Buses

(Aside #1: A couple of weeks ago I - Kurtis - was coming back from
dropping of a SALTer at their home stay and had an accident. Went off
the road right where there happened to be a small bridge and riverbed
so the car ended up on it's side. But with enough people, police and
of course money (!) it all got taken care of.)

Woke up yesterday to the sound of our neighbours praying ....

(Aside #2: Our church is having a seminar of some sort this week and
so some guests are staying next to us. Every day they "pray" from
10-11pm and then from 5 or 6 to 7am. No word of a lie, the first time
we heard them we thought they were mauling our dog, but I checked and
he was on the porch. So it must be another dog, so I went over to
check and no there was no dog, it was just people "praying". Anyway,
I could go on a theological rant at this point but I might end up
sounding like I'm also mauling a dog...)

... and realized it was 6:09am and the bus I wanted to take to Musoma
left at 6. Buses are the one thing that almost always leave EXACTLY
on time. So ran to town and grabbed a small van-$5 that took me to
Bunda where I grabbed another bus for Musoma-$3. Also grabbed a
yogurt-$1, biscuits-$.30 and peanuts-$.20 Got to Musoma at noon and
found out that the last bus (so I was told) left in half and hour so I
guess I was spending the night. Did my business: car insurance (see
Aside #1) and car parts. Got a plate of rice, fish and beans and a
soda-$2.50. Found out that the fundi (handiman) who was cutting some
replacement mirrors for me was already done AND that there was another
van going back to Mugumu so I was in luck!

So got a ticket back to Mugumu-$5 and somehow managed to sleep for
a few minutes on the very uncomfortable van ride. We had just gone
through the half way town to Mugumu when the bus careened off the side
of the road and came to a halt. (If there had been anything else but
a field by the side of the road or if we had been going any faster I
wouldn't be writing this.) We climbed out and yep, the front left
wheel had had enough of the van and decided to part ways, it was
sideways and jammed up inside the wheel well. The van guys
immediately set to work as if we'd be up and running within an hour
but the rest of us knew that van wasn't going anywhere for a while.
(I should have taken some queues about the quality of the van from the
fact that both the tout and the driver had to hold their doors closed
as they drove.)

So we called around (I didn't want to take too much of a lead as
the "mzungu") and eventually someone called a taxi from Mugumu and we
all agreed to chip in-$8. But he also asked that we start walking,
luckily no one had brought any huge luggage. So we, a troup of 2
women (1 pregnant), 1 toddler, and 5 guys, distributed the luggage and
walked for the next 2 hours or so.

I'm not good at illustrations but picture this group walking
through a very typical african setting of huts and scrub brush
shooting the breeze about the accident, previous accidents, cell
phones, wives using cell phones, whatever. At one point we came up on
a small hut selling some local drink so we all had some and they had a
good laugh at the mzungu drinking this stuff. After 2 hours the women
were tired and the car should really have arrived so we crashed
someone's "porch" and waited. (Remember that the nearest brick house
is a long way away, everything is mud and sticks.)

Turns out the rescue car had got a flat and when it finally arrived
just at dusk I realized it was striving to emulate the van we had left
behind. But it was our best option so the 7 of us and child plus the
driver piled into this tiny sedan and drove off. The drive home was
slow because the puncture was unrepairable so we had no spare and the
tires were bald. And not without the required fishtale off the road
as well as a tire removal in to check the brakes. But we got back to
town by 9pm.

Then the driver INSISTED on driving ME home, ALL the way home,
(which is difficult because they are installing a water pipe to the
hospital so our house pretty much cut off by a small ditch) "because
he was my neighbour" but then asked for money when we arrived. I
exclaimed that this is exactly why I wanted to walk and gave him $2
and walked away.

The kids were in bed but Carla had spagetti and sausages (a big
treat!) and even some red wine ready. We had electricity so I even
had a hot shower before eating AND the neighbours forewent their
nightly prayer meeting so that was nice and that was my day! (Though
they were back at it early this morning.)

Once again, I know that God is taking care of us way more than we
even realize.

lest

lest the previous post leaves you wondering what we actually DO here...

last month we gave away 40 bikes to community home-based care and orphan volunteers from the 14 villages that we focus on. it was a fun day. A church in Ohio, Salem Mennonite, donated the funds needed for the bikes. They will make a HUGE difference for these volunteers!

highlights

So, here are some highlights from the last couple / few months:

We had dear friends over this last year, Peter and Verena, who were SALTers (Serving and Learning Together)with MCC. Pete did a year in Shirati about 2 1/2 hours north-west of Mugumu, and Verena did a year teaching English at a Bible college in Musoma. We often had them over on weekends and we grew to love them dearly.

