First Water!

Dear Safi, I have just picked up this report at Ngateu from Mr.Mkasa of the GemRock Drilling Company. Ngateu Secondary School Drilling Project Report

1. First water found at 62 meters
2. As of today, 25 February, 2011 drilling has reached 81 meters
3. We expect more water stikes as we drill more deeply according to survey report
4. We shall send some photos showing the water we have in the hole even though it is not enough at this point
5. We are proceeding with drilling down to 110 meters as recommended in the survey report

Mr. Mkasa, 25 February, 2011

Elizabeth and I will also take pictures as the drilling proceeds !
Regards, David ( Mtui)

Crispin's Orphan Project

We've visited this project before and are greatly in awe. Crispin started in 2007 with 10 orphan kids. 70+ are now at the center (140 kids total use services at the center) 12 live there because they have no extended family to help raise them at this time. Crispin and 4 staff run the project. The model he follows is to help with day care and school and needs that the extended family can't supply. At night most of the kids go to grandmothers and other family/community homes. There the children get love and nurturing. It takes a village to raise them. Some are HIV positive. Many were found in dumpsters or wandering the streets.

Crispin knows what it is like as he was an orphan at 7 with a 4 y.o. sister. He started this project so others wouldn’t suffer as he did. Crispin was lucky to have a grandmother take them under her wing and encourage him to pursue education. (Grandmother is term used to describe an older person, not necessarily your parent’s mother). He is doing the same with all the kids in the orphan project.

The St Mark Endowment fund sent a financial gift with us that will help to buy food and pay for medical needs for this growing population. We delivered knitted hats and small toys to the kids. Next time we will need more hats! Earla, Benjamin and Lisha helped to serve lunch; a gruel that is enriched with vitamins and nutrition needed by the kids to aid in fighting off HIV. Enjoy the pictures. I’ll put the expanded story onto the Safi web page shortly along with links to Crispin's site.

Another project we visited - The Plaster House

The last few days in Arusha had us visiting two special projects that Safi Members, thanks to Elizabeth, have become aware of. They are not secondary schools and are not our main focus but when we travel to TZ we go to learn more of the area the culture and the people and these two projects that we would like to bring to light. It is humbling to know abut other projects.

Sarah runs the Plaster House. This is a unique service in TZ where fluoride is so plentiful, so much so that children get sick from it either during pregnancy or as they are toddlers and young children. Too much fluoride causes their bones to be soft and they need operations to insert rods into the large bones. Pretty nasty stuff for a child. After surgery, they are in plaster casts and can not be sent back home for months, until the casts are removed. Sarah and her husband with a small staff are taking care of their needs until they can go back home. They are renting now and have quickly grown to helping 70-90 kids (18 beds). They are acquiring land and will need to do fund raising to build. Sarah and her husband are undaunted. They can’t stop because the need is so great. I’ll post more about this on the website. Sarah’s website got lost in the internet but when she recovers it I will link it onto the Safi site.

Finally - pictures

The well - When we left they were down 60 meters. The drilling is slow due to being in rock. The sound of the drilling was music to my ears. Keep praying that they hit waster at 90-110 meters (the original estimate of where it is based on knowledge of the area.)

Here are some pictures of the new latrines. Those who know how the old ones looked (ghastly) will greatly appreciate that these can be kept clean.

We're Back

This is just a short note to say we arrived back in Seattle today and scattered to our homes and our own beds. The water from the drinking fountain at SEATAC was absolutely delicious. All our bags arrived with us (including three of the Martin's.) Haldor's Massae Marani (warrior) stick is MIA as it didn't fit into the luggage and went separately. Evidently quite separately. It may show up one day. Tomorrow I'll start posting pictures as internet and electricity were never close enough to even wave at each other, much less meet while we were in TZ. Glad to be home. Tomorrow I get my cat :)

Kristina

PS - The worst part of not having internet is that we didn't get a chance to hear any comments back from all of you. We missed you.

Imagine

Imagine a balmy afternoon, good food and drink, Maasai dancers singing and jumping, and David Nelson in their midst doing his very best to jump along with them. Imagine Cindy and Natalie the center of attention of these same young warriors, receiving necklaces from them, and being asked to choose a betrothed from among them.

