Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday we drove to the nearby village of Nkungwe. Luke and I were accompanied by Peter, his wife Naomi and their 2 little ones, and David, and our own daughter Emily. Esther stayed behind. Luke, Peter and David all spoke a message. There was the typical Sunday morning service, but a little longer with choirs singing more than their allotted 2 songs. Shortly after this service we gathered around the table for Breaking of Bread. After this, we just sat and waited for things to get ready for the afternoon service. It rained a slow yet heavy drizzle most of the day. The youth were in charge of the afternoon service and many came to see the drama performance they had prepared. After another message and more singing the meeting came to a close. The ladies ushered in the food and sodas and we barely made a dent in our food. As quickly as we could, we said our good-byes and drove slowly back on the wet and slick roads. It was past 8 pm when we finally made it home to our comfortable beds. =)

Luke speaking at the morning service.

Waiting for the afternoon service to begin.

Emily enjoying our undivided attention.

Dismas' wife showing off her growing twin girls (whom we had seen as newborns here).

FOOD! One mountain size plate per person.

Mishamo Trip

Here are a few pictures of our trip to Mishamo, the old refugee camp. We had 4 days of evangelistic meetings, seminars, films, and kids' meetings. A couple of people came up to talk and pray after the evening films. However, we don't know what kind of follow-up was arranged with these few. The evangelistic meetings in the afternoon were full of energy, loud music, dust and heat. An evangelist from Tabora (middle of the country) was the special speaker for these meetings and the people loved his enthusiasm. He took time throughout the day to pray and talk with individuals upon request, and there were many! The heat was almost overwhelming. Taking daily, cold bucket baths helped. We were thankful that it didn't rain, that would have made our drive back a big adventure. The drive back was uneventful except for a busted tire on one of the vehicles and zig-zagging between stopped busses and trucks.

Enjoy the pictures!

Waiting at the camp entrance for 2 hrs. because our papers weren't in perfect order.

Finally arriving at our destination after almost 8 hrs. on the road.

Luke selling Bibles and Bible covers from the back of the car. Sold out by day 2.

All ready to show films, just waiting for it to get dark.

Faithful workers in the kitchen. They got kinda goofy when they saw a camera.

Hard working ladies in the kitchen that made food for everyone.

Our room for 4 nights. Girls slept on the floor within a mosquito tent.

Ruth Johnson teaching Sunday School.

Cooking for a crowd.

Ladies stirring the "ugali" until it's not too mushy for serving.

Ugali and beans for lunch.

One of the elders, and hosts, Ruben was busy serving everyone.

Beets!

We don't have a huge selection of vegetables in Kigoma, so we can easily get tired of the same repeats. We have tried to grow some of our own in our garden, but with dry season upon us it's hard to keep a garden going. There are a couple of vegetables that the locals like but isn't enjoyed by our family, like okra and eggplant. This past month we decided to try beets, a friendly muslim man brought them to our gate, so we decided to give them a try. They were a hit! I just boiled them 'til tender and sliced them up for lunch. It's so nice to have something different than the typical tomato and avocado (which we love).

Beets for lunch.

Emily with a beet face.

Smick, smack, smooth -- beets are gone.

A new household item?

During our first week of stay with our British hosts, Esther has discovered that she enjoys Marmite on her toast. For the Americans that have never tasted this, let me just tell you that it's in a class all its own. The third ingredient is "salt", and that's basically all I taste when I try it. To eat it, you spread a small amount, very thinly on a piece of buttered toast, it's black like tar, and the smell is incredibly strong. A jar can last quite a long time, especially if it's only one person in the house who eats it, i.e. our Esther. So maybe we'll go ahead and buy her a jar while we're in the city!

Rice for lunch and dinner

Meals in the dinning hall.

Today's lunch: cassava stew (not pictured), beef, beans, rice, and fresh pineapple for dessert.

When it's time for lunch or dinner we get ready by washing our hands, and then make our way to the dinning hall at a toddler's pace. I (Gina) sometimes ask Esther to guess what will be the food for that meal. She has quickly learned that if she answers "rice" she is correct 100% of the time!

We have been here over a month now and I thought I'd be tired of eating rice twice daily, but surprisingly that has not been the case. Of course now and then we get chips (fries) or noodles, but there is always rice as well in those cases. It just isn't a meal unless you have rice. And there is always a sauce available to put on the rice, a person here rarely eats plain rice, so the different sauces give it a variety. 

The good thing is that when you're sick (and yes, its "when", not "if"), there will always be an option to eat plain rice if that's all you can stomach at the time.

A little more than a week ago some students asked Mr. Chuma (the school director) if the cooks could please serve us ugali (thick, dough-like mush made of maize and water) that is commonly eaten by the people of Tanzania. He promised that we'd get it the following monday. Monday came and went and there was no sign of ugali. So Mr. Chuma got some guff for not keeping his promise. That same afternoon we saw him talking to the cook and had her hear from us personally that yes, we certainly wanted ugali for lunch. She was shocked and perhaps a little embarrassed by our request. Come to find out, the teachers eat ugali every day for lunch, just like we, the students, eat rice every day. We get served the rice as a privilege.

So that Tuesday, to our pleasure, we had ugali for lunch, of course rice was faithfully there as an alternate option.