Projector Finally Works!

Today is "take three" for trying to teach about how to use the projector. We now have the generator fixed, we have all the extensions and adapters needed, and the projector is ready. The moment has come....we turn everything on.....and IT WORKS! Everyone is cheering! We spend about an hour with all the teachers showing them how it works. Each teacher goes through the steps of plugging it in, setting it up, doing a small lesson using the overhead sheets, and then taking it back down. It is so hard to imagine that this is the first time any of them has ever seen an overhead projector. It was fun listening to them come up with ways they saw on how the projector could be an advantage for their teaching.

Now its time to show the students. We were going to use the overhead to show them how to use the MP3 players we brought them. We move down to the classroom and set everything up but we didn't have long enough extension cords to reach from the generator to the projector. So it took a few minutes to figure out that all the students will need to move from this classroom into another one. So we crammed all the students in one room next to the teachers lounge. We finally got everything working. I talk about the projector and showed them what it did and why teachers would want to use it. Then I showed them how to use the MP3 players. We had a student come up and deomonstrate the players to be sure they understood how to change chapters and make it louder. The teachers were all excited about having such technology brought to them. The headmaster was telling the students they go to a good school and they have good supporters who care about them. I ended my time at the school talking to a group of students. They all wanted me to take their picture and they wanted to know my Facebook address. It is so funny how they all know about email and Facebook.

After we left, we went back to the family we visited that had no roof on their house. Over the weekend, we paid a young man to build the roof. We also brought a new mattress and some blankets. When we got there, the young man who had done the work, greeted us. He lived real close to this family and he did not know she was living there with no roof. At first, he didn't even believe it, so he kept watch the night before and found out that it was true. She was cooking the rice we brought her family and then sleeping in the house. He felt so bad that he did alot more than just fix the roof. He added more bricks to make it level, a window, two doors, put extra tin over the children's part, and he built some benches outside the house. We were quite impressed with the work he had done. He told us he gathered some neighbors to help so it cut down on labor and he didn't charge much. He was concerned about the children because they were actually sleeping in the animal pen. So after some negotiating we decided to add a small room on so the children could have a safe place to sleep. The young man said he would gather the children in the neighborhood to help make the bricks so they wouldn't have to buy them and he would build the room this week. 

I think the mother was overwhelmed with the generosity shown to her. The nurse with us said that she has never seen her look so good. She said her face was fuller and she had cleaned up the area, herself, and the children. The nurse said that the mother finally felt some hope in her life.

As we were leaving, we found out that the neighborhood children came in and stole her rice. We decided to give her some money so she could buy a little food each day and no one could steal it. Her daughter was so overjoyed that she kept hugging us. It was like she couldn't stop hugging us all the way to the car. It was so sweet how happy she was. 

I can't wait to see the house in the final stage. Even though I have the seen the place twice, I still cannot fathom living for five years without a roof. It is inhumane! We know that coming to Africa made a huge impact on this family!

Shanga Visit

Today we went to the New Life Band School again to teach about the projector. The guys have figured out how to get power to the classroom so we should be set.

We get everything ready. The generator is ready, projector is set up in the teachers lounge, and everyone is watching. We start the generator but it won't start. After a few minutes they figured out it was out of gas. They fill it up, start it, and then the projector won't turn on. After 30 minutes we discovered the bulb had broken during the trip so we replaced it. Now we try again, but the generator won't work again. After about two hours of trying to get everything to work, the conclusion is the generator is broken and they need to take it to town for some adjustments. So we scratch the projector lesson and decide to hand out flip flops.

We brought enough flip flops for every student to receive a pair. We organized all the flip flops according to their size outside in the yard. The students came by classes to pick out their pair. They were really excited to get a new pair of sandals. We had so many different colors it took them a long time to choose which pair they wanted.

We had to leave after the passing out of shoes because we had a reservation at Shanga for lunch. Shanga is a place that employs 55 handicap people. They may be deaf, blind, mute, or have a physical disability. They figure out what skills they do have and they put them to use.

This was the neatest place we visited. You would never have even known it was there because it was hidden down a little road. When you arrive you are greeted by some employees and brought down to the area they serve lunch. It was such a cute outdoor restaurant. It was designed like a tiki hut. Inside the tiki hut there were tables and they had ours ready all decorated up with beaded placemats, folded napkins, and fancy glasses. At first glance, I thought, we can't be in Africa right now. 

