Rainy season, part 2, commences

The other night, Liz and I decided to try and beat the rain (though it had already started falling) and found ourselves on a dirt road that was slipperier than we could have even thought possible. She was a great sport as we slipped and slid our way along the 4 kilometer dirt road until we reached pavement. Drenched, but happy to be home, we agreed that it had been a learning experience that taught us to rely on the truck a bit more during these coming months of rain.

An interesting past couple of weeks...

In the last 10 days, three of the five of us were brought down with malaria. Mark and Pam and Liz must be sweet meat. Eric and I were the lucky ones this go round. While they were in bed, Eric was managing construction and I was with the soloists for the final recording before the Angel House Choir CD was mixed and mastered. If there's one thing to be said about living and working here, it's that it is NEVER boring.
Holly

Mark laid up in the hospital being treated for malaria.

The Angel House choir's recordings being mixed in the studio.

Angel House chicken coop

Angel House is about to be in business! Our goal as a project is eventually to be as self-sustained as possible, and we'll be starting rather shortly with chickens, thanks to some generous donations and some hard work by Mark and Marwa. I look forward to watching Richard research and start the business this fall, and am excited at the possibilities it brings, such as the people of Tarime starting to support Angel House more and more.

Coop is set out at the corner of the fenced area next to the shambaBahati helping Marwa and Mark inspect their hard work

Bibi Comes to Visit

“Family chronicles also trace our roots and shoots, our tribes and our allegiances. We research them and hang them in our living room. But do we see the purposefulness of God that ties parent to child over the centuries? Our surname is precious. Our given name is more precious still.” (The Wesley Study Bible, p. 493)

On February 15th, Eric blogged (on our personal blog) about our adventure of driving to the village of Weig’ita to bring Chacha Yusuf to Angel House. Eric wrote about how emotionally trying the day was because we were so excited, only to soon realize how sad it was for the family. The family, particularly the bibi and babu, knew that Chacha was the only family they had left from their second son. Chacha was to carry on the family name and Angel House was his only hope. Today, I saw Chacha frantically running around the house getting a bath and finding the best clothing he had. He put on a collared shirt and pants and even shoes! His bibi had come to visit him. She had walked all the way from her village to greet him and see how he was doing. Tears streamed down hers and his face as they sat and ate mendazi and drank chai together. She asked how he was and wanted to know all about the school he was attending and what he enjoyed doing.

This visit gave me mixed emotions as I was so excited for Chacha because he did not know if he would ever see her again, and yet at the same time, I thought of the children we have that have no family to come and visit them. Some of them cannot tell you who they have as a living relative. Derrick did not have a last name for many months when he first came because no one knew who his father was, we still do not know.

It is hard for me to think of not having family as I have a large one that I miss and love so much. I can tell you how far back my maiden name can be traced and that they were from Scotland. (My family does have a picture of Scotland hanging in someone’s house.) My maiden name is still very dear to me and defines so much of who I used to be and how I was formed into the person I am now. However, my definition of family continues to grow. I know that I will forever have at least fifty children, three missionaries, and ten staff members that I call my “family” and that it grows as we bring more in.

Angel House and the sponsors in America are the only family many of our children have. If you are a sponsor, I encourage you to write letters, send pictures, send gifts, or something so that they know someone out there is thinking about them and caring for them. These are the things that they decorate their beds with every morning and love to show people who visit, such as missionaries. They will say, “Can I show you pictures of my family?” What they really mean is that they want to show pictures of you. Family, whether born into or grown into, is important. We are learning that, help the many Angels that are now our family realize how big their family really is.

With His Love,
Liz Soard

a faithful beginning to our administration

"I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built." - Jesus, in Luke 6:47-48

painting the floors, starting another foundation

Ghana and Rahabu having a look at the foundation of the administration block being built.

Spreading the last of the cement, mixing and painting the floor.

They say the paint lasts forever if you mix it in with the cement as you're making the floor.

Stone by stone...

