Elephants!

We've been back from Nairobi a week as of today but I guess I want to stay in that moment because it always feels nicer to be on vacation and away from the realities of home.

When we were at the MK Father's House those last few days last week we were so fortunate to meet up again with Fr. Mike Basanno. You might remember Mike from last year's camping trip. He was working at a home for abandoned and disabled people but recently he moved to South Sudan to continue his ministry there. Mike was in Nairobi last week to secure some of his visa paperwork and we couldn't believe our luck at being able to catch up again!


This guy's only a few months old.

Mike talked us into taking some time out of our retreat to see the beauty of the area and what a great idea it was! We went to see BABY ELEPHANTS! How much cooler can you get than that? He had visited the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust once before and said it was not to be missed. As always, Mike was right. Check out these little cuties!






Yep, that's sunscreen on his baby elephant ears. The African sun is too harsh for even these guys!

This place was great. Located on the outskirts of the wildlife park bordering Nairobi, they rescue abandoned or hurt baby elephants, up to 4 years of age, who are found in the park. Some of their mothers have been killed by poachers, some have fallen into wells, others are dying from lack of water. They bring them into their orphanage, nurse them back to health, and then reintroduce them into the wild. They allow visitors only for 1 hour a day because they don't want the elephants to get used to human interaction.


They were pretty aggressive, even for babies. They eat every 3 hours and are fed plant based human baby food formula.


After eating they liked to roll around in the mud. It was very messy and quite rough.


A few of them approached us so we could pet them. Of course, they were covered in mud, so we got all sticky. But it was still cool!

It was a great way to spend the morning and if we had the money, I'd have totally fostered one of these guys. If you've got an extra 50 bucks, you might think about doing it. Or, when you come visit us in TZ we could all take a trip to Nairobi and go together to see them. Totally worth it!

Something Silly About Me

Something I've learned about myself since I've been living out of the US. I love decorations. I never really thought much about this when I was living in the states. And, I've always been a "less is more" kind of person, so I've kept things pretty minimal. But I guess because decorations are everywhere in the US and I tend to protest when they put things up too early, it's just something I didn't really notice about myself. But when I got to Tanzania, where so many of "our" holidays aren't celebrated, I realized how important it is to me to mark the time of year by putting up a few decorations.

So that's how I found myself skipping around the house this afternoon when we go these little guys in a package from my grandmom.*



Last year my friend Melissa sent me these happy fellows:



But I think they arrived after the holiday. I put them up anyway but I've been looking forward to putting them up this year BEFORE Halloween. It's silly, but when I was in Nairobi and not sure when I would return, I kept thinking in the back of my head, "OH NO! What if I'm gone all month and I can't put up my jack-o-lanterns?" What a dork!


*Decorations aren't the only cool things we got today. We got 2 packages today! What a great day! Thanks Erica and Fuzzy and thanks Grandmom and Grandad.  Have I told you how lucky we are?

Time Out

The lay missioner who was in the hospital in Nairobi has been released and flew to the states earlier this week, so Chris and I are taking a few days' retreat at the MK Father's house on the outskirts of Nairobi city before we head back to the craziness of our life in TZ.

The entrance to the Nairobi house

The grounds are beautiful and are a peaceful place to rest, think and pray.

This is a really appropriate week for us to be on a retreat, since this Sunday is World Mission Sunday, a day set aside by the Catholic Church to pray for worldwide missions. It's great for me and Chris to experience the peace and quiet at this center and to celebrate and spend time with some of the MK Fathers who have been missioners for many decades. Their wisdom and experience is really helpful to us "newbies."

Please take this week to think about and pray especially for all of those people across the globe who are living witnesses to the peace and justice of Christ, whether they are in some foreign country abroad, or they are living in your community or in your own home.

An Unexected Journey

Chris and I have been staying in a Catholic hostel while we're in Nairobi. It's the same place we stayed in a few months ago when we were last here. There's a guy staying here, who was also here back in July, who looks just like a Hobbit. He's got a very Bilbo Baggins-esque look about him. Short stature, longish curly white hair, big belly. He even wears clothes that I could see Bilbo or older Frodo wearing. Chris and I recognized him from last time we were here and we called him the Hobbit even then. We'd make jokes if he came in late for dinner and there wasn't a lot of food, saying something about how he'll be hungry even before Elevensies.

