Heading Home

I had such an amazing time in Africa!  I'm sad that we have to leave, but I think I'm ready to go home.  I think the biggest thing I took away from this trip is that we don't need money or things to make us happy.  The people in Africa have almost nothing, and they seem happier than us!  I realized on this trip that we take so much for granted in the U.S. - like hot showers and variety of different foods.  I will definitely be living with a different perspective of life from now on.  

And thank you for all of your prayers for this trip.  We stayed safe and I'm positive that God saved us from getting attacked by that elephant on the safari day.  Apparently the situation we were in was very dangerous. 

Our Eighth Day in Tanzania

Today was definitely the best day yet.  It was the day we got to meet our sponsored child, Zulpha.  All of the people from our team formed two lines for the children to walk through and sang, "This is the Day."  (We kind of copied the children from the first day.)  We were told to stay in the line as the children walked through.  I soon saw the kids walking down the path.  I kept my eye out for Zulpha.  My heart then stopped.  I saw a girl with big, beautiful eyes who looked my age.  My eyes started tearing up.  I grabbed my mom's hand and said, "That's her."  Without thinking twice about it, we got out of the line and embraced Zulpha.  We pulled her into the line with us, barely singing with all of the tears of joy.  Her program leader, Lisa, and translator, Mao Godlisten, came to greet us.  We went inside to find a seat to talk with them.  I think it was the happiest moment of my life.  No words can explain my emotions.  
              Zulpha gave us some African skirts that she had bought.  That was so touching because she really didn't have the money to buy us skirts.  This is a great example of how generous and selfless the people are here in Tanzania.  We sat down and asked Zulpha to tell us about herself.  Since the letters she writes us only talk about school and what she bought with what we gave her, we knew nothing about her.  She explained to us that she lives with her mother, father, brother, aunt, and cousin.  She also said that before she was in the Compassion program, (which was six years ago) her family was Muslim.  Everyone in her family (except her father) is now a Christian.  Her father is thinking about becoming a Christian right now, though.  She obviously has a very strong relationship with God.  She shared her favorite verse in the Bible- Psalms 24:1.  We found out that their family of six lives in one small room, which they rent.   In Tanzania, those who rent rooms are considered the poorest because they don't have home-ownership.  Apparently this room costs $19 a month.  Since there is not enough room for all of them, they sometimes ask if Zulpha can sleep on the floor of the hair salon nearby. 
            Before the trip, we had bought her a swimsuit in case we wanted to swim.  But when we got there, we were told that the children here never swim, so we decided not to bring the swimsuit for her to the meeting place.  When I asked her what she likes to play, she said soccer, tennis, and swimming in the river.  I was so surprised to hear this!  We still had the swimsuit in our luggage at the room, so I told Zulpha that there was a pool at the hotel and that we brought a swimsuit for her.  Her eyes lit up and she definitely wanted to swim.  We spent a good portion of the day swimming in the pool.  She actually didn't know how to swim!  We went into the kiddie pool where the rest of the kids were and played Marco Polo.  After a little while, I asked if she wanted to go to the deep pool.  She immediately responded, "No."  But when I got into the deep pool, the translator asked her again if she wanted to go in.  It took a little convincing, but she soon was in the pool.  She stayed close to the edge with a tube around her, but I was so proud of her for getting in.  She had never swam in a deep pool before, so this was a big deal!  
            After lunch, we played games like tic-tac-toe, Hangman, dot-to-dot, and Uno.  She enjoyed that!  Before we knew it, though, we only had 20 minutes before the children had to go!  We scrambled to get her gifts and she excitedly opened them.  The backpack of gifts included candy, headbands, flip-flops, and craft supplies.  We also gave her an early birthday present.
            We went outside with only 10 minutes left, so we took some pictures and prayed.  All of the kids and sponsors gathered up to take a group picture.  We gave Zulpha one last long hug before it was time for her to go back home.  We thanked her for the lovely skirt again and before we knew it, she was on the bus, waving goodbye at us.  
            The day seemed to go by so fast.  What a blessing it was to meet my sponsored child!  Apparently, only 1% of the children in the Tanzania Compassion program, which is about 650 children, get to meet their sponsors.  I will forever remember this wonderful day.  
    When we first met Zulpha



  In the pool!







  Saying goodbye

So sorry!!!

I am so sorry that I haven't been posting anything about our time in Tanzania yet.  We have had no wifi at all, but I have been writing about every day on a Word document. 

Our Seventh Day in Tanzania

Sunday was a safari day!  I saw many safari jeeps pull up in the hotel driveway as we were about to leave.  We drove through Tarangire National Park and saw many different kinds of animals (ones that are not usually in the U.S.).  We saw animals like zebras, gazelles, impalas, giraffes, (female) lions, elephants, and beautiful blue/turquoise birds. 

