Mbuzi to Mpunguzi

That is Nexan on the far right in the photo below. She is an amazing woman and wears many hats. She supports her husband and his work with the street children of Dodoma. Their home is now home to 6 street children in addition to their own 4. In her spare time, she has a ministry to widows, helping them find ways to generate income and encouraging them with ideas.
Several months ago, when we were being given goats in appreciation for working on water pumps, Ed suggested to Nexan that a goat project might be a good money making venture for some of her ladies and he just happened to have a goat to get them started.
Naturally, the women had concerns about feeding the goat and fears someone would steal it. Ed suggested they take the goat, keep it for a few months, and see how things worked out.
You can barely see Goat #1 in the lower portion of this picture.

Flash forward 6 months. The "seed" goat has not been stolen. She is being fed. Nexan receives word the women are ready for a male goat to start producing.
She locates one at a good price in Ihuma. We leave at 8:00 this morning and drive 15 kilometers to "collect" the goat.
Yes, that's the goat in the back of our Landrover.
This very special "mbuzi" is going to Mpunguzi, about an hour's drive from where we are. So, we headed out.

It was hot and the goat had a "nervous stomach"...........enough said. I declined taking photos of that.

The happy ending is that several ambitious widows in Mpunguzi are now in the "goat business".

My Utmost for His Highest--March 4

This is Oswald Chambers classic devotional "My Utmost for His Highest". I gave a copy of this to Ed, before we married, in 1991. We have been reading it each year since....not each and every day, but most of it. Next to the Bible, many of the devotions have given insight to who Jesus is and who we are in Christ.

Many pages are underlined, highlighted, and often notes written in the margins as a reminder of what was happening in our lives at the time. I have come upon one of the grandkids pretending to read and carefully marking the page, just as they had seen me do.

Today, I turned to March 4 and found one devotion which spoke profoundly to me as I wrestled with joining Ed in Tanzania in 2007. I loved my job and everything about it.....especially the friends I had there.

PRACTICALITY told me:
You are needed here.
You love this job.
You would be giving up great benefits.
You love this job.
It's wonderful pay.
You love this job.
You can retire in 7 years.
You love this job.

But I found that God wanted to speak something else to me through this devotion on March 4, 2007.
"Practical work may be a competition against abandonment to God, because practical work is based on this argument---'Think how much value you would be in that particular type of work.' That attitude does not put Jesus Christ as the Guide as to where we should go, but our judgment as to where we are of most use. Never consider whether you are of use; but ever consider that you are not your own but His."

The following day, I let my supervisor know, I would be joining Ed in June.

Disclaimer

I want everyone to be sure and know that Ed and I DO NOT oversee the Safina Program (see the following post). We are, however, privileged to be around to partner with and support Safina Street Ministry personally and through our work with Omega Mission. There are other families in Dodoma who give of themselves also. The staff of Safina are "in the trenches" each and every day and continue to do an amazing job, working tirelessly for these children.

Prayers for Mathayo

The director's of the Safina Street Network work around the clock, challenged by countless tasks on a daily basis. When one child hasn't been around, Andrea and Patrick immediately go to work to find that child.

Mathayo's absence was no exception. Andrea eventually found him in the hospital. He had been beaten by a gang of boys and left to die at the rail road tracks. Injuries to his head and his back, left him unconscious and unable to move.

Hospitals here do not provide food. It is up to family members to bring food. No family...no food. The day Andrea found Mathayo, the hospital had just then hooked up an IV. He had not been turned and his muscles were atrophied. He was slowly becoming conscious. Andrea and Patrick returned daily and fed him by hand since he was still unable to feed himself.

Safina only has approval to house children who are sick, so Mathayo, still unable to walk, was taken to the facility where he has been attended to by 3 older boys who live on site. Each day, they get him up, make sure he is fed and clean and then attempt to help him walk. Cha-cha, the oldest boy, has a heart for caring for the sick. Mathayo has made some progress walking supported on each side by another boy.

I had heard a new physiotherapist, from Australia, was now serving Dodoma, through the Anglican church, so I called Jane and found she was most willing to come do an evaluation on Mathayo. Yesterday, I picked her and her translator up and we headed to Safina. Mathayo was anxiously anticipating her visit.

