Our travels to Berega Tanzania for Hands4Africa: 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

Monday 6-30-14

Our last full day here in Berega has come. I was so mixed with emotions today, one minute I would be happy, the next nearly crying. I made the decision that today would be a very good day. I got the kids some breakfast and they ate and watched “All dogs go to heaven”. I called and chatted with Asa on Skype and then got a message from my mom that she couldn’t sleep so I called her also. She was so excited that we are coming home so soon that she kept breaking down into tears. As I was getting ready to get off the Skype with her, Mr. Malanda came over. Logan had told him I may be interested in some of the stones he had. I told him I didn’t have much money, but he ended up giving me a pretty good deal and so I got a few of the stones from him. As he was packing up he gave each of the kids like four stones each because of how excited they were about the stones. It was awesome. Included in those were a few large amethysts. Lastly he gave me a very pretty red stone for my Mama back in America. He heard me telling her I loved her and I would talk to her later. He owns one of the local pubs and was a good friend of Logan’s; just a very nice man.

Once he left, I jumped in the shower and got myself cleaned up. My ear infection is coming back, so I may need to get some antibiotics from Dr. David. I sent the kids over to Charlene’s to invite them over for some coffee since they only have instant, but they didn’t answer for Ayla and Jove. I had already gotten the water boiling, so I asked the kids if they wanted some hot cocoa, they answered “Can we have some coffee with you?” So I figured why not, and I made theirs more like hot cocoa, but it was still coffee and they were so excited and feeling all big having coffee in the morning with mom. Coffee and chipmunk music; what could be better J

After we finished with our coffee, we went up to the Monday market. Our first stop was to see Stan to pick up our clothes I had him make. They were beautiful. We said our goodbyes and he let me know that Samweli would come over later on today. The kids and I walked around the market. I got a few tomatoes since the kids have wanted to eat tomatoes as if they were apples. We also picked up an eggplant for dinner (for me, the kids don’t want it), and a mess of suckers for the plane ride.

On the way home we met up with Farida, Pili, and another girl that I didn’t know. They came home with us and the kids all swung on the swing for a little while. Every few minutes Ayla or Jove would run inside asking for another tomato. I have never seen them eat so many; they must be not getting enough of a vitamin or something. When the girls left, Ayla and Jove came inside to eat their beanie weenies and they watched little bits of different movies. I cleaned up the fort so I could get a grasp on what I still needed to do to clean and pack. Jove decided to go outside and saw his favorite guard. I noticed and started taking pictures. Ayla went outside when I went to check and see what they were talking about. Jove had found a very large crystal-ish rock and was digging up all kinds of smaller ones. Ayla came up and they decided to break apart the bigger stone. The guard decided to help them. He is such a happy man; it is hard to not just want to smile around him. Just before I was getting ready to head back to the house, he called Ayla and Jove over “my friends come”, so that I could take a picture of the three of them together. This is the same guard that was playing with Jove yesterday. I like him; he is by far the best of the bunch of guards that have been keeping an eye on the house.

I came inside to go through the fridge and freezer and figure out what I could get the kids to eat for dinner. They decided on hotdogs with ketchup and sweet and sour sauce. It worked for me because those things needed to get eaten up also. I had combined some tomatoes, eggplant, onions, and garlic with some leftover cream of potato soup for myself. I spent some time and got nearly all the andazi cut up and made into peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches. I also cut some into quarters and had them covered in the powdered sugar mix so they would be like donut holes. I hope that it is enough for us for tomorrow and for the plane trip. There were 14 nutella sammies, 14 jelly sammies, and maybe 10 cut up into the donut holes. We will feed Abdallah as we should since he is driving us tomorrow. I think we will have plenty. I wish that more kids would have showed up for our dance party on Saturday, but as it turns out it was a good thing because now I will have food for our trip.

We got many visitors to say goodbye and went over to Ruth and Isaac’s house near 6:00 to say our goodbyes there. I tried to cut the swing down a good three or four times and every time I did, the kids would cry out and run over to swing. It is funny, they don’t play on it much unless I go out there to take it away. I told them they could have ten minutes then no matter what they did, even if they were on the swing, I was climbing the tree to cut it down.

Samweli finally came. I was so worried he was going to not come today because he was sad. I got a few good pictures of us and a lot of snuggle time in with my buddy. I was very happy I got to see him again.

Mr. Malanda came to show me some yellow tourmaline. He said he wanted to see if I was interested, but when he told me he wanted 100,000 tsh I told him there was no way I could do that for the 6 stones even though they were very nice. Jove got very sad and started to cry. A half hour later Mr. Malanda came back asking for half of what he originally did. I still told him that I couldn’t do it. Then it went down to 20 then 10,000. I asked him if he was sure and he said that he felt bad that Jove got so sad that he couldn’t get the pretty stones that he really wanted Jove to have them and that he could deal with the almost no money because he was getting some good jobs. The 10,000 tsh works out to be about $7.50 maybe, so I was fine paying that for the few nice stones. They really are very pretty. I think my dad or brother could cut something very nice with those. I thanked Mr. Malanda many times and he asked if he could get a picture with the kids. I was happy to oblige.

Samweli, Farida, and Joan ended up going home about 8:00 which was when I was normally putting the kids down. I just didn’t want to send them away because I knew this was the last time that they would all be able to play together since we leave so early in the morning. Ayla broke down into tears at quite a few different points during the evening. I felt so bad for her, she has just the worst time dealing with change and she has grown so close to so many of the people here.

Charlene and Scott stuck around for a little while longer and gave hugs many times also. They told me how grateful they were that I was here and helped them through so much. I told them that they did the same thing for me so we were all good. I have met some amazing people on this trip and I am just so happy that I was given this opportunity. I have learned so much and as a person I have grown in ways that I never expected. I have had some crazy moments, some ups and downs; looking back I wouldn’t want anything to change, nothing.

I look forward to being back home with my husband and pets, but I know that this place, these people, will be a part of me for the rest of my life. They have given me so much and I just hope that they feel I have given them something in return. To everyone that I am leaving behind, you will be missed and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for welcoming us so warmly.

Sunday 6-29-14

The kids woke up and I just wasn’t ready yet, so they went out into the living room and put on “All dogs go to heaven 2” They maybe got 15 minutes into it before the power went out. I was proud of them for turning my computer off knowing that the battery doesn’t last long and I might want the battery power to write my journal later that same day. With no power, they couldn’t entertain themselves, so whether I was ready or not, it was time for me to wake up. I got each of them two andazi with the cinnamon powdered sugar. Ayla was so grateful but Jove just said how he wanted Oreo cookies instead.

The kids really wanted me to read a book to them, “Detective Mole”. I made coffee first then we read the book and Ayla colored a paper airplane. Next on the child agenda was building a fort. I figured it is almost time to leave, so why not. They got to use nearly all the living room to make a massive blanket and pillow fort.

Jove decided to remake their list of items they wanted to buy from the dollar store once we get back home. First on the list was a vase, then book of stickers. Next up on the list was crayons, but he had a meltdown at this word. He asked how to spell it. I do spelling by sounding out with him, and he did not like how I pronounced the word. He says ‘crawons’ and he wanted me to say it that way. I told him I would not pronounce a word incorrectly on purpose, that when I realize I am saying a word wrong, I try my best to correct that. Jove is just so stubborn, he just wouldn’t drop it. He even tried getting me to give him the pencil back that I was using to make my journal notes, since the power was out. Poor little guy, the last few days he has been having more and more meltdowns. I think he is ready to get home. When he finally calmed down, he asked how to spell how he says crayons. I explained to him that no matter how you pronounce it, it is still the same word. That seemed to help him chill out a little. While all that happened Ayla snuggled with me as if to say “It’s okay Mommy, I am being good.” Although the spelling everything phase he is in right now gets a little annoying at times, his spelling is getting better. Ayla even helps with the spelling of words and so it is helping her sound out words also. It is a nice win-win situation.