My tennis coach actually told me before the trip, “Don’t get eaten by a hippo!”  Well, I didn’t get eaten by a hippo today, but I almost got charged by an elephant!  We were driving in our little jeep as an elephant started to cross the road.  We stopped the jeep to let him pass, but he just stayed there in the road and stared at us.  He was literally about 10 feet away from us.  My heart was pounding.  Apparently elephants don’t have good eyesight, so this elephant tried to smell and listen to us.  He stuck his trunk so close to the vehicle!  Everyone on the bus was terrified.  Then he started flapping his ears and stepping toward us (a sign of aggression).  My mom nervously asked the driver, “So…. what do we do in a situation like this?”  He whispered, “Stay absolutely quiet.”  From there on the bus was dead silent.  Eventually the elephant wandered off, but I think that was one of the most terrifying moments of my life! 

When we went to have a lunch break, we stopped at a little picnic area.  That’s where the monkeys were.  I got so close the monkeys - maybe about 3 feet away.  While I was videotaping a monkey, I heard screams over to my left.  I quickly turned to see that a monkey had just stolen someone’s food from their lunch box.  I ran over there and found that there were little monkeys everywhere!  In Tanzania, they’re considered pests since they steal everything.  I had a good time watching them steal bananas, yogurt, and other food items.  Except, I was kind of nervous that one of them would take my phone out of my hand!

When we were done with the amazing safari, we drove back to the first hotel we stayed at.  (Had my first warm shower!)  The leader of the trip advised us on what it is going to be like the next day, when we get to meet our sponsored child.  I am super excited, but a little nervous as well.  Will Zulpha (my sponsored child) like me?  Is she shy or outgoing?  I don’t know much about her; I don’t even know if she has parents or siblings.  Most of her letters talk about school or what she bought with what we sent her.  Please be praying that it will go well!

Naughty monkeys!


                      Our safari jeep

Our Sixth Day in Tanzania

So, before we went on this trip, we were told that we would be putting on a VBS (Vacation Bible School) for the children.  The whole VBS is supposed to be based on the idea of turning “ordinary into extraordinary.”  We used the analogy of a caterpillar (Hermie in this case) turning into a butterfly.  On Saturday we went to the center that the VBS was at.  I decided to be in the Bible lessons/skits group where we acted out the story of Hermie.  Basically, Hermie was a common caterpillar and wanted to be like other bugs that have special gifts.  He asked God why He made him so common and God kept telling him, “I love you just the way you are, but I am not finished with you yet.”  In the end Hermie turned into a beautiful butterfly and realized that God wasn’t finished with him yet.  For the play, the team wanted me to be Hermie.  The skit went really well and the kids enjoyed it very much.

As soon as we were done performing the skits, it was time to go back to the chapel.  Many girls rushed up to hold my hands. As you can tell, this happened a lot, but I never really got tired or annoyed by it.  I felt so loved to have kids include me right away like that. 

In the chapel the children from the choir sang and danced for us.  This was the best singing and dancing so far.  The boys especially danced their hearts out!

When it was time to go, I shook hands with as many people as possible.  This was my last Child Development Center, so I was a little sad.  Riding in the bus, I thought what a wonderful experience this has been and how blessed I am to have such an amazing opportunity.  But only after about 30 seconds, the bus stopped.  I found out that we were stuck in the mud.  A few of the men had to help push us out.  I felt bad for them, though, because they got so dirty! 

I heard that our next hotel was going to be a tented hotel.  I had never heard of tented hotel before, but I assumed it would be pretty rough.  However, this was not the case.  This was the most beautiful hotel yet!  In the U.S., they call it "glamping."  As we were driving in, there were zebras, warthogs, and exotic birds everywhere.  The hotel rooms looked like big, nice huts with tent material for some of the walls.  We went to the pool where we could see the gorgeous sunset and wildlife out in the distance.  After staying in a small, rugged hotel for four nights, this was a big treat for us.  Hallelujah!!! 




 

       (Our wonderful tented hotel)

Our Fifth Day in Tanzania

On Friday we visited another child development center – TZ-229.  We don’t typically remember the number of every center but this one had a special significance.  On our way to the center, we learned that on February 21, the director of this center was murdered after some local people discovered they were just about to receive a special grant from Compassion to do a project.  Thinking that the director was now rich, they murdered him in his home with the hopes of finding the money.  It was so sad to think about what this center had just been through.  I was amazed to see that, despite the tragedy, all the kids were still able to show us their huge smiles and hearts.  The joy of the Lord was indeed their strength. 

The children were very excited to see us!  Three girls (one was 13 and the others were 14) greeted me with a warm smile and grabbed my hands.  Their names were Alima, Diana, and Naemma (Naemma is a very common name in Tanzania because it means “grace”). 

