UMOM

Here are some of the things we have been doing since arriving at UMOM.

UMOM clothes closet. The racks are so full it's hard to get a good look at clothes.

UMOM clothes closet. These shelves are hard to keep full as soon as you fill them up someone comes in and takes everything! I spend several days here folding sorting and restocking.

Master bedroom long term apartment. There is not carpet on the floor this is painted cement. In the past there has been bed bugs and so the carpet went out. The gals and myself cleaned (really cleaned!) 2 apartments while I was here. You can't believe how bad the refrigerators and ovens get! I met a woman with 7 kids living in one of these apartments. You can put another double bed and possible a crib in this room.

Kids room long term apartment. Very small room. It used to be a bathroom. No closets or dressers to house clothes. I think they use boxes and put them under the beds.

Living room, kitchen, dinning room in long term apartment. The kitchen table only holds 4 at a time. It does not get bigger. So if you have a big family you have to eat in shifts, or sit on the floor.

Vegetable boxes that Mark helped to build before Christmas. There are 12 boxes. Mark and the guys are now hooking up electricity and irrigation the boxes for those really hot summer days.

Pam in the desert. We went 4 wheeling with our jeep. It was fun!

Quartzcite is a small town that booms up to a million people in January when they have the rock show. People just pull up there camper any place in the desert and stay the night. Clear in the background are hundreds of rv's.

Spinners Cafe. UMOM is in hopes of getting this up and running. To help the families to waitress, hostess and cook. The gal in the picture is Cathy, one of the hard working NOMADS.

The vamper and our home in the parking lot. ( We probably lowered the property value of the motor home next to us.)

Yellow water table almost finished.

Hope you enjoyed some pictures. Hopefully it makes you thankful for what you have or don't have (like 7 kids!)

Jan. 17, 2012

Today is Tuesday Jan. 17,2012 I have been working on a water table for the preschool. Took it apart, sanded it went to buy really good paint, (wow! Was it expensive!) Then, painted it. Put it back together painted it again. Just finished when someone came in and told me I painted it the wrong color. He brought me some paint that was yellow and usually used outside to mark no parking zones on curbs! Most of my day was spent cleaning a room that we are getting ready for a new family. Man was that room dirty! There was a broken egg in the refrigerator that had been there a LONG time. The stove top was also pretty black with cooked on food and grease and needed a pumice stone to clean!

Mark spend his day repairing tables then put a $12,000 dinning room table, book case and china hutch together that is going on the auction block along with a baby grand piano. Those things were donated and really not practical for a person lining in one room. The end of the day Mark and a couple other guys were exploring a street sweeper thing to see if it could be repaired. I hope they can fix it because it is so dusty here and the sidewalks and parking lots are pretty dirty. I was hoping I could be the first to drive it. It looks like a baby Zamboni. Fun!

Have a great week! Mark and Pam

Back at UMOM

Mark and I are back at UMOM United Methodist Outreach Mission in Phoenix. We arrived here on Saturday and set up camp on the black top parking lot out back. UMOM is the largest women's shelter in Arizona. UMOM houses about 100 families who are homeless and/or abused and there is a section for veterans without homes. The mission is made from two hotels that sit side by side. UMOM has a 50's restaurant and they hope to get it up and running to help teach waitressing, and cooking. They help people get there GED if needed. UMOM has free babysitting and they help women apply for jobs. Before we left in December UMOM was holding a boot camp to help people apply for jobs, make resumes and hold mock interviews. The clothes closet has interview clothes that they give away to those who are going to an actual interview. The success rate here is 87%. That means, homeless families find employment and affordable housing move out and don't need help again from UMOM. I think that is really good rate. The families come into a 90 day emergency housing (one hotel room) and when space is available they can move into a two room with a kitchenette. The families can now stay up to 2 years.

It is currently Sunday night and we will be getting our assignments on Monday morning so I'll try to keep the blog going as to what we are doing and take some pictures to make this a little more interesting. Hopefully I've worked out the bugs in blog.

