2011 Christmas Greeting

It's been quite a job, first connection and availability problems for the past few days (even following my last email--dropped and wouldn't recover), then going to town only to find the Internet cafe closed . . . but, "Merry Christmas!"

December 25, 2011

A blessed Christmas and New Year to the beloved partners in this ministry to Tanzania’s youth!

What occupies your time at this season of the year? The church Christmas program, baking, urgent deadlines at work, caroling, shopping and gift wrapping, decorating, annual reports, family visits, company parties, more shopping and gift wrapping, more baking, refinancing? It is a special time of year with an odd mixture of joyful warm fuzziness and stress.

Life in the villages of Tanzania at this time of year holds quite another experience than we are used to in America. The Christmas traditions here center around a day at church, which differ little from Sunday worship. There may be some extra sprigs of green and flowers hanging on the walls or from the rafters. Singing, praying and preaching alternate between different church branch groups that usually unite for the holiday. A lunch break will see some of the people return to their respective villages for afternoon and evening services, the rest remaining for perhaps some games before additional times of worship into the evening. No gift-giving. No shopping. No special baking, although some special pilaf rice dishes and a chicken may be prepared. Students who can afford to travel will certainly try to reach their families during the break. No caroling, although the people will often sing while working in the fields or walking along the road. Not much stress! It is a time of well-wishing to one another.

On the Idigima campus, building continues, even on Christmas Eve. We are excited to see eight new classrooms nearly closed in (four have roofs) and the laboratory walls are nearly finished now. (From what we’ve heard, Idigima may be the first VST school to have a laboratory.) About 150 of the Pre-Form One students registered too late in the year to take the annual examinations with the other students; they will take their exams on December 30. Until then, they (and we) continue with classes. As the only students not released for break after the annual examinations last Friday, they begin their “school day” with each student hauling five buckets of sand up from the river, carrying bricks to be near the builders, or filling the water drums. Once the builders are prepped for their day’s work, the students can go to class for Math and English. We spend two and a half hours in each subject and then release them for the day. Most of them left on Friday afternoon to be with their families for the weekend. We made a rush trip to town with one of the national teachers and saw students on the way back, they'd covered ten miles and were still walking (the Internet Cafe was closed, so we are blessed to be able to get this to you today; we were still unable to access from campus last night, but got on at 7:00 a.m. this morning).

Then there are today's plans for Christmas at Idigima Secondary School. Some of the teachers have requested travel to visit their families; the rest of us will attend area churches and gather for a common meal, games and loud music. Doubtless, we will have visitors throughout the day and evening as we host a gathering of students unable to go to their homes. We extended the invitation to all who are not going to be with their families (probably 50-75), so we'll see what happens. Joanne has been experimenting with banana brownies as a treat. The first batch had to be tested, of course, and was a huge success.

We had a friend from Vwawa invite us to be with his family for Christmas. When we told him our plans, he said, "You are doing what Jesus would do. You are like parents to your students. They will love you for life more than their real parents.” Convicting . . . and we are seeing it more and more as we provide the affection, counsel, and attention often lacking in the impoverished village life.

Your fellow servants in Christ, who happen to be in Tanzania,

Gary and Joanne Grenell

Gary & Joanne's Second Year Video Report

The Grenell’s Second Year Video Report is now available to watch.

To play the video recording, be sure to first turn on the speakers of your computer, then either scroll down the right side of the blog to reach the "Featured Video Clip" or click on the "Video Clips" tab across the top of the blog to open a new page that has both the first and second year videos.

Enjoy!

John Williams, Your Hands & Feet blogmaster (for the Grenells)

Fikiri - Part 1

Here is the first audio presentation narrated by Joanne.

To play the audio recording, be sure to first turn on the speakers of your computer, then either scroll down the right side of the blog to reach the "Featured Audio Clip" or click on the "Audio Clips" tab across the top of the blog to open a new page that will eventually hold the archive of all the audio clips.

Enjoy!

John Williams, Your Hands & Feet blogmaster (for the Grenells)

"Do You Hear What I Hear?"

For those of you missing the sound of Gary's and Joanne's voice, you can rest easy as the first audio presentation, a narrative in Gary's own voice recorded this past summer while they were stateside, has been posted.