This was not quite what we expected when we drove up to Elisabeth's house (Elisabeth is the Ngateu burser), but it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings of our trip. Elisabeth and her husband, Steven, own and operate a waste disposal service that hauls trash and garbage for many of the big hotels and lodges. During the course of the evening, Steven expressed profound thanks for SAFI's support of computer training for Elisabeth. As with so many SAFI projects, this too had unexpected beneficial consequences. According to Steven, Elizabeth's training has added to the efficiency and capacity of what they are able to do with their business, so much so that they have grown the business and been able to employ more workers.

Their next project will be to build a home and school for orphans on their property. They are generous people.

One more "imagine." Imagine the evening ending with a fabric balloon powered by a large candle floating up into the sky to join a nearly full moon as our hosts joined us in "the long farewell." It was truly a magical evening.

Denny Douglass

Blog by Earla

My voice has been silent so far on this trip but not because I have nothing to say. It is difficult to put into words the emotions one experiences in returning to this wonderful place called Tanzania. Relationships between people and cultures are the only way we can hope to mend our differences in this world. We come to work on those relationships and are rewarded by the affection and respect that we now share. This is a small step in the big picture but important nevertheless. Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Impressions of Africa by Cindy

This purposeful trip has been amazing and we are only a week and a half into it. I knew I would experience something I had never experienced before and it sure has been.

So far, there have been two kinds of highs for me – the smiling, eager kids all around Ngeteu and all the amazing animals of the Serengeti. In many respects they are two very different things but yet very similar in that they are both a wonderful creation of God.

The more I see of this amazing planet, the more I know we MUST take care of it – ALL of it. All the kids, all the critters, all the families and all the glorious beauty the land shares with us.

The kids of Ngeteu need so much, yet they have so much. I expected to find a poor school, but am amazed at what I am seeing – without Safi, there would be no books, no kitchen, no latrines, no water (the well is being drilled now and when done, the new latrines will be functional). The kids mostly seem very happy to be there and eager to learn – especially English it seems.

The safari was amazing – the number and kinds of animals, birds, plants – big and small that we saw blows my mind! We saw things that are rare to see – leopards and cubs; a caracal cat and so much more. We visited the place where the oldest human skull was found – is that history or what!

Farewell for now – more adventures tomorrow…

Serengeti Monday

The day after the Packers won the Superbowl, Safi departed on their championship safari to the Serengeti. We got to see the big 5 animals and then some. The highlight of the day was to see the leopard walking next to us on the road. It actually walked under one of our vehicles. It was a female, and seemed much smaller than leopards appear on TV. We saw a family of elephants in a pond and were taking pictures until the driver suggested we back out quickly as one of the elephants appeared to be charging towards us and the driver explained to us it can easily overturn our vehicles.

Lisha got sick and it didn't feel well so I took two naps. When I woke up we saw a zebra really close and a big Maribou stork.

Cindy says that the awesomeness of God's creation came to life for me again seeing the tens of thousands of animals across the Serengeti. One of those many animals we saw and I filmed were six female lions sleeping under a tree two meters away. We spied two cheetahs in the distance and an MGM lion in the bush next to the road. It was really really super duper awesome according to Natalie. To truly describe the tens of thousands of animals.....many were zebra as it took us over an hour to drive through where they were grazing, frolicking, and gathered. Another 11 hours in the car but luckily this one included 3 bathroom brakes, all of which included running water.

A benediction to the day was the blessing of sighting a very rare cat, one our driver has never seen in his many trips to the Serengeti, a caracal (22-40 lbs) with pointy ears who survives by eating birds, bless their feather little souls.

JOYS of Friday the 4th (Mick's birthday)

Mt. Meru as we walked out of our room – clear and majestic

the sound of the drill for the WELL

group gathering for coffee and breakfast

walking to school, greetings for adults and children

Cindy's “high fives” with the primary children

the mzees planning yet another trip to town to get paint ( and gelato)

the sound of the drill for the WELL

mandazi for everyone today – mandazi are not too sweet donuts

Vivian, 2 years old, hanging onto Natalie's leg, her hand, her finger

Vivian, sleeping in Karen's arms

makonda with the teachers – and pilau

the sound of the drill for the WELL

quiet afternoon, pool for some, reading, rest, computer work

and continued joy that the Stamms are safely home, margi is getting medical care and safely home

I'd love to have you all with us!!!!

and, I hope they hit water tomorrow!!!!!

