What goes bump- scratch-thud, bump, bump, bump in the attic in the middle of the day?
That was exactly what Mrs. Meshack and I where wondering one morning in the living area of our home.
She looked at me, I looked at her and she said let’s go get Julius!
Luckily for me, Mrs. Meshack was over for a visit and could tell Julius, in Swahili we had heard; because of course when he came in it was dead silent! He left and after a few minutes the noise erupted above the ceiling again, this time from one end of the room to the other and then over the kitchen. He came in again, this time he heard it! The ceilings are about 10 feet and the attic access is in the hall- looked at me and said “wait’. Ok I thought,…

I watched as he went around the yard, gathered some wood and laid out a ladder! He left again, and came back with nails and a hammer and proceeded to make a ladder with which he went into the attic to “see”. I gave him our hand crank flashlight, another large stick and shut all the doors to the hall, hiding in the living/kitchen area! I hear whack, whack, whack, movement, whack,……..etc.
Then to my amazement Mrs. Meshack’s gardener, his buddy, was call from the front door. This was his display:

Bats! Three where up doing who know what in the attic. Julius had literally beaten one to death! This is Julius with his trophy. We left it for John to see when he came home for lunch that day! Funny sort of greenish colored fur. Something about the display reminded me of the boys in the mountains, crawfish claws lined up,…..

He said there where three and that he was going back up to shoo them out and seal up the whole! YEA!!

"When I am afraid, I will trust in You." Psalm 56:3

To Market,...

This is a view of the market area of Dodoma. What I consider the "Hardware" street, but mixed in are various housewares and small general store type markets. The vehicles are in working order, but handcarts are used the most for getting things around. You can see the stacks of large water bottles on the right. Note the brightly colored signs,..that is where you can get your cell phone need taken care of, from charging to chips, buying minutes and phones. "Everyone" uses a cell phone, but text only for the most part, the rate to speak voice to voice is very high, as opposed to the cost of sending a text that can be very long! (It still takes me forever to type, best at "yes" and "no" and "OK!")

The Supermarket:

In downtown Dodoma there are two “supermarkets” for the westerners to find those items that make us feel at “home”. Things like labeled spices, peanut butter, cereal, butter, cheese, packaged fruit juice, bug spray, toilet paper just to name a few. I am looking forward to having, hopefully, someone let me watch them cook. We have had two meals in private homes that have been incredible and I would love to add a few of the dishes into my vocabulary! But,…as expected neither had recipes.
In the mean time I am able to find most things we need or think we need here or across the street at “Two Sisters”.

The owner of the supermarket, note the fresh eggs, I have never seen them refrigerated. When I first arrived, before we had our small refrigerator, we just keep them on the shelves in the pantry. The shelf life is much longer here, and I must admit the eggs are one of my favorite things, always brown, the yolk is very light. Very good!

I still have not braved the butcher shops so if the meat is not frozen,… we do not have it! I have been given two recommendations from others and will soon take that step! Until then, eggs, frozen sliced ham, pork sausages, and fish for us! All located in the deep freezers you see under the windows. The Bags in front of the boxes on the floor is white flour, I have learned to buy that when you see it. I make our bread, three loaves at a time and the white is great,...because at least one is cinnamon raisin! Gave one loaf to Thomas the houseman to take to his wife, never seen that for sale here.

"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:20

Water & Washing

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything,

but only God,

who makes things grow.’
1 Corinthians 3:7

The need for clean drinking water reminds us all of the blessing that God gives us of Himself as He causes us to thirst for Him in Spirit. Daily our need for His fresh spiritual water, and daily our need to renew our supply of filtered water.

John keeps us well supplied by filtering water daily which is used for drinking and cooking. I am very cautious, yet sometimes out of habit find myself walking over to the sink with a glass in my hand!! Did it one day! (Small tummy ache) Luckily the water here is good, I think only the westerners are not drinking from the tap, the University is supplied with “city water”. The area is a bit like Florida with an aquifer beneath, also an underground river runs just behind the hill to the northeast. But the surface is dry.