The lunch was wonderful! First, they served you some passion fruit juice in champagne glasses. Then we got pumpkin soup, which was delicious! After the soup, they brought out a vegetable samosa with a special white sauce. These were the best samosas ever! The main course was a buffet of salads with barbecue chicken and beef. Finally, they brought us a dessert which was really good because it was made with a chocolate topping. Everyone loved it. 

After we ate we went on a tour of the facility. Next to the restaurant was as a yard with lots of couches to sit on and lounge. It was so peaceful. I would love to have just sat out there and read a book. 

The main part reminded me  of Old Wisconin or Silver Dollar City. There was one area where they were recycling glass bottles using hot kilns. They were making beads, glassware, and stain glass windows. It was really interesting watching them work. Then they had a section for working with fabrics. They had some wooden machines ran by the workers that made blankets, tablecloths, placemats, and scarfs. There were about 10 sewing machines used to make outfits, purses, and table napkins. There was an area of bead work. They were making necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and keychains. Finally they were making mosaic candles holders out of small pieces of glass.

This is a non-profit organization. So all their income comes from the restaurant and the gift shop. There were so many things that I would have liked to have boughten. I bought a beautiful bracelet! 

This place started only five years ago and has grown every year. It is a beautiful place. It also won some awards for being one of the best places for visitors. You can tell they are very proud of what they are doing to help their community. 

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Visiting Nickson's Village

Friday 

Today we went to Nickson's village. His village is normally about an hour 1/2 away from Arusha, but they are resurfacing the road so there were many diversions. Which meant that you had to drive on the bumpy dirt road next to the main road. This made the trip four hours! AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH! It was not fun traveling.

We finally reached the village and we picked up Nickson's brother, Vincent. We checked into a place to stay for the night. Then we went shopping at Vincent's shop. He has a small shop that sells paintings, carvings, necklaces, and a few other items. As soon as all the people saw that were in Vincent's shop, they were lining up outside to try and get us to buy from them. They did not like that we were doing all our business with Vincent. We all bought something and even put in a large order for some items to sell back in the states.

The first thing we had to do was deliver a suitcase of medical supplies to a church. When we got there we found out the person was from America. She was just in Madison, WI making connections with some nurses and teachers there to connect in with the school she works at here in Africa. What a small world!

Then we went to visit Nickson's mom. It was so nice to finally meet her. His younger brother was also there. Vincent's little girl was there and she recognized Karen right away. It was so cute how she came running to the car and gave her a big hug! After some greetings and family photos, we began handing out some shoes, t-shirts, and pillowcase dresses. It didn't take long before all the neighbors heard we were there and they all came for clothes. Pretty soon there must have been 50 kids trying to get shoes and dresses. We gave out all we had. We also gave some soccer balls to Nickson's brother. He was really excited about them.

After that, we went to Vincent's house and met his wife and two year old daughter. He took us on a tour of his place. He had a nice two room place with an extra room for cooking. He moved there this past year and is planning on building a house for his mom next to his.

Finally back to our place for the evening. We had a nice dinner outside.

The next morning, we went to visit Vincent's church. This church is also a partner church with Hope To Others ( the organization we came with). Last year the Muslims came to the village and burned down their church and the pastor's house. So right now they are in a temporary building and they are in the process of building a new church. The have a two year bible program being offered through Joshua Nations that Vincent and his wife Sophia attend. Vincent is studying to become a pastor. We are so proud of the change we are seeing in Vincent. He is growing spiritually and prospering in his life. 

After we left the village, we had the long bumpy road back to Arusha. When we got back to Arusha, we had to attend a rotary club meeting. This is the first rotary club in Arusha and they are partnering with the rotary club in Sun Prairie. They are all hoping to partner together to have a medical clinic built at the New Life Band School site this year. The rotary club shared several stories with us of how the clinic would benefit their area. They are excited about anything that will help their community.

Most Adventurous Day!

Wednesday

Secondary Luthern School at Ngarenanyuki  Region

Today had to be the biggest adventure of my life! We went with the New Life Band to see them perform for a secondary school. 