Samweli came over and the three kids played in the massive fort. They laid and sang jolly songs. I got a video of them singing together having a great time. It is moments like those that I want to remember. After awhile they got bored of that. Jove went outside to find caterpillars. The guard ended up hanging out with Jove. They searched for seeds together and Jove kept counting in Swahili to the guard, and the guard was trying to say things in English to Jove. It was such a sweet scene to watch. I asked the guard if I could take a picture of them together and was very happy when he said it was okay. I think Jove will really appreciate it in the future. The guard kept referring to Jove as “his boyfriend”. I love the translation awkwardness that comes about when individuals are learning a new language.

All the time that Jove was outside, Ayla and Samweli were inside making paper airplanes. Tape was used to make some that were five planes thick, or two planes long. They had so much fun, and then Ayla made him a large paper purse so he could carry all his planes home. She didn’t want him to end up dropping any. Samweli decided to head home for a while at that point. So I sent him home with some oranges and limes that I knew I would not get a chance to use before we leave. He was pretty excited about it. Once he left, Ayla made a few comments about wishing Samweli hadn’t left. I think she is really going to miss him, even though they fight a little like brother and sister. It is hard to remember sometimes that Samweli is 10 and Ayla only nearly 7. We are all going to miss that one; he really has become one of my children. I have to not think about leaving him because every time I do I tear up pretty bad.

Joan and Wendo came over to play in the fort. I figured even being Sunday, 1:00 in the afternoon was late enough to make the kids wait before getting their friends. It was after all one of our last days before leaving.

The guard had misunderstood his task a little. It was a different guard from this morning. I had been packing all day, driving myself crazy trying to get everything taken care of. When I finally stopped to have a very late lunch (after having no breakfast) I kicked the kids all outside to play on the swing. I just wanted a little quiet time to read and eat where I didn’t have kids yelling right next to me. They were all being good, but still… The kids came back nearly in tears (only mine nearly in tears) because the guard came over and told them to go and he tangled the swing up high so they could not play on it. I tried to tell him they were allowed to play, but he didn’t understand. I had Joan translate for him and he finally understood and got the swing back down. I thanked him. I would have figured that it was obvious that they could play on the swing since Ayla and Jove were two of the four trying to play and it is after all our backyard and our swing, but whatever, all was resolved and they were playing. I needed that quiet time to eat and read. It wasn’t the quietest since I could still hear everything, but it wasn’t in the same room with me, so it was better.

This had been one of the longest days I had had in a very long time. Time just couldn’t pass quickly enough. Everything I could pack, I packed. The house was decently cleaned up so there wasn’t really a whole lot for me to do. With having no power today, it made things a bit more difficult. The kids can entertain themselves for only so long before they drive each other and me a little crazy.

After a while, Ayla and Jove asked if they could go visit Teacher Charlene. I told them it was okay so long as they stayed together. Once they left I even fell asleep for a while on the couch. I needed the nap so bad. When I woke up, I was still just as antsy and lost feeling. It was still as if time were at a standstill. I went over to Charlene’s to check on my munchkins. As I went out front I noticed this massive swarm of bees right around the area where I burned the trash during the morning. There must have been a few thousand of them. I had to go very wide around to avoid them. I was worried that if I got to close I would get stung, there were that many of them. When I got over tho their house they had power. They are so close it isn’t fair they have power and I don’t. I know that sounds super childish, but it was how I had been feeling.

We got back to the hosue and I made parmesean noodles and tuna with canned cheese on the side for the kids’ dinner. They were pretty happy about it. Ayla and Jove had just sat down to eat when Samweli showed back up again. I didn’t have enough to feed him also, but I didn’t want to make him leave. I gave him an andazi and he played in the fort while they ate. Jove kept not listening and Samweli looked at me and asked “Why is Jove so terrible?” It was pretty funny hearing this come from him. I am going to miss him so much. It will be nice though not having a kid follow me around everywhere like a little puppy, no matter what I am doing. He just loves me so much when he is over he wants to be right there with me.

We will have to get the Marty Stouffers Wild America again. We brought it for it to stay here and when Jove saw it and I told him we weren’t packing it he got pretty sad.

The kids played very sweet together. My three children make me smile when they are all being good. Man I am going to miss Samweli. The kids went outside to play once Ayla and Jove were finished with their dinner. Jove was almost done in fact, but he took a fistful of tuna and went outside to play with the others. Joan and Wendo came over for a little while also. Samweli told me that he knew why we had no power. There was no money on the Tenesco box. Well shit! I texted Isaac and Ruth, but after two hours I still hadn’t heard back, so I decided to tuck into bed also and read my book. Before tucking in, I read a little while on the couch so I could eat some andazi with the spiced sugar mix and some Nutella. I could so get fat on andazi, they are so good with the sugar.

At 8:00 I got a message from Ruth saying she had just gotten my message and sent someone to get the power credits. About forty minutes later we had power back on. I was so very grateful to Ruth for getting it back on so quickly after seeing the message. I was also so grateful to Samweli for telling me what was going on.

I ended up ending my day using my tablet in bed texting with Asa on Facebook a little. I wish I could have talked to him longer because I was having a hard time settling down, but he had disk golf to get to. I decided to force myself into going to bed. After about an hour of laying there I did finally fall asleep.

Saturday 6-28-14

Saturday 6-6-28-14

Ayla was the first to wake and the power seemed to be off, but when I ended up waking up because Bibi Hasani came to the door I realized that it is just the lights that don’t work again. I got Bibi Hasani the laundry then sent Isaac a message to let him know that the lights are doing that strange thing again and that we are also out of ground water. I was glad that we had the outlets working since tonight was our little dance party. Anne and David had their Holiday party today it ended at 5pm, it worked out nicely because then I knew I would only have the kids at the house for about two hours until dark. When it seemed like the water had gotten back on, I decided to take my shower. I had maybe 30 seconds of water before the pipes emptied out. I later realized it was a large airpocket in the pipes, but still, my shower wasn’t nearly long enough to get me clean or perk me up.

The kids found their washawasha again. Ruth and the guard were nervous because the caterpillars could leave the hairs as spines, but I let them know that the kids are very gentle and have been taught how to properly hold a caterpillar so that they would not put their spines out. Ruth was amazed that this could be done. I love informing people about the little things like that. While Ruth was still here, I also had her translate for me to tell Bibi Hasani thank you so much for everything since today will be the last day we have her come do laundry. She thanked me back for giving her something to do and money for her family. Every day I realize how much more I am going to miss this place. If only Asa could have stayed, I would have never wanted to leave this place.

I took the kids to the holiday party. Even though Ruth told us it started at 9:30 it wasn’t until about 10:30 until kids started showing up. So we sat for a while and then they started singing Swahili church music since the party was put on through Anne and David’s church. Ayla and Jove were pretty uncomfortable because they didn’t understand any of what was going on, but Jove was a good boy and stood up and clapped with everyone else. Ayla got so scared I had to bring her home. I went back to check on Jove and he was saying he couldn’t do any of the games, so I brought him with me to go see if I could get some andazi for our dance party. I was disappointed when we got to Bismillah and she told me that they only had chipati. I tried asking if they would get some later, but she didn’t understand me.