Pam

UMOM

We we are in Az

Home, Home Sweet Home

Apparently WE did not push the right button and our note to you all that we arrived home did not post. Anyway, we're back in the states, and happy to be here. We went on a cruise for our 35th anniversary before flying home from Nairobi. Not to bore you, but we flew to Barcelona out of Nairobi with a day layover in Istanbul. Sounds exotic doesn't it, well it was. Went to the Blue Mosque and Grand Market in Istanbul, relaxed in the great city of Barcelona, both cities with really nice and helpful people. Our cruise left Barcelona and our first stop was in Monte Carlo. Didn't visit the Casino, but could see it from the ship. Instead we took a trip to Nice seeing a medieval castle along the way and then had a wine and cheese tasting in Nice. We stopped at 3 Italy Ports, saw some Rome sites, and had a stop in Sicily and saw Carthage in Tunisia. A great way to wind down from 9 months in Africa and a great way to celebrate our Anniversary. Back to Nairobi for our flights home. We were expecting to be in Des Moines at about 1pm, but in Amsterdam our plane was accidentally loaded with 1200 pounds of empty pop cans, making the plane overweight. Of course they couldn't just off-load it at the loading terminal, we had to taxi to another place to get the cans off. By the time this was all done, we left about an hour and half late, which was all the time we had to switch planes in Detroit. Missing that connection meant we didn't' get to Des Moines until 8pm or so. But what a great greeting we had. 5 of our grandchildren showed up with home-made signs and balloons and were we ever glad to see them and our son and daughter, along with daughter-in-law and son-in-law. Our oldest and his wife and his two kids met us later at my brother's house, So we got to see my whole family other than Mother and sister-in-law who we hope to see later.

We have a little place near Rathbun Lake in Southern Iowa where we're scrunching all our things we brought home, clothing, and of course my golf clubs I got out of storage. It's small, but we're only expecting to me here this summer/early fall and then find another way to thank God for what he has given us.

We already miss all the kids and 'family' we had in Africa. Spending all the time we did with the kids and the people we met, we grew to love them and we're sure we'll eventually go back and see them again.

Our plans now are to try and set up some time to visit with the Grass Roots people in Ohio and investigate and explore other opportunities to do God's work. Maybe some time we'll actually retire. I'm sure our next mission will not be nearly as interesting to everyone as this one proved to be, but we'll let you all know that are part of this blog where we're going and will start a new blog for our new adventure.

Thank you all so very, very much for your support and prayers. There were some rough times and illnesses that weren't any fun, but knowing we were in Africa for a reason and knowing that we had family and friends supporting us helped us tremendously. God Bless You All, Mark and Pam

George

George Wilson is now at the orphanage and adjusting to his new home. He was at chruch this morning and we took some pictures soon to be posted. We went to get him last Thursday only to find out that he had run away from his uncles house. But he showed up on Friday, unfortunately I was sick so didn't get a chance to see him until church this morning. I will be taking him for a check up this week. He definately needs some new clothes so we will be working on that too.
Thanks again to all that took a month of support for him. Pam

Coming home

Just wanted to let you all know that we're headed home soon. We will be back in Iowa May 15th. We'll meet up our kids and brother, rest up a few days, and then set up house at our little place by lake Rathbun.

We will be leaving Tarime May 1st, but figured since we were already here on this side of the world, we would go ahead and celebrate our 35th anniversary with a cruise. We'll be leaving Barcelona, Spain for a 7 night cruise, hitting Monaco, and places in Italy, including Rome, and then over to Tunisa before heading home through Nairobi.

I usually would also share some more photos with you all, but two things are going on. The regular internet is down again, and there is no dial tone on the phone. Last time that happened some of the phone line for our area was stolen. Meaning it could be fixed quickly, or like last time, a few weeks. Also, my computer I use for photos and most of the email and blogging is acting up and keeps shutting down. It has all the photos on it and so I can't share them with you at this time. I am typing this on our small notebook/internet computer that is connected by a USB stick, and boy is the connection slow. It has a very small keyboard and is not much fun for me to type on, so hopefully the internet will come back and my computer starts working.