We were picked up from our house at 9:30 by a dala dala. A dala dala is an inexpensive public transportation which has 21 seats and unlimited capacity. The African joke is "How many people fit in a dala dala? Nobody knows!" You fill it completely up and then add ten more. There is a driver and one person who hangs out the side yelling for people and then hits the top of the roof when the driver needs to stop which could be anywhere. The people know which one to ride because of the colored stripe on the side which represents the route or region it is going. There are hundreds of dala dalas driving crazily and wrecklessly through town as if they own the road. 
I will be honest that we actually had a private dala dala for all of us to get to town. So the people were looking at us funny because the dala dala was filled with white people. 

We all met at the New Life Band office and loaded up for the trip to the school. There were 13 of us stuffed into a van. One person was sitting on a stool in the middle and another one was just squeezed in between the seats. You would never fill a van like that in the states. We had no idea what the trip would be like. It took us 2 1/2 hours to reach the school. Two hours of the trip was driving around the mountain on an old cow path. It was like off-roading through the Australian outback. There were periodic washouts covered with rocks and boulders. It wasn't like we were driving carefully and slowly, it felt like we going as fast as a roller coaster. For those with car sickness, a continuous drip of Dramamine wouldn't even come close to helping. Along the way, we saw endless signs of poverty.

We saw corn being grown in every square feet of land available, brick huts half built, round water troughs for a village so they could bring their cattle, lots of homemade bricks drying, kids walking or waiting on the side of the road to go to school, donkeys carrying supplies, men with machetes cutting down the grass to carry back for their livestock. 

In the midst of all of this was some beautiful countryside. We stopped one time to take pictures of the valley. It was so beautiful with Mt. Meru in the background and streams running through the valley. It was a very plush area.

We finally arrived at the Lutheran Secondary School campus. It seemed to be a really nice campus in the middle of nowhere. James told us it was one of the best secondary schools around and it was obvious as soon as you pulled in. We found out that James was very good friends with the Headmaster/Principal. If someone wanted to come to Africa and experience life on a campus, this would be the place to go. They actually had a group of six students and two teachers visiting at the time from Germany.

On the campus, there were about a dozen buildings. An office, library/auditorium, 5 dorms, 2 shower houses, 12 classrooms, 4 staff houses, guest house, and a community room. They received most of their funding for the buildings from a sister school in Germany.

We were very impressed on how they used their natural resources. They had four ways of generating electricity. They had solar roofs on their classrooms, two windmills at the top of the hill, hydro-electric power from a small creek running through the property, and a generator for back up. During the day, they actually create more electricity than they need so they store it in batteries. It was amazing how they had all these systems running. 

For water, they had gutters on all the roofs to catch the rain during the rainy season. The water was stored in large 5,000-10,000 liter containers. The water collected was expected to last until the next rainy season. So they had to use it sparingly but they had enough. They would do their laundry in the creek and use the creek water for watering their crops.

After the tour of the campus, we were served a special lunch. They had decorated a room and had it catered for all the visitors.

Then it was time for the concert. We were impressed with the behavior of the students. They sat quietly for an hour and a half waiting for the band to set up their equipment. The concert was about two hours long. It was so fun because all the students were dancing and participating. Of course we joined in with them. One boy was showing me all the moves and interpreting the Swahilli songs. Pretty soon all his friends were laughing at him and watching him. He told me it was because no one has ever danced with a white girl. It was really funny!

When the concert was over, it was dark. To start our journey, we were getting in the van and the sliding door fell off, that created an interesting situation. The men did figure out how to get it on but we weren't sure if it was going to stay. Then the trip back down the mountain was quite the adventure. I was sitting in the front  seat and it was the scariest ride ever! It was like riding the scariest roller coaster in the dark that you can imagine. I actually had a death grip on the bar by the door. I had my seat belt on even though they never wear them here. I am pretty sure I screeched a few times as we went over bumps that looked like they were going to be drop offs. 