It is not the end of the day right now, but when I am able, I try to journal throughout the day so I don’t forget anything. I am having a low moment right now so I thought maybe I would feel better if I just got on and wrote. Nothing seems to be going the way it should today. Ayla and Jove couldn’t handle the holiday party, there was no andazi made up, the kids are antsy for their dance party and so they are not listening or behaving well for me, and I when I went to call Asa Skype wouldn’t let him hear me. It is bad enough that of my three devices that I have here, only one will sometimes accept the wifi signal and actually work, but now that even when it works, it doesn’t really work. I am just having a moment of feeling defeated I guess. Hopefully it passes quickly.

I texted Logan to see if he could help me get hooked up with some andazi for tonight. He had Burton come see me and he was able to find a lady to make up the 100 andazi for me all in the next three hours. I am feeling much better about things, hopefully it turns out that they show up on time. I can’t make more powdered sugar because the power isn’t strong enough to use that much electricity that the blender would use. But I have some made up so all should be good.

I have been trying to pull myself out of this funk mood I have been in most of the day. I got up to stir my red beans and rice I am making for dinner and I hear Jove counting in Swahili for the guard outside in the front yard. It is quite adorable. Even if much of the stress I feel derives from those two, they can also pull me out of a bad mood just as easily.

I made red beans and rice for dinner. The kids and I ate with some despicable me. Before I knew it 5:00 had come and I set up the computer out front to have music. Samweli, Farida, and Joan were there right on time. We had a few of the little ones show up a bit later and so did Mbuli, but other than that, no one else showed up. I was a little disappointed because I had 100 andazi made up fresh and delivered to the house. Once I started to think about it, I was no longer upset. I can use those as sandwich bread and snacks for the next few days and I can now make up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the plane ride and I don’t have to bake the bread. The few kids that came each got two andazi covered in powdered sugar (I wanted to give more but I was afraid that they would get upset stomachs).

The kids that were here played and danced for the two hours until it was dark. We had tickle fights and chase each other. Charlene and Scott got here in the middle and so they joined in the fun also. There were a few injuries and Ayla broke her sandals, but all went well. It wasn’t what I planned on, but it was a lot of fun. When it got dark I had the kids all go home so I could get Ayla and Jove set for bed. Today was the first day in a while that they actually asked to do their journals. I am glad that even though they didn’t have too many friends come, they still had a good enough time to where they wanted to write about it. Ayla even told me she was going to go onto a third page.

Kids went to bed pretty easily and I watched one of my favorite chick flicks “how to lose a guy in 10 days” I don’t care how bad it is, I love that movie so much. Nothing like relaxing eating a second helping of dinner then a few fresh hot andazi covered in sugar. Yum yum! I am very happy to say that my second half of the day was leaps and bounds better than the first half.

Friday 6-27-14

There are only three more full days until we leave for Dar. I really figured that this week once I stopped teaching would take forever, but it is going by quickly and has been very relaxing. It was just what I needed. I have had no schedule, I cook when I want, clean when I want, play with the kids, read my book, basically just whatever I want to do. It has been a while since I have felt that freedom.

The kids were the first to wake up, as usual. Logan and his friend slept in until quite late considering all the noise Ayla and Jove make in the morning. The two of them started to fight about what movie to watch and so Jove came into bed and snuggled with me. We had a tickle fight. It wasn’t too long before Ayla heard the commotion and decided she wanted to have some tickle fun also. It is moments like those that just make me so happy. After, I decided it was time to get up and help kids with food and make some coffee for myself. They watched Monster’s University for a while then lost interest and began making paper purses. I took that opportunity to use my computer since none of my other devises work with the internet the last few days. I made a Skype attempt so I could talk to Asa. It worked for a little while then he couldn’t really hear me anymore, but I at least got to talk for a little while. I think it did the both of us some good.

The kids played for a while then it was bath time. I figured to stop the arguing I would give them some kid music to go with their bath time. They both started dancing around in the tub then came out to dance. While still in the tub, Ayla started calling Jove a hedgehog in Swahili. It was too funny. Hedgehog is nungu nungu. She was also trying to teach him how to say “I love you mom and dad.” “Nakupenda wewe mama na baba”. I believe the wewe is unnecessary here but she insists on it. I love happy silly kids so very much.

We played for the morning, then at 11:00 we went off to the school for lunch. The kids were all so excited when we got there. There was still about another half hour of play time before leaving then we walked on over to the lunch room. When we got to the lunch room we were 7 minutes early, but it took another half hour before the rice, meat, and beans were ready. It was too bad because the kids were all so very excited to have it ready so they could eat. This lunch was a very special thing for them all. Once it was served up the lunchroom became so quiet except for the sound of eating. I have never seen kids eat so much so fast; except mine of course. Ayla loved it, but still ate slowly. Jove still doesn’t like rice for some reason, so he ate his beans and meat, but ended up tossing his rice. I told him he should have given it to someone else so it would not be wasted.

After lunch we all gathered back at the school. There was some tembo tembo lion played; this is known to the rest of us as duck duck goose. We also played Simon Says, and then Charlene got out stickers and had each of the kids say what they wanted to be. There were lots of teachers and doctors, many ninjas, a few pilots and pirates. Ayla said she wanted to be a chef and Jove was the first that said he actually wanted to be a pirate, but Jove wants to be a nice pirate that steals from bad guys and gives it to good guys, like Robin Hood.

When we got back to the house Jove got pretty whiney, but then we cuddled together on the couch and he started telling me about how when he is older he wants to do like 100 things, from pirate and pilot, to chef, guy who eats the food, etc. It was so cute. Teacher Gladness came over because Ayla said she would make her a bracelet. So Ayla and Teacher Gladness sat at the table and made bracelets for each other. It was so sweet. Teacher Gladness looks older, but she is only 19 years old or there about. Every time the topic of leaving comes up, Ayla gets pretty sad. I know she will be happy to be home with her daddy and pets again, but she is really going to miss everyone here. Jove handles change much better; poor Ayla is just so gentle in that way.

The next few hours after Teacher Gladness left were spent outside since the power was out. The kids had found a massive caterpillar hive, nest, cluster, not sure what it would be called. So I sat inside reading listening to “Ayla, Ayla, Jovu (everyone calls Jove, Jovu), Jovu… Look more washa washa (caterpillar)” They at one point brought over a bucket and it must have had at least fifty caterpillars all crawling around on each other. It was kind of disgusting actually, but they were having so much fun.

Scott invited the kids and I for dinner; goat, beans, and rice. He doesn’t quite know how to cook here yet, so we shall see how it turns out J. Without power I was getting a little crazy, so I decided to clean the kitchen and make something for dessert. I was going to make a cake that Mamaliz had gotten the mix for frosting and cake a while back in Morogoro, but I need the blender to make the frosting, so that was a no go. We had plenty of Nutella left, so I decided to make chocolate custard instead. I was quite impressed with how it turned out.

The kids all came up to the house to show me the massive amount of caterpillars they had found. I found enough spoons to give each of the kids a taste of the chocolate pudding I had made. They all got very excited. Just one spoonful and some of the happiest faces I have seen in a long time. They can all be so very sweet. I told them all they could have just a little longer then it would be time for Ayla and Jove to have dinner.

We had beans and rice thanks to Scott and Charlene. Jove had only beans, he still doesn’t like rice, but they both ate pretty well. While eating dinner we watched “Dinosaur”. After dinner we had the chocolate pudding and again, I was so pleased. It was a great meal all around. I went to get them set up for their baths and next thing I know they are both running around naked. Go figure, I thought the kids were shy around other people, or at least Ayla was, not in front of Scott and Charlene. It drives me nuts, but at the same time it was nice to see my girl back that wasn’t so nervous in her own body. I like the innocence that comes with young childhood.

