Party

We had our big party – welcoming Aiden and I to the Nziku/Mgaya family. It was more for the extended family who maybe haven’t officially met us yet.  Normally this is the party where they pay for the bride but we don’t do that in the states so they just gave us gifts. I am worth 1.4 million……shillings, which is $850, still a pretty good amount of money, but not as impressive.

It’s a two day ordeal. The first day is cooking a meal and everyone comes to eat and get their jobs for the next day. It even gets written down , so no getting out of it! We had it at our house and the first day it rained a lot so we moved all the cooking to under our porch. Here are some pictures of the cooking and me learning to be a villager, except that I was a rebel and wore jeans most of the day! 

The second day started bright and early (530 AM). We had to start cooking the chipsi, or French fries early. (Lots of work) The food was ready around 10am or so and then it was a family meeting time to present some of the money to us. It’s a very official event and everyone was trying their best to speak only Swahili, at least in the official meeting parts. I met a few of Sifeli’s oldest living relatives; other than his grandfather (mother’s father),  two of his grandfather’s siblings are alive (sister and brother). Here is a picture of Aiden with his great great aunt. I think there is a strong family resemblance!

We also got a picture with Sifeli and all of his Brother’s and one sister and their families. His sister’s husband wasn’t able to make it, they live far away, but other than that everyone is pictured here. His oldest brother and his wife and their three boys, next is his sister and her daughter, then us, after us is his younger brother, his wife, and their two kids, and then the youngest brother. 

As my family representative all the kids, Gerusa, and our two staff members came to attend the party! It also brought some English speakers to the event! 

I gave a speech with the help of Sifeli’s cousin, Akiba. I welcomed everyone, told them that Tanzania and America are two very different places but I was trying to learn the culture. As an example of the differences I said women wear pants most of the time not skirts. ( lots of laughter after this) I told them this is our home and an American lives here, a Tanzanian, and a baby who is half and half; so we do things a little different, but everyone is welcome anytime. I told them that I was still learning Swahili and kibena (tribal language) would come slowly, but the previous night i learned how to say rest in kibena. They all thought I was quite funny, so that’s a good start in my new family.

One of Sifeli’s brother’s lives next door with his wife and kids, so we see them on a daily basis. He has two kids, a girl who is 3, and a boy who is 1 year 4 months. They are always playing together with Aiden. When Aiden is doing something he shouldn’t I say “Aiden, No.” Glady, the 3 year old has picked this up, so at the party Aiden was going somewhere he shouldn’t and Glady says “Iden (can’t say Aiden) NO!” Everyone had a good laugh and then we showed off some of the English Glady has learned: won, foo, free= one, two, three; and ba-nan-a  (nan said extra long).

Jeneti our oldest child at Sunrise (currently off in secondary school) lost her father recently to heart problems (probably high blood pressure). She came home for Easter break and he was very ill so she was able to visit him at least one last time. Jeneti’s story is a tough one (like all the kids). He mother died when she was young and her father remarried leaving her in the village with her grandmother. When I first got to Sunrise Jeneti used to ask everyone “Are you my new mother?” (I became mama Jeneti at some point.) My heart never seems to stop hurting for these kids who go through so much. It seems never ending but hopefully we at Sunrise can give them some things they are hurting for. They are why we (Gerusa and I) are here after all. 

I still would like to do some sort of feeding program for the babies in the village. I am going to be looking into ideas and programs when we are in the states, which we will be at 6:35PM Thursday evening!!!!!!!

It was hard to say bye to the kids again. I don’t think that will ever be an easy thing, even with a family of my own, and not living with them 24/7- they are still my loves. I am pretty sure Aiden is going to miss the constant attention too, but maybe we can get rid of some of this spoiled-ness he has picked up. He can’t make a noise without everyone rushing to his aid. He is cute and he knows it so look out Americans!

I am writing this only 7.5 hours away from leaving Tanzania. Our first flight leaves here at 11PM, and heads to Amsterdam, then San Francisco, next Portland! So please be praying for peaceful flights, Aiden is a busy body and in think sitting for 23 hours is going to take its toll on him. 