NO LIE! Today I noticed that he is missing the ring finger on his left hand. You know what I'm Tolkien about?

International Day of the Girl Child

Today, October 11, is the International Day of the Girl Child. Instead of highlighting any of the uncountable stories of girls facing insurmountable odds or being subject to unfathomable cruelty, I decided I wanted to celebrate three amazing young women who I am so proud of and who encapsulate the beauty, intellect and potential of the next generation of women.


My niece Lilly.


 My niece Maddie.

My niece Liz.

I am so proud to have these three young women as my nieces. They inspire me on a daily basis and I am honored to be their aunt. Even more importantly, we will have a better world because of them.

*First two photos by my amazingly talented niece, Liz. The last picture by my amazingly talented brother, Ben.

Can't We Do Better Than This, TZ?

This headline from the Citizen Newspaper seems appropriately ridiculous to me right now since I just was navigating the awful healthcare in TZ for our fellow missioner.

"The Tanzania health sector has made a sky-leap achievement in a ten-year period in terms of technological advancement, medical facilities and professionalism, Vice President Mohamed Gharib Bilal said in Mwanza at the weekend.

"Dr Bilal, who was speaking during the opening of the fourth Tanzania Medical Students Association (Tamsa) conference on Monday, said he was relieved that 80 per cent of medical practitioners and health workers, who were trained in the country decided to report to their work places."  (Emphasis mine.)

Speechless.

My Weird Privileged Life

I’ve been out of the blog loop for about a week now because my life has sort of taken on a life of its own. Does that make sense? Probably not.

Anyways, I won’t go into details out of respect for my colleague, but on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I boarded a medical evacuation plane run by Flying Doctors and flew to Kenya accompanying a sick missioner to better medical care in our neighboring country. So here I am, sitting in a hospital room in Nairobi, which feels like another world from Tanzania. It’s a little surreal, to say the least.

 

But let’s back up just a little first. A colleague of mine got sick on Tuesday. I’m the Human Resources representative for our region of MKLM, plus our Regional Coordinator is out of the country right now so I was called to come check on the patient. We took her to the hospital and they diagnosed her with malaria. But there were some complications so they admitted her.

Now, Tanzanian medical care isn’t the best, let’s be honest. There IS medical care but the standard isn’t up to what we Westerners expect and their facilities and equipment aren’t always state-of-the art. They can handle non-emergent cases, but whenever things get a little tricky, we want to treat on the side of caution and get more expertise in the closest location possible, hence Nairobi. So when things weren’t improving with my colleague and we could see she needed more monitoring, I started advocating for medical evacuation*.

When we got to the airport, it was the middle of the night/wee hours of the morning so the airport wasn’t technically open yet. But by the time the plane arrived, I got through immigration and my colleague got settled into the plane, a small crew had arrived and they were getting ready for the day. I had to stand on the runway for about 20 minutes while everything was settled inside the tiny plane and, as anything involving Westerners, we were kind of a spectacle. So as I stood on the runway, there were about 5 Tanzanian male airport employees standing around watching what was happening.

“It’s malaria,” one guy said.
 “Why is this necessary if it is only malaria?” another guy asked. 
“You know the Westerners are afraid of malaria,” a third chimed in.
“The weather and environment is different so they get really sick.”
“Still, why does she need to go to Nairobi for malaria? We can treat that here.”

The conversation went on and on like this. The insinuation that it was a waste and that we were overreacting really made me miffed. "What do you know!?" I thought. "You're not a doctor! Who are you to judge us." Of course, I didn't say any of this. I just stood there stewing in my juices, feeling embarrassed and frustrated at, yet again, not being understood by Tanzanians, the story of our lives here.

