Matema Beach
Today is Sunday, the 22nd, and we are at the beach on vacation at a Resort in Matema, Tanzania. We woke up to the sound of the waves on the beach and an 8 piece band playing down the beach. The sun was just coming up over the mountains when I stepped out on the porch; the morning promising to be warm and inviting.
Janet and I left Wednesday evening around 7:30 to go to Kibidula. We stopped around 11:00 at the Lutheran Guest house in Makambaka for a few hours shut eye and got up Thursday morning at 4:00 and drove the rest of the way which was about 1 hour 15 minutes away. Jason and his family were up and getting things ready to go. We stayed and had breakfast and then we loaded up and left. It was about 6 hour drive, all on black top accept for about the first 30 minutes and the last hour and a half. We traveled through some very lush and green mountainous area that grew just about anything that you can grow in the area and abundance of it – various types of mangos, bananas, avocados, jack fruit and other things that I wasn’t familiar with. We bought a few things to take with us and kept on our way. The area was so beautiful. Yes, I have taken some pictures for later. Upon arriving around 4:30 Thursday in Matema I was awe struck with the area at the resort. It was like some of the pictures you see of resort areas. We had reserved a beach house that was about 50 yards from the water’s edge; nothing between but sand and a few small trees. They even went swimming Thursday night – I just took in the sight and enjoyed the fresh air and the view. (They even have sit down flush toilets); no hot water, the water piped into the beach house and the faucet outside comes from the lake which appears to be around 92 degrees. I took my swim after my worship and before breakfast Friday morning at around 7:30. Couldn’t believe I was swimming at 7:30 in the morning on November 20. Upon coming back to the beach house after my swim, Janet told me of a “bed partner” I had during the night that was found this morning. In a jar on the table in the beach house was a scorpion found on the blanket at the foot of my bed. Now we don’t know if he was up there all night or climbed up the mosquito netting this morning; but in any case I was thankful for the Lord’s protection sparing me from the sting of the scorpion. The sun is hot and some of us have received a little sunburn, but sunscreen is preventing anymore. Some of the foods we have brought and fixed, some we have brought and are having the kitchen here fix, and some food we are having the kitchen fix altogether. We have plenty of fresh fruit. We are eating mangos, bananas, plums, pineapple, avocados, and oranges. We have had spaghetti, potatoes, raman noodles, peanut butter and honey, bread and did I mention plenty of fresh fruit. We are really enjoying the time to get away and relax. I have been lying around a lot, just relaxing; I did swim quite a bit on Friday and will probably swim some today. We have had little rain everyday but today. Did I say how beautiful it is here?
Monday morning at 7:00 I went swimming and had an enjoyable time until I got water in my left ear. Later in the morning we canoed over to an area where we saw some colorful fish in amongst some rocks. They were beautiful. Janet, Jason and Antonette went snorkeling and saw more. I decided to wade in the shallow and see what I can see. I still had a slight earache and didn’t want to get any more water in my ear; but I enjoyed it just the same. We got back to the beach house and packed up to leave. We got to Kibidula at around 8:30 Monday night and Janet and I left for home the next morning. We stopped and ordered the big doors for one of our buildings and did a little other shopping and continued on our way. We arrived home at about 4:30. We went right down to the school sight to see what has been done while we were gone. The Mechanic/Carpentry building was about done being plastered – looking real good. We ordered the big doors and they should arrive next week. The kitchen/cafeteria building is about completed today (Wednesday) and Janet is trying to finalize on some things that needs to get done before we head home in about 3 weeks. The fundis believe that they can finish the plastering on all buildings before we leave. The timing is going real well so that by time they get done we will be leaving probably within a week. Janet is moving extra material left over into an area that can be locked up while we are gone. She is quite pleased with the work that has been done and that is getting done. She is smiling quite a bit lately. Maybe the vacation did her some good too!
Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing most of you. I would say all, but I know I don’t know all and won’t see all, so I am saying most of you. Can’t believe it is almost time to go. I am putting in small amounts of internet time on the computer so that I don’t have any left over when I leave. So I might do one more blog here and do more upon arriving home.