They accomplished this with the assistance of their son-in-law, Naomi's husband, Trevor, but posting had been delayed as Trevor was forced to deal with the flooding and aftermath of their home in the Missouri River flooding of Council Bluffs (IA) this past summer. Thank you, Trevor, for your work in preparing the audio clips for posting.

This first audio clip is about Flesh Eating Ants.

More audio clips will follow in the coming weeks, in both Gary's and Joanne's voice, as well as a video clip update of the Grenell's 2010-2011 year at Idigima.

To play the audio recording, be sure to first turn on the speakers of your computer, then either scroll down the right side of the blog to reach the "Featured Audio Clip" or click on the "Audio Clips" tab across the top of the blog to open a new page that will eventually hold the archive of all the audio clips.

You will also notice some changes in the blog layout. Some of the changes were necessitated as posts, files, photos, videos, and other material is added. Some changes were in an attempt to make the blog more user-friendly.

Enjoy!

John Williams, Your Hands & Feet blogmaster (for the Grenells)

Hail storm disturbs the progress

Pictures speak for themselves.

Early rains brought wonderment to Idigima students. Most have never seen ice before, and none have seen snow. When pea-sized hail, high winds and rain hit Idigima, piling up and covering the ground, the students obtained a reference point for our English lessons involving winter weather, snow, ice, and freezing cold. The next day there were still piles of ice in shaded areas, and students were gathering it up to hold and examine.


As interesting as it was, it was very disappointing to see the freshly laid wall of our new classroom cave in as a result of the driving force.


The unique direction of the storm's wind and rain also saturated the gable end of Form II's classroom, causing an evacuation. The gable and wall was replaced with a higher ratio of cement mix, and construction has continued.

In His service,

Gary & Joanne

“Don’t let the sun go down on me . . .”

We still use the solar panels when possible, but the new home-based regulator is working well for getting the computer batteries charged fully in just a few minutes. Now we just need our own modem for Internet connection . . .

We are showing the Jesus film two or three times a week to 40-45 students at a time. Joanne made movie tickets, so it's a big deal among the students. Any larger group and they wouldn't be able to see and hear well. One of the older Christian students gives an invitation or encouragement in Christ at the end. Response has been great!

This, added to visits to the village two to four times per week and handling First Aid at the games keeps our evenings pretty packed out. I have exams piling up that need to be scored and returned in both English and Bible. Of course, the students want to know the next day how they did . . . So, better close and get it done.

Love,

Gary (& Joanne)

“A BIG Thanksgiving to ALL!”

Dear supporters,

The Lord be with you in all your efforts to serve Him in faith and truth. May God's grace abound to you all!

Just a note before dashing off to class... This is the final week for teaching before the students are given an uninterrupted week of "study hall" to prepare themselves for the Annual Exams, which begin on December 12th. Those Pre-Form students who do not do well will be denied the Christmas vacation and attend class...which means we will be with them. We'd toyed with the idea of visiting some students who live in the Rukwa Region, a five hour bus ride from here, but the teaching schedule will likely prevent that adventure.


I wanted to share our Thanksgiving with you. As you know, Thanksgiving is an American holiday, so the stories of travel and family meals, football, harvest and hunting are quite entertaining to our students.





Many of them have hardly left their villages, so the idea of flying across the nation for a weekend visit of family is almost unbelievable to most of them. (I don't think most of them really believe me when I tell them the "little white planes" they see in the sky are carrying a couple hundred people.)

We spent our Thanksgiving evening with a group of students in their ghetto near Idiwili. There was the "always a must" hour or two of UNO cards. Our dinner consisted of a big bowl of rice, a big bowl of ugali, beans and sliced avocado.

ugali

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugali

Abedi (13 yrs old) was our cook and did an excellent job! Peter and Giliam (Abedi's big brother) were the hosts, who have really dolled up their single room, thatched-roofed "apartment," complete with posters and newsprint to cover the bricks and a false ceiling of plastic sheeting. Unlike most, they've also made the effort to decorate the outside with stone-lined flower beds and an enclosed shelter with bench. (I have pictures, but was unable to load them.)

As we walked home that evening, with rain clouds threatening, we marveled at the grace of God to have us here. We thanked Him for the opportunity to be His heart and helping hands to so many young people, and we thanked Him for your partnership with us in this most-needed work.

We really didn't miss the pumpkin pie and turkey and cranberry sauce, but we do miss you.

Love,

Gary and Joanne