Mary

From Denny - Friday Morning

The creativity and curiosity of the children here is, for me, renewing and energizing. The other day, I pulled masking tape from one of the walls we had painted. To make disposal easier, I formed it into a softball-sized ball. At the trash barrel, I noticed two of the cook's preschool children watching me. On impulse, I threw the ball toward them, and almost instantly, we were playing soccer catch, kicking the ball back and forth, sometimes including older students as they walked past. Squeals and laughter, mine mingled in... What fun! And yesterday, we had finished painting the walls of the science room, and were sketching out a mural that David wants to do. The model is a representation of chemical bonding, so we had clusters of circles traced on the walks. Students drifted in, the first time they had done so, wanted to know what we were doing. We showed them the model of the drawing we were working from and they became very animated asking questions, offering suggestions and generally just engaging us in discussing the project. They are very excited to see it in finished form. I think I will be as amazed as they are at the finished product.

Notes from Nancy

What a day we had yesterday! Painting of classroom, inside and out, continued. The well is progressing - whomp by whomp - and water should be coming soon.

After taping and cataloging new textbooks, we worked with small groups of students from Form I and III. Books at appropriate reading levels and content relevant to African culture made the process fun for both "teacher" and students. The students were eager to read and very helpful to each other. It was of great help to know a smattering of Kiswahili so that concepts were easier for them to understand. We talked about the content and drew conclusions by using pictures in the books and deductive reasoning. I was impressed by their interest, their questions, and their eagerness to learn. We talked about our families, I showed pictures and with a combination of English, Kiswahili, and Maa names of family members and pets were exchanged and understood. The animation on their faces when the "light bulb" clicked was the best gift of all. I'm anxious to work with small groups again.

What the Martins have been doing this year

The Martins have a blog where they have posted their adventures as they have traveled - and boy have they traveled. Follow this link to their blog. They are with us now in Arusha and look great. On Friday we will be going to the school that the kids are attending to play softball - St Mark style.

http://www.travelpod.com/members/jcbl-martin

More about the well and More

It is the most wonderful sound to hear the well drilling when we wake up. The drilling equipment is not the fancy auger type. It is the old fashioned pound the drill bit into the ground type. It is like a loud clock ticking – a constant and steady sound with a generator loudly humming to the beat. I love it. The Manager of the drilling company came by yesterday and we are at 40 meters. They are drilling through a section with lots of boulders that tend to slip back into the hole. The resolution is to drop some casing into the hole to stop the slipping problem. Once they get through the rock they should be finding gravel and faster drilling. The company just drilled another well in the area and they are very knowledgeable of what to expect. That well had good water. We know that the Freedom lodge has good water and the same company drilled here.

The latrines are wonderful looking and the Kitchen cookhouse is awesome. Please enjoy the pictures!

And the best news about the Stamms. They are out of Egypt and were in Amsterdam last night.

Dear Bloggers (From David I)

(mostly written on Tuesday but no internet until today) We have arrived safely except our friends the Stamms who were going to meet us here via Cairo on Monday. As of today (Wednesday) they are still in Cairo waiting for a flight either to Amsterdam or the US. They did have a hotel room last night so were not exclusively at the airport.

We spent Sunday a.m. at a 2 hour worship service with a really fine choir. Then a big brunch at the 'River House', a place that supports the deaf and silent.

Monday we went to the school to start our various projects and get organized for our time here. Met up with the Martins- awfully good to see they are doing so well. Jean Walstrum also met us for dinner so it was a little party.

No clouds this morning so it wil probably be a hot day but with a pool, all is well :)

The well drillers are at work on the well!! My best guess is they are at 28+ meters on the way to 90 where they expect to hit water (since my Swahili is very limited & their English even more so, the estimates are in some doubt) But it is on the way, see pics! More to come in the days ahead.

David I