Wildlife in Tanzania

Here is another audio presentation, a narrative in Gary's own voice, telling a story about wildlife in Tanzania.

To play back the audio recording, be sure to first turn on the speakers of your computer, and 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)

Much-Needed Desks and Chairs Arrive at Idigima!

Imagine our surprise!!! We were told that chairs were delivered one late afternoon while we were at the house. I had hoped to get pictures of the students unloading them.


With many of our Pre-Form students sitting two to a chair, of having the chairs pushed together to form a bench for four or five students, we were very excited to hear that we would be able to organize our rooms a bit in rows.




Not so fast! The factory in Iringa provided ready-to-assemble parts. It will be a few more weeks before the carpenters get to this project.








The construction of desks was determined to be more pressing, and because the Form IV students were involved with National Exams,
the noise of constructing desks was moved to a couple of empty bedrooms and the center room of one of the boy teacher's houses.






After the exams were completed, the Form IV classroom was converted into a storage and workshop for the finishing of desk tops and the construction of chairs.




The lumber for the tops of the desks was moved to the workshop via a fire line that stretched the distance of the campus.



They found that having each student carry a timber was resulting in too many "bonks".

Your Hands & Feet in Tanzania,

Gary and Joanne

Air Pump Ministry

The bicycles over here are incredible. Most tires are bald; most brakes do not work. We have a line of students at our door most days at the end of school.


They pump up their leaking tires and make a beeline for the ghettos before they go flat. The pumps available are equally unreliable, always needing a new hose or filter seal. We've put it on the Needs List for next year to bring a good one from the States.


This is a great out-of-class time for us to visit and get to know our students a little better. It also serves to inform us of who has a bicycle for hire when we need a bag of rice, beans, cooking oil or flour delivered from the village market.



Your Hands (the air pump) & Feet (the bicycles) in Tanzania,

Gary and Joanne

New Teachers at Idigima

When we returned to Idigima Secondary School in September 2011, we found that many of the teachers had returned to the universities or taken other jobs. We haven't focused too much on the national teachers in the past, so thought it would be good to start doing so from time to time.


This year was special in that four Form IV graduates were hired to help us with the growing Pre-Form classes. Mwamini and Enitha, pictured here with Joanne, are teaching Pre-Form I-B math and English, respectively. I enjoyed Mwamini as one of my top Bible Knowledge students, and Enitha was our Swahili language helper during our first years. She also helped around the house for living expenses.

Justin (pink shirt) is helping Gary's Pre-Form I-C class with math, and Stan (green shirt) is working with Joanne for math skills among the Form I-A class.












Stan is an orphan we helped along the way and was the top student at Idigima while a student. Justin served as the Head Prefect (student president).


Also pictured are a couple of university students: Pendo and Agata.


Agata (Cowboys t-shirt) loves to dance and sing, hardly ever standing still.














Pendo (peach jacket) teaches Swahili, and Agata teaches Civics.


Sharing the love of Christ through education,

Gary and Joanne

Fikiri - Part 2

Here is the second audio presentation narrated by Joanne.

This is Part 2 of 2 of her stories of Fikiri. The next audio that will be posted will be from Gary and is titled, Wildlife in Tanzania. Look for this audio to appear on the blog later this month.

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)

Visiting the Ghetto, Part II

Six boys in Pre-Form invited us to visit. They are all from the same village--a 5 hour bus ride from Idigima. They are the first to come to Idigima from this village. They tell us that there are many in their village and nearby villages who are not able to go to school, because there are only three secondary schools within 100 miles of their village, and those schools have capacity for 300 students, tops.




We encouraged them to share what VST is doing for Tanzanian youth. We reminded them that VST was started by Form IV graduates.




They have invited us to visit their village during the Christmas break. Did we mention that the last 50-60 miles of the five hour journey would be on unpaved roads? It would be quite an adventure!




The report that their area has a plethora of mango trees and a large river full of big fish to eat makes the trip tempting. Also, they tell us that we'd be crossing one of the three largest bridges in all of Tanzania.



We'll have to wait and see what our Christmas break consists of; many times there are special projects or classes to supervise.

Your Hands & Feet in Tanzania,

Gary and Joanne Grenell

(blogmaster's note - this was one of the many updates authored and sent in November, to be distributed over the course of the following several weeks, thus the reference to the upcoming Christmas Break)

Visiting the Ghetto, Part I

We are making regular trips to the villages (3-4x/wk) this year to visit students in their ghettos. They tell us about their families back home, how far it is from school, how frequently (or infrequently) they get to go home during the school year, what kind of agriculture may be different than in our area, etc. Most of the time, there is a feature "back home" that they brag on as being so much better than in this area, such as different fruit trees such as pear, mango or papaya, or that they have pineapple, or a river big enough to sport fish, or a forest with animals to hunt.






On this trip to a ghetto outside Idiwili, we are visiting girls. Two are sisters. Their landlord has a grinding mill, so they have access to flour at a reduced price.






The man also has ostrich, or some such large bird, from which they enjoy large egg portions. We'd heard about them from other students, but they keep them in a building, so we've not seen them.



We always play UNO; the students love the game and have learned to give "HIGH FIVE" to the winner. We announce a Draw Four as being a zawadi (gift to you), and try to manipulate the game a bit so that as much as possible, everyone gets a chance to win.

They will play for hours; we are saved from "staying the night" by the need for them to get some chores done or the return to school for study or activities.

Your Hands & Feet in Tanzania,

Gary and Joanne Grenell