And then I got to thinking more about it. About how odd it must look. Perhaps at this point I need to add a little bit of perspective because when people outside of Africa hear "malaria" they think "death." Yes, malaria kills millions of people a year in Africa. It's not something to take lightly, but at the same time, if treated quickly and with proper medicine, most cases can be cured relatively quickly and easily. Plus, EVERYONE in Tanzania has malaria. It’s as common as the everyday cold in the US. You get fever, a headache, any ache or pain? Go down to the corner clinic, get blood drawn for a few cents, and then get the medicine for a few more cents. That’s it. Or at least that’s the simple story. (I’ll get to the more complex story in a minute.)

Also, most Tanzanians have never left their village, let alone left the country. Most Tanzanians haven’t been to a hospital. (If they go anywhere, they go to a clinic.) Most Tanzanians barely have enough money to put food on the table. So the idea of spending that kind of cash to medically evacuate is seen as so extravagant. And to do it for MALARIA!? A common COLD!? It must look insane. Literal insanity because then you can't pay for other things like food, education and shelter for the rest of the family. 

Turns out, though, that when we got to Nairobi and further tests were done, my colleague isn't even sick with malaria. This shouldn't be much of a surprise since it's well known that malaria is misdiagnosed most of the time in TZ. It's a major problem here and another stumbling block toward getting proper medical treatment. So that made me think about the average Tanzanian, the one who can't get to a hospital when he or she is sick. Or, maybe let's say they have more money than the average person and they are able to get themselves to the regional hospital. They most likely would still end up with the fate of misdiagnosis, mistreatment, and perhaps even dying. No one would know otherwise than to say that their loved one died of malaria. If they didn't know any better, no one would think that he or she was mistreated or that things could've been handled differently. No one would be outraged or frustrated at the system that let them down. Again. 

So that leads me back to the guys standing on the tarmac talking about how silly it is to fly someone out of Tanzania for something as "simple" as malaria. This "privilege" that we have to know why we are sick and to get the proper care to fix it should not be a privilege. It is a right that all people should have. I wish there was a way for me to change the perspective of those runway guys and all the other people who wouldn't understand why we evacuated my colleague. They should be furious that a sick person can't get adequate care in their city. No. In their COUNTRY. Second, I wish they even understood that the medical care is inadequate. It's just not good enough and they shouldn't take it lying down. I wish they'd question the doctors and the government and the institutions who all say take two pills and call me in the morning. I wish that they wouldn't just look at us and think what a waste and how silly those Westerns are, but instead wonder why we do it and question what should be done within their own system to allow them to have the same care.

*One of the many benefits of being here with an established organization is that they take care of us in this way. We have global medical benefits paid by MKLM that pays for medical evacuation in case of emergency. Of course, there's always bureaucracy involved and we had to fight with the insurance company to approve the evacuation but in the end they did it and to that I am very grateful.

P.S. My colleague is doing okay. Her case is much more complicated and three days in, we're still not sure what is wrong. But she's feeling a lot better and will definitely be okay.

Mission is...

"Waiting."

That's what they said in orientation. And close to two years in, I've found that to be totally true. If I had to summarize into one word my experience thus far, "waiting" would be it.

All that to say that we're still waiting to finalize things at the university where we hope to teach this fall. Classes started this week, but the university seems to be in no rush to get things settled. Apparently it takes about 3 weeks for the students to actually show up to class anyway. We've been out there every day so far this week and it's one tiny step closer each day. Whenever we do get our assignments, let's pray that they don't say "Can you start teaching tomorrow?" and that my class size will be smaller than 300 student (I'm not kidding!).

International Day of Peace

Today, September 21 is the UN's International Day of Peace. I've been thinking all day about how I should write something about it and I've sort of been organizing thoughts in my head about what I wanted to say.

Then, Chris came in and told me about this: Gunmen have taken hostages in a Nairobi shopping mall. Details are still coming out as the scene unfolds but CNN is reporting that as many as 20 have been killed and 50 injured. This on the heals of the still-fresh killings in Washington, DC's Navy Yard by a lone shooter not even a week ago. I mean, really, world? What're you doing here?

I mean, of course there's violence every day, so maybe these things aren't that unusual. But it's hard not to get upset about this stuff. Both of these incidents are especially egregious and they're both close to home for me, so to speak. Things like this can just leave me feeling overwhelmed and helpless. And I know pretty much anything I say can and will sound trite and simplistic.