I have never been so relieved as we finally hit the paved road. However after about 10 minutes I noticed my seat was feeling really hot. I was joking with James, the driver, about having heated seats when all of sudden the motor stopped running. We pulled over and I found out the motor was under my seat and it was overheating. So they put some water in it and we were on our way. The problem was the car wouldn't go very fast, so were crawling along the road for about 20 minutes. All of sudden my seat was getting extremely hot and I told James there was smoke coming out of the seat. So we pulled over and everyone got out of the van.

This made an interesting situation. 13 white people piling out of their car at 9:30 at night. It was really dark because they have no street lights. As soon as we started to get out, all the village people started coming over. The children and young people swarmed us. They all wanted us to take their pictures. It was pretty funny how the children would pose and then laugh as we showed them their pictures.  Luckily, some of the men went to get us some water. A hose had come off and it took about 45 minutes to fix.

One big problem was after the long bumpy ride, we had to pee soooooo bad! I always said that I would not go on the side of the road but sometimes you just have to. So we hiked up into the bushes on the side of the road. The children knew what we were doing so they snuck up around us and started making wild animal noises. We didn't know it was the children so it scared us to death so we came out running. Everyone had a good laugh over that. Especially the children! Everyone was teasing that we should have recorded it and put it on u-tube....really I just want to forget it..He! It was a good thing we went because it was two hours before we actually made it home.

I do believe this had to be the biggest adventure of my life! You just never know what a day in Africa will bring.

Family Village Visits

Family Village Visits

I wish I could insert the pictures with today's post so you could truly see what we did today. 

I know that I will not come back to America the same after today. We had the most heart-wrenching experience that I could ever imagine. We drove about 30 minutes out of the city and  drove back into the bush to make some home visits. We bought 100 pounds of rice and sugar and divided it amoung the five families.

First we visited a family of four. The father was in a motorcycle crash one month earlier. He was crossing an intersection when a drunk driver hit him. Luckily he was wearing a helmet but his head hit the windshield and he had many stitches in his lip and chin. He broke his leg and hurt his wrist. He has been unable to work for the past month and therefore unable to feed his family. They were so grateful for the food we brought them. The rice should last the family until he can go back to work. We actually saw his motorcycle and the front was demolished.

The second family was an older lady who was taking care of a baby. Someone just left the baby with her and now she has to care of it. They live in a one room brick hut. The problem is the baby is sick a lot and the older lady has no way to get medicine. She walks around the village begging for any medicine for the baby. We brought them food, clothes and shoes for the baby, and toothbrushes. 

The third home was a lady who had aids. She had no family left. She also lived in a one room brick hut. She has no way of earning money so she was so grateful for the food and the company.

The fourth family was heartbreaking. This family had a son with a deformation of his right arm and right leg. As he has been growing, he is having a lot of seizures. They have no money for medical treatment. Along with this son, there were also 8 other children. They all lived in a two room brick hut. One room the parents slept in the other room all the children. They did not have beds, they all slept on the concrete floor. The room was about the size of my bathroom. I have no idea how they all fit into the room. We brought this family food, clothes,shoes, and toothbrushes.

The last family we visited got to all of us. We all left crying. The family consisted of the mother and 6-8 children. About five years ago the mother had a banana tree fall on her and hurt her back. She was basically paralyzed. She can move around some but not much. They live in a two room half built brick hut. They do not have a roof on their house. The kids sleep on a 3 x 5 makeshift hammock. Again, I have no idea how they all fit. The children's sleeping area did not have a roof but they had some plastic. They have no doors on their place. During the rainy season, they just sleep in the rain. Our hearts broke when we saw this place. We gave the family food, all the clothes we had in our car, all the shoes we had left, and then we all went through our backpacks and gave them all the snacks we had. We had about two gallon ziplock bags of granola bars, fruit snacks, and nuts. We decided to fix their roof before we leave Africa. 

As we drove out of the bush, we were completely silent. These visits were etched in our hearts forever. 

As we were doing our nightly devotion with the family and sharing about our day, we couldn't share without crying. There is so much poverty all around us here! It is overwhelming.

Monday Part Two

After we left the school, we went to visit an orphanage. The orphanage was about 30 minutes from town. We visited this orphanage six years ago. The first time we visited the orphanage it was very small with a large yard. They had no water and they were barely making it. I remember we brought them three goats and he said they would keep two, but eat one because they hadn't had any meat for six months. 