Goodbye for now from Mago…. AND HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Deniece
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Lord Came Through Again
I am sorry to all my avid readers that I haven’t written a blog lately. No real reason but I am going to give a couple . One is that I was waiting for Janet’s articles. I copied and tried to paste, come to find out she did it in Word 2007 and I have 2003 and could not convert the articles. So I asked her to cut and paste into an email and send it to me that way. Come to find out last night, she is having problems emailing and can’t do that either. So we will have to wait on that. Also it has been raining everyday and some days all day long. I charge my computer batteries but I Skype my sister who has been sick and use up all my battery for that. We used to have sunshine all day where I could charge my battery a couple times, but not much more. Yesterday was the first day in a month that it had not rained all day. It was beautiful, and I charged my battery twice. I am going to try and get me one of those extended batteries that last longer than one hour. Anyway that is my excuses for not writing, for whatever it is worth .
We have also been busy. The Mechanic/Carpentry shops are about done; doors needs to be installed, glass put in the windows, and the walls plastered. Cafeteria/Kitchen building also needs doors installed, glass in windows and walls plastered and it will be done. Of course, in both of these buildings, we need cabinets, benches/tables and shelves built, but the building themselves will be done. The 4-classroom building is going up; last of the bricks are being bought today. The ends of the building and the back of the building are up, the front of the building should be completed today and the walls dividing the classrooms are half way up and will be done this week also. Then all we have left in that building will be the doors, glass in windows and plastering the walls. The Lord is so good. We thought we would have to send the fundis home early for we did not have enough sand or bricks and the road is too bad for trucks to come down to the sight. The last truck got stuck and it took close to 5 hours just to get up the road. Then, Janet found some bricks she is hauling with her pick-up and about 6:30 the other night, 2 trucks of sand came and we unloaded it where we had some other sand sitting up on top of the property. We are expecting to more loads coming this week. It always amazes me how the Lord tests our faith in Him and He comes through when we need it most and just in time.
Sabbath evening, Nov 14 around 7:00, two of our Bible Workers – Delilah and Jamila, were on their way home and was passing on a trail next to our property. They came across a lady sitting on the ground, crying and saying she can’t get up. She said she was visiting her husband who was in jail. One of the girls stayed with her while the other came for help. After talking with Baraza, our translator he told me about it. Janet was busy with a carpenter who was measuring our windows so that he can make windows that will open and close. I went to her and told her. She got in her truck and went down to the end of the trail that the lady was sitting on. Upon arriving she looked at the ankle and it was quite swollen and she decided to take her to the hospital. The girl cried all the way there saying who is going to take care of her children while her husband was in jail (she has three children). Upon arriving at the hospital the doctor said they would x-ray the ankle in the morning. At the same time we had send a message to her family. Early the next morning the family came to find out more information and they thanked us very much and went on to the hospital to see the girl.
Well that’s it for now, signing off from Mago….
Deniece
I am sorry to all my avid readers that I haven’t written a blog lately. No real reason but I am going to give a couple . One is that I was waiting for Janet’s articles. I copied and tried to paste, come to find out she did it in Word 2007 and I have 2003 and could not convert the articles. So I asked her to cut and paste into an email and send it to me that way. Come to find out last night, she is having problems emailing and can’t do that either. So we will have to wait on that. Also it has been raining everyday and some days all day long. I charge my computer batteries but I Skype my sister who has been sick and use up all my battery for that. We used to have sunshine all day where I could charge my battery a couple times, but not much more. Yesterday was the first day in a month that it had not rained all day. It was beautiful, and I charged my battery twice. I am going to try and get me one of those extended batteries that last longer than one hour. Anyway that is my excuses for not writing, for whatever it is worth .
We have also been busy. The Mechanic/Carpentry shops are about done; doors needs to be installed, glass put in the windows, and the walls plastered. Cafeteria/Kitchen building also needs doors installed, glass in windows and walls plastered and it will be done. Of course, in both of these buildings, we need cabinets, benches/tables and shelves built, but the building themselves will be done. The 4-classroom building is going up; last of the bricks are being bought today. The ends of the building and the back of the building are up, the front of the building should be completed today and the walls dividing the classrooms are half way up and will be done this week also. Then all we have left in that building will be the doors, glass in windows and plastering the walls. The Lord is so good. We thought we would have to send the fundis home early for we did not have enough sand or bricks and the road is too bad for trucks to come down to the sight. The last truck got stuck and it took close to 5 hours just to get up the road. Then, Janet found some bricks she is hauling with her pick-up and about 6:30 the other night, 2 trucks of sand came and we unloaded it where we had some other sand sitting up on top of the property. We are expecting to more loads coming this week. It always amazes me how the Lord tests our faith in Him and He comes through when we need it most and just in time.