But what I was going to say. Before all this happened today. Or, what I was thinking of saying is that when I feel overwhelmed with the violence in the world, I try to remind myself that despite all the other reasons why violence happens (too many guns in our world, lack of support and resources for the mentally ill, lack of systems in place to recognize and stop violence before it happens, etc., etc., etc., which I'm not going to talk about now), is that all I can really control 100% of the time is myself. And on many days even that is questionable.

But really, I have to ask myself, "how hard is my heart?" "How much respect do I have for the other humans around me?" I mean, it's people who are doing this after all. Individuals. One by one. Who choose to take life. Who walk into a shopping mall and kill another person. I blush to admit that the other day I got so angry at a group of kids at our gate yelling at me and being completely disrespectful that I threatened to hit them with a shovel. Now, before you think I'm a complete monster, I would never do this. Somehow at that moment in my overly-angry mind, I got so flustrated at not being able to communicate and at the kids' blatant disregard of my telling them to go away, it crossed my mind that kids here are beaten so often at home that I wondered if I threatened to beat them, maybe they'd listen and run away. I'm the first to admit, TOTALLY WRONG APPROACH! But it just shows how quickly someone (even someone whose career is violence prevention!) when he/she feels powerless can resort to violence to get their way. It ALMOST made sense. Except that it totally made no sense at all. (And luckily I realized that fact immediately!)

So I'm left reminding myself that peace starts within me. I have an obligation to be respectful to people. To value them, no matter how awful a person I might think they are. Or no matter how angry I might be at them at the moment. Or how powerless I am in a situation. Respect for a person can't be something that waxes and wanes at my own whim.* It's a slippery slope and it's my responsibility to stay on the up side. That's really what I can do to keep peace. What about you? What do you to keep peace in our world?

In the meantime, I continue to pray for the victims of violence, for those who have resorted to the extremes of violence to get their way and for movements in our world to create just and peaceful nations for everyone.


*Of course, that doesn't mean being a punching bag either and taking people's abuse!

Mabatini's New Church

The parish that Chris and I attend is one that was started 10 years ago by a Maryknoll Father, Fr. Jim Eble*. For the past year or more the parish has been constructing a larger church on the spot where the old church was. It's been a several-phased process, while they built 1/2 of the new church next to the old church, which we continued to use. Then, we switched to the new half while they tore down the old church and built the second half of the new in it's place. Then both sides were brought together and we were using it while they continued the finishing touches (floors, walls, ceiling, alter, etc.). That's not an unusual thing here-to live, work, pray, shop, etc in a construction zone, while things are being built or until the money can be raised for things to be built.

I wish I'd taken some before pictures of the church, but stupidly, I didn't. But check out the new, beautiful building!


Here's the outside. "Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ," it's says at the top, the name of our church. I'm sure we'll do some gardens or something around the stairs. Also, you can't really see it in this shot, but there's a huge wheelchair ramp up the side. This concept is totally foreign here, where there are no sidewalks and everything is dirt and gravel. Too bad we can't extend the ramp across the whole city so people could get around easier!


The doors were carved by a local artist. They depict scenes of the transfiguration.


The alter. There's also a huge (for a Catholic church) baptismal font made out of the same stone to the right of the alter.


A view of the whole church. We have since put up pictures around the walls for Stations of the Cross. The pictures were bought in Ethiopia and they're beautiful.


A view of the inside of the church when everyone was blessing Fr. Jim at his goodbye Mass. They extended their hands and sang the National Anthem for TZ. It was really touching.

It's really interesting and amazing that we now have such a beautiful church for the community. They raised the money for it themselves and they take a lot of pride and ownership in it (as they should!). This is a really poor area of Mwanza and people barely have a roof over their head, let alone electricity or bathroom facilities. This church rivals the beauty and size of the one that is in the wealthiest section of Mwanza; it has a sound system, lights, and there are flush toilets out back. They totally deserve this! I hope that when they come to the parish they will feel a semblance of peace and tranquility while they are praying and that they will understand that they deserve comfort and safety just like everyone else.


*Fr. Jim, actually just resigned as the Parish Father and returned to the states on Sunday. It'll be a great loss, but change is necessary and I'm sure that good growth will come out of it.