This time the place was unbelievable! The house had more than doubled. They now owned 5 goats, a cow, and many chickens. They had dug a well and had water running up to their house and out to the street for villagers to use. There were 3 water tanks on his land. There was also a huge playground built of wood in the backyard. He also had over 100 banana trees and a big garden. This orphanage took donations and multiplied them! They were becoming self-sufficient and not going under. 

There were 21 children in the orphanage. We brought them flip flops, 100 pounds of rice, and some money. They were so thankful. The kids sang us a song and then we prayed for them. It was an amazing way to end our evening.

Monday

Today we went to the New life Band school. We arrived around ten thirty and the students were on a break. The first thing we did was present all the books we had boughten on Friday. The teachers were so excited, you would have thought it was better than Christmas morning. Each teacher was grabbing the books of their subject area. Who knows the last time they had received any supplies. 

I showed the teachers how the solar MP3 players were going to work. I had recorded the book, A Wreath For Father Mayor, on eight players. We had students trying them out along with the teachers. They seemed to really like them. I noticed the English teacher was listening to it the whole time we were there. I wonder how long it will take before they get tired of hearing my voice...he! My hope and prayer is that they use them and it benefits their learning. 

Then it was time for class. The projector is still not working because they cannot get power to the wall outlet. So we just used the whiteboard. So we began with a short introduction and then handed out a class set of books. The students were so excited to have books. We began reading and started finding themes and characters. At first the students would not respond to any of my questions, sooooooooooo........I pulled out a package of Oreos. I told the class anyone willing to answer my question could have one. At first they were all talking to each other because I don't think they believed me. I kept repeating the question and finally someone answered. When I gave him the cookie the whole class was like....."aaaawwww!" That caught their attention. Everyone wanted a cookie! There was one boy in the back who kept sleeping so I told the class you cannot earn a cookie if you are sleeping and then the boy popped up. He stayed awake the rest of the class. I gave away three cookies and at the end a student asked if I would bring cookies again. I asked him if he would answer questions and he said, " Yes!Yes!" 

I ended up teaching for two and half hours straight. My throat was so sore I could hardly talk after that. At the school, there are only two classrooms completed and they are right next to each other. The ceiling is not done so there is no sound barrier between the two rooms. The other teacher was really loud and so I had to be really loud so they could hear me. I talked and read aloud the whole time. I felt bad for the students because it is really hard to concentrate on the teacher when you can hear the whole other lesson in the other room going on. But we did the best we could. The students stayed engaged the whole time. I have never taught that long and kept thinking the students needed a break but the teacher kept telling me to keep going.

At the end of the class, we gave each student a high five and told them "Nzuri sana!" (Very Good). We wanted to be really personal with them. One student stayed after to ask me some questions. His name was Bernard and he told me he wanted to be a pilot. His dream was to fly a plane all around the world and mostly to America. He spoke really good English and was very interested in reading. He had a list of words from the book today that he didn't know and he wanted me to tell him what they meant. He wrote down all the definitions. We talked about different ways I could help the students with reading the book. He had many good ideas. Then he seemed interested in reading so I pulled out some novels I had brought from my classroom. He asked if he could read one, I said of course! He asked me how long it would take one of my students to read it. I said probably two days. His eyes got big and I told him he could have it for longer until he finished it. He told me that he can read but it is hard to go fast. He was so sweet! He wanted to learn so bad. I just wanted to hand him the world but I couldn't. I hope and pray that he will be able to continue his education and become the pilot like he wants. But in my heart I know that is a VERY BIG dream here.

Another student, Lucy, really stands out in the class. She speaks very good English and she has many good comments and thoughts. I can always count on her if we get stuck because of the language barrier. She understands me very well even if I talk fast. She is very smart! I could see her being a doctor. She wants to be a counselor. I am not sure what kind or how that works here but she loves working with people. I just wanted to bring her back home!

At the end, a student asked me if I was tired from teaching. I said, "Very!" He laughed and said it was because I walked around so much I could have climbed the mountain. They  are not use to seeing the teacher walk all around the room. The teacher usually stands at the front board. If you know me, I never stand still! So I thought it was funny when he said that to me. Overall it was a really good day at the school and I can't wait to go back.

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