Long Time Overdue
The days are passing by so quickly. I can barely believe that we are already into the month of August. Next week will mark 7 months of living in Tanzania. Wow.
Every time I think about writing a blog post, that idea simply gets washed away by the craziness of the day. Getting up, spending time with Jesus and Chandler, getting the kids fed, clothed and off to school, language sessions, laundry, cooking, listening to recordings from that day, visiting with neighbors, the list goes on. Never has there been a day that I haven’t laid my head to my pillow completely wiped out. But I am not complaining. Most of the time it’s a good tired. A day well spent.
However, today is the day where I try to write. Even if just a little. I will try to let our pictures talk for us!
June
June was filled with lots of the above (the daily grind), but also had a few special days tucked within.
June 16th is a special day for our family, but for Chandler in particular. It was on this day that he almost died 11 years ago in a boating accident. We choose to be thankful on this day and celebrate Chandler’s life. This year we celebrated by enjoying God’s creation at the beach and one another’s company.
Papa’s day (what other people refer to as Father’s Day) was also a fun day for our family! We enjoyed going to church, eating lunch with friends, Candy Land, and yummy food! We are super thankful for this man!
We had a random holiday in June where the kids were off from school. We enjoyed going to a little local restaurant for chai, juice and chapati’s. It’s been really exciting watching them slowly adapt to our new home!
Language learning these days is taking on a different form. Now that we have a basic foundation for speaking, we have been able to move out of the “classroom” and into the world. Cooking, cleaning, building, shopping, exploring are just a few of the things that we get to do while learning Swahili. It definitely brings our learning to life!
July
The kids are having some adventures of their own! I (Jamie) have become friends with a sweet lady down the street and whenever we visit there are always kids around to play with. One day, before I could stop it, a slip-n-slide of their own was created with dirt and water! They sure had a good time!
One day, while visiting his language helper’s home, Chandler got to help make a shelf. Learning is always more fun when you can get your hands a little dirty.
I also got to visit my language helper’s home one day and enjoyed helping to prepare our lunchtime meal. Cooking here looks so different than what we are used to in the west.
On July 10th we celebrated our 6 month anniversary of living in Tanzania. Definitely a good excuse to enjoy some ice cream!!!
July was also the start of many transitions around our house. It started by saying goodbye to our neighbors who were moving up north, then to one of our Maasai guards and finally later in the month to our good friends and teammates, the Anyan’s. Thankfully the Anyan’s are just in another part of the city…but it’s still a big change without them 10 feet away! Although changes are never easy, we are thankful for God’s grace in the midst of it all!
The stress of life here can be a little overwhelming at times and we’ve realized, it’s easy to burnout quickly. A dear Tanzanian sister in Christ, Lucy, reminded us that God brought us here, not because of what we can do for the Tanzanian people, but because this was the best place for Him to work on our hearts (and boy can we feel that hard work taking place). Honestly it’s rather humbling to think that God brought us all this way to work on us, but it shows us His great love for us. And the truck doesn’t stop there. He invites us to be a part of what He is doing here. Wow! Lucy urged us to increase our time with the Father, so we have taken her advise. Wednesday is now our day to spend with Jesus. Chandler is able to go out in the mornings and me in the afternoons. We are finding this time life-giving and so necessary for the work He has called us to. He is faithful to care for us with such kindness and grace.
Thank you for your prayers and for walking this journey with us. It’s ALL about Jesus.
Together Making Him Known,
Jamie