In July their term was up, so we had to say goodbye to them in Arusha...

we miss them a lot already. They were great friends.

Ben and Aaron just being cute...I think this picture is old but I hadn't posted it yet!


Ben got a puppy, Lobo, for his fourth birthday. Our good friends Kristopher and Rebecca Hartwig were nice enough to pass him along to us. He's a pretty good looking dog, 1/4 ridgeback, 1/4 shepherd, and we don't know the other half!

A couple of months ago he looked like this:



and now:

I wonder who's winning:

These two make a good wrestling match as well:

Ben's FOURTH birthday:

My little baby is growing up too fast:

We have "birthday week" at our place since Kurt's, Ben's and my birthdays all come about the same week. This year we celebrated our 30th by going to a resort on Lukuba Island on Lake Victoria. It was beautiful. We stayed in a thatch-roof stone banda, enjoyed a beautiful hike to watch the sunset, and lots of swimming with the boys.

We also took a game drive in Serengeti just for kicks:

In early September, our good friend from Winnipeg, Amanda Furst, came to visit us for a week. She was AMAZING...she made us HAMBURGERS...grinding up the meat, lighting up the little charcoal stove, and BBQing them. She also can make some awesome jewellery. We loved having her around. She's already at Tanzanian local so she was easy company - spoke great Swahili and could navigate her way around town in no time.

Yes?

And one final note:

So this picture was actually taken when I was expecting with Aaron. Now I just need to get another picture like this with the boys...because we are expecting again. MUCH to our surprise, and delight, and trepidation. This next one is due end of March!

something to smile at

Check out this wicked birthday card, made by Kurt's sister and brother-in-law, Rebecca and Matt Van Otterloo.

Aaron is lucky - he has his OWN birthday - June 4th.

Then...July 25th is Kurt. August 1 is my turn. And poor Ben comes along August 2nd.

This year we both turned the big three o. Now we are wise and learned. :)

Anyway, this card was awesome. Thanks guys.

curls

ryan and kristen

we love you

ryan and kristen are two of Ben's favorite people.

ryan is kurt's younger brother, married to kristen, who I've known

since I was a 3rd grader and she a kindergartener with my sister.

they've been living in nairobi for the last 3 years, and we

were lucky to be able to see them every time we went up there.

now, good for them but unfortunately for us, they have

moved to Juba, Sudan to continue their work with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).

So we will miss them.

Juba might just need to be our next vacation spot. :)

Any playgrounds there??

We love and miss you already.

papa

my dad came to mugumu for a couple of days about 2 weeks ago. He took an all night bus from Nairobi to Musoma, then hopped on three different buses to get from Musoma to Mugumu. We were impressed.

Again he impressed Ben with his golf skills. And got lots of time to hold Aaron. I just loved these pictures...


we've been trying to figure out who Aaron looks like, but this picture gave me an idea:

mzungu

my babies

birthday boy

we just had a low key celebration for aaron's birthday last week, june 4th to be exact. i had worked all week so I took the day off to be with the boys all day. made a peanut butter pie, which I've never made before, but the recipe looked too easy and delicious - and it was pretty good! But then I remembered that you're actually not supposed to give babies peanuts...hmmph...so I made a banana bread cake as well. Aaron has the nickname "Kobe" which means "turtle," not too many people use it, but it's sort of fitting since he was born with wide eyes and looked like a turtle coming out of its shell. So thus the reason why the cake is decorated as such.

With all the focus on dessert, I neglected to think about supper - so Kurt went to town and picked up samosas, and just before it started getting dark the power went out, so we took some blankets outside and had a samosa picnic in our yard and came back in when the mosquitoes started coming out. Had some birthday cake with a neighbor to the ambience of a kerosene lantern, and aaron licked up all the frosting he could, but by then he was exhausted and couldn't even bother to stay up for more.

All in all, a special day.

happy birthday little buddy.