All the boys gathered around and watched as Jane did an assessment and confirmed his back and possible hip injury, but feels recovery looks very promising. Cha-cha took in everything as Jane demonstrated massaging Mathayo's back, stretching, and other exercises. Jane will come to the center to monitor his progress a couple of times a week. I had pulled out my camera to start documenting his progress from the beginning and found I had not replaced the memory card.

The word has been sent out to the Dodoma "ex-pat" community to locate a walker for Mathayo. Prayers for healing are being prayed and we are convinced he will make a full recovery. Will you join us in praying for Mathayo? Also, in praying for the Safina program as they minister to the street children of Dodoma.

 

Creative Cooking

I love my man and when he's returning from a long trip, I love to have a good meal made for him when he gets home. Today was no exception. He's been in Babati (6 hours away) most of the week. In the freezer, I discovered some pork ribs from a pig we had butchered a few months ago and decided to do them up right.

I found a tasty sounding recipe and went to work only to discover the ribs wouldn't fit into my pan. So if you don't have "short ribs"...what do you do?........You make them into short ribs.

We brought a wonderful selection of new, SHARP, knives back from the States, only to be wounded numerous times by those slippery utensils. After slicing my thumb, I discovered, this shiny new knife was not what I needed to break those ribs.

 

Next, I retrieve my trusty panga (see the following story) from under the seat of the truck, wash it up good with bleach and start pounding away at those bones. This was not successful.

 

By now, our watchman is doubled over, laughing at me and I am all the more determined to get those ribs into a pan. I tell him to get a saw and he laughs even harder. Again, I go through the bleach washing and start sawing away at those ribs. It worked.

 

Ed will be home in just a few minutes and will be able to smell those ribs when he pulls into the drive way.
By the way.......I'm off to play Bunco, so he'll have to dine alone........that man that I love.

Panga Protection

We recently had a flat on the hiway between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma. It's hard to find a "shoulder" or "pulling off" place , but this time, we were fortunate to find a little side road where we pulled over to change the tire. The area was a little isolated and not visible from the road. We have heard stories of people getting robbed, so I was already imagining all sorts of things.
Ed started to work immediately......just the way you would expect him to do.
I could hear voices of men in the bushes and could hear the the word "wazungu" (white people) used. Then.........it got REAL quiet. And I got REAL scared. Ed just kept working.

So, I decided if he was going to be in a vulnerable position of changing the tire, I would protect us....by golly.
So, I pulled out our trusty panga, unsheathed it and laid it in plain sight on the seat of the truck and stood close by. This should scare those thieves.

Shortly, 4 men appeared out of the bushes. All of them so drunk they could hardly stand up. Taking all this into consideration, I am pumped to defend us with my panga if called to do so.
The men stood (I mean swayed) around and watched Ed, trying to help, and then eventually stumbled back into the bush.
So, now the tire is changed and Ed walks around to his side of the truck and sees the panga.
"What's this for?", he says.
"To protect us", I say.
He just rolled his eyes, re-sheathed the panga, and replaced it under the seat of the truck.....to protect us another day.
I love my panga.

USA Bound

After delivering Jerry and Charles to the airport, we hurried back to Dodoma to complete our move to another house and pack for our return to the US. Our friends, Jonathan and Rachel Morgan, got up early in the morning to get us to MAF to meet the lst of 4 flights before reaching Lubbock.

MAF (Mission Avionics Fellowship) makes a weekly flight to Arusha. Instead of making the 9 hour drive over mostly dirt roads, we opted to "hitch a ride" with MAF and shorten the trip to 2 hours. The weather was clear as we took off from Dodoma. Along the way we encounted rough weather and 7 miles from the Arusha airport, had to turn back to Lake Manyara air strip to wait out a thunderstorm. The turbulance caused me to go in search of the little blue bags conveniently located in the pocket of the seat in front of me. I began thinking the 9 hour drive might have been better.

Lake Manyara air strip is on the top of the escarpment of the Rift Valley and stops abruptly at the edge. Upon take-off, there are no "do overs", as you go sailing into mid-air at the end of the runway. The pilot was a friend named Marcus....he kept looking back and apologizing. It's hard to say "it's OK" with your head in a blue bag. I got no sympathy from Ed.

AHHHHHH....Arusha......and solid ground. My legs were shaky, my face was green, and my carry-on's had increased by 2 blue bags.
We arrived in Lubbock 46 hours later to the open arms of family and friends.......the "blue bags" long forgotten.