So, see you soon Oregonians!

It's just a train.

Aiden with Eliza and Ziada

Sunrise:
For easter the kids have a week off from school. They were allowed to spend easter day with their families and then we had a full week of work, lessons, computer classes, and fun. The other exciting thing to happen is that Jeneti came home from secondary school. The kids were very excited to see her and hear all about like outside of the village.

These are pictures from fertilizing the Avocado trees!

Kay is in America and she took a teacher from the primary school. His name is Akiba and he helps us so much at Sunrise! He got invited by a school in Kay's area to come shadow the school. He told Gerusa that he is amazed by how well the kindergarten students work with computers. He will be flying back the end of this week so please be praying for safe travels!

Aiden & Us:

Notice the DIRTY feet

Aiden is getting big so fast. It's hard to believe that in just a month and a half he will be a year old! He is quite the experienced crawler now, loves to pull himself up on stuff, walking along furniture is now an easy thing for him. He also is learning to drink from a cup by himself (lots of messes) and is able to eat certain "finger foods". He enjoys giving big wet kisses and clapping his hands.

We had a really rainy last week, which basically means you are stuck indoors. (I know shame on me Oregonian and all, but its a different story when there are no paved roads only ones.) SO one night Sifeli and I decided to play cards. I taught him how to play Go Fish and Slap Jack. Needless to say Slap Jack was the favorite.

Sifeli has an appointment with the embassy on monday the 20th, so please be praying he gets his visa! We hope to come in May and leave sometime in September (same as last year).

Village Life:

One night last week I woke up to a strange sound. It sounded like a train going by and the house was shaking a little, and I thought "oh it's just a train". Next thought, "wait a minute this is uhekule, no trains here.....earthquake!" That's right we've had four earthquakes since we got back in September. Luckily they are not very fierce, but they are strong enough to wake you up.

I am slowly acclimating to my life as a village wife, and village life in general. Things are not always easy but I like to believe i am adjusting well, I am even learning the tribal language as to better communicate with Sifeli's family!

It's that time already.... My 2 year permit expires in a couple of months, but I will need to renew before we leave. I can't believe that I have been living in Tanzania for 2 years and 5 months!!!

What not to eat, By Aiden

Cat taking a ride on Aiden

standing!

Hanging with the boys

SO many things to update on, and i apologize for the delay. Life is as always busy busy busy busy.

Sunrise Things:
The kids are growing, which is a normal thing that children do. It's fun to see all the changes in just 2 & 1/2 years. We are entering the teen years for the majority of our kids and with that teen attitudes. Our oldest kids are now too cool for basically everything. I mean they are practically adults now...  So we are working through some bad attitudes and the punishments that match the crime.
We attempted for the second time to get approved for registration as an orphanage. (more help from the government.) Gerusa and the staff worked hard cleaning site and i made sure our records were up to date. The men came out from district to inspect us on a pretty large list of things. I am happy to report that we have PASSED. We are officially an orphanage in the country of Tanzania! (Awaiting paperwork)

Aiden:
We have a 10 month old. At 9 months 1 week, Aiden was crawling. 2 weeks later he was pulling himself up, a week after that walking along furniture (slowly). He hasn't cut anymore teeth, but he is starting to try and eat certain things by himself, using the two teeth. He is also a chatterbox, can clap his hands, still loves getting kisses, and loves all his big brothers and sisters.
The other day Gerusa and I were loading the diesel into the storage room so i put Aiden in the grass to play. We look over at him and he is in the grass on all fours something in his hand and something hanging out of his mouth. The look on his face was of disgust, as if he was thinking I completly regret the decision to place this in  my mouth. I go over there to see what he has and it was cat poop. Yep my kid tried to eat cat poop.  I went to wash his mouth out with some water while Gerusa and I were laughing hystirically. It still makes me laugh when i think about the expression on his face.