I almost forgot, there was a massive bee swarm out the back door for many hours today. It was insanely loud. They did finally go away, but I was amazed. I luckily know neither of the kids are allergic, but it had me worried enough because of the sheer number of them that I wouldn’t let the kids go out back for a while. The noise of them was quite soothing though. After they left, I kind of wished they would have come back.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thursday 6-26-14

Last night as we talked with Asa on the computer he told the kids that if they didn’t let me sleep in until 9am he was going to take their pillows away at home. It was really funny. Ayla got on and said “No daddy please don’t” So the kids woke up early and did a pretty good job about leaving me alone to lie in bed; until they started wanting a fort that is. Last night I told them it was time to clean up their fort. Neither of them wanted to clean it up, so I told them that was fine, I would clean it up, but there would be no more forts. Ayla is very much regretting that decision today. But as I lay in bed I hear Jove “Ayla when is your birthday? Then we can make a fort on August 14 and May 4 because those are our birthdays and birthdays we can do anything!” It was just the cutest thing around, and even though it wasn’t my 9am time to get up, I had to get up to write it down, just in case I did fall back asleep and forgot. Next Jove starts trying to run his head into the wall and hitting himself in the face. He wanted to make himself cry just like Ayla was crying. I have a feeling Jove is going to be a silly silly boy today.

I made my cup of coffee and went into the room to read my book since it wasn’t even 9am yet. As I lie there, I realized, I can lie in bed and read anywhere, only here will I have this view, so I grabbed a sweater, my book, and my coffee and went out back to sit and enjoy the view. “Enjoy, Enjoy, before you die”; I will never forget that song; it just so sums up this place perfectly. I tried reading, but either I would see something I wanted to watch like the beautiful yellow bird that likes to taunt me and Mamaliz, or some chickens coming to say hi. Those I enjoyed, the kids continuing to yell “I am going to tell mom.” “Mommy, Jove is doing this, or Ayla is doing this”, were not the most pleasant thing to stop reading for. But today is beautiful, I am not hurting as bad as I was yesterday so I think it will be a good day. I see a nice walk in our near future. Charlene wanted something to do today, so we will see if she wants to come with us. Then I think tomorrow we will all go to the school before lunch and eat lunch with the kids one last time then join them to play after lunch. I really want some more videos of them singing and dancing, so hopefully these plans work out. I still can’t believe my time here is getting so close to ending. I have had few moments in my life that were as bitter sweet as this. I so badly want to go home and be with my husband and pets again, but at the same time, I love it here so much and if I had the rest of my little family here and a way to continue to earn money so I could go visit the rest of my family on a regular basis, I would never leave.

Ayla and Jove started yelling outside for me to come see, they saw a dwarf hat and they thought they could see the dwarf face. So I went outside to entertain their game. When I got outside, the guard watching over our house came over to make sure everything was okay. Luckily he had enough English and I was able to explain the kids were being silly and pretending they saw a make believe tiny man in the bushes. I don’t think he fully understood, but still. The kids and I walked into the bushes where they said they saw the dwarf, then they came back and both had this look of sheer disappointment. They said “Mommy, it wasn’t a dwarf at all, it was just leaves”. How cute can they be when they use their imaginations? I love it.

So Teacher Pasiana came by to have me put my scores on the report cards they had me make up yesterday (my first day off). I did it then asked Mamaliz a few questions about it. She told me that first, she doesn’t do ranking at the school and she has told the other teachers that before. So I revised the paper quickly and printed up new. When I brought them in to the teachers, Grace wasn’t even there. Beatrice claims she had an emergency and wasn’t at school today. I think it is more that I wasn’t there and so they decided to slack. Anyways, Beatrice tried to ask me about doing the teachers comments and signing all of the papers. I told her that I was on my vacation now. That my vacation started the day before and that since the school wasn’t actually official yet, the items like report cards were extra and that since they wanted them done and I made them up for them, they could do the comments and sign them. Beatrice looked utterly amazed that I didn’t just jump into doing what she asked right then and there. Oh well. Then she asked if I was coming back to school later and I told her that I would probably not be back at the school, that I planned on going for a walk with my kids and basically just playing and enjoying our last week here. She was not happy about that, but I don’t even care. I busted my butt for the last month and now I get to enjoy my vacation.

I heated up some of the leftover lasagna type food for lunch. It is amazing how fast the kids can make my good day bad simply by not listening about food. Jove dumped water into his bowl of food and I am making him eat it anyways. I just wish that for one day I could get to not raise my voice. I really hate my angry voice.

So I can’t remember which days it was that I turned the fridge off to let the pipes defrost, but it stopped working again through the night. So once again I am without a fridge. At least I don’t have much food to refrigerate being the last week we are here. I plan on making lots of beans and hotdogs over the next few days to use up what is in the freezer so it can get turned off all the way. So excited at how close it is getting.

Ayla gave me a story book she made up late last night. It is entitled “Sarah and Asa Married” by Ayla Ilistradid by Ayla J The first chapter in the book is called “I love you too” It reads: “Once there was a very nice woman named Sarah. There was a very nice man named Asa. Asa said you are the best liveing sole. So Sarah said I love you.”

It was the sweetest thing when she gave this to me, I nearly cried. Just looking at it makes me tear up. I am so happy that Asa and I have managed to show them such a good and loving relationship that this is the view she has of married life.

Jove disappeared for about an hour. I figured he was nearby so at first I wasn’t worried. When it made it to the hour and a half mark, I got worried and went looking for him. He went just down the hill to Teacher Charlene’s house. There was Samweli, Joan, and Farida there also. They had taken over Charlene’s computer and they were all watching Finding Nemo. I decided to come back to the house to have quiet time to continue with my packing, cleaning, and cooking. Logan is coming to surprise all the kids so I decided I should have something to feed the guy; cream of potato soup with fresh baked French type bread.

I had a kitchen helper when I was working on the soup. Jove wanted to help wash the potatoes. I was so excited because I really didn’t want to have to wash them. Farida and Joan came in and started to help him. It was too cute watching them all clean together.

I was on Facebook and Jove saw this picture of a bearded Batman slapping Robin saying “be a man”, Jove saw it and said “poor Robin. Is Robin the one that gives money back to people?” I told him that would be Robin Hood. He thought it was so funny. I love that they have turned the attitudes around and have been so good.

Logan got here to surprise all the kids. Ayla already knew but the look on Jove’s face was hilarious. We all ate soup and bread while watching The Little Mermaid. I love that movie, but still, I watch so many kids’ movies that I really wished one of my other devises would accept the internet signal. I could have been on Facebook or anything else. So I ate my food then cleaned the kitchen and floors. There are moments when I can enjoy a kids movie, and today just wasn’t one of them.

Ruth came by to let me know how much it would be to get all the kids rice, beans, and meat as the school closing special lunch. It is something they do every year. I spoke with Mamaliz and she said to just do the rice and beans because of the cost of having so many children. I was talking about it with Charlene and we decided that they were so excited about it that we would all split the cost so that we could still do it. Between the little bit Mamaliz would have spent if she were here, what I donated and what Charlene did, all the kids in the school will get a special lunch tomorrow. The two of us will go and we will bring Ayla and Jove tomorrow for lunch also. All the kids kept asking if we could go and have one last lunch with them. I think it will be a very good way to basically say goodbye to many of them. Many of the boarding kids will be leaving on Saturday to go back home to their own villages nearby.