Pam is off to Mwanza with Edward to have his tonsils out. I don't expect her home before Thursday and depending on how things go, maybe later. Also, she decided to take Rhobi with her. That's the girl with the leg bone problem (see earlier blog)). Her leg is bothering her and is somewhat swollen so Pam thought she would go ahead and see if she couldn't get a doctor to see her.

I'm here at the house waiting for wood to be delivered. I have 6 bunkbeds to build before I leave so need to get at that project. Keep Pam and the kids in your prayers. TIA Mark

Successful days!

Shante, shante, shante sana, (Thank you, thank you, thank you very much) Maxwell Methodist Church for sponsoring George Wilson! (Gotta love that name not African sounding at all!) We still have a couple of hoops to jump threw. Anna, our supervisor, will be talking to the doctor (my connection to George) on April 15 to find out exactly where George Wilson is from. George is actually from Bohemba but it is a village that is very spread out and big. Anna will take another Angel House member with her and talk to the neighbors to find out if his story is indeed true. It seems in the past people have lied to try to get children into Angle House because the children are educated and fed there. I promise to send a picture as soon as I can. Unfortunately my contact to George is a doctor who is now out of town for a funeral, so I can't get a picture to you this time.

I just want everyone to know how grateful I am for George to have this opportunity! Usually the girls get sponsor ship before the boys. I think it because girls have less opportunity here in this male driven society (plus they are so cute you can't resist them). So, thank you again for giving George the opportunity to grow in a healthy, educated, loving and nurturing environment. When George came to visit Angel House he said, "This is a good place, a place that I want to live!". He was very hopeful about his future for the first time in a long time!

I have other news of success too. Derrick who has had diarrhea sense I have been here and not growing, and Edward who has had tonsillitis sense I have been here, were seen at the government teaching hospital in Mwanza (4 hours away) on Tuesday and Derrick is being treated correctly now and Edward is going to have his very rotten tonsils out on April 13. So prayers that Derrick's treatment works and that the surgery goes well. A very special thank you to the person who sponsored $250 for the tonsillectomy. I think they will probably take adenoids with the tonsils because he snores so LOUDLY. Edward is currently the second in his class so he has worked very hard at school this year even though he has not felt well and has been getting huge shots of penicillin. I am very proud of him. I do not feel bad that he will miss a couple weeks of school because I know he can make up the work and be successful.

God is good all the time. All the time God is good!

TIA Pam

BAPTISMS IN THE RIVER

Wow! What an experience! We witnessed 50 baptisms, all done in the Mara River, from babes, to grown adults.

Liz’s dad, Bill, is a Methodist pastor in Charleston, Arkansas. It a town of about 3000, in the western part of the state near Fort Smith. His church is about the size of Pam and my church, 250 members and an average Sunday attendance of about 150.

It’s so hard to describe the feelings you have watching this happen. We had started with an intent to baptize 40. That 40 was made up of some of the orphans, family of staff and staff itself. But while we were doing it, villagers were watching, coming and asking what was going on. We actually baptized 10 more. 50 river, full-immersion baptisms. If you didn’t feel the Lord working that day.....

Pictures portray more than I can say, so here are some for you to look at with some commentary.

Here we are going down to the river. The river is the tree line in the distance

Looking uphill, notice the conga line all the way back.

This is precious. That's Brother Bill on the left, Derick, his soon to be new grandson in the middle with his pastor father Eric on the right. Derick was baptized by Bill and Eric.

Arriving at the river, by the tree line in the background.

Here we are, by the river, waiting for the baptisms.

Some local children and other local people watched.

The baptisms was total immersion.

Doesn't the water look inviting? I don't think God minded a bit.

We baptized orphans and school members. Some brought family. Anna the orphanage supervisor is on the right. She had the order of names and bible.

Here's Mwita. If you remember, there was an earlier blog about our visit to his home for lunch. He's quite a guy and wanted to bring God into his life.

Here's Rhobi. Again, in an earlier blog she was the one we took to Shirrati to have her leg operated on, but the doctor prescribed another type of medicine, which worked! Tell me God and prayers from us all didn't work.