Clinic
The last thing i posted i mentioned going to the clinic. There are quite a few children that are underweight, but most of them are not. The weight chart they have here is adjusted to Africa. (Here Aiden is big for his age, in America he is small.) I also found out about a village not too far from us has NO doctor, no clinic, if they are sick or want to get their kid weighed/ immunizations, they have to walk quite a distance (around 5k). I was thinking of going out there with our doctor and doing a sort of clinic just to check things out, see what the need may be there. So please be praying that the correct opportunity will present itself.

Village life
Things in the village are  going great. We had a family meeting back in september when we returned to uhekule concerning us. Instead of paying a bride price they wanted to give us gifts (similar to what we do in the states). They planned that in April would be the best time (after selling potatoes). SO we recently had another family meeting to discuss when and where and how we are going to go abotu the gift giving. Similar to the bride price party we are having a gift giving party. We have to pay for the food but we will be given money and gifts in return. So we are basically having a house warming party- Tanzanian style!

PS We are coming soon to a country near you. We wiil be in oregon in May, and staying for the Summer!! (Looking for part time work)

New Friends

Sunrise:
As usual its been a busy time at Sunrise! Lots of work to be done in the shamba (farm). This time of year we are working with the corn and getting ready to plant the wheat. I took the kids to work with the corn; pilling the dirt around the plants. It's hard but rewarding work, and its fun to do go with the kiddos.

On Sunday i got out a few gifts from my Aunt Connie for the kids. One was a bubble maker thing and the other is those balloons you fill up and let go and they make noise. The kids were so entertained. The bubbles were the biggest hit, and the village kids that come on SUndays to play football loved them as well. I always love seeing how the simplest things to us make them so happy.

I have been playing some soccer games with the boys lately. PLaying in a skirt is next to impossible so i am going to take a pair of pants to leave at site for some intense football playing.

A common thing in Tanzania is that if you ate a certain kind of food one time and got sick then you are allergic. We have lots of the kids who had various allerigies when they first arrived (meat, milk) and now are able to eat them. Well, every Tuesday the kids have sphaghetti. Over the Winter break (June) the kids all went home to their families. One of the girls had pasta and got sick so she was allergic to pasta and could no longer eat it. So then every Tuesday at Site they were ng to cook a seperate meal for her. Unfortunately she is one of our kids whose mother's is suffering from HIV, which means that whenever she gets back from being at her mom's we have to get her tested (once a year). Its a simple finger prick, one drop of blood and done. I took her a couple of weeks ago and you would have thought theytook a whole gallon of blood, it was the end of the world. She is one of our more dramatic children and she really played it up. I was thinking about her pasta allergy and how we coudl get her to eat it again, and an idea came to me. (Possibly cruel, possibly brilliant.) I told her that i was concerned she was not able to eat pasta and so i wanted to take her to get some blood drawn so we could see why she was allergic to pasta; OR she could try pasta today and see if maybe now she could eat it. That night she ate pasta and she told Carina (the volunteer at site) "Thank you, now i love pasta!" Problem solved.

Aiden:

Aiden was weighing in at 8.3 Kilos (which according to google is about 18.2 LBS) at the beginning of the month. He is also 27 inches long now. He is trying to pull himself up now, and most of the time is successful. He is also working on crawling, which he has mastered in reverse, wokring on going forward. He gets on his hands and knees and starts moving in place really fast but hasn't figured out how to move his hands. He still only has the two teeth, but i think he is about to cut some more. He eats just about everything he is given except for watermelon; it must be a family thing to hate watermelon (on his dad's side) because both Sifeli and Luka won't eat it.

Aiden also loves to play in the dirt- typical boy. He has recently started to play with his cousins on the ground and even if i place him on a blanket he will move the blanket so he can reach the ground underneath.

Village:

Someone from home donated a bag of chapstick one time and i brought it over. I took a few out to use because i get chapped lips from the sun sometimes. Luka saw me using it one day and mentioned that our sister in law (the oldest brother's wife) really needs some. So I gave him one to give to her. He came back and said that she is was thanking God for the chapstick. For chapstick. They always teach me so much here about what it really means to appreciate things, and what it means to thank God for everything, even the little stuff like chapstick. So to the person who donated the chapstick, someone in Africa is thanking God for you.