Wednesday 6-25-14

I have to say, it feels weird sitting here in the house still in my pajamas knowing it would normally be the time I would head off to school. I tried my best to sleep in, but with two kids that refuse to sleep in themselves, and then with Bibi Hasani coming to do laundry, it was difficult to be able to stay asleep. Oh well, coffee is being made and I will start reading “I am Malala” today. I still wish I could have slept in past 6:30 on my first day off though. This is life however, so it is all good.

I forgot until after I posted blog, but Ayla was so cute yesterday. That girl has a musician’s heart. She decided she loved Teacher Logan’s ukulele so much that she made one of her own out of wood, string, and beads. It has to be one of the cutest things I have ever seen her do. I think for her birthday we should find something for her. She was very into the guitar the day we went over to Anne and David’s also. My girl just loves music in any way shape or form.

For lunch I made beans and greens (upon the kids request), but it took hours for them to eat. They both did finally eat though. I also made a nice big batch of the banana peanut butter bread; this time with raspberry jelly on the top. I told the kids that they would not get any until they ate all their lunch, then all their dinner later. It was just the sort of motivation that they needed, they type they could eat J

I spent the majority of my morning reading my book. So far, it is very good. I am quite pleased. I spent some time on Skype with my mom and some time on with Asa. The kids enjoyed talking to their daddy. Sometimes I forget about how much they must miss him also. I was so tired today because of lack of sleep that I know I was a little grumpier than normal. I tried my best to not let the little annoying kid things get to me. I think I did a decent job. The kids spent the day watching movies and when school let out, they played for a while with Joan and Farida. I was happy for the peace and quiet.

Almost at the last minute I decided to make a lasagna type dinner tonight. I was on Skype with Asa while cutting tomatoes and getting my marinara prepped. Teachers Grace and Beatrice showed up with a paper that they wanted me to correct then type and make copies. They were being so confusing in getting what they wanted me to do; I had to get off the phone with Asa. When I was finally able to figure out what they wanted, I told them that I would bring it in to the school tomorrow. I was a little irritated when they said they needed it back tonight. I at least made them wait two hours because I needed to get the dinner started. Sometimes I know that I am just too nice. In no way would Mamaliz would have accepted something like that, nor would they ever have asked her. Either way, it didn’t take too long to make up. The part that really upset me was when Beatrice showed up 40 minutes late to pick the papers up. Just no respect when it comes to showing up on time.

Ayla and Jove were so hungry for dinner tonight. When it was finally ready and I gave them some, they both inhaled. Ayla repeated over and over again that it was the best meal in Africa. When I asked her if it was better than the fried chicken, she said it was equal with it. I told her that daddy told me he was mad that the kids liked my cooking more than his. Her response to that was that we are both equal with 80 million thousand percent good. I was just so glad that the kids ate their dinner without complaint. It was pretty good though. I was quite pleased with my abilities to cook here. I have been successful in cooking just about everything I have tried; from cookies, to breads, to curry, fried chicken, even lasagna. I never knew I had it in me.

I was happy it was a decently relaxing day. I needed it, although it would have been better with more sleep. Other than all that, I have tried to figure out why the internet will work on the computer and phone, but not the tablet, and now it is working on the phone only. I just don’t get why it shows that the network is available, is connected, has good strength, but doesn’t work. It just drives me crazy. It is especially annoying when it works for others, but will not work for me. It will be nice to have reliable internet when we get home. Only thing is, is that I will not really have much need to be on the internet when I get home. Not like I will be blogging anymore. Daily life here is interesting, there, it is just the same old same old. Either way, I am looking forward to the ease of everything there, even if it will probably drive me crazy after a short period of time.

Tuesday 6-24-14

Oh my goodness, I woke up in the middle of the night last night to get Jove up to go to the bathroom. When I tucked him back in, I went to give him and Ayla both a kiss. Ayla had a scarf wrapped around her head and neck to keep herself warm. It was so tight she could have choked herself pretty easily. I had to have a talk with her about how we can never wrap things like that around our neck then go to sleep. She even kept trying to argue with me about how if she does it loose it is okay even if it is at night in bed. NO it is never okay, just don’t do it and don’t argue with me. That was fun.

Anyways, today was great. We woke up, I had a delicious cup of coffee and got all my stuff ready to go for school and even got to Skype a bit with Asa before going to school. After I got to school I realized I left the teachers copy of the tests at home so I had to improvise a few sections and change them on the teachers copy later on, but all worked out great. In std1 I moved the kids around and separated kids that I thought would cheat, then we started. It went very smoothly, I was pleased. There isn’t really much to say about it, just moving along section by section trying to keep the slow ones at pace with the rest of the class. Before I realized it, our test was over and I was moving over to std3 with Teacher Charlene.

When we moved over there, I discovered that Teacher Grace didn’t realize she could start her exams this morning and so she just had the kids write letters and read books. Instead of reviewing she has wasted so much time doing letters and things like that. Letters are fun for the kids to write and Teacher Charlene has appreciated them. It even makes the kids practice handwriting, spelling, sentence structure, etc. but the point is that we have midterms and they didn’t utilize any of the time last week or this week so far to prep the kids in any way. I just don’t understand. I told them they should use the time to review last week, and I repeated it again yesterday morning. It is like talking to a child much of the time. I know much of it is a language barrier, but still. I miss being understood when I speak.

The std3 exam was much the same as the std1 exam, except having a shorter class period; I ended up running out of time with many of the kids. I felt bad because it isn’t their fault that they have a shorter class but just as long of a test, so I spoke with the other teachers about letting the matrons know that some of the kids would be getting to lunch late, and to please let them still eat their lunch when they get there. Usually if you are late to lunch, you simply don’t eat. Only two did not finish the exam even with the extra half an hour. I was hoping they would move faster so I would have a little more time for my lunch break, but I wanted to get everything done today, so I went off to the house to see if I could get something to eat quickly.

As soon as I reached the house, I first grabbed the teachers copy of the tests and all the finished exams so that Charlene and I could correct during the std2 exam since with the math tests there is much down time for me while they work on the problems. Internet was having some difficulties, but it was fine because it wasn’t like I had time to play around on Facebook anyways. I found some leftover chicken potato soup and began to heat it up. Once I pulled it off the stove I realized that it tasted funky and must have spoiled. I didn’t have enough time to heat anything else up, so I ate a quick bowl of cold curry rice with sriracha. I don’t know what I would have done if my wonderful husband hadn’t gone crazy and bought so much of that sauce, and then thought to bring four bottles of it with us to Africa. I put that **** on everythingJ. I did make sure there was enough time to heat water so I could have more coffee in class. Back to school I went with a smile on my face. I was having a great day and I knew that today was the last day that I needed to be stressed. After today it is my mellow time.

Std2 was waiting and ready to go. I was amazed at how fast they moved through. Many times one or another would bring up their packet saying they were finished, when I would check it over it would be missing a full page or more. They would laugh then go back to their seat to work some more. Albert and Freddy each did it a few times and each time seemed genuine. It was too funny. Each one of them finished except poor Grace. I felt so bad having to take her exam at the end of class. But as it was I let her go an extra two minutes and their class is already longer than any of the other classes. It just wouldn’t be fair, and she was just so far behind. The girl just takes forever doing her math, she always does in class. I kept trying to get her to stay with us, but a moment later she would be falling behind again. She took it well though and even considering that she missed so many points at the end, she didn’t do too bad.

I gave all of the kids in each of the classes a piece of bubble gum (thanks to Logan for having all the Double Bubble) as a thank you for doing a great job on their tests with me. They were all so excited and surprised. I also explained to all of them that today was my last day in school with them, that after this I would be at the house preparing to leave next Tuesday. They were sad, but okay. I let them know they could still come see me at the house and play with Ayla and Jove and I would stop into the school just to see how the rest of their tests were going. That seemed to bring the smiles back to their wonderful faces.