The plantings are typically built up and a trench established. This is a view from our back door, the hedge is started as outlined by the trench. We are hoping to gravel the immediate area inside and over to the clothesline. All washing and drying done outside- lots of trips in and out, LOTS of dirt in! We hope to get this done before the rains ends and it really gets dry! I have not experienced that yet, but from the looks of the closets,…I have a lot to learn!

View from the kitchen window, glimpse of the garden in front, towards the main road outside the campus. The black lines outside the window to the left are the supports for the water tank at aour house, mounted above the eave line. This tank is our reserve tank, the City of Dodoma still turns the water off to this area most every night. So we limit the water use after 5:00. Currently we have the water turned off to the guest bathroom, a leaking toilet tank valve drained the reserve tank!! We are in week 3 or so of trying to get it fixed, several attempts have failed. Spare parts are difficult, the tank "insides" may not be able to be repaired from lack of parts and may result in the entire replacement of the the toliet. When parts are gone, they are gone! Frequently I am told in shops, "finished" meaning no more!

“What on earth is this?”!! I am sure that is going through the mind and “What is she doing now?”

Well- Mentioned earlier was the fact that we have retrieved some furnishings out of “damaged” storage. Three "chest of drawers” are part of that, all needing a bit of work. (One appears to have been home to a rodent family, complete with arched side entry!) After several cleanings with disinfectant and leaving the drawers open, a bit more encouragement was needed before our clothing could be stored. SO,…..I smashed up a bar of soap I thought smelled good, made pockets out of a small note pad and taped them shut,.. Voila sachets! Could not resist a photo of the afternoon’s work!

Sing to the Lord,...

“ Sing to the Lord a new song: sing to the Lord , all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples” Psalm 96: 1-3

The Chapel at St. John’s University is home to the Kikuyu Parrish and the wonderful Revival choir. I was able to sit in on a choir practice as they rehearsed for the Sunday Swahili service. They rehearse from about 4:00 to 6:30 twice a week. The singing includes movement which is choreographed by the women. The blonde woman is a CMS missionary from the UK. Her husband is a professor here at SJUT and they have two very cute small boys one a little over two and the other five! Before Children, Christine and Paul spent several years in a village in Tanzania, they both speak fluent Swahili, and Christine sang and danced with the choir then as well! I am amazed and impressed with her talent and courage! She holds her own! She and her husband are just beginning an “Alpha” class in Swahili through the Parrish and reaching out to the students. The class just filled yesterday and will start in the next few weeks, what an answer to many prayers.
The young woman is the purple shirt is so fun to watch, I wish you could see her sing and dance, she seem to lead the movements and set the tone all very intuitively. The children you see in the picture with the guitars are just part of it, if feeding is required, the mother just sits and nurses the baby, if they want to sleep, they are placed in a cloth (A Kitenge (Ka-tang-a) is a piece of fabric: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitenge it is used as an outer covering and the fabric is also used to make tops and skirts, headdress, lots of baby slings! Kanga is also fabric but has a border, pictures and often words. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanga_%28African_garment%29 ) on the back life goes on! Singing, dancing so natural.

The man with the guitar in the front row, William, is the choir director and song writer/musician. What a gift! The Chapel will be hosting the election of the new Archbishop of Tanzania this week, we are so blessed to have the current Archbishop as the Chancellor of the University and for this to be the venue of his transition. In honor of this, William is writing two new songs! I can’t wait to see what the Lord bring to life through his gifts!

Going to town

Going to the places He will show us,….

Going to town. Each morning and each evening the road in front of our home gives passage to herds of goats and cows, keep in line and moving on by the long sticks of their masters. I was able to catch a glimpse of them passing the final corner as they head in. I have no idea where they go, but only that they go back and forth each day!