Sabbath evening, Nov 14 around 7:00, two of our Bible Workers – Delilah and Jamila, were on their way home and was passing on a trail next to our property. They came across a lady sitting on the ground, crying and saying she can’t get up. She said she was visiting her husband who was in jail. One of the girls stayed with her while the other came for help. After talking with Baraza, our translator he told me about it. Janet was busy with a carpenter who was measuring our windows so that he can make windows that will open and close. I went to her and told her. She got in her truck and went down to the end of the trail that the lady was sitting on. Upon arriving she looked at the ankle and it was quite swollen and she decided to take her to the hospital. The girl cried all the way there saying who is going to take care of her children while her husband was in jail (she has three children). Upon arriving at the hospital the doctor said they would x-ray the ankle in the morning. At the same time we had send a message to her family. Early the next morning the family came to find out more information and they thanked us very much and went on to the hospital to see the girl.
Well that’s it for now, signing off from Mago….
Deniece
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Fire Again!
(Written on 10-30-09)
Tuesday morning started out like any other morning – and Janet and I were getting things ready for laying out two more buildings – a house and a dormitory. We were heading for the truck so we could go get material when one of our fundis, up on the roof of our mechanic classroom saw fire and told us about it. We decided to go have a look and ran into Baraza (our interpreter) who was coming to get us. He told us the other boys had already gone and that the fire was quite close. Janet went back to the job site and collected the fundis. Upon arriving we could see that in reality the fire was about a quarter mile away from our property; a lot closer than the other fire we fought a few weeks back. Anyway, while walking up we passed a young lady carrying a baby on her back; she just stood there looking guilty as we walked by – holding head down and just barely looking up at you. I wondered if she had anything to do with the fire. Come to find out she was burning her field when the high wind blew it out of control. Last year this area burned and the village people milled the good wood off of it. Upon doing this they left piles of slab wood just waiting to catch afire. That is exactly what happened. Well, we fought for about 2-3 hours and finally beat it. There were a total of about 50 people all working together for one cause – get the fire out. We had about 30 of our group there and the rest were village people. The Lord blessed and no one got hurt and no houses were damaged.
Janet and I was able to lay out the perimeter walls on our 4th and 5th buildings yesterday (Wednesday). Things are moving fast and we have a lot to do before coming home in December. The fundis are getting the first building ready for roofing sheets that should be coming next week. They will also start plastering some of the walls. They are currently living in a “canvas” garage that Janet had, but when it rains it comes in and gets them wet. Once the roof is on the first building and the walls are plastered, they will move into there to give them more room and also to be out of the elements. Rain has started early this year. Although, we don’t get it everyday, we do get rain that will soak you to the bone if you are out working in it (which I have ). The first step of our Gazebo is completed and it looks nice – we are hoping that the kids will be able to use it on Sabbath, but it still has to cure some more. We’ll see…..
Oh, Janet wanted me to ask for recipes. The foods that we eat are: potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, wheat flour, white flour, corn meal flour, beans, rice, spaghetti, and greens. They fix them, and they are good but it is the same ol’ same ol’, if you know what I mean. We get tired of it for one but also we want to hold cooking classes and would like to teach them various other ways to prepare these foods. Do not send the recipes here. Once we get back to the states I will put in another request and tell you where to send them. I repeat, do not send them now. I would greatly appreciate it and thanks for your help.
I had other things to write about but Janet told me she would write on the items and I could use it for a blog entry. WHOO! WHOO! But as of yet I have not received them and I am writing the rest of this blog on 11-2. I know it will come because it will be a couple articles for EVI’s Faith Venture magazine; so I should get it soon.
Jason, Bill and Eric are here from Kibidula until Thursday helping us. We received roofing sheets, One-Day-Church parts and have been busy putting these things up. I sure do wish I can send pictures with me blog. With Jason here I will ask him. I believe I may know how I can with out it taking all my time up. Anyway, things are really looking good down there. The 2” pipe is here also for our water system, but that is on hold until at least Jason and the others leave. We want to use them on the buildings as much as possible.