We have two new adorable additions to our home, KITTENS! Hopefully they will get rid of those pesky rats that try to come in every once in awhile. PLus they are horrible.

I am often reminded that I am not a typical village wife. The two girls that work at site and I were talking about husbands one day. I told them that Sifeli comes home around 7 or 8 every night (aroudn the same time i return home), and that him and Luka help cook. They couldn't believe it. Most husbands come home aorund 11 or 12 at night or later, and they expect there to be food ready for them and waiting when they do return.

There was a funeral this past weekend for a cousin of Sifeli's. She was living in DAR but came home to stay with her mom because she had been having heart problems. They gave her some medicine but she refused to take it. She passed away around 3AM Saturday morning. Saturday was a busy day for the funeral and spending time with family. I wasn't able to go to site due to family obligations, and also everyone kept taking Aiden, I didnt want to go to far away. SO by the end of the day we are both exhausted. I didnt feel liek cooking and i wasnt sure what Sifeli was doing as far as the funeral stuff, so i went and bought myself a chipsi mayai (french fries and egg). I only bought one and there was this woman in there asking what Sifeli was going to do for dinner. I made a joke about how he is a grown man and is capable of cooking his own meal or buying it. She just looked at me with this shocked expression and the lady who was cooking my meal couldnt stop laughing. The poor helpless men in this village would apparently starve if they all had wives like me.

Feeding Program:
We had the baby clinic and Carina (our volunteer from Austria) and I attended. I wrote down all the babies weights, age, and names. There were around 150 or so kids aged 0-5years. (That's a lot of young people in uhekule.) I will be meeting with the doctor this weekend to discuss who needs what and then we will go from there.

Not Just Statistics

Sunrise:
The children returned the second week of January! They were very excited to get to play with Aiden again, and surprised at how much he has grown. I think the most exciting thing to them is that Aiden can now eat ugali. (Ugali is the maze flower-white paste that they eat.) (I was hoping he would be American in the ugali department but he likes it.) We have a new volunteer from Austria! Her name is Carina, and she is 23 years old. She will be with us for 3 months! The kids are also getting bigger and older. We now have one child in secondary school (Jeneti), two kids in seventh grade (Tumpe, Elenesta), two kids in sixth grade (Hosea, Elia), eight kids in fifth grade (Ima, Franki, Nickson, Akwirino, Ziada, Eliza, Priska, Elisha), two kids in fourth grade (Yona, Lukemelo), one kid in third grade (Sesilia), and two kids in second grade (Halima, Atukuzwe). We will possibly soon be adding another child to our home. His name is Vincent, and it has been brought to our attention that his living conditions are horrible. His father died (most likely of AIDS), and his mothe re-married and per this culture can not take her children from the previous marriage into the next. This little boy who is in second grade, lives with his grandmother. Two of the committee members (our chairman and translator, now my uncle and cousin) and myself will be going to the home to interview the family. It could be a sensitive subject so please be praying that God's will for this little boy will be done.

Villagers Life Continued...
I have recently learned on many occasions that if I leave either the front or the back door open, Chickens will come in. They just waltz right in and poop on my floor. On one occasion i went into the living room and there were about six of them just hanging out. This is Africa.

Aiden:
Aiden is now the big age of 8 months old. He is almost 8 kilos (7.8) which is roughly 17LBS. He can sit on his own and is now trying to move around. He tries to crawl but he preferes to pull up on things. He is trying to stand on his own, and sometimes he is successfull for a few seconds. He has a very Tanzanian diet and I am wondering how he will react to America food! He eats the following foods;Potatoes, Ugali, Rice, Avocado, banana, mango, pasta, dark leafy greens, carrots, local fruit, bread, chipsi (french fries), eggs, and bean juice. He is an eater. I try to share my food with him but this boy can eat. He might have to get his own food sooner rather than later! With the money my parents sent for Christmas we were able to buy Aiden one of those toys they can sit in with wheels and their feet touch the floor. We set him in and hear him moving around the house. 

