his sessions with the kids. At the end of the week, he told me that the time we had allotted for Swahili, 2 hours, was just not enough time. Although the kids speak Swahili, they struggled during his sessions. Now to figure out how to give him more sessions with the kids during the next break…

 

Karen and I started our classes at 8 am. When Monday morning arrived, we definitely questioned our sanity! (Thankfully, we did get used to the schedule by the middle of the week.) We had an interesting start to our week on Monday morning. Because of a big storm outside, we had very limited natural light in our classrooms. And because the big house has no electricity, we had very limited light in general. I was teaching in the big room and had the least amount of light. I ended up having the kids do their work by flashlight. Of course, they didn’t mind. They quite enjoyed playing with the flashlights!

By Wednesday the kids were getting pretty antsy. Thankfully, Karen and I had planned to switch up the schedule on Thursday and Friday. I’m not sure who was more eager for a change of pace—the kids or the teachers!  The last two days of class, we divided the older kids (standards 4-6) up into small groups of 4. We then took 30 minutes with each small group to do some basic computer training. The kids LOVED it! The first day, we showed them how to turn the computers on and how to open a program. Then, to get them to practice their mouse skills, we let them play around in Paint. They definitely had fun! The second day, we got them to do some typing practice in Word. I think they enjoyed that as much as Paint. The kids all keep asking me when they get to use the computers again. When I went to do devotions in the older boys’ house on Saturday night, one of them even asked me if we were going to use the computers then. Unfortunately, I had to tell them that we didn’t have any other sessions planned right now.

This past weekend, we had two girls from the States come visit Tumaini. Saturday morning, Beth decided to get out the sidewalk chalk for the kids to enjoy with the visitors. The kids definitely enjoyed the chalk—and in a completely different way than anyone anticipated. Initially, the kids simply drew with the chalk. The fun started when they began to wipe their chalk drawings off with their hands. All of a sudden, they realized they now had chalk on their hands. And then the chalk spread like wildfire—from hands, to clothes, to faces. What a sight it was!  Of course, it wouldn’t be fun unless the visitors also got chalked, so the kids all chased after the two guests until they were also covered in chalk! In order to get some pictures of the kids, I had to threaten them with deleting the pictures if any of them touched me. Apparently, the threat worked, because I got some hilarious pictures!

 

 

 

A-Visiting We Go!

On Sunday, Karen and I (Rachelle) went on a visit with three of the girls (Neema, Jackie, and Rehema). We went up the hill to visit Mama Steven, one of the cooks and the mama who washes our clothes. Nearly as soon as we arrived, Mama Steven set to work braiding Jackie’s hair. The girls seemed to be pretty close with Mama Steven, so we felt at ease from the beginning of the visit. Mama Steven’s two little daughters got used to us pretty quickly as well—before we knew it, Karen and I each had a little one on our lap. We were all offered sodas. Mama Steven’s two little ones, in particular, enjoyed that treat!

 

The family’s cat recently had kittens. The girls asked Mama Steven to bring out the two kittens. I thought the kittens were very cute and quite small and fragile. The others in our group weren’t too keen on the kittens. Neema and Jackie at least touched the kittens. Karen actually picked up the kitten in an attempt to get it away from her. Surprisingly, it was Rehema who was completely terrified. When I walked toward her with one of the kittens, she squealed and ran in the other direction. (I will admit: it was nice not to be the being chased with a random creature!)

 

There was a large rock right by the house. The girls had fun playing on it. Rehema was quite at home on the rock. She looked just like the goats we saw later, leaping and bounding around. Even the little girls wanted to get in on the action. I helped lift them up, and Rehema pulled them the rest of the way up.

 

We weren’t fed a meal during this visit, but we were offered food. Neema convinced us to try sungwi—a type of fruit. It was small, about the size of a large grape. It gave off a sickly sweet smell. The skin of the fruit was edible but a bit tougher than we expected. And the taste—wow! It was tart, bitter, sour, and spicy all at the same time!

 

Karen threw her fruit away after a few bites, but the girls caught her in the act and gave her another. I tried to eat mine slowly, hoping that would help reduce the effect of the fruit. Finally, I just popped the whole thing in my mouth. It was better that way. My mouth numbed slightly, but I couldn’t really taste it anymore. I also discovered that keeping the fruit in my right cheek reduced its punch. Finally, the girls declared that we had eaten the fruit satisfactorily and could get rid of the pit.

 

Mama Steven also presented us with another treat—fresh peanuts from the garden. I’m not sure how peanuts are usually treated before being ready to eat, but these peanuts were definitely different than any I’ve had. The shells were still soft and moist, so they were more difficult than normal to crack open. Inside, the peanuts’ skins were a pale pink and the nuts were bright white. The taste was different too. The peanuts tasted more like a vegetable in texture than a nut. As Karen said, the taste was half mud and half raw green bean.

 

Although the visit was a bit different than expected, we were thankful for how smoothly it went. It was great to get to know Mama Steven and her family a bit better. We were also thankful for yet another opportunity to practice our Swahili.

 

Me and some of the kids

 

Karen and Mama Steven's two daughters on our visit

 

The girls having fun on the rock by Mama Steven's