Hello, it is Celeste, the first born writing for the first time on the blog. I have just come to the end of my fourth day in Tanzania, what an incredibly wonderful place!
It seems that it is not only the African men that like the knees but also the mosquitoes, I have been bitten to billy-o! Every other part of flesh is free from bites but they have made up for it on my legs!
I have been doing my best at swahili, learning quite a bit but still getting some of my words mixed up. I told someone that I was 'naughty' in response to their 'How are you?' the very shy maasai man blushed profusely. I love the street ettiquette here, you say 'hello' to any and everyone that you come across, even the fiercest looking maasai warrior breaks into a disarming smile and waves back at you! They also love to laugh at the 'Muzungus' (white people) as they try and navigate their hairy roads, pointing as I squeal in the 4WD!
Last night we had a surprise dinner and party for mum and dad's 25th wedding anniversary! It was such a beautiful evening, they were treated to a six course meal going around to different houses on the base. They were chauffeured in a snazzy car between each place with their 'chauffeur' driving them out of the base gates up the road only to turn around and bring them in the back gate of the base. I hear that mum could not stop laughing and this was before the wine! Each house did a superb job of creating a romantic atmosphere, candles, rose petals. They were treated to delicious food and wine while their hosts read messages to them from friends and family who could not be with them! (Thank you to eveyone who sent messages to Jussy and I!) Their sixth course was a party with a personalised cake and slide show of the evening waiting for them! They were blown away and truly blessed! It was so much fun and I feel overwhelmed that I was able to be here for it!
Today has been one of the most moving days, we went to a village where a friend Elisante lives. He works at Engendi and is the brother of Ednecki (THE Ednecki who has been mentioned frequently in this blog). He alerted Joshua's attention to the food shortage in his area, he is a very Godly man. He has been organising distribution of maize and facilitating the donations making it to the people. He and his pastor Noah decided that they would give the maize to the women as they would definitely take it back to their families, this would not necessarily be the case if given to the men. The women were everywhere waiting, hungry with their children on their backs. What a privilege to be there to witness the kingdom coming in their lives. I want to thank the friends of mine who sent money over for this food shortage, they also send their thanks 'Asante Sana!'
How you can do anything but love this place and these people I don't know,
bye for now.
Mungu Aku Barecki! (God Bless!)
p.s. the pictures above are of a maasai bibi (grandma) getting grain for her family and also of all the women leaving with the maizeon their heads, what a sight to see!!
It seems that it is not only the African men that like the knees but also the mosquitoes, I have been bitten to billy-o! Every other part of flesh is free from bites but they have made up for it on my legs!
I have been doing my best at swahili, learning quite a bit but still getting some of my words mixed up. I told someone that I was 'naughty' in response to their 'How are you?' the very shy maasai man blushed profusely. I love the street ettiquette here, you say 'hello' to any and everyone that you come across, even the fiercest looking maasai warrior breaks into a disarming smile and waves back at you! They also love to laugh at the 'Muzungus' (white people) as they try and navigate their hairy roads, pointing as I squeal in the 4WD!
Last night we had a surprise dinner and party for mum and dad's 25th wedding anniversary! It was such a beautiful evening, they were treated to a six course meal going around to different houses on the base. They were chauffeured in a snazzy car between each place with their 'chauffeur' driving them out of the base gates up the road only to turn around and bring them in the back gate of the base. I hear that mum could not stop laughing and this was before the wine! Each house did a superb job of creating a romantic atmosphere, candles, rose petals. They were treated to delicious food and wine while their hosts read messages to them from friends and family who could not be with them! (Thank you to eveyone who sent messages to Jussy and I!) Their sixth course was a party with a personalised cake and slide show of the evening waiting for them! They were blown away and truly blessed! It was so much fun and I feel overwhelmed that I was able to be here for it!
Today has been one of the most moving days, we went to a village where a friend Elisante lives. He works at Engendi and is the brother of Ednecki (THE Ednecki who has been mentioned frequently in this blog). He alerted Joshua's attention to the food shortage in his area, he is a very Godly man. He has been organising distribution of maize and facilitating the donations making it to the people. He and his pastor Noah decided that they would give the maize to the women as they would definitely take it back to their families, this would not necessarily be the case if given to the men. The women were everywhere waiting, hungry with their children on their backs. What a privilege to be there to witness the kingdom coming in their lives. I want to thank the friends of mine who sent money over for this food shortage, they also send their thanks 'Asante Sana!'
How you can do anything but love this place and these people I don't know,
bye for now.
Mungu Aku Barecki! (God Bless!)
p.s. the pictures above are of a maasai bibi (grandma) getting grain for her family and also of all the women leaving with the maizeon their heads, what a sight to see!!
Comments
Birthdays, Wedding Anniversaries, Home-comings, Vegemite, Easter Eggs, new bikes and school uniforms, not to mention food on the table for those who are starving.
Happy Anniversary and Birthday wishes from Sue and I. (Our 31st Anniversary was in January)
Sue has been 'chilling out' in Europe the last two weeks with snow falling in a number of places during her 12 day bus tour around Europe. She is now back in London but the weather is still pretty bleak.
I'm sure we'll be having homecoming celebrations of our own in a couple of weeks time.
Hope you all have a wonderful time together. Enjoy!
Love,
Wal
yes, we feel really spoiled at the moment with such a season of outpouring like you have described.
Just yesterday we went to the village church where all the maize is being given out. The people are so grateful and they are helping each other alot as well. Such a blessing to see.
Hoping you can make it over here some day,
Judi & David
For the moment, reading your blog articles and seeing the photos gives a great sense of involvement and gets into the spirit of what God is doing even though we are on opposite sides of the globe.
Love and blessings to all,
Wal