A side note. I have been invited to join Janet and her family to go to the lake (Matemba, I believe) on vacation for a few days before we come home. When, I am not sure, but I think it will be soon. I am looking forward to seeing a place that is new.
This is goodbye from Mago….
Deniece
(Written on 10-30-09)
Tuesday morning started out like any other morning – and Janet and I were getting things ready for laying out two more buildings – a house and a dormitory. We were heading for the truck so we could go get material when one of our fundis, up on the roof of our mechanic classroom saw fire and told us about it. We decided to go have a look and ran into Baraza (our interpreter) who was coming to get us. He told us the other boys had already gone and that the fire was quite close. Janet went back to the job site and collected the fundis. Upon arriving we could see that in reality the fire was about a quarter mile away from our property; a lot closer than the other fire we fought a few weeks back. Anyway, while walking up we passed a young lady carrying a baby on her back; she just stood there looking guilty as we walked by – holding head down and just barely looking up at you. I wondered if she had anything to do with the fire. Come to find out she was burning her field when the high wind blew it out of control. Last year this area burned and the village people milled the good wood off of it. Upon doing this they left piles of slab wood just waiting to catch afire. That is exactly what happened. Well, we fought for about 2-3 hours and finally beat it. There were a total of about 50 people all working together for one cause – get the fire out. We had about 30 of our group there and the rest were village people. The Lord blessed and no one got hurt and no houses were damaged.
Janet and I was able to lay out the perimeter walls on our 4th and 5th buildings yesterday (Wednesday). Things are moving fast and we have a lot to do before coming home in December. The fundis are getting the first building ready for roofing sheets that should be coming next week. They will also start plastering some of the walls. They are currently living in a “canvas” garage that Janet had, but when it rains it comes in and gets them wet. Once the roof is on the first building and the walls are plastered, they will move into there to give them more room and also to be out of the elements. Rain has started early this year. Although, we don’t get it everyday, we do get rain that will soak you to the bone if you are out working in it (which I have ). The first step of our Gazebo is completed and it looks nice – we are hoping that the kids will be able to use it on Sabbath, but it still has to cure some more. We’ll see…..
Oh, Janet wanted me to ask for recipes. The foods that we eat are: potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, wheat flour, white flour, corn meal flour, beans, rice, spaghetti, and greens. They fix them, and they are good but it is the same ol’ same ol’, if you know what I mean. We get tired of it for one but also we want to hold cooking classes and would like to teach them various other ways to prepare these foods. Do not send the recipes here. Once we get back to the states I will put in another request and tell you where to send them. I repeat, do not send them now. I would greatly appreciate it and thanks for your help.
I had other things to write about but Janet told me she would write on the items and I could use it for a blog entry. WHOO! WHOO! But as of yet I have not received them and I am writing the rest of this blog on 11-2. I know it will come because it will be a couple articles for EVI’s Faith Venture magazine; so I should get it soon.
Jason, Bill and Eric are here from Kibidula until Thursday helping us. We received roofing sheets, One-Day-Church parts and have been busy putting these things up. I sure do wish I can send pictures with me blog. With Jason here I will ask him. I believe I may know how I can with out it taking all my time up. Anyway, things are really looking good down there. The 2” pipe is here also for our water system, but that is on hold until at least Jason and the others leave. We want to use them on the buildings as much as possible.
A side note. I have been invited to join Janet and her family to go to the lake (Matemba, I believe) on vacation for a few days before we come home. When, I am not sure, but I think it will be soon. I am looking forward to seeing a place that is new.
This is goodbye from Mago….
Deniece
Monday, November 2, 2009
Roofing Sheets Are Coming!
(Written Tuesday 10-27)
Janet called Jason last night to ask him some questions and we were told that the roofing sheets were done and that Ezekiel will be going to get them today sometime. Janet was excited that they were done a couple days earlier than expected. So this means, if all goes well, that they should be here this week or next at the latest. Our 2” pipe should be coming too. With the roofing sheets installed we can plaster the inside walls of our first building. Then all we will have left is windows and doors. And we should also have the material for the other two buildings so that the walls can go up on them. The fundis will be real busy once the roofing material arrives.