Measuring for the foundation of the office

our new sewing machine!

thanks to some lovely ohio ladies, we have a new sewing machine. pictured here is christina, a woman in anna's womens group who sews well. we have hired her to come out on saturdays and teach the older girls how to sew. thank you for a gift that will be used many, many times over.

gettin' kasuka-ed

Each week for the past several months since they've started attending St. Jude's, who lets students grow their hair long, six girls have made their way to the beauty salon on Sunday afternoon to braid their hair for the following week. The salon experience is very symbolic of the African culture in general. A few examples:

1. Waiting is not a big deal...this week there were 9 of us getting our hair done by two gals, and several people that came in after us just sat down and joined the conversation, not minding the fact that they might be there for hours. People here really, really know how to wait, in a way that Americans would never dream of being okay with.

2. Small things are social events....with a hard life comes more exuberant celebration over even the smallest of things. Being in the salon is a social gathering and an event to be enjoyed, and being here in Tanzania has taught (is still teaching, rather) me to be aware of how to find the joy in even the smallest details of the day.

3. The world is a family....the African proverb that says that it takes a village to raise a child is so true in every facet of life here. All the women that came in after us took up combs to help remove the previous braids from our girls' hair, not because they thought it would make the process go faster so the ladies would get to them more quickly, but simply because they wanted to help. One lady who came in to get her own hair braided ended up braiding Angel's hair, while our Rhobi took care of entertaining her two young sons outside the shop, and left before she even braided her own. Africans really truly know how to take care of each other, in birth, death, and everyday living. Another reason I love living here.

big-fros-are-us: Amina, Grace, and Rosie before braiding a family event, featuring angel and rhobi

nossi's first braid

afterwards: nossi and angel

AH Finance Committee

Bhoke Mwita and Peter Michael, along with a third secondary student that is rotated in weekly, are the financial administrators of the Angel House monthly budget. Bhoke graduated high school last year and is working as a staff member at Angel House, and is interested in studying business in the future. Peter Michael was elected by the rest of the children to help Bhoke and I make envelopes for each of the budget items, do the monthly and weekly shopping, and discuss how the budget needs to be adjusted from time to time. I am so proud of them and the responsibility they are handling so well on behalf of the whole house.

Tough girls

You have to be a real trooper to survive here. Bucket showers with cold and not all that clear water, dusty roads, and a first glimpse of the stark reality of how some Tanzanians live make for quite a culture shock, but the gals are doing great. Leading songs, dancing with the youth choir, holding babies, practicing English with the older students, and looking to find Jesus in each place we go...we're thankful for their ability to endure the tough stuff in order to attain the beauty that resides here as well.

Raegan and Winnie

Carol helping ChaCha and Derick make necklaces

Regan showing Grace, Sammy, and Winnie how to thread a needle

Nossi and Winnie's future school

Last Thursday I asked Nossi and Winnie if they wanted to see the school we were building for them, so we took a little roadtrip, just outside the fence near our house. They were pretty excited to be a part of the contruction project for a little while, and very happy to have their future school so near to their house.

Headed out to the site

Brick piles seem pretty tall when you're five

Their reaction to hearing that this will someday be THEIR school

Walls coming up on Angel House Secondary

A look in through a future window

Security, double-fold

Not only does Angel House have a new fence around all the buildings on the property to boast of, but as an added reminder last Friday, God showed us that He is with us always...nothing beats a double rainbow as a promise of His presence.

Derrick's hot pants and cool shoes

This one's for you, Eric and Liz...just wanted you to see that he's actually dressed like a boy today, minus the candy-cane striped pants. Decided he'd like to try on my shoes and socks during choir practice...kept himself entertained for at least an hour...thought you could use a refresher on the award-winning smile.

Look who's driving!

Yes, Miss Anna Migera ChaCha put herself through a course of driving lessons with a local taxi driver to learn how to drive a car, and has graduated on up to the orphanage truck (which is no easy task to have accomplished...). She might be one of the only other two women besides Liz and I that I have seen driving in Tarime; one more example of how strong and determined she is. Up this week...getting her a driver's license so she's actually driving legally.