Maybe It's Enough

You might have noticed my kind of down-in-the-dumps post from the other day. Well, today I was reading a post of a Christian blogger who I recently stumbled upon and I found it kinda helpful in my question to "find the perfect job here in TZ" (or anywhere, for that matter).

Let's Be Ordinary. Let's Be Extravagant. By Moma Monk, Micha Boyett 

You can click on the link if you want to read her whole post, but my favorite part is when she says:

I’m convinced that when we carry guilt for the great things we are not doing, we miss out on the Ordinary and Beautiful Things God already has for us to do. If we are only following Christ when we do Big Things, we have set our ambitions too small. Because it’s all big. It’s all radical.

It is radical to do the small, daily work of keeping the suffering of others before my eyes. And it is also radical to remember that the pain of malnutrition and disease is real and tangible for so many people in this beautiful and terrifying world. It is ordinary but profound to remember that I am among the privileged. (Emphasis original)

Maybe this gives me a little hope that just being here is enough. And by "here," I don't mean TZ per se. I just mean here here, where ever that may be. Maybe I don't need to (and shouldn't expect to) do amazing, big things where ever I am. Maybe I am doing something great in the small things. Which actually is a good thing for me to keep in mind when the next person says to me, "WOW! You live in Africa. You're so amazing." Because when people say that (and they say it more often than I'd like to admit) I feel like the biggest fraud in the world. In my mind everyone else is doing much more amazing-er things than I am or ever will. So maybe it's good advice for all of us to keep in mind.

"It's all a big deal. It's all radical." We are doing the small work of God in our daily lives and we are doing amazing things. All of us.

Congrats, Iron Man!

Fuzzy competed in Iron Man yesterday in Wisconsin and we couldn't be more proud of him. And it's not only us either.


I mean, we're family, of course we'd support and cheer on our brother-in-law.


But who knew that the neighborhood kids would be so supportive of him too? Thanks guys, that's so sweet.


And our Maryknoll community! Of course, they're all runners, so they understand.


But again, I was surprised that the little girls from church, when they came over they were so supportive!

Okay, in all seriousness, the Tanzanians had no idea what I was talking about when I explained it, but they were very excited to have their picture taken and sent to America. So, that counts.


We're all still so proud of you, Fuz- I mean, Iron Man. Great job!

Natafuta Kazi

I've been reluctant to post about this I guess because I didn't want people to think I'm out here doing absolutely nothing, having a 3 1/2 year vacation. Also because we're currently fundraising for our new projects and honestly, folks, the money is going to be used for projects! But once I post this you might question why you should help us (me) out.

But if I'm to be perfectly honest, I'm quite bored. And disappointed. And not really sure why I'm here. We're still waiting to settle things at the university where we hope to teach this fall and the little voice in the back of my head has started to ask, "What happens if that doesn't work out?" When I left Kivulini* I thought things with other ministries would fall into place a lot quicker, but the reality is that I've basically been doing very little work for the past month. I mean, I always have things to do--boil drinking water, cook everything from scratch, go to the market. You know, the normal, time-consuming things that I've gotten used to fitting into a full-time work schedule. I've been trying to make an effort to be with Tanzanians more, visiting people or having them over. And I do have a bit of work work, what with planning and developing the girls' program I'll be running in the parish, as well as Maryknoll office work. But still, I've got a lot of downtime.

I'm usually pretty good at filling downtime but when it gets to be too much I start to feel depressed and a bit rudderless. I keep reminding myself that once everything I've been planning comes through I'll have a very full plate. But still, it's hard to feel fulfilled NOW, when everyone I talk to at home is actually doing something fun/challenging/interesting.

Today I got to thinking about the people who are always approaching me looking for work. "Natafuta kazi," they say. (I'm looking for work.) EVERYONE in TZ is looking for work. Even if someone has a job they're constantly looking for something that'll pay more, that'll have better working hours, that'll be closer to their house. And for others who are completely without paying work, I sometimes see them sitting outside a storefront chatting with neighbors or just hanging around. And I'm ashamed to admit that on occasion I've thought, "Why don't they DO something? Anything. They could find work if they looked."