Aiden getting weighed in the Tanzanian fashion.

House/Sifeli:
We are slowly adding things to the house. We now have windows for our bedroom instead of the plastic/tarp material in the rest of the hoouse. We are going to buy Sifeli a pikipiki (motorcycle) so that we can start generating some income on our own. Its potato harvesting time and if you have a piki piki you are valuable. As well as being able to take people between villages (like a taxi). We are deciding how much we will have to make to finish the rest of the house and still have money left over to live off of. (After we work this summer in the states.)



Me:

I still struggle with lots of things here, living in another culture VASTLY different than my own. And most of it comes with raising a child in a new culture. I worry about him constantly when he is not with me (or the kids at site). I worry about him going to visit people in their homes and sitting in rooms filled with smoke, I worry about dirty hands, kisses from strangers, sickness, fungus, playing in the dirt with other village children, and other ridiculous things. I worry and then I remember its a sin to worry. I remember that while I love my son there is someone else who loves him more than i could ever imagine. I remember that I can't make a difference, I can't show these people Jesus by hiding in my house all day. I like the way Katie Davis writes it in her book 'Kisses from Kate':

"...I remembered that Jesus touched lepers... I was always quick to open my home, but a few days after realizing how sick our new friends were or being criticized by other "good" parents, fear would sneak in and I would wonder is i truly was being irresponsible. The answer always came quickly and simply, "I sent My Son," the father would breathe through my spirit. "Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake..." I realized I still had to be obedient to what God had asked me to do. even though He was expanding my family. I knew the desire to protect my children was God given, but that at the end of each day, this father who loved them even more than I did would be their protector."

In the times when Aiden is sleeping, and the guys are working elsewhere, I feel entitled to some free time, but everyday kids (nieces and other village kids) come to my house in those moments. I usually ignore them outside or send them away, but then I always feel slightly guilty. When did Jesus ever say that it was acceptable to send people away so that I could have some free time? I feel strongly that the way to showing these people Jesus is through their children. Is by opening my home and letting them play with Aiden's toys, or read the many books I have on my shelves, or feeding them snacks, by letting them in and loving them first. Being selfish is not the key, Jesus is not there in the "all about Courtney" show. Everyday I want to rid me of myself and let Jesus in, because I cannot do it on my own, I can only do it by being filled with him.

 

The Hard Stuff:
Some really sad things have occurred recently in Uhekule. A women had her baby, that she apparently did not want, and so after she had the baby at home she put the baby in a bag and left it to die. Another women's husband did not believe the baby she was carrying was his and she had a miscarriage at 3 months and the baby was dumped in their toilet (not sure the story around this circumstance). And my heart just breaks. It breaks for the women, and it breaks for the children, it just plain breaks. I would rather a newborn baby be dropped off at our house for us to find a placement for. I want to reach out to these hurting women, and give them alternatives, give them another option, a safe place that they can turn to. My heart just hurts to hear these stories so close to home especially when something could have been done.

A man died a week ago, leaving behind a wife and 5 kids. He was farely young so the cause was most likely AIDS. The oldest son is in seconday school (like middle school) and he is brilliant. He tested the highest in the entire region for his national exams. His name is Solum. Sadly Solum will not see another day of school. Not only can they financially not afford to continue to send him with his father gone, but he is now the man of the house and is responsible for the 4 younger siblings. This brilliant boy who has so much going for him, will now be stuck in the village being a farmer. His story is not just one story, his story is many poeple's stories. The thing is these people dying of AIDS in Tanzania are not just statistics in a country in Africa anymore; they're friends, family, neighbors, they're heart-breakingly real. The truth is that they I should always have known these people are real, but now seeing it, now feeling the heartbreak, now seeing the grief of these people makes it hard to ignore. Putting names and faces to the stories makes it impossible to just see them as statistics again.