Salome and her kitty

Pickles the cat has been living at the volunteer house since her owners returned to America for a year last August; our friends David and Nicole, Baptist missionaries also new to town, asked us to babysit her until they returned from home leave this coming August. When it's just me here in town, I don't spend enough time at the volunteer house to be very good company, so yesterday I made the kids day by bringing Pickles out to live at Gamasara with us. She's still adjusting to life with 50 children, as you might imagine, but slept with Salome last night who is VERY excited to have the honor of taking care of her and letting her sleep in her room. Who knows, on one of these trips to pick up volunteers in Nairobi, I might just have to come back with a dog, too.

the Litungu dance

Salome and Sammy at work

A yard full of fun

Yes, even I tried...white men can't dance...comparatively speaking

Our supervisor Anna, and her best friend Marwa

Grace Wilfred and Bahati Wangwe in Kurian traditional outfits

One day when Eric, Liz, and I were conducting a business trip to investigate the Crown Paint factory and Zingira Fence Supply in Nairobi, we found ourselves checking out a local cultural attraction I have heard about for years called Bomas of Kenya. People representing most of the tribes in Kenya have come together to form a historical and cultural show for both tourists and locals alike, highly visited by school children as a fieldtrip destination. The different tribes here in Africa all have unique characteristics and traditions, and blend together beautifully into a nation rich with heritage. Our attending the cultural dance made me year to know more about the Kuria tribe that we work among in Tarime. And this past week, we got to experience just a bit of that. Our farm supervisor and day guard, Mwita, prior to working for Angel House, was part of a group of almost 20 Kurian people who travel to various places to peform the traditional Kuria dances. The children of Angel House dressed up in traditional attire and joined in the dancing and fun. The dance itself is a mixture of three parts...feet taking turns jumping, arms held at a 90-degree angle swinging back and forth, and neck moving dramatically up and down. It was quite a sight to behold...staff, children, villagers, and mzungus alike, all sharing in a rich history that goes back hundreds of years...participating in rain and harvest dances, learning, and laughing together. The most amazing part to me is just how very big our Creator is...that He could fashion such difference and beauty among the people of this world; it continues to fascinate me.

Salome, the resident tomboy

She is a beauty and can dance like there's no tomorrow, but she'd rather be playing in the mud than anything else...what's not to like about that?

The Gift of Water

Water is never in abundance here in Tarime. There are many mornings that we have to use the rain water collected outside to bathe with and Katherine uses that water to wash our clothes. There are people that walk over a kilometer to fetch water for their homes. They use the minimum amount of water to bathe, cook, drink, and wash their clothes. However, Eric and I drink an average of 12 bottles of 1.5 liters of water each week. That is 18 liters of drinking water alone. At The Angel House, each child is required to carry 3-5 buckets of water each day in order to have enough for the kitchen, each bathroom, and some to boil for drinking. It usually takes them about an hour to all fetch water and fill the buckets in the house.

A few things that we have been able to change in the last month have greatly helped the house keep water in the buckets and allow us to decrease the labor on the kids. Mwita, our day guard and shamba man, attached a bucket to a plastic hose and ran it into the living area. There are two buckets on the left side and two buckets on the right side that now collect all the rain water rolling off of the roof. To give you an idea of how much rain…each bucket holds 210 liters. The rain water is safer for the kids to drink and it is cleaner even after we boil the water from the current well. When it down pours, which is every other day or so, the kids all run to their rooms to grab buckets and it becomes an assembly line in the living room. The kids are able to collect enough water there for their bathrooms and the kitchen. Those are happy days because they can spend more time playing!

The most exciting thing this month is the drilling and installation of the new well. The new well will have a hand pump and it is right in front of the house. The kids do not have to walk more than 20 feet to get water. Preliminary tests have shown that the water is clean enough to drink without having to boil it. Also, the new well will have enough water to provide for over 250 families.

We have been very blessed to have these opportunities to improve the lives of so many people. Water is a gift and is taken advantage of in so many cultures, including our own. Our children now have water accessible to them in their front yard as well as their own living area.