Today we really focused on playing games.  First, I played Frisbee with the boys and a few girls.  Since the Frisbee had a whole in the center, many of the boys tried to catch it around their heads.  I tried to do the same thing, but it never worked out.  I saw lots of children playing with bubbles in the background. 

I soon wondered where my mom went, and I discovered that she was on a rock in the distance playing games like tic-tac-toe, hangman, and dot-to-dot with four girls.  I joined them and found that the kids were happily licking ring pops my mom had given them.  They especially enjoyed watching their tongues turn multiple colors. 

As we were playing tic-tac-toe, we heard crying in the distance.  I saw a little girl coming toward us with tears streaming down here face.  I quickly grabbed some chocolate and gave it to her.  She almost immediately felt better.  “Chocolate always cures the tears,” I told her.

We then had lunch and played some more games outside, like the hokie-pokie, duck, duck, goose (which they call “ku-ku, ku-ku, bata, or chicken, chicken, duck), and red light, green light.  Probably the most significant game we played, though, was called (ooh – power just went out as I was typing this) Lion and Gazelle – translated ‘Simba na Swala’.  When playing, everyone holds hands and forms a circle.  One kid is chosen as the lion and one as the gazelle.  The job of the circle is to protect the gazelle from the lion.  As the lion runs around inside of the circle, the gazelle runs around the outside.  The lion tries to “attack” the gazelle, but the job of the people in the circle is the move strategically so the lion cannot reach its prey.  After the game of chase ended, our team leader Sean explained that the circle represents a community.  If someone strays from the community, it is the job of the circle to protect that person from the enemy who wants to devour them.  In the same way, God is always seeking after his lost sheep.  The enemy is the roaring lion, trying to devour its prey.  But it is our job to work with God to protect his children. 

When the rain started to come (typical in the afternoons, during this rainy season in Tanzania), we moved inside for more games.  Some played Uno and other games, but the majority of us played a fun game where we raced against another team to grab a water bottle in the center of the room.  Everyone was assigned a number.  When your number was called, you had to race against the person with the same number on the opposite team.  The team with the most winners at the end took the whole game.  It was very fun.  In Tanzania, the kids don’t need iPhone apps to enjoy games.  In fact, many kids are often seen playing in the dirt all day.  Life is more simple here.  And there is much to appreciate about that.  The children in Tanzania are teaching me that it is not money or things that bring us happiness.  It is more about time spent with the people we love.  And let and me say – Tanzanians are very easy to love. 

As we said our goodbyes, we left the center with a piece of luggage full of gifts.  It included paper, crayons, and other craft materials along with a few snacks and games.  In turn, they presented us with one final song that included lyrics about their thankfulness for the Compassion program.  It was also very meaningful because one woman on our team (Jeannie) decided to sponsor a second child that morning.  To our surprise, the child was at the center with us that day so Jeannie got to meet her in person and spend time with her.  Usually people meet their sponsored children after writing many letters to them overseas, so it was a very special moment for all of us.

In the evening, we returned to our hotel for some down time before planning our vacation bible school activities that we would be doing at another center the next morning. 
 

Our Fourth Day in Tanzania

  On Thursday, instead of going to a Child Development Center, we went to a Child Survival Program, where at-risk mothers of 0-3 year old babies are given counseling, medical care, spiritual guidance, and are taught how to make a living by sewing, raising chickens, and other trades.  There were many beautiful babies there.  The mothers wrapped their babies around their backs with thin blankets.  The mothers also sang and danced for us in the chapel.  They had incredible, powerful voices. 

Next, we were given a tour of the whole Child Survival Program- a room for moms to play with their babies, a chicken coop, a preschool, and a room where they sewed.  When we visited the room where they would sew, we noticed many beautiful thin blankets (like the ones they used to wrap the babies around the moms).  We asked if they were for sale and they replied yes.  My mom and I each picked out one that we liked.  I picked out a bright green/yellow/blue one and my mom picked out a red one with different colored designs on it.  A lady wrapped it around my waist as a skirt and it looked very pretty.  My mom had wanted to hold a baby on her back like a true African woman since we got to the center, so she asked a mom if she could have the baby wrapped in her blanket around her.  The mom said yes and helped her.  My mom needed lots of help.  We were both impressed at the way these women needed no help to put a tiny baby on their back and wrap them in a blanket as a carrier.

            The mothers sang and danced for us again when we came back into the chapel.  I saw some cute little kids wandering around and said, “Jambo!” which is “hello” in Swahili.  They all smiled and came to talk to me.  One of the little girls just reached her arms up to hug meJ.  I have a big heart for the younger kids, so this was fun for me to get to talk with them.

As we were heading to the bus, all of the mothers shook hands with us and we thanked them.  Some were shy and some were very social.  But one thing they had in common, though, was that they all had loving, caring hearts, which is all that really matters.