The floor did not get poured yesterday like anticipated on our third building, but it did today; it was really busy down at the sight. The cement mixer was going almost non-stop (unless they stopped to eat or fill tank up with gas) and we were all making sure they had all that they needed to complete the job. It was pretty neat to see how they get the job done, even though I have seen it three times now. I took some pictures of the progress and will have them available at a later time.
Yesterday we dug a ditch at the side of the house that our drain pipe will lay that comes from our septic tank. It is not quite done but when the ditch is it will be about 6 feet deep and 1 1/2 feet wide. We will have gravel, the pipe and more gravel and then the dirt on top of it. We have two men we have hired to make gravel. We have paid for the rocks on property next to ours and they go and using pick and shovel dig out the rocks and then with a hammer they break the rocks into gravel. They have quite a few piles that we will use at our construction site and where ever we need gravel and this is quite handy so we don’t have to pay to haul it to our place from some other town.
Sabbath, I was going down to fill up my water bottle when I head the snap, crackle and pop of fire. I looked and saw flames taller than me and I ran back and got Baraza and we went to investigate. It looked like it was on our property but I wasn’t sure. Janet was resting and until we knew for sure I didn’t want to bother her. Well, when we got down to where the fire was, it was on the property next to ours. Baraza went down and talked with them to make sure it was totally under control. Later on we had nature video that we showed the people after Sabbath. Janet was on her way to church and heard another fire. This was a little farther up from the other, but sending Baraza up he investigated and found out that it was quite a ways from our property. Once you have been close to having fire near you, you seem to be more aware of them around you. It appears that we are the only ones with a forest on our property and we don’t want to lose them. We have fire breaks all around our property and Janet says next year we will make it twice as wide just to protect our property from everyone’s fires that they start each year at this time.
Well that is it for today, bye for now from Mago…
Deniece
(Written Tuesday 10-27)
Janet called Jason last night to ask him some questions and we were told that the roofing sheets were done and that Ezekiel will be going to get them today sometime. Janet was excited that they were done a couple days earlier than expected. So this means, if all goes well, that they should be here this week or next at the latest. Our 2” pipe should be coming too. With the roofing sheets installed we can plaster the inside walls of our first building. Then all we will have left is windows and doors. And we should also have the material for the other two buildings so that the walls can go up on them. The fundis will be real busy once the roofing material arrives.
The floor did not get poured yesterday like anticipated on our third building, but it did today; it was really busy down at the sight. The cement mixer was going almost non-stop (unless they stopped to eat or fill tank up with gas) and we were all making sure they had all that they needed to complete the job. It was pretty neat to see how they get the job done, even though I have seen it three times now. I took some pictures of the progress and will have them available at a later time.
Yesterday we dug a ditch at the side of the house that our drain pipe will lay that comes from our septic tank. It is not quite done but when the ditch is it will be about 6 feet deep and 1 1/2 feet wide. We will have gravel, the pipe and more gravel and then the dirt on top of it. We have two men we have hired to make gravel. We have paid for the rocks on property next to ours and they go and using pick and shovel dig out the rocks and then with a hammer they break the rocks into gravel. They have quite a few piles that we will use at our construction site and where ever we need gravel and this is quite handy so we don’t have to pay to haul it to our place from some other town.
Sabbath, I was going down to fill up my water bottle when I head the snap, crackle and pop of fire. I looked and saw flames taller than me and I ran back and got Baraza and we went to investigate. It looked like it was on our property but I wasn’t sure. Janet was resting and until we knew for sure I didn’t want to bother her. Well, when we got down to where the fire was, it was on the property next to ours. Baraza went down and talked with them to make sure it was totally under control. Later on we had nature video that we showed the people after Sabbath. Janet was on her way to church and heard another fire. This was a little farther up from the other, but sending Baraza up he investigated and found out that it was quite a ways from our property. Once you have been close to having fire near you, you seem to be more aware of them around you. It appears that we are the only ones with a forest on our property and we don’t want to lose them. We have fire breaks all around our property and Janet says next year we will make it twice as wide just to protect our property from everyone’s fires that they start each year at this time.
Well that is it for today, bye for now from Mago…
Deniece
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