But what a hypocrite I am to think that! First, TZ has a serious problem with a lack of jobs, Mwanza in particular. Plus, most ordinary people aren't educated, have few skills and little resources to even seek out work. And here I am, educated, with some skills, tons of resources and advantages, and I can't even find work. Granted, I'm looking for very specific work and something that will be meaningful to me. (That concept is almost completely foreign here and that's a separate blog post for another day.) But still, I have a sneaking suspicion we're in the same boat, y'all.

So maybe, if anything, by having this waiting period, by experiencing these feelings of self worthlessness (is that even a thing?) and recognizing how much not working does to my sense of lacking personal and societal accomplishment, maybe I'm one step closer to understanding just a little bit more about how an average Tanzanian feels in their struggles to find work. And maybe I  understand even more the need to build people's skills, their self esteem and to raise their level of education so that they are more marketable and better able to find those things in life that will make them understand how valuable they are.

*OH! Did I mention in this space that I left Kivulini? I've talked about it in newsletters and other places but now that I've just gone back and reread my posts for the past month, I guess I never clearly stated it here. I think I was waiting for everything to fall into place. Haha, how silly that thought seems now. Anyhoo, yeah, I left Kivulini. I'm starting the girls group mentioned above. Chris and I are hoping to start teaching at a local university and we also will most likely be helping said university to develop and start a social work degree program. There's also a little something else I might be doing to help with another program but I'm not talking about that yet because it's way less formal and I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch (which I'm afraid I maybe did already what with leaving my job for all this stuff that's still in the air. Sigh).

2nd Annual Lake Eyasi Camping Trip

Some might remember that last year we took a community trip out to visit a Maryknoll parish in the village of Ndoleleji and then out further into the bush into an area with the nomadic Watatulu people, with whom Fr. Dan Ohman has worked for many decades. We were fortunate that Dan's health held out and he agreed to take a group of us out there again for a week. I suspect that this might be the last time we're able to do it with Dan, as he's slowing down a bit and getting a little shaky. But we might've said that last year too, so we will see what the future holds.

The trip was pretty much a repeat of last year-1 day drive to Ndoleleji and spend the night at the parish, 1 day drive to Lake Eyasi and camp out there 2 nights, 1 day drive to Magalata to visit a small Christian community and camp out there, 1 day drive back. It's a lot of driving and even more dust, but as always, it's a wonderful experience and well worth the effort. This year the group consisted of 1 MK father, 1 MK sister and 7 MK lay missioners and 1 guest.

I put a bunch of pictures up on Flickr, which you can check out here. Below are some of the highlights. Also, here's last year's pictures, in case you're interested in comparing.


Group shot (plus Fr. Hung and Fr. Mike, who weren't able to go out into the bush with us) enjoying sundowners at Ndoleleji.


Sunset at Ndoleleji. This is what Africa's supposed to look like, right?


When we stop to ask directions we always get some tag-alongs.


Our campsite had a great view of the escarpment.


Just like last year, everyone in the "neighborhood" comes out to our campsite to get a glimpse of our traveling circus.


We hiked to what people affectionately call "the baboon pools." Last year we hiked hours to get there. This year, we camped closer, so the hike way much more manageable!


No one would swim with me this year, so I just settled for soaking my feet.


In Magalata, Chris played with the kids to teach them frisbee. They remembered this from last year and asked for him to do it again.


Liz with Christina and Stephano, 2 of the Catechist's children.


Me with Paolo and Lucia and their other 2 children.


The community in Magalata are always so generous to feed us dinner and breakfast when we visit. Our dinner was a community meal of rice and beans, the rice was grown by one of the Catechists in the rainy season.


Sr. Genie watching the sun come up in Magalata.


Once again, thanks goes out to Dan, our fearless leader, and big ups to him for all the amazing work he's been doing in Tanzania for over 50 years!

Update on Helena

Some readers may remember my June blog post about Helena, the little girl who fellow MK missioners, Catlin and David, have been helping "get new legs." Well, she's had some progress and some setbacks.