This is the youngest, Nema, an orphan who was left at the police station along with her brother. She has progressed, is now talking and playing like a "normal" kid. She is tongue-tied, meaning she needs that piece of skin under her tongue cut so she speaks better, but she is a precious little girl.

We baptized 40 orphans, staff and school kids, as planned, but when the locals that were watching found out what we were doing, we had 10 more.

Another local lady who chose God, who was really working that day!

Here's Winnie. She is in Nursery school and one that I drive daily to and from her school. You wonder what her future life will be like, but at least she has been baptized, is getting fed, having education provided and growing up in a religious environment.

It's happenings like this that give you hope for the kids here and for their future. Bless those who made this happen, especially Brother Bill and Eric.

Really TIA, Mark

e mail

FYI: we currently can not get e mails. It seems someone climbed the pole and stole the internet line from our area of town, twice. So they are not going to replace the line until it is "safe". That means "who knows when we'll get it back". We are looking into satalite and are going down town to use the internet cafe. Mark and I will try to check e mails every other day or so. If you want a quick reply it won't be coming. TIA Pam

Serengeti

Wow did we have an adventure on safari. We were gone 3 days and 2 nights and saw just about all the important animals. Elephants, Gnus, giraffes, zebra, Thompson gazelle, Grant gazelle, cheetah, lions, leopard, wart hogs, flamingo, storks, hyenas, baboons, monkeys, hippos and rhinos. The first night we saw a group of 5-6 female lions resting in the tall grass on the right side of the road. One picked up her head, sniffed the air and walked across in front of the car (they are not afraid of the cars but run away if you get out of the car, pretty smart) The other lions followed. Seems the first female had smelled a gazelle so the lions surrounded the gazelle and went in for the kill but the gazelle was too healthy and fast and got away. The male lions hide and only come out after a kill has been made kinda like you can get the guys off the couch long enough to fill a plate on Super Bowl Sunday, after you have been slaving over a hot stove all day. Interesting fact: Male lions are the leader of the pride and may have several females often if there are 2 leaders they are brothers. About every 3 years the leader of the pride changes and when a new male takes over he kills all the baby lions from the previous leader. This sounds cruel but it is natures way of making sure the strongest survive.

One day as we were stopped at a picnic table for lunch we saw some elephants close by plus there was a path that lead to a rock where there is a great look out. Mark went to get a picture of the elephant on the way up to the look out. Mark did not see that there was an elephant near the path (how could you miss those huge things? But he did) I drew his attention to the one near the path, Mark was walking in front of me and the elephant saw Mark and was VERY upset, flapped his ears and trumpeted and took a few warning steps towards him. Mark went on up the path, I went back down and hid behind a rock. (Brave person that I am.) Now the elephant is on the path just behind Mark and Mark can’t get back down to me without passing the elephant again. Finally the elephant moved off the path and Mark decided it was safe to come down but the elephant still felt threatened and charged Mark a second time, Mark ran past the elephant and for good measure the elephant charged him a third time just to make sure Mark was going away. This was no baby elephant either it was a bull elephant with a female and a baby. So that explained some of the bull elephant’s behavior. At the picnic area there was a small shop to buy pop and books and souvenirs they called the park rangers but the elephants had moved on before the rangers got there. Every one was safe and we continued on the safari. After the last day we went to a beach hotel on lake Victoria It was so nice to fall asleep with the sounds of waves. But unfortunately they did not have hot water and I also had to wake up to the sound of someone digging out side my bedroom. The whole trip was soooo nice I wish that everyone could have this experience. If you have ever thought of coming to Africa and going on safari I would hope that you would take the time and money to do it. Mark got some wonderful pictures which he will post some time soon. We have not had Internet for several days because someone cut and stole the Internet line in this for this area of town. It is supposed to be fixed on Monday so I hope to send this soon.

TIA Pam

(note from Mark)

Ok, so here's my possible award winning elephant photo, obtained at great personal risk, aka stupidity.

And here's my fellow adventurers watching and getting photos of elephants.