In Christ,
Liz E. Soard

Things i (Eric) Can’t do that I Can Do

I think we often forget that the times when we reach the end of our own abilities is when God steps in. I often wonder when I take some time to read through the Old Testament if David or Gideon or any of the other successful kings and judges were really gifted generals and leaders or if they just have more faith than the rest of us. Did they know what to do in each specific situation that they stumbled into or did they just have God so much at the front of their minds and lives that they followed him wherever they went.

If they can do it what is stopping me? For a while I thought that I just wasn’t as faithful, or maybe that kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore. It took me a while to realize that in actuality I was not living my life outside of my own abilities, I was holding back. I was too worried to step out on a path too difficult for me to finish myself. Now there were times when I chose to follow God’s way of doing things instead of my own even in the easy part of my life and it turned out well, but for the most part I tried to stick to stuff I could do myself so that I could do it my way. I am now in a place in my life where I can’t do it myself anymore.

I am about to embark on the adventure of building a school for the children of Angel House and surrounding community. We will start with the foundation, move on to the walls, roof, doors and windows, and eventually finish up with the plaster (inside and out). The process reminds me so much of what guiding the growth of kids at Angel House can be like. We hope to lay the foundation of God, add the protection of walls and a roof through good living and education, and pray that in the end they chose to put on the finishing touches of plaster in a way that honors God. In both of these processes other people will be there to help and even be in charge of different parts, but I know that the parts I will be responsible for will not be within my normal capabilities.

I will have to be able to focus on God throughout this project so that when I lose my way I just have to follow his path, the one laid out for me through experience, faith, and the wisdom given through his word. I have a feeling that if I asked those kings and judges of old they would say the same thing. Look toward God and he will provide what is needed, do his will and he will not leave your side. We know that God is faithful and my prayer is that I can be as well. How is your faith and what are you willing to do in the near future that requires you to trust in God more than yourself?

little miss Winnie

Winifrida William was terrified of us the first day she came to Angel House. I'm not sure what they told her about white people in the village she came from, but I mean literally terrified. Screaming and crying when any of the three of us would come near, hiding behind the staff or under the table...and these days all of that couldn't be further from the truth. She is a lovebug, hanging on my arm everywhere I go, asking to be held, lovingly gazing at me with a big smile on her face.

She actually has a mother that is still alive, but she has what I'm assuming is severe diabetes...they called it sugar cancer...so seriously that she has lost all sensation in her fingers, has no teeth, and can't move around well enough to take care of a growing child. So last month Winnie came to live with us. She's a spitting image of Nossi, who used to be our youngest, in the craving attention category.

She started into school when she came, and is studying in Nursery class, which is the equivalent to Kindergarten. But...she is the teacher really, because lately she has taught me an important thing or two about going through life. Wherever we go, she wants to be holding my hand. Which is great, but she walks really slow. I'm constantly reminding myself that I have no reason to really be in a hurry, but after years of feeling a bit hurried, I can't help it. There are times when I have wanted to just have my own hand back to itself, because the walking will be a bit easier. But I'm reminded that people are placed in our lives to teach us something or another, and with her, I feel blessed to have a continual reminder that, though life can seem less complicated if you're doing it independently, it is actually more enjoyable in the long run to go through whatever comes on the path with someone else. Who would have thought a 5 year old could teach a 29 year old a thing or two about sharing?

A big thanks to Rho Kappa Sorority & Amy Weber for choosing to be her sponsor; your giving will send her to school at St. Jude English Medium School's Kindergarten class this year.

3rd grade's day out

Only here, can you say you're going into town to study, and all age levels of children will want to come. 3rd graders have been working hard on English and Math lately when they're off school, so Wednesday they got a trip into town to have a lesson at the volunteer house, and enjoy a soda afterwards...happy campers were they.


Siza

Angel and Bahati
ChuChu

Salome enjoying Pickles after class

,

faces too precious not to share...

nyanokwe sweet grace

chacha yusuf
angel