Charlene came home with me and we corrected exams. We worked on it for quite a while before we both decided to end it for a while. She wanted to call home and I needed to get dinner for Ayla and Jove. The kids had beans and hotdogs for dinner and I had more curry rice. I am giving the last little bit to the dogs tonight. I can’t eat any more of that. It is all I have had for the past many days. During dinner the kids watched the Smurf movie and I went back to correcting papers. I was amazed I actually was able to get the rest of them finished. It took all evening and I didn’t put it down until about 9:45, but it is now done and I don’t have to do it anymoreJ. We lost power, so partway through the movie we had to turn off the computer for a while, but it came back on and so I let the kids stay up late to finish watching it. It should have been 9:30 but with the issues that we always have every night, it wasn’t until ten that they were in bed. Luckily I didn’t get much “mommy…” from the bedroom and they both fell asleep quickly. Maybe they will even let me sleep in tomorrow morning. One can hope at least.

I can’t believe this adventure is almost at an end. It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. Helping these kids is just such a wonderful thing. Even with all the stress that has come with it, not being able to have my medicine for my pain, lack of internet much of the time, etc, I have never in my life been happier (at least when Asa was with me, but still). I feel as if this was what I was meant to do in life. As anyone that knows me knows, I am a pretty spiritual person, but not necessarily a traditional religious person, I have never felt more in tuned to whatever is out there. I guess it is because I felt like everything was how it should be. I am so eternally grateful that I was given this experience.

Now I am going to grab my book and lay down to read and listen to the bush babies screaming to each other and the bats squeaking outside the windows. I am very much going to miss the nature sounds this place has to offer. Just amazing!

Monday 6-23-14

Yay, one day of testing is done and only one more to go. We woke up and there was still no power. I let Jove sleep in for a while since there was nothing else to really do without power. I wanted to be out the door and get to school early, but no matter how hard I tried, the kids took forever at that last minute.

On the way to school we stopped and picked up Charlene for her first day at the school. I introduced her to the teachers, and when I came across Vienna, I said Pasiana. I always get those two confused. I felt really bad, but Vienna took it with a smile and just laughed.

Standard One was ready and waiting with their tables nice and clean. I brought new sharpened pencils for them and passed out the English tests. We worked on it one section at a time; all except Grace, whom as far as I am concerned is out of the school. We tried to arrange a meeting with her grandparents last week about her being absent too often, and here it was the day of the midterm and she wasn’t there. They don’t care, and neither does she, so she needs to just be done.

I started getting kids asking to use the toilet after just 30 minutes. I really didn’t want anyone to wet themselves in class today, so I let everyone that asked, go. Even with a bathroom break in the middle of the two hour class, it was still a constant request by many. The oral reading took a long time because I had to take one child at a time out of the classroom to read the excerpt, but with Charlene in the class it made it easy. I had her read to the kids while we did that, they are still only in first grade and need to have testing still seem like a fun thing. We finished about five minutes early and so I released them to use the toilet yet again then went on into std3.

I got my standard three kids ready to start as fast as I could since I knew they were already starting with the least amount of time. We moved in a very similar way, section by section. Instead of doing oral reading one by one and having Charlene read books to the kids, I took them one by one while they were working on the other sections and that seemed to work very well for them. A few of the kids didn’t finish in time, but I felt bad so I let them finish up the extra credit section and the last section at the end of the day. It only took them at most five minutes.

Then it was on to lunch that I knew from the start that I would not be able to eat anything. I had to make many copies to finish up getting the tests to the other teachers. They said they have too many exams to give and cannot do it in just the three days that Mamaliz said it should take. When I got to the house, Ruth had the generator on, so I was happy, but at the same time it meant we had to power still. I checked out the printer and it seemed to work. I was very happy. When Burton was setting it up to check it out, I noticed he shook the ink cartridge. So when I had printed up about 50 pages and it began to go blank on half the page, I decided to give that a shot. What do you know it worked! I have no idea why it does that, but I knew how to fix it temporarily and so that was enough for me.

In between copying I would run into the house to work on making some coffee. If I couldn’t have lunch, I was at least going to bring a thermos of coffee with me to class. The lady I met on the road last week with stones showed up at the house also. It was the worst timing possible, but I stopped to check them out and had Frank help me out. He let me know that it looked like she was one that had colored glass and not minerals. I had gathered as much and thanked him for helping me out. Then back to making more copies. Lunchtime had come to an end and I still had another five or six exams to copy off. Ruth said they would only have the generator on for another hour, so I went to school, got the kids in std2 started on their exams, then had Charlene take over so I could run (literally) back up the office and finish making the copies before I lost my chance. Toward the end, I was getting nervous because we were on our last pack of paper. I let them know how much I would need, but that didn’t get but two packs. When I finished the printing, there were five sheets left in the intake tray. I came so close to not being able to finish. I would have cried, but luckily I didn’t have to. I borrowed the stapler and went back to the school.

Charlene was doing great; more lenient then myself or Mamaliz. Dictation was repeated more than twice, and many more questions were asked, but that is what happens with a new teacher. The kids were loving it. Even though I have only been here for two months, I have gotten into the rhythm of things and know what to expect from the kids, and when they don’t perform to those expectations I know they are just being lazy. I sat in the chekechea and stapled papers with Jove’s help and then moved on to letting the std3 kids that didn’t finish have the few minutes needed to complete their test.

We finished about a half hour early and so I decided to release std2 early. The other teachers took this as a sign to release the whole school early. They did not use it as a study or review time in any way shape or form. During the morning they had the kids write letters to Charlene and myself, and during the afternoon when I went in, they were reading books. That was a great time that they could have been utilizing to prep the kids for their own exams. I told them as much that morning and on Friday when school let out. When we went to lock up, they had lost their keys again. It is always a kids fault, every time. This time it was Rahabu, because she didn’t put the keys back where they should have gone, or give them to one of those teachers. I don’t understand why they have to be without them anyways. The keys need to go with whoever is the teacher on duty, that way they are not being given to the children during the lunchtime craziness. But again, one can state these kinds of things only so many times before it gets old and repetitive. I finally found the keys for them because they were just standing outside asking the kids where they were instead of just looking for themselves. They were sitting on the shelf in std1.

We went home then to the Monday market. I was sad when I saw that these scarves I got last week were not there this week. I really wanted to get more. I do have one more Monday market so I am hoping she will be there next week. We walked around as a decently large group; Charlene, myself, Ayla, Jove, Ima Mkulati, Joan, Farida, and Samweli (at times, he kept disappearing). I got a bunch of sugar cane and passed them out to the kids that were with us. They were very grateful. Ayla and Jove each spent a decent amount of their money. They both wanted a pink scarf, yes both of them. They got their scarves and had them wrapped around their neck and head very proudly. They found a nice little purse as well. They left very happy. It began to rain pretty hard, so we hurried home.

I was expecting many kids to come by for math help. Many even asked if it would be okay, but none came. I sat and graded papers while Ayla and Jove ate sugar cane outside with Samweli. They then came inside and ate dinner. Ayla had hotdogs and chipati, Jove had hotdogs and banana. One of them is always doing something gross when it comes to food, but they ate and that is really all that I care about. After they finished, and a little before, they worked on a book. They are writing a book about nonsense. They would say “kumi na napkin, kumi na butt, kumi na mommy”, etc. Kumi means ten, na means and, the rest of it is just whatever they could think of. They thought it was just the funniest thing around. I was glad to see them having such a good time with it. I had a great day today knowing I got so much accomplished, I wanted them to have a great day as well.