In the foreground you can see the bird cage that Julius the gardener has made and as tried to keep three laughing doves in, according to John. Unfortunately for the doves, the roaming cat viewed the cage and their location as caged cat food. All have served as a food source for the cat! Julius has been unable to keep the cat out,…so the cage has now been dismantled. The bath tub is still there, serves as a work area for Julius.

The plants he has planted and the paths he has made through out the garden are his own design and undertaking. He has used a lot of what I call spider lilies, cannas, zinnias, succulents.
The yard has mangos and one orange tree, some papayas. I love the white “angle trumpets” that are blooming now.

He put in the beginnings of a bougainvillea hedge yesterday and a new, very small guava tree. EVERYONE is planting and putting all sorts of vegetables. This is the rainy season and now is the time. I understand that productivity is an option till august, when the dry season begins and the rains stop. Everything turns brown.
He has put in cabbage, onions, French beans (seeds a gift from Mrs. Meshach), passion fruit. Soon to come are tomatoes, okra, eggplant, an unusual custard apple tree. I hope to be able to send a picture as there is one close by. Also coming is a pomegranate, I love the way it looks and he is putting that in the center of his latest raised garden.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time" Ecclesiates 3:11

"He has made everything beautiful in it's time" Ecclesiates 3:11

Making the Bed

Going to the place He will show us,…

Well, the twin beds pushed together with the blow-up bed on top, … under the twin size mosquito net,… was getting old! So off to town we went to find a “fundi” (maker) for our bed.

We found a group making a style we liked, with the help of two students from the University, we made arrangements and the beds (2) would be ready in three days! They are made right there, by hand with a minimum of machinery, we had really like the head board without the added top piece,.. But when we came to pick it had been added! We are wondering what Chippendale is thinking.

A “brother” of a SJUT Staff had a truck and we arranged to have him help us get the beds home. He also helped us get the foam mattress we needed as well. The wood here is VERY heavy! (We can not even move the bed once we got it together! )

We also had the same “fundi” make us “old fashion settees” to match what we found in the storage rooms at SJUT. The furniture we have out of the storage was made here at SJUT when it operated as a secondary school and taught Vocational skills in woodworking and metal. All are a bit different and well made. Getting the Settees to the house was a different matter. Several days of failed arrangements passed, including John & Brother, getting halfway to town and running out of gas,… before we walked into town, about 45 minutes, to see what we could work out! After several attempt to communicate without the help of the Swahili speaking students, we arranged for two men to bring them out on a hand pushed (metal) cart. I had seen a bed pass our house, as I looked out the kitchen window, the day before in the same manner,… funny how the Lord continues to provide for our needs!

“I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth.” Psalm 121: 1-2

Visit to the fish market and on to Dodoma

Going to the places He will show us,...

From the produce market in Dar Es Salaam, we walked across the street to the fresh fish market on the Indian Ocean. The catch of the day out of sale.

The “snake Fish” was still moving about! Loved the display technique for the fresh shrimp.

"Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope?" Job 41:1

Then off to Dodoma, the St. John's University Driver, Lechipya is a wealth of information as we travel the six hours inland and north to Dodoma. We pass many villages along the way and see the landscape change as we travel up to about 3,400 feet to the dryer region where the capital is set. Although in the photo it is hard to see, we stopped for a group of baboons to pass across the road. That being the only wildlife we saw on the journey.

Mt. Kilimanjaro

Going to the place He will show us...

As we cross into Tanzania we have a beautiful view of
cloud-covered Mt. Kilimanjaro outside the plane window.

After clearing customs and a very brief, pass through immigration (Thank you for all your prayers! John said that he has never been through so smoothly) we were meet by a SJUT driver and given a brief driving tour around the main downtown of Dar Es Salaam. Our first stop was a local fresh produce market.

"Let us not become weary of doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" Galatians 6:9

The Anglican Cathedral, Dodoma

Going to the place that He will show us,…



The Anglican Cathedral in Dodoma, given to the Diocese as a gift from one woman, built in 1933.

“I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’ Psalm 122:1