This is a great time of year here in Tanzania, school is starting up at all levels, nursery, primary (grade school) and secondary (high school).

There is much happiness here in the mission house, the Angel Secondary School is up and running. You wouldn’t believe how much time and work the volunteers have put in to start the school. It had to be built, furnished and licensed. Each phase was very difficult and time consuming as each phase also meant inspections and involvement of government officials. It’s amazing they got it all done in time to open it on time.

Here’s a recent example of what occurs here; we have arranged to have a grader come to work on the road going to the orphanage and school. This involved much planning, getting funds together and coordination of a lot of things. The use of the grader we got for free, we just have to pay fuel to get it here and while it’s grading. We finally got the grader here, the fuel arranged for, but then the operator of the grader wouldn’t do any grading without the permission of the landowners the road goes through. We were not informed this was needed, so now we’re talking to the village chairman (like our mayors) and some government officials that were involved in getting the grader here. Then there will be a meeting of everyone, village officials, village elders, landowners, a missionary and government representatives. Unfortunately, this is a common thing here. You think you’re already to move ahead, but then something comes up; they don’t like the building plans that they’ve already ok’d, a name can’t be whited out on a paper, but the paper has to be completely retyped and resubmitted, the official needs to sign the form, but is on vacation for a month and you need the form signed in two weeks, and on and on. TIA

I’m very happy to see the kids in school, but I’m also very sad. I drive a lot in the mornings, taking the Angel House nursery kids to school for one thing. I drive by other schools and see the kids there, but I also see all the kids in our neighborhood, other kids beside the road and by their houses who are not going to school because their family cannot afford it. You wish you could help them, but you know you can’t. We can only do what we can do for the orphans and others involved with the mission we’re on.

I want to share just one photo with you in this blog. It’s a photo I’ll be submitting to my photo club. It’s one of the orphans, I call it “Orphan Eyes.” I’ve printed if off and have it hanging with some of my other photos, but it really stands out. It’s a constant reminder of why Pam and I are here. TIA, Mark

Mark forgot to mention that the meat was goat, not beef like he said. I didn't eat it but he said it was better than beef and tasted like beef. Also I wanted to let people know that the goat we ate on Christmas Day was not the one we had been given as a gift. That goat was pregnant and gave birth to a baby just before Christmas both mother and baby are doing fine. The mama goat even visited us one Sunday during worship service. How could you eat her after that?. We also had the chickens visit us during church service. I'm just glad the 2 Brama plow cows we have didn't try to get in to church.

Thank you all for the cards and good wishes. Keep in touch we love to hear news from home.

TIA Pam

AFRICAN CHRISTMAS

So I had some people ask about what Christmas is like in Africa. We were just saying tonight, that they probably do it more right here than at home in America.

A lot of churches go all or most of the night. A lot like New Year’s, welcoming in Christmas day. The emphasis is where is should be, on the Christ child. There is not much pre-Christmas adverstising or hanging of lights or wreaths. For sure no Santa Claus. We saw a 1 1/2 foot table-top Christmas tree in a stationairy store about 2 weeks before Christmas, almost bought it, but the ornaments on it were being sold seperately, so we waited. Good thing we did, we ran across a small tree here at the house and used it. There is a picture of our Christmas tree below. Pam and I had also picked up some lights while in Nairobi and the American team that was here pre-Christmas used a wall in the living room and shaped a Christmas tree.

Anyway, not much going on, but let me tell you of our Christmas week. We started out on Tuesday handing out gifts of clothing to area villages. By that I mean you would drive to the area of a village and walk to someone’s hut. I did it one day as I fell a little ill after that (nothing to do with the visits), Pam did it one day as she was ill before me. But the giving went on. I visited four huts, most with what I’ll call a compound area. The only photo I took was of a home we walked to and no one was there. We had either kids or adults familiar with the village area take us to the most needy homes.

The second hut was surrounded by corn and had two huts, no livestock and the occupants were two eldery persons, man and wife. We sang a couple of songs, talked with them, read to them from the bible and prayed with them. The third hut I’ll describe to you later. The fourth hut was the ‘richest hut’, it had chickens and ducks within their compound area. There was no man present, the grandmother was the owner. She lived with her daughter-in-law, and 4 grandkids. Her husband had died some time ago and her son had died last year. No other children or relatives to help her. The fifth hut area held only one mud hut, occupied by the grandfather/grandmother owners and two boy grandchildren. The youngest boy was there, the older one we found out was the money earner and was actually diabled in the leg. The parents had died of AIDS some time ago. The older grandchild was off doing his job, watching over and feeding some cattle. He earned TSH 10,000 a month. That about $7.00 American. That’s the entire income of this family of four.

I learned that the more money you had, the more elaborate, if I can use that word, the hut area is. If fenced in, has more than one hut and has some livestock or fowls, they have more than ones with no compound area and just one mud hut, which describes the third hut I visited.

We probably walked anywhere between 1/4 a mile and 1/2 a mile between huts. As we walked to hut 3, all we saw was a mud hut and a lean-to type structure. Beside the lean-to was a young boy of about 7 and a child under 1, not yet walking. He told us his mother was down to the river washing clothes. We sat down and vistied with him a bit until his mother showed up with his two younger sisters. This compound area was not fenced, no livestock, only the two structures. When I say we sat down, I mean they brought out stools that are maybe 6 inches above the ground and we sat on them. Our group was 4 of the orphans, the orphanage supervisor who speaks English and myself.

What really got to me here was not only the obvious poverty, but this young mother of four children had just lost her husband. She was sitting not more than ten feet from his fresh grave. We sang, talked, read and prayed and gave them clothing, but you wanted to give so much more.

On to Christmas eve. Services started about 8:30 and went until midnight. The services were at the orphanage and the orphans wanted to go all night, but they barely made 12:00.

The next morning we were back to the orphanage for Christmas morning service. We then sent the kids outside as we set up their presents. We brought them in by age groups and boy were they all smiles. We also gave gifts to the staff and families.

After giving of gifts, we had Christmas dinner, photo below. Pam and I then headed back to the house, short nap, and some peeling and cutting of carrots and potatoes for supper. We then went to take our turn for a couple of hours at a dance the kids went to at Goldland Hotel.

We had been invited to the Baptist missionaires’ home to share Christmas dinner with them. We 5 missionairies got there a little later than we wanted, but great dinner, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, and so on.

Our missionairy group then went home exchanged gifts. Pam and I then opened our gifts and finally to bed. African Christmas, TIA. Mark

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This is the Children’s choir, Christmas Eve. Not much differerent than home, kids sing, special groups sing, choir sings, praying, bible readings and sermon.

Here’s Pam doing a bible reading. It was read in both English and Swahili. Notice she has a small flashlight. The lighting is deceptive, but it's rather dark as there are limited lights in the orphanage as they only have solar power.

The gifts (mostly placed in backpacks) are waiting for the kids.

The younger ones lined up to find their gifts.

Derrick and his bag of gifts.

This is Winnie (nickname) and her backpack.

Lucy and her gifts. She’s the one we tried to get to America for a 3 month study/schooling, but good old USA wouldn’t give her a visa.

A staff family getting their gift box. This is Chacha, one of our night guards.

Here’s the cooking of Christmas Diner, outside, over a fire.

The serving of Christmas dinner.

Actual Christmas dinner. Bannanas, grow in this area, rice, beef (a treat), a tomatoe sauce freshly made and potatoe or cooking banana. Pretty much eaten by hand.

The Travis Tree 2010.

Hoping you all had a great Christmas and wishing you a very happy year for 2011.

Blessings, Mark and Pam