I filled bathtubs with a flashlight for my light, still no power. The kids got all nice and cleaned up and I read them a story while they bathed. Afterward, I noticed that the neighbors house had lights on that didn’t look the solar light color. It made me wonder. I decided to check the fuse box just to see. Sure enough the main breaker was flipped and there came on our power. So I have no idea if we could have had power back on last night when some of the other houses got it back, or if it was after that. I will never know, but it made me laugh and want to cry at the same time. The only thing I can’t figure out is why the internet still isn’t working. It claims it is working, but it still has no service. I will have Scott check it out tomorrow, either way, I have power and that brings me one step closer to internet tomorrow. Not only that, but tomorrow is my last day of testing. I am going to so miss teaching those kids, but I am ready for a bit of a break. I think the kids are also.

Sunday 6-22-14

Today although it was decently relaxing, was very difficult. After writing my journal last night and getting the things I needed to do finished, it was 11:20. I went straight to bed and curled up grateful for the bed and blankets. It wasn’t but maybe a half an hour before Jove started to wake up. He has these open sores on his butt that itch. He has always had sensitive skin on his butt, but it has never been this bad. They have been itching so bad lately that it is a constant issue. He just kept waking up every half an hour or so crying about everywhere being too itchy. He had a few bad bites of some kind on his foot and those were bothing him very badly also. When he would finally settle down, Ayla would wake up. She had a bad belly and near 2am is when she started getting up alternating between vomiting and diarrhea.

Ayla woke up to play her tablet at 6:30 then ended up coming back into bed with me when she started hurting pretty bad again. Jove woke up shortly after and realized she was in bed with me, so he crawled into bed with me too. The three of us snuggled together and continued to sleep for another three hours. Even when I made myself get up at nine, I was so unbelievably tired. I made my coffee and cleaned the kitchen.

I spent much of the day on Skype with either Asa or my mom. With the new satellite, there is almost no delay which was so nice. I needed to talk to them so much. I was planning on calling a few others in my family this evening but the power went out and is still not back on yet. While talking on Skype, I worked on dinner; curry eggplant rice in one pot and beans in another pot. Jove has decided he doesn’t like rice anymore and so I wanted him to have the option of just beans. I personally liked them mixed together. While not working on the dinner I baked up a batch of peanut butter oatmeal raisin cookies to have as desert tonight with the banana spice custard. I guess cooking and baking is a center of peace for me. I spent some time in the office working on copying the midterms for the other teachers. I got one and a half of the 12 or so I need to make many copies of when I realized the printer is no longer working again. I was so disappointed. I really hoped that it would work because I have no idea what I will do if I can’t get them made up. My midterms start tomorrow, but luckily I had mine printed up earlier because I finished writing mine weeks ago.

There was a security guard posted at the house today thanks to Brad, the head of the Hands4Africa organization. It is to help with the issues regarding the village kids. It was chilly today and I felt bad so I brought him a nice hot cup of chai. He was so happy and thanked me many times. Hopefully with him here, we will not have any more issues.

Ima came over for a little while, and then Farida, Joan, and Samweli all showed up. Teacher Charlene and Scott were here at that point and they all just wanted to play with the new teachers, so I didn’t want to say they couldn’t stay. I put an hour limit on it because I knew I would have to feed the kids soon and I was tired and that is just a lot of noise and mess to deal with. They made a fort under the table and while not paying attention, my flashlight fell onto the floor. Well now it is a semi strobe light when it wants to work. I was so bummed because I got it in case the power went out again while we were still here and the day the power goes out it breaks. Hopefully the power comes back on through the night.

Samweli apologized to me about lying about doing his homework from last week. It was just so sweet. I told him it was okay and I was glad he understood now that telling the truth was the better way to go. It seems like he just doesn’t want things to end on a bad note, and he knows we only have about a week left. Before I had all the kids leave, Ima wanted to be shown long division again, so we sat there and I tried my best to teach him in simple steps so he could understand. He is getting better and he just needs some practice. I ended up teaching Teacher Charlene also; she was trying to figure it out because it had been so long. I felt the same way about a month ago. It is funny the things we forget and how quickly we can pick them back up again.

So it is now the end of the day, and Ayla is thankfully feeling much better. She actually seemed fine after about 10am, but I tried my best to confine her most of the day just in case. Jove is still itchy, but I spoke with Dr. David and he is going to prescribe an antibiotic ointment for me to use on Jove and if that doesn’t work we will do an oral form. I got a lot accomplished today, but I am so tired and think I will be asleep before it is even 8pm tonight.

Saturday 6-21-14

Happy 12^th anniversary to the most wonderful man and husband, Asa I am so happy that I was lucky enough in life to be with someone like you. You are absolutely amazing. If only we could have spent it together, but apart and me at Mikumi it will be. I am used to this because of how many we have had to spend apart, it still sucks thought.

As I was checking my Facebook, I received so much support from friends and family regarding the poop picture issues of last night. I feel so very bless to have such wonderful people in my life. I figured since I had the wonderful posts from last night regarding the crazy Mary, I should also include the wonderful posts of today from my friends and family. The later actually are wonderful. This was a great way to start my day.

Brian Wall I'm annoyed this pissing match took away attention from my awesome "Ted" clip. LOL

5 hrs · Unlike · 3

Elizabeth Gubrud-Howe Who takes two children to a foreign country and stays all alone? Who teaches at a school when they are sick? Who is patient enough to put up with someone threatening there children and taking dumps on there chairs. I can't believe anyone would call u an unwanted foreigner. Give me a break. You are courageous, needed, and wanted for sure. I have never been there....but what country wouldn't want a kind, tough, and generous person on there soil? Sarah Clibourne

4 hrs · Unlike · 3

Liz Clibourne Thank you Elisabeth, that was good of you. Sarah has done an amazing job and doesnt deserve that from anyone, especially someone who was never there.

3 hrs · Like · 2

Adam Titze Wtf is wrong with that Mary lady??? Maybe she's drunk!

3 hrs · Like · 1

Adam Titze Can't u just block her?

3 hrs · Like

Liz Clibourne she has been blocked, no worries

3 hrs · Like

Adam Titze

3 hrs · Like

Elaine Titze Wow - what an unbelievable turn of events. Sarah, you make me so very proud and I am thrilled you married into such an incredibly supportive family. Whoever this Mary person is should be absolutely ashamed of the comments she made on this thread. No matter how you look at it or what spin you try to weave, what those kids did is just plain shameful. Stay strong - you truly amaze me! xoxox

2 hrs · Like · 1

Rena Ann Curtis · Friends with Liz Clibourne

Don't let a little poop stop you Sarah. They need to learn just like any kds you gotta go by the rules. Mary is whatever Mary is. It's easy for someone to make comments they know nothing about but think they do. That shows their stupidity to me. Keep Rockin it Girl and thanks for helping Liz out.

2 hrs · Like · 1

Marie Kazerski Lenart i think you are a wonderful and caring person, sarah oxo

1 hr · Like

Adam Titze But u love me more

1 hr · Like

Kirsten Nielsen Clibourne Liz perhaps new seat covers are in the future? Human poop is tough to clean. And by the looks of it maybe a bit mushy.

1 hr · Like · 1

Sarah Clibourne Thank you so much everyone. I didn't take it bad at all. I just looked at it as a funny laugh last night at a, what seemed to be, crazy lady. But still, thank you all for the support you have given me over the last two months. Everyone. I have had some low times and I don't know if I could have done it quite as easily if I didn't have all of you. So, Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Just now · Like

It rained much of yesterday and as I sat on the computer waiting for it to be time to leave, or to even wake the kids up, the rain started coming down again. I really hope that it lets up so we can see some good animals, but maybe since it hasn’t been raining much, this is a good sign that the animals will come out to the water holes that will be evident now.

