A Safari Adventure!

As we said our goodbyes to Ksusha, the five of us girls loaded into a big safari car around 1:30PM, ready to begin our long adventure to the Crater. Our driver was Justin, a very nice man who spoke pretty decent English and would be there to guide us over the next few days. The drive was a solid 5 hours long, making our way through towns and villages, up and down some very bumpy dirt roads. This wasn’t just your typical long road trip because to us, we found it an even greater opportunity to witness more of the abundant beauty that Tanzania has to offer. 

Not to mention we had some very excited little girls in the back seat! As we made our way along, there were so many unusual sights, sounds, and smells we got to experience. We witnessed people riding on the tops of cars, piling on one another into buses, in the streets working, socializing, or just walking from place to place. Majority of the women were dressed from head to toe in colorful cloth, some with massive loads of water or fruit balanced perfectly on their heads. There were children either tending to their daily chores, like collecting water, or playing with one another. Many of the older kids were walking home from school, as their uniforms proved right away. The sounds of people shouting, working, and conversing with one another felt so comfortable and normal. It was nice to see so many people talking face to face as oppose to looking down at their cell phones like we tend to do in America. There was honking in the streets and the very toxic smell of black burning diesel that petrified the air. It wasn’t so fun being stuck behind cars with that coming out of the exhaust for long periods of time! I caught myself contemplating about the distinct differences between the world we live in versus the people here in Africa, but then realized no one can even begin to compare the two places. I feel so ridiculously blessed to have family and friends who love me, to be born into such a spectacular country full of opportunity, a roof over my head, and an abundance of food to eat each day; yet I am often still complaining about what I do not have. Many of the people here struggle to find even these basic necessities, coming from broken families or selling anything they have just to make a small profit to be able to put food on the table. But these seem to be the people who are so happy and thankful for what they do have. Kind of funny how that works right?
A few virtues that I find so admirable in the people here are the strong sense of community and simplicity of their lives. Everyone seems to want to help each other, whether it be playing with homeless children, giving someone a ride to their destination, or simply smiling and shaking each other’s hands. You can always expect to be greeted by anyone and everyone you see! Many are looking just to meet their basic needs, so there is no excess when it comes to food, clothing, living conditions, and more. Even those who have all of their necessities are just very content with that. But the value I admire the most in these wonderful people is their faith. I think every other car we passed by had stickers or pictures all over proclaiming their love for the Lord. Young children in the streets singing songs they learned in school or church about Jesus, and men and women wearing crosses around their necks. No matter what religion, God seems to hold an extremely special place in the hearts of these people, despite all the suffering around them. I know each individual holds a special place in His heart as well! Not to mention on this day more than ever, I came to the conclusion we were all put into one another’s lives for some reason. The people here are ecstatic to see people like us in their country, but in turn, they never failed to make us smile!
We finally reached the Country Lodge in Karatu where we would spend the evening preparing for safari. 
Corrinne and I were so excited to have this outing with Happy, Princess, and Maurine, and everyone in the hotel seemed to want to know what all of us girls were up to! Of course, the girls ran straight into the lobby, going to greet everyone they saw.

 Luckily they’re as cute as they are, otherwise we may have had some noise complaints! After talking to a nice family from Oklahoma who absolutely loved the girls, a very nice lady named Susan approached us, saying that she overheard talk about an orphanage. Once Corrinne and I explained the founding and mission of Small Steps, she told us that she works with a school in New Hampshire, helping to coordinate trips for students to places like Tanzania and had been searching for an orphanage they could possibly visit sometime in the future. At that point I think it became pretty clear to all of us that God’s plan was working out just as He intended it! Definitely a beautiful coincidence to have all been in the same place at the same time. After dropping off our stuff in the room, we got to sit down for a delicious 4-course dinner. We invited Susan to sit with us, who ended up being a tremendous blessing when our little girls just couldn’t sit still any longer. Much to our surprise, the girls ate almost all of their food, and even got seconds on the yummy potato soup! With our bellies full we headed back to the room for bedtime. What should have been a 10 minute process turned into a 2 hour one. As we tucked the girls into one bed, they all of the sudden turned it into a massive slumber party. Then the fun turned into fear when they realized how unfamiliar the room was to them, and why they were even there to begin with. After lots of tears, we laid down with the girls for a few minutes. The second Corrinne and I stood up, Happy and Maurine decided they weren’t going to miss out on any of the fun either! So for the next hour we had to continue to use our amateur parenting skills to get our exhausted friends to sleep. We put both girls in a different bed, and by 11:30, everyone was finally out!