National Geographic Africa

When people come here to Tarime and to the mission house, we tell them this is not your National Geographic Africa. Tarime is not a tourist town and the area is not a tourist area. If you like to see poor people, mud huts, people constantly walking along the road, to live without electricity and water, not bath yourself for a few days, then I guess I could be wrong.

My globe-trotting Mother came to visit us. We picked her up in Nairobi, did the tourist thing of the giraffe park, elephant orphanage, museum and a cultural exhibition of native dances. Then came the 8-hour bus ride to non-tourist town Tarime.

We visited the orphanage, on Sunday mom and Pam did crafts with the kids and Tuesday we left on Safari to the Serengeti. Now that’s your National Geographic Africa. We entered the park and drove 3 hours on rough gravel roads to our fabulous hotel. We of course sighted all kinds of animal as we drove. I’ll attach photos of some of them. After watching animals in the morning, we drove about 5 hours to our next hotel on the rim of a crater that contains more animals, the rarest being the black rhino.

Please excuse some of the photos. This is where the animals live and it’s not a zoo. And I guess I’m kind of ruined for zoos now. I photographed the animals with a telephoto lens. The first rhino we saw was on the horizon and looked like a blob. You could barely see the outline. We were lucky enough to find a group of 5. They were a bit away, but I got some decent photos.

Pictures speak louder than words, so here you go, enjoy.

We were at the entrance to the park when this guy showed up

Wildebeests, aka Gnu were in abundance. You usually saw zebra with them. Our guide Omi said the Gnu was his favorite animal because they were so dumb. We didn't find our particulars, but apparently the zebra lead the migration and the Gnu are not smart enough to find their own way and tag along with the zebra.

Here are impalas. The dude with the horns is the male and these are his wives. There is only one male to a pack.

This is a crocodile. I didn't spot him at first even though he was only 35 feet or so from me.

The first water buffalo we saw, one of the 'Big 5' and apparently they don't live constantly near water.

We saw a lot of giraffe and some were really huge and tall. I'm posting this picture to give some perspective. He was taller than the tree and note the water buffalo.

I will take a separate post to describe what we saw here. We were fortunate enough to watch lioness' hunt, and this is what I captured. The lions were trying to surround a gazelle. If you can find them, there are 7 lions in this picture. There's a brown blur just left of the base of the tree in the upper right part of the photo. That's the gazelle running to live another day.

This little guy greeted us at our first hotel. Sorry, lost his name.

From our hotel room, this was out back. Nice way to say that if you venture out, it's your own fault if you get eaten.

I wish I could say this was a lion roaring, but it was just a yawn.

One of our first elephant sightings. Bulls, female and baby.

The leopard, one of the 'Big 5' and the hardest one to find. We were really lucky to have this good a view. This is zoomed in as far as I could go and blown up.

We saw warthogs, and every time, they ran away with their tail up. Pam loved em and Omi said the tail up is a signal to 'follow me.'

We saw two species of hyena and they are larger than Pam, mom or I thought. They are bigger than a large dog, say a large German Shepard, and look tough and muscled.

This is what the Serengeti Plain looks like during mid-migration time. Those are zebra and gnu in front and all the dots in the background are also zebra and gnu.

You will occasionally see 2 zebra looking like the are resting their heads on each other. They usually are arranged so they flick their tails it will brush the flies away from the other zebras face. Here are 3 who are apparently learning what to do, but then maybe they took a gnu stupid pill.

A better shot of a gnu.

A zoomed in shot of two lions and a lioness. We were in the Ngorngora crater and seeing male lions anywhere is not the common.

A cheetah, fastest land animal. We didn't see it run, but it was some distance off and then walked closer and posed for all the cameras.

Hippo pools are usually in are close to stagnant water and that is of course where the hippos usually are. There is a distinctive odor associated with where they are.

A Pam snapshot. It was a good shot of a zebra, but notice what's behind the zebra's right ear.

We finally saw the last of the 'Big 5' the black Rhino. This shot is zoomed in all the way and blown up quite a bit, but gotta love it anyway.

And here's Pam relaxing on the shore of Lake Victoria. A great way to end a great trip.

TINGA (This Is National Geographic Africa), Mark