So we just got back from our trip. It is 10:30pm and man am I tired. We started out pretty much on time. Got everything packed up, all with high hopes that the rain would quickly stop. We started by going up to Bismillah to pick up some andazi. Logan had asked his friend when they start making them and he said 5am, but when we got there they only had the chipati, and that was very greasy, as usual. We decided to wait until Morogoro. It was pretty cramped in the truck because of Logan’s luggage since we were dropping him off in Morogoro after Mikumi, but the kids did great in the back together. They shared tablets, played, and just enjoyed. When we made it into Morogoro we got some chipati and bananas. The andazi was sold out so we found a different place. These ones were bigger by a little bit, but they wanted 500 for one andazi, that was five times the amount many other places, but we needed to be able to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so we got just enough for each of us to have one of those. Then we were on our way.

The drive to Mikumi is long, but full of great sights to see. There are the mountains off in the distance, many small villages with children running and playing happily. There is the occasional person bathing in the river or sometimes stagnant pool on the side of the road. That is always interesting. I love when we get to the point where they have these baskets, hats, mats, and purses all hanging from the trees. Everything is woven of some kind of fiber, but they are just so beautiful.

Last time we went to Mikumi right away getting into the first entrance there were so many baboons on the side of the road. This morning we did not see a single one. It gave me hopes of seeing lions. We got in and once all was dealt with as far as paying the fees to get in (the lady just couldn’t understand that we wanted to pay each separately instead of one put it on the card and everyone else pay that person), we were on to looking for animals. Again, just like outside the park, there were very few animals, again hopes of lions. It continued that way for quite a while. All through the day we searched for lions and sure enough, we were disappointed by the lion. They did not decide to come out. We didn’t get there though until noon and they are more active earlier, but even earlier today they would not have been because of the rain. We did see many great animals though. The elephants didn’t want to come even anywhere near close, so no good pictures of them, but there were many giraffes and zebra, quite a few antelope. We got a closer look at a nice big wart hog this time. There was even this crazy looking fox type animal. It was orange on its body and its back was grey. There were two of those just as we were leaving the park. Oh and crocodiles. I have never been so close to a wild crocodile before. It was so cool. Abdallah said he was brave enough to touch it, so no kidding; the guy got out of the car and went to try to touch it. It ran off and got into the water right as he took his first step out of the car to try, but this coming from the man that I thought was going to poop himself at the thought of Asa and I riding on the top of the car the last time. Scott and Logan rode the top the whole trip this time and it made it a little roomier inside for the rest of us. The flocks of birds were out today also. I wasn’t fast enough to get any shots worth keeping of them, but I have the memories of the swarms of bob marley colored birds all taking flight from a single tree as we approached. So beautiful! Toward the end Ima climbed on top with the boys and spent the next hour up there with them. Ayla and Jove got pretty jealous, but I told them that he is 14 and he could be up there with the guys and they didn’t have to be. They didn’t really like that answer. After searching for a lion for a few hours and noticing the sun getting ready to begin it’s decent, we decided to call it a day. We still had a two hour drive to Morogoro, a few things to do there, then another two hours back to Berega. As we were leaving the final gate leaving the park there were many baboons on the road. We saw some of the tiniest little monkeys I have ever seen. They were so new they were still hairless and red looking. I snapped many good pictures. There is one, that although it is blurry, I am keeping it. Just as I was taking a picture of this one big guy sitting just in this comical pose, a beer can blew right up next to him. It looks like the baboon had tossed his beer aside and decided to maybe pleasure himself a little. It was just too funny. The babies were still the highlight of that ten minute stop.

The drive back was rough. It always is. You no longer have the excitement of seeing animals to keep you focused on something other than the fact that you have been in a car ALL DAY. I gave the kids all some candy, which made them so happy. I had to yell and scold Jove a few times for doing one thing or another. He is still young and has a hard time staying chill in the car for very long, and it had been very very long. None of it was too serious though, so that was good.

We got to Morogoro faster than we expected which was so nice. We waited for Kevin to meet with us and the kids all said goodbye to Logan. Ima broke down into tears for a while. He loved him so very much. Ayla and Jove want to see him back in America. Most of our stops turned out to be a bust. Charlene and Scott needed to get some pots and silverware, but the only place that we knew of that was open was Morad’s and they didn’t have any of that. I needed to go to an appliance store because the water filter broke and I needed to get that part, but they were closed as well. Then it was to the bank for the atm. The first atm said it was closed; the second bank we went to had two atms. The first said it didn’t have money, and the second when I told it how much I wanted said it could not perform that task and gave me my card back. I tried again and asked for less and luckily that worked, so I have some in case there is anything I want from Monday market or anything like that during this next 9 days. I will have to get some more out for Dar because I want to get some more touristy things, but that will be for later.

Onward to Berega we went. Jove was getting grumpier. Poor guy was just so tired. Scott started to offer the kids a cookie, but it was already like 8:30 and they had so much crap today that I said it was too late. Jove was mad at me after that and even though he was very cold, he didn’t want to cuddle with me. That only lasted about 15 minutes when the sleepy and cold finally overcame him and he ended up snuggling deep into my side. At one point we hit a pretty bad bump and Ayla went flying off of her bench in the back where she had fallen asleep. She started to cry. Ima picked her up and helped her back on the bench, but she wouldn’t stop crying, so I had Jove go to Charlene so I could have Ayla snuggle with me. As the two kids slept I read my kindle. I am so glad I remembered to bring that this way, and even more than that, that it didn’t give me motion sickness to read while I was in a car. I feel the nausea now, but I didn’t then and that is what matters J The kids laying that way worked for a while, but then Jove’s legs started to get cramped and he began to cry. I moved him onto my lap and that is how the remaining hour of the trip went. Jove on my lap snuggled into one arm and Ayla next to me snuggled into the other, then on and off Ima snuggling into the back of my head. He is a forceful snuggler though. It was so funny. He would snuggle up against me and he would reach his arm around and hold my head. It almost felt as if he was trying to make sure my head didn’t move at all on that very bumpy road to get back to Berega. He is such a sweet kid.

As we got into the village we stopped at the school. He lives in the boarding and that is right behind the school, so that is where we dropped him off. He gave us all great big smiles and thanked us. Again, he is one of the sweetest kids I have ever come across. Then it was to drop Charlene and Scott off at their new for the next year house. Finally it was our turn. I carried Jove and got him into the house, and then gathered up all of our stuff from the truck. Once we were all cleaned out I asked Abdallah how much I owed him for his fees, or if it was covered from Hands4Africa because of taking Logan into Morogoro. He just looked at me and said “no, we are good”. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I will go with that.

I got the kids tucked into bed and put some anti itch cream on their bug bites. Poor Jove is going to have to have Dr. David check out his butt tomorrow. It is so ripped up from a few spots Jove just can’t stop itching. Hopefully it isn’t anything serious, but Dr. David should be able to prescribe something to help. He may need an antibiotic ointment or something like that. I managed to get everything unpacked. I did look at the kitchen and think I should wash up dishes before going to bed, but I know that is not going to happen. I am too tired. I also attempted at calling Asa on Skype so I could say one last Happy Anniversary, but it is his sleepy time as well so I missed him. I was very glad I called him when we were stopped in Morogoro, so I could at least hear his voice for a moment. Now, I am going to go to bed. If I think of anything I forgot because I was too tired, I shall add tomorrow. Yay, bed! J