 I want to be the kind of Jesus loving freak that gives and gives and when there is nothing left to give, gives more. I want to do it humbly and for the Glory of God. I believe that God has placed me here in Uhekule not for me, but so that he could reach his people here through me. I feel like i will never be ready to be this light for him, i stumble daily. I fall off the narrow path more times in a week than I can count, I feel like I always put myself first, or when I do give to someone else its after first saying no, and then feeling convicted, and then having a conversation with God, and then I give. I am by no means perfect, I struggle every day, and the importance of acknowledging this is that I know that without Jesus I am nothing.

I was talking to the Doctor in the village about the children (ages 0- 5years) that come to the clinic every month. They come get weighed, get shots if needed, and then go home. I was wondering what happens to the ones who are underweight? Who aren't getting enough nutrients or their mother's milk supply isn't enough. She said they don't have anything to give them. Then i remember that Corrinne (the volunteer who i was connected to in coming here) had tried to set up a program for those kids. There were two problems that i remember that were preventing this program; one is no where to cook (I have a house in the village) and the other one was no one long term was here to run it (again problem solved). So on the 23rd of this month i am going to the clinic and we are going to record how many children are in need of this sort of program. I feel that the women and children are where my heart is, and what better way to begin a relationship than by providing them with what they need to take care of their babies. 


*One of Kay's churches in America is doing a fundraiser for Sunrise. We discussed it and feel that the proceeds will go to Solum, so he can continue his education.

A villagers life

Gone are the days of living at site where everything is set up as if you are still living in the first world. It's taken a month and a half but i finally have a routine down. Everything takes longer, and things are definitely more challenging but i am learning to think outside the box.

We start our mornings waking up around 5, depends on Aiden he is now our alarm clock, and he is an early riser. We have our charcoal stove so breakfast does not come quickly, but we manage it. I will usually go next door to our sister in laws house and take so coals from their already burning fire. I then place our stove outside so the wind Will keep the coals hot and start the charcoal. When everything is burning I bring the stove back inside ans start to prepare food for the day. I will usually start by boiling water to wash the dishes from the night before. I always place a bucket outside at all times, so when the rains come it will fill with water that i can use for various things. (No running water inside or close by.) We have two large buckets inside that we try to keep filled with water.
Breakfast is usually potatoes with some kind of vegetable. After pealing and cutting all the potatoes i can then began to cook them. While the potatoes are cooking I will wash dishes in a plastic shallow "dish" as they call it here. When that is finished its on to washing diapers. I like the days when we have really good rains because it supplies me with plenty of water for the many things i need it for during the day. You never know how much you need water until it requires more than just Turing on the tap.
Showering usually happens in the evenings, which requires 3 buckets of water, (one for each of us) but also means everyone has to wait for water to boil. We don't shower all on the same day; because by the time dinner is cooked and the last person's water boils its pretty late at night, and not to mention very cold when you shower outside.

Now that the kids have returned to site Aiden and I will go in the afternoons when they get out of school. Aiden is very excited to have all these people around to hold him and play with him again, and the kids can't believe how big he got over the month they were all away.

I had a peace corp friend who taught me how she made her oven to bake, so taking her version and adding some things of my own i have discovered how to bake bread! It's a lot of work and the guys eat it in about 10 minutes but i am excited that i am making it on my own. No recipe even! I made banana bread/cake the other day which turned out quite nicely!

The is a leak in the roof of our toilet and it happens to be right above the place where you squat to go; makes a restroom in the rain trip a little more interesting.

We do not own a mirror. I have not seen my own reflection in i don't even know how long! There is something very freeing about not having one, you never worry about appearance, how you are looking doesn't play in to how you interact with people around you.