David has posted the bad news on his blog here. But there is hope and Helena's been exercising a little, despite having casts up to her waist. Check out the video, which is the good news, at David's blog here.

New Project-Lulu

Last week I mentioned that I would be starting some new projects.  I didn't want to say too much specifically about the projects at that point because I wanted them to be officially "unveiled" in our quarterly newsletter. But I know no one reads those newsletters anyway, right? So, I best talk about it here too. ;)

I just wrapped up the 2nd facilitator's meeting for one of my new endeavors, the Lulu program, and I get more and more excited about it each week. Lulu is a group that we will be running in our parish and local neighborhood for girls 15-20 years old to teach them about life skills, health and business/entrepreneurship skills. Lulu means "pearl" in Swahili. The idea is that the girls are pearls in God's hands and He cherishes them like a precious jewel. We are going to use materials from, and structure the group after, a program (which is where the name comes from) that was started here in Mwanza and already has a history of success. A lay missioner from another organization created the program and she has a wealth of information and experience that she has so generously agreed to share with us. Plus, every once in a while our girls, as well as our facilitators, will be able to meet girls from other Lulu programs around Mwanza to network and exchange ideas/experiences.

There is a need for education such as this all over the world, but especially in Tanzania. Often young girls bear the brunt of work in the household, causing them to leave school early. Girls here are regularly married at an early age so that the family can collect the bride price and also to lighten the financial burden of the family with one less mouth to feed. Girls have very little voice and their self esteem can be quite low. They are trafficked from villages into the city (or abroad) to work in homes as "house girls," where they aren't paid, are often abused and aren't send to school. Young women in TZ also experience high rates of physical, sexual and other form of abuse.

Lulu will help by teaching the girls their rights as human beings and residents of Tanzania. The group will give the girls a safe place to talk with other girls and to realize that they are not alone in their life situations. They will be able to build their own self esteem and will be empowered to help other girls in similar situations. And, most appealing to the girls themselves, it will give them an opportunity to learn business skills so they can start their own small businesses. Having access to their own money will give them a little bit of independence. With income, girls are less likely to sell their bodies, are more able to escape violence in their homes, and have more power within the family.

We are still in the planning stages of the group and hope to start meeting with the girls around the beginning of October. Stay tuned for more information as we continue planning.

In the meantime, here are some ways you can help, if you're interested.

• Prayers that our group successfully gets off the ground and that we reach girls who are able to benefit from the program.
• Ideas (and instructions!) for income generating activities. Partway through the program I will teach the girls a few things that they can do for a business. (Keep in mind that materials are hard to come by here in TZ and most girls won't be able to afford much in the way of start-up costs.)
• Of course, we always need funds. At this point, we need money to buy pens and notebooks for all the girls as well as for other materials, such as paper and photocopies. Donations can be made here through MKLM in the name of "Katie Reid's Mission Account." (Please don't ship any of these things because the cost is very expensive, we have unreliable mail and we want to keep it locally-sustainable.)
• Have you done a similar program for girls in Africa? I'd love to hear your experience, challenges, successes, ideas!
• Spread the word about our work. Read our current newsletter and let me know in the comments section here if you want to get on our mailing list, then print the newsletter and give it to friends and family. The more people we have cheering us on, the better!

Happy 1000th!*

The 1000th posting on my blog passed weeks ago and I didn't even mention or commemorate it! I can't believe that I've had this blog for over 8 years and that I've actually had something to post about over 1000 times, not too bad for an introvert. I can't say that my posts have always been interesting but I've managed to crank them out, which is more than I can say for any diary or journal that I've ever started. Those usually make it 6 months or a year, tops, and then they collect dust on the shelf.

Well, a lot has changed over these past 1012 posts. My first post was short and sweet. I think I've gotten a lot more rambley since then. Somewhere along the way I also started to use proper punctuation. I guess I realized it didn't take that much more effort to capitalize.

My second post was a picture of this little cutie.



Can you believe, this is her now? She's still a cutie, but not so little anymore.



My third post was this picture of her father.



Well, not much has changed there, as you can see...



Anyways, I guess I can't go through all 1000 posts one by one. That'd for sure lose all of the 3 remaining readers who have stuck with me over the past 8 years.

