Dear family and friends,
Things are going very well here. We officially started the rainy season two weeks ago…and found out that all water flows to our front door. After bailing and sponging up ten buckets of water from our house (it was 1 ½ inches deep in one room), we worked on digging a trench around the house. I had to take out a row of brick from our entry and back patio to allow for water flow. The burm the trench created added to the insurance against future flooding. You live and learn; a student warned me against having the brick level with the floor, but I had no idea of the amount of water HE KNEW would be coming. I taught him an English phrase to say to me, “I told ya so!” Now, the only time we get water is when the wind is blowing from the south and water runs down and under the door. Life is simple and good. A little water is good for mopping the floors. As I type, the rain has begun very heavily and Joanne has put a rag at the front door. A group of Brahma walk by the front window, two bulls, a cow, and a calf, followed by a lone sheep. Poor things are looking for shelter. Perhaps they will come under our back entry roof, where a goat routinely beds down. I told the owner of the goat that she has adopted us; he told me if he ever wants to sell her, I will get the first chance. It would make a good Christmas dinner!
We started construction a couple of weeks ago on a hen house and adjoining garden space, which needs a fence against the cows and goats, but as the Form II students helping me went on a two week break, the work has all but stopped. We have a hen that knows her place in the house and gives us an egg nearly every day; we are excited about adding to the flock when things get organized in order to offer boiled eggs at the student canteen; they could use the protein in their diet, as do we.
Joanne continues to get new students and is up to 60 in her class; she knows them all by name. She is teaching English and Math, sharing with some student teachers from Madisi. Gary has added to his teaching schedule the task of photographing the student body for government records. Come January, he will be very busy organizing and attempting to teach all of the Bible Knowledge classes for Forms I, II, and III. As the students get to know us, along with the staff, we are getting more and more visitors in the afternoon and evening. We discuss Kiswahili, play games, sing choruses, and discuss the differences in cultures. Nothing is really an interruption; what you were doing just gets postponed. We love it.
We don’t know when our computer will be up again in order to check what we’ve received or respond. “POLE” (Swahili: Sorry)
Love you all dearly,
Gary and Joanne Grenell
Idigima Secondary School
Tanzania, Africa
P.S. The rain has stopped and people are walking about on the dirt…this ground is so sandy that it doesn’t get sloppy muddy like in Iowa. We’re thinking it would be perfect for carrots. They are sold in Mbeya, but we’ve not seen them out here in the remote villages. We’ll have people going to the city look for seeds. During the hard rain, two students called from the darkness outside our window, wanting to give us avocados. They were huddled under an umbrella and had two gunny sacks with huge avocados; nearly twice as big as you’ll find at Hy-Vee. They had walked 30-40 minutes in the rain to give fruit away to their teachers.