Aaron

The squeally, delightful smiles and noises

The unique shapes of all your toeses

you are ONE

and growing and learning and being

and with every breath and cry and laugh we pray

than in HIM you might live and move and have your being
we thank Him for you

our moonshine boy

why i don't blog much:

A typical HBC day:
- A volunteer that we hired to be part-time in the office while Elibariki was away, just had a baby on Monday. She called me at 7 in the morning on Monday, asking me to come and pick her up while she was in labor (and had been all night). I called the Imara driver and we met at the office where I grabbed gloves, then we swung by and picked up a nurse midwife who does VCT at Imara, then we drove the 14 km to her village. I called her to let her know we were coming, and she said she had already had the baby. About 15 minutes later we walked into her mud hut, and a traditional birth attendant had helped her deliver the baby safely and had tied and cut the cord. A healthy baby boy. We wrapped the baby up and I got to hold him as we took them to the hospital so that they could get some medical attention and the baby could get some ARVs. We brought them to the ward and talked with the PMTCT nurses. From there I ran home, and then got ready for the HBC volunteer meeting – which meant biking and getting the keys to the church, making sure we had enough forms for the volunteers etc. Went to the office and remembered that I also had to orient 3 nursing students who would be with HBC for the week. Talked with them and then we went to the HBC meeting. After the meeting I worked in the office with volunteers and clients, giving out money for milk, and dealing with all sorts of issues. Went home to feed Aaron. While I was home, was asked to return right away as the District HIV coordinator needed a list of 200 clients from us. So went back to the office and got that ready for him, then did a medicine inventory count (which we do every month). And before I knew it it was 6:00 pm.

our life

our house: big water tank up front where we collect rain water:

the zebra roundabout, downtown Mugumu:
(since then, the head of the zebra has been shot off by a group of bandits who came into town with a stolen car, robbed a gas station and escaped by shooting bullets into the air so the police would know where NOT to go)

no this is not from our front porch.

but we will take anyone who visits us when we are in nairobi to this place:

aaron was the in oven here (just had to explain that bump)

the center of attention:
at a church fundraiser

everyday life

so my friend amy suggested I post some pics of our everyday life here,

so here are a few...

this is our last night in Nairobi, from here it's off to Arusha for meetings, and we will likely not arrive in Mugumu until mid-next week.

It's been a good trip - the beach was wonderful.

Kurt came back safely from Mt. Kenya, although he didn't summit Batian, he did climb to another peak, Lenana, which he said was beautiful.

The boys are well save for Ben burnt his foot yesterday with some boiling water, looks like it will be about the size of a cookie on the top of his foot, so please pray for his healing. It doesn't seem to bother him except for when I have to clean it, so that is a good thing.

Ben, Aaron and I have all been fighting runny noses and sore throats, probably a bi-product of the hot humid coast air and the air-conditioned room we stayed in.

But it has been a wonderful break.

So...to the pictures...

Our yard: or a fraction of it actually:

Ben's room:

(with a quilt that only took me 2 years to make!)

running on our favorite walk outside our place:


need I explain this one?

tired of beans and rice:

ok so these weren't exactly our everyday life, I'm uploading photos and these came up first so I wanted to post them quickly....

More coming!!

work

I thought I'd put up some pictures of the work that I do here...

I do home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS.

We have almost 600 clients in Serengeti District, but we focus on clients from within 14 villages that are a bit closer to Mugumu.

I work with 28 volunteers and 2 full-time staff,

doing home visitation, transport to and from hospital for emergencies, providing medications, nutritional supplementation, soaps, and praying for clients who are sick.

The majority of our clients are women over the age of 40 who are married.

Last year we registered 18 new clients under the age of 10.

People living here do not have it easy - from food and water resources, to paying for children's education, to transportation, to lack of employment, to broken families, to health care, everything is a challenge. Many of our clients live in very isolated settings and it is a major barrier to them obtaining good health care.

Sometimes they come all the way to the hospital but there is no doctor available to see them.

Mugumu does have a clinic supported by the government to provide free services to people living with HIV. And they receive free ARV medicines. But there are still challenges to making sure that they get medicine for opportunistic infections without having to pay. We stock meds to give to those with prescriptions.

So that is my work - visiting people in their homes, at the office, in the hospital. Advocating for clients who are admitted to hospital. In general just trying to support them.

We also work with over 200 orphans from 5 different villages...helping with school fees, and nutrtional supplementation.

So this is a typical home-based care run:

driving over paths like this:

to get to homes like this:

for clients like this:

this is Mama Benja, or Mary Benjamin Tumbo, the orphan coordinator, and one of the most incredible people I have ever met.

I think that getting to work with Mama Benja will have been one of the biggest blessings in my lifetime:

Here are some pics of a supply distribution for orphans,

They need shoes to go to school:

And school supplies:

This little boy was too cute:


And here are a couple pics of a food distribution we did, 2 buckets of corn per family unit:

And here'sthe woman who makes it possible for me to work:

Mama Daudi, who watches Ben and Aaron.

She has a lot of experience looking after western kids, has a great sense of humor, is incredibly strong in mind and spirit, and one senses the Spirit of God in her.

We are so thankful for her!

So there you have my work in a nutshell...