Zawati

While the girls went down for lala time this afternoon, Annie and I decided to take a walk around the village. Don’t worry though…Ksusha was at the house with the girls! On our way out of the gates we passed all the hard workers pouring the foundation for our new home. It is so exciting to see all the progress being made in such a short time! Just picturing all the children we will be able to have here and love once this home is done makes me very anxious and filled with so much joy! The workers are very impressive as they have been working all day and will continue to work all through the night. After walking down the road a little ways we were greeted by the smiling faces of many little children who yelled “Mambo!” to which we replied saying “Poa!” We continued walking and came across more children who were so fascinated by my camera and loved seeing their faces on the screen! After each photo they would crowd around me laughing and pointing at each other so enthralled by the camera! They loved giving high fives so before we continued our walk we gave plenty all around and then some. 

Along the dirt road the beauty surrounding us left Annie and I completely awestruck. A little ways down the path a little boy passed me who I met the first time I came to Tanzania a few years ago. He has grown so much and words can’t express how great it was to see him! 

We were on our way to this lookout where we were hoping to get a good view of Mt Kilimanjaro when we came across a big group of kids who looked a little scared of us at first but then eventually asked us to come over to them and take pictures. After taking pictures, sharing our names, laughing and smiling together we decided to say goodbye and head down the path to the lookout. After a little ways Annie and I decided to turn around and go back to play games and spend more time with the group. They were very excited that we returned and we all played a very fun game of Duck Duck Goose. The laughter was endless as the children took turns running around the circle, tagging each other, and maybe even tripping a time or two. After a little while one the girls, Zawati (Gift), asked if we could sing songs so that is what we began to do.

After they all lined up we sang Father Abraham, We are Soldiers, Making Melodies, Jesus Love is Bubbling Over, Jesus Loves Me, I Just Want to be a Sheep, and more. I loved the fact that the same songs that these kids were learning at school are the same songs I learned on the other side of the world. As I listened and watched them sing Jesus Loves Me it made me stop and think about the uncontainable and inexpressible love of Christ. No religion or region can contain the love and power of God. I don’t know about you but I am so thankful to serve a God that doesn’t fit in the lines, that His mercy is undeserved and given freely, and that we will never even be able to comprehend the vastness of His power and love but the little we can wrap our puny brains around is enough to praise Him every second of our lives forever. 

Living in Orange County, CA I am surrounded by a very materialistic world and it is very easy to lose sight of what really matters in life and where we can find happiness. Too many people place their happiness in temporary things, which can only ever bring them temporary happiness. I know because I have been there…we all have. Being here in Tanzania and singing “I’ve got joy like a fountain” it hit me that the people here are so happy with what the world says is “so little” but really they have so much and all they will ever need because although their lifestyle is simple they have Jesus and an uncontainable and inexpressible joy because they know whose they are. Life with no purpose is time without meaning. I want my time to be meaningful and I want my life to be filled with purpose. In order to accomplish that we need to know who we are and whose we are so that we can understand why we are here. 

Today I asked God to push me further than I’ve gone before and I challenge you to do the same. As humans we are lazy and we live in a world that tells us that if we have more stuff we will find happiness but it’s a lie. We need to realize that we already have everything we could possibly ever need. We need to simplify our lives and do the things that really matter. Love God. Love People. It is in God and only Him that we can have pure joy, true happiness, and make a difference.

Time Out

We are currently watching little troublemaker Maurine sit in time out. Corrinne and I are getting the impression she thinks that our sole purpose here is to entertain her, which means we don’t deserve the same level of respect as some of the other adults who come by. So, unfortunately we have been forced to make her face the consequences of not listening when we ask her to. I think a lot of this goes hand in hand with the fact we had another fun day without any lala time… there are a lot of very tired little munchkins in the house! 

 For some reason Corrinne and I found ourselves sleeping in very late today (a quality 13 hours of sleep) and we are thankful to Ksusha for giving us some time off, and woke up just in time to go to lunch! We all squeezed into the car, including Ksusha and baby Alim, and drove from Usa River to Njiro, about 40 minutes away. The girls were so excited to have some Sprite as a special treat while the rest of us ate our delicious meals. At one point, Ksusha had to run back to the car, so Corrinne and I were once again on our own to care for the girls. These moments are always very unpredictable, but the second Ksusha walked away this time, we could tell it wasn’t going to go well! Princess all of a sudden decided she didn’t like sharing a seat with Maurine who refused to sit down. So while Corrinne went to help fulfill little Princess’ needs, I continued to ask Maurine to sit down properly in her seat. With her unforgettable scrunched-up nose and 1-front-tooth smile, she looked me in the eyes and said “noooo!” and began laughing. The other people sitting nearby were all staring, watching as Corrinne and I struggled to pull Maurine out of her seat and tell her she would be put in time-out immediately upon getting back home! I must admit it was pretty difficult not to laugh at her little rebellious move, but eventually Ksusha came back and was able to restore order at the lunch table. I think the best part had to be when lunch came to a close, and our server came up and asked me, “is this your daughter?” pointing straight at Maurine. Although it may seem a little chaotic, these are my favorite memories when we are all able to learn and grow a little bit more with each other as we become more and more familiar. Plus it always gives us a good laugh looking back at everything that ensued! The ride home was pretty quiet, as the girls were desperately trying to stay awake but eventually gave up. 

