Pouring Cement

Our days are busy now. The second floor of the administration building is being poured. What a process here to pour cement. First, we had to borrow a mixer from our neighbor, Peter O'Neal. He was gracious enough to lend us his. But then we needed to move it to Havilah. We had to round up a truck big enough to carry it, and enough men to load and unload it on and off the truck. Then we had to rent a motor to turn it. Next we hired 45 people to pour the floor. You might be wondering why in the world do we need 45 people? Well, it takes about 5 people to run the mixer, one puts in a bucket of sand, another water, another cement, another gravel. When the cement is ready, they unload it into buckets and pass it up an assembly line of people to the top floor. They empty their buckets and pass them back down. Then there are people on the roof that are smoothng the cement and putting it in place. Such a long process. It will take about 5 days of this before the top floor is poured.

MISSION GROUP

We have been busy preparing for a mission group from Takoma, Maryland to come to Havilah. They are a group of 31 people, mostly high school-aged young people. There was much to do to prepare for their coming -- houses to clean, slashing the grass, planting the garden, maintenance, buying supplies for building while they are here, landscaping, and even haircuts for the children. They arrived last Friday.

The mamas and I prepared a meal for them with traditional African food. We made chapati, ( a flat bread like a tortilla), beans and rice, ugali and greens, a fresh vegetable salad, and platters of fresh fruit like mango, pineapple, and watermelon.

So this week has been incredibly busy. We had 10 people staying in our house and the rest of the

group staying in the other empty house. The girls in the group stayed with us, and the boys stayed in the other house. It was a blessing to have them here.

They have been working on the new administration/learning center. This is the building project that we are working on right now. We have two houses that are empty that we are working to fill with children and when the new building is finished we will move into an apartment there for the directors. James and I will also have an office for each of us.

While the group was here they were busy seeing sights as well. On Sabbath they hiked for about 3 hours up Mt. Kilimanjaro to a waterfall. They also went in town to Arusha to the Cultural Center. They went on Safari to the Ngorongor Crater. They visited ADRA and the Cradle of Love baby home and a Maasai market in town. We went on the safari with them. What a beautiful place! The Crater has some of the most beautiful scenery. We saw many animals that day as well, but not too many that we haven't seen already, except we saw some lions from a distance. That was really cool. Can't wait til we get to heaven and we can see them up close and have no fear of them! While we were there, we visited a Maasai village. What a great experience! We saw dancing, we went inside their homes (which by the way are made from cow and goat poop -- lots of flies!) We visited with them and learned more about their culture. They have some very interesting traditions. Sabbath evening ended with a wonderful dinner at the Ngordoto Lodge (a beautiful 5 star hotel about 2 miles from us). Thanks to 2 very generous ladies that paid for the whole group. We ate some traditional African food and got to see some acrobatics and dancing. Really cool. Some of the kids even took a swim. What a beautiful evening. It was so nice to "get out". The group left on Sunday and things have been back to "normal" this week.

Blessings to you all for a wonderful week ahead.

Safari!

We had the opportunity to take the kids on safari (big thanks to Ned and Emily for donating the funds)! We rented a bus and off we went to Tarangire National Park. We all had such an enjoyable time. Below are pictures of the many animals we saw. This park is home to many, many elephants. You will find more here than any other national park in Tanzania. That's why you see so many pictures of them. We took a picnic lunch and ate outside at the park. The day was hot, but on the way home it rained very hard. We were glad we had nice weather while we were in the park.

Christmas in Africa

The children received gifts like blocks, barbie dolls, cars, radios for the older kids, helicopters for the boys, and dolls for the younger girls. They all got a new pair of pajamas from teacher Maureen that look so adorable on them. On Christmas day, James, Maddy and I spent from 8:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night in the kitchen, with little break. We made homemade dinner rolls, apple pie, apple crisp, carmel apples for the kids (they have never had these!), potatoes and gravy, corn, Special K loaf (sort of) for us and we roasted 8 chickens for them. They are not vegetarians as we are, but we don't buy any meat for them. Since this was a special occasion we decided to buy chicken for them. It was lip smacking good I was told. And the carmel apples were a big hit.

Christmas Comes Early

Christmas came early to Havilah. Ned Greene, the first director, came for a visit on December 17 - 20. The children were so excited to see him. Our older children remember him very well. The little ones somewhat and we have some that have never met him. But it was so funny. They ALL ran out to meet him, whether they knew him or not. He just enjoyed being around the children for 3 days. He took them for walks and hung out with them. He went to church with us as well. On Saturday evening Ned gave gifts to the kids. He brought each of them a homemade coloring book, with a special nickname on the front. He also brought some DVDs of cartoons, and some CDs with children's music. He bought them 3 new scooters, balls, and jumpropes. They are so much enjoying his gifts. James, Maddy and I enjoyed meeting Ned as well and hearing his stories and asking him questions about things they did when he was here.

Christmas Break

The children are on a break from school (the ones who attend the primary school). Actually, their break began on November 22. So we decided to take them to town for pizza. We are trying to work on their manners around other people. They did very well and we were pleased with their behavior.

Yesterday we decorated Christmas cookies and Christmas trees. We also made some homemade decorations for the tree. I am not sure if they have decorated cookies before, but they really seemed to enjoy it, especially the little ones. We had frosting on the table, on the chairs, on them and even a little on the cookies! They are so excited and counting the days until Christmas. These are pictures of their trees. The first is House 2 and the third is House 1.

Busy Month!

October was a busy month for us. On the 13th we celebrated Abdul's 7th birthday. The children have been busy visiting their families. On Sundays, Uncle James takes them around in the van to the families that live close by and the children have a chance to spend some time with their grandparents or aunties.

They have been studying hard in school and some of them are tutoring after school. We have divided the children that study here at our school into two groups. We have a morning class with the beginners and an afternoon class with the children that are a little more advanced.

Yesterday, we celebrated another birthday. It was the 8th birthday for Dorcas. It was a beautiful day so we had a picnic supper, complete with cake and ice cream. We played games like duck, duck, goose and relay tag. The children were tired out and ready for bed after they had played so hard and ate so much!