A lot of has changed over the past 1000 posts. People have died. People have been born. I've changed jobs 3 times. Chris has gotten a few more college degrees. Pets have come into and exited our lives. We live on a different continent.

But, yeah, just, thanks for reading, thanks for commenting. Here's to another 988 posts.

*This will actually by my 1012th post! Well on my way to another 1000, I guess.

Quarterly Newsletter

Click here to read and download our quarterly newsletter with information about what Chris and I have been up to in our ministries over the past few months, as well news about new ministries and projects. We are really excited about these new initiatives and I want to take this opportunity to appeal to you to help us with these endeavors.

At this point, we are now involved in more ministry projects than ever before. With this blessing comes the challenge of needing more funds in order to accomplish our increased work. Our current mission account* balance has been largely exhausted by our current projects and over the past several months we have received very few donations. With the launch of our new projects we are hoping that you will think about making a special donation. As always, your donations to our mission account help with our formal ministries, informal requests by people for personal assistance, “special projects,” (i.e. building Paulina’s house), as well as opportunities for us to continue cultural acclamation (i.e. language tutoring). With our new projects there will be increased start-up costs such as expenses for photocopies of curriculums, fees for materials, or small stipends for program assistants. The list of needs is endless and, needless to say, the more we have, the more we can do. Please consider making a special donation to our mission account to allow us to do more in our community. All donations through MKLM are tax deductible.

Chris and I are immensely grateful for all the support we receive from home. We are continually awed and humbled by the emails, prayers, packages, donations, gifts, etc. etc. We want you to know how much we appreciate your support in whatever form it comes and we are physically, emotionally and spiritually sustained by your generosity on a daily basis.

*A point of clarification: Donations to MKLM with the wording “Chris and Katie Reid-Mission Account” are credited to the account referenced in this email. Donations made to MKLM with anything else (even just our names) and no specific mention of a “Mission Account” are sent to MKLM’s general fund, which helps offset the cost of us in mission (i.e. our stipends, our health insurance, the programmatic fees associated on an administrative level). We appreciate donations in either manner and both are extremely helpful to our role in mission in TZ.

New Project Teaser

I've got some new work projects on the horizon and I've been holding back from sharing it publicly. Today I had our first planning meeting and I couldn't be more thrilled.



I'm also honored to be working these three fabulous ladies! More info to come soon...

The End to our Little B

I posted this on Facebook, but just to keep the blog up-to-date (and for those not on FB), just a quick note about our little kitty's death.



Little Wembley, only about 6 months old, died this weekend. We came home late from a wedding Saturday night/Sunday morning (blog post to come soon) and found him dead on the bed. As you might know from previous posts, he'd been sick. But he gotten better over the past month and we thought we'd gotten out of the woods on that one. But a few days ago he started acting erratic again and we suspected that his mysterious "sickness" was back again. He wasn't as bad this time as he was last time, so I was surprised on Saturday to find him dead. I didn't really expect it to kill him, but I did hope that if he was going to be continuously sick with an unknown ailment, that it would just take him quickly so he (and we) didn't have to suffer. 

We live in a place where people and kids die every day of mysterious causes. Chris and I have talked several times over the past day about how quickly we've moved on from the death of this little guy. Don't get me wrong. We're upset and there have been many times when we've forgotten he's dead and expected him to jump in our laps or beg for food. But at the same time I think that having seen so much human death and illness (not to mention suffering and poverty) over the past 1 1/2 years, losing a cat doesn't seem like that much of a loss to bare. I think we've definitely gained a new perspective on that one.

Wembley was a good little kitty, though. He liked to sit on the back of the couch and watch the birds outside playing on the roof of the truck. He made funny sounds when he ate. His meow often sounded like the Squeaky Namaqua rain frog. He followed me around the house and sat in my lap as soon as I sat down. He had his first taste of American kitty treats brought by my parents in July and once he tried them he couldn't get enough! And he really knew how to shake his booty to "The Hanky Panky." He'll definitely be missed.

Wembley. aka: Wembles, Little B, Little Man, Duder, Purr Baby
Approx. Feb 2013-Aug 2013