Once we finally returned, we asked the girls to brush their teeth before they began to play again. They all ran off to the bathroom single-file, and about 10 minutes later, it seemed way too quiet for our liking. Corrinne ran to check up on them just to find the bathroom flooded in water! The girls looked up with very pitiful, toothpaste-full faces, and Princess seemed to have felt so bad that she ran straight to the mop to begin cleaning up the mess without even being asked. So as Maurine sits in time out while Happy and Princess are playing with each other, Corrinne and I are beginning to make another nutritious meal of chicken, salad and green beans for our naughty (yet painfully sweet) little girls!

Hallelujah

After today Annie and I are very worn out. The girls kept us constantly going whether it was because we were having dance parties or they were crying due to reasons that will never be know, because most of the time there wasn't a reason. Ksusha had errands to run today so it was the first day that Annie and I were here taking care of the girls all on our own. We are learning all different parenting tricks and are getting good mom practice for well into the future. Disciplining these precious little girls is not easy and I wish I didn't have to but it is necessary at times. Every smile, hug, kiss, and getting told "naku penda" (I love you) makes it all worth it though plus so much more! I wouldn't trade my time with them for the world, even if at times it can be a little hectic. 

We had plenty of fun though today, as well! My favorite moment of the day was when Annie and I were cooking dinner for the girls while listening to music when the Jason Castro version of "Hallelujah" started playing. While at the stove we heard three little voices all singing "hallelujah" over and over and over again all together. It was the sweetest thing and made my day! There wasn't a lot that went on today so I apologize for the short blog. Annie and I just put the girls to bed and now are looking forward to some relaxing time and then to get some sleep. 

A night of sleeping is always way more eventful though than it normally is in America. First, we start by loud outbursts of laughing for many different reasons or none at all, then get freaked out because the cat, Anfisa, sneaks up on us and terrifies us, then eventually fall asleep to the sound of cows mooing, dogs barking, and bugs flying only to get woken up by roosters crowing at approximately 3 AM. The best part though is when Happy, Maurine, and Mataya wake us up at 8 all saying "Goooo-morneeen!"

Silly Mzungus!

• Today was a very productive day for all of us girls here at Small Steps! We were up and awake by 8AM ready to begin our fun-filled day! We started off  by saying morning prayer, eating a yummy breakfast of fruit and oatmeal and cleaning ourselves up. Our first stop was to run a few small errands in Arusha.  First we headed to the bank to convert our US dollars into TZ shillings. From there we headed to the delicious Africafe to get some coffee (or better yet, mocha frosties...YUM!), pastries, and juice for the girls! After filling up our tummies, we were anxious to go shopping at the wonderfully unique Masaai Market. Of course Princess, Maurine, and Happy got tons of attention from all of the different vendors…so much that they were even given some free beaded bracelets! It was a great experience, especially attempting to bargain with the pushy vendors. We ended up doing a pretty good job though if I do say so myself, like working 10 bracelets worth 15,000 TZ shillings to 7,000. But I think first place goes to Corrinne who was able to bargain an awesome Tanzanian soccer jersey starting at 40,000 shillings to 15,000! "Way to go" for us "Mzungus"! Although we wished we could have bought all of the unique, African things we saw, we left very happy with the purchases we had made, including cool paintings, jewelry, tribal pants and more. From the market we made our way to Shoprite for some groceries. Excited to make another good nutritious dinner, we loaded up our cart with tons of vegetables, pasta, and chicken. Eventually we made our way back home with some very sleepy little girls. We had fun preparing our extremely delicious Italian meal that included green beans, salad, and pasta with tomato sauce and chicken! After a tiring day we were all ready for bed. Blessed by another great day here in Tanzania most definitely.
  

  Joke of the day: Annie: aww she (Happy) is so happy now that she has her food.
  Corrinne: Shes like, “uhh I’m always Happy”
  Haha good one to us.