I go a little crazy with all the "advice" i am given about raising my baby in a third world country. Basically I can do NOTHING right, and there is a double standard for Aiden and I then all the other mothers and babies. I can often just laugh it off and come up with things to say to brush them off, for instance "where is his hat?" (on very warm days) " oh he doesn't need it, he is half white". In some cases people will continue, "but what about the bugs?" (as if we have tons of bugs just swarming around our babies, or anyone for that matter) "Oh he likes them". Now that rainy season is upon us, going out in the rain with baby- no going out in the rain with Aiden, is a total no-no. "You have a baby in the rain!"(Oh and this is with using umbrellas, sorry i know its not very Oregonian of me, but it takes forever to dry clothes here!) The other day we passed a women when we were walking to Kay's house. It had started to rain but the lightest sprinkles. The women (without even greeting first) told me i needed to run home it was starting to rain. I told her it was not a problem we had an umbrella, but she persisted, and persisted and then she started to get quite rude. She told me that Aiden was going to get malaria because I had him in the rain. I was trying to be polite but i couldn't stand it anymore. I asked her he is going to get malaria because of rain? She said  yes. I said yea ok, in a very unfriendly way and walked off and then admittedly felt guilty. It is frustrating to have them constantly have a set of rules for us and then a set for everyone else. Makes being "one of them" a hard task. However I want to be a light and sometimes that means biting my tongue and remembering who i want to be for these people.

I often thing i must be crazy to choose to live here over the conveniences of the states, but there is something so wonderfully fufilling about living life the simple way; because on the days where it does rain hard and I can collect more than one bucket of water, on the nights that are warm and i do take a shower outside the stars are a stunning view, on the days when the bread comes out perfect in my make shift oven, on the days the villagers just greet us or send us away with a small gift, all the days i get to see the kids who stole my heart more than two years ago, at the end of long days when i get to sit and play with Aiden, and the fact that I get to go everywhere with Aiden (even to work), those days make living this life worth it, and not seem so crazy after all.

Christmas and New years

We had a very simple and lovely Christmas. My parents sent us some christmas money (for each of us) and we were able to get solar power! One panel, wiring, lightulbs, a used battery(but still works just fine), light switches, etc. Aiden got a new hat, a car, and a ball that lights. I also bought us a fake christmas tree and garland. Nice thing is we can use it again next year.

For New Year's Eve, Aiden and I stayed up to the late hour of 8:00pm. (I know, crazy party animals). We were sleeping soundly when i woke up aroudn 10:30pm; i couldnt figure out what had woken me up at first- all i heard was this loud rumbling sound outside, and the next thing i know the  bed is rocking back and forth and the doors are rattling. It was and earthquake! Only last about 30 seconds to 1 minute, and it wasn't very serious, but none the less i was awake. It's the second one we have had since we got back in September.


When i leave the house with Aiden we end up getting gifts. We will often return home with potatoes, bananas, avocado, vegetables, anything Aiden can eat that the villagers have to give.

I am still working on wanting to be more loving towards my fellow villagers. I have wanted to stay locked up get some me time (well me time with a 7 month old), which i dont believe is bad, but I know that it is getting in the way of reaching out and loving people. I am making a point of making this new year a new chance to reach out. Everytime I leave the house and walk through the village (wether to site or just to buy some tomatoes) i always feel better after greeting people. Always.

We are hoping to come back this Summer again, (May-September) and I would really like to work, so if anyone knows of a summer job let me know! We would like to finish up the last touches on the house.



We have aleady decided we will have our hands full with Aiden when he is able to walk. He is already curious about everything.and trying to get into everything. We will probably buy him one of those leash for kids things this summer!

I took Aiden to teh doctor at the end of december, he was weighing in at 16 pounds and 26 inches long! I didn't get a picture of the way that they weigh babies but next time i will bring a camera! They put them in this harness and hang them on a hook from the scale, which is hooked on the top of the doorway. Aiden was not a big fan!

People often ask what kind of things we need so i made a list of a few items that we could use.

Needs/Wants:

*We can use countless amounts of these things*

Aiden: Plastic pants covers for his diapers ( the ones we have are either to small now or are starting to get some major wear and tear, changing clothes everytime you change diapers gets old when you wash everythign by hand), socks for 9 month + (he has big feet)

House/me: Hot pads, Tuna, chocolate chips (go both ways, us and Sunrise), fly strips, clothes pins

Sunrise: Toothbrushes!

Padded envelopes only, and careful on weight, they can get expensive on both ends.
Address is:
P.O Box 746
Njombe, Tanzania