Tragedies Draw Us Together

Misheki

Odalia is one of our veteran teachers, a single mother who teaches Civics and is the staff leader for our chapel services. She has two children, a girl (7) named Jeni and a boy (3) named Misheki. Misheki is all boy, riding a stick as if a horse, although I’m sure he’s never seen a real horse or knows about stick horses. He enjoys chasing chickens, goats and even 2000 pound bulls that graze around the houses at times. Frankly, he is mischievous...but we love him. He reminds us so much of our boys when they were young.

Odalia and Jeni

Odalia and Misheki

When we returned in September, we found that Jeni was to move to Mbeya town to live with her grandmother and attend pre-school. The closest school for her here in the village would have been a very long walk for a little girl, not to mention the danger of walking our rocky roads.

We were in our home one late afternoon when we heard terrible wailing and screaming coming from the home of the women teachers next door. We assumed that they had brought a demon-oppressed student there for ministry, and we joined in prayer from our house. We soon realized, however, that it was Odalia who was crying as if her heart had been ripped from her. Our immediate thought was that something had happened to one of the children.

After a prayer for wisdom in responding to whatever we would find, we left the house to go to her, only to find that she and a large group of teachers and students were leaving the house and heading for the public road. Joining the group, we heard two recurring Swahili words in the midst of the wailing that we understood: the names Misheki and God (Mungu). It did not take long to put the story together. Odalia and Misheki had been visiting Mr. Sifaeli’s home across the road. Upon leaving, Misheki had run ahead of his mother and started across the road in the path of a truck coming down the hill. We found out later that it had been a glancing blow somehow and that most of Misheki’s injuries were from hitting the road rather than the impact with the truck. The driver of the truck gathered him up and rushed him to the dispensary in Iyula-A, a 10-15 minute drive away. Odalia and other teachers crowded into another truck. We were assured that Misheki was still alive when he was picked up off the road.

Throughout the evening we received messages via the Headmaster. First was the report that Misheki had been transferred to the Mbozi Hospital two hours away and that there was no sign of concussion to the brain.

Later reports assured us that there were no broken bones and that most of the injuries were scrapes to his head and face. It was a couple of weeks before we began to get reports that he and his mother may be coming home soon.

Misheli, under foot - literally!

We are rejoicing at this time in being able to report the complete recovery of our campus’ little toddler, Misheki. Once again, he is dragging behind him plastic bottles tied on a twine, throwing rocks at the chickens and goats, begging candy off of Babu, and wanting to help him carry water to the house . . . but actually just getting under foot.

Life is back to normal.

Love from our home to yours,

Gary and Joanne Grenell

"The Story of Life"

-an article by alumni student George Kibona

The following is a portion of the life story we asked George to write after he spent an afternoon with us, sharing about his life. He’d written five pages about his younger years, but wanted to do a rewrite. He’s now graduated and gone, so we may never see those pages. You would have enjoyed the story of his young life. He was/is much smaller than others in his family due to childhood sickness. This explains some of the medical visits and superstitions referred to in the writing below. As a young boy, his father thought him too small to go to school, so he went to elementary school in secret, sneaking away from his cow herding responsibilities. He used the core of batteries for pencils and stole single pages from the back of his siblings’ notebooks in order to do his assignments. Unable to read, he listened to the other students read, memorized the text, and pretended to read when called upon to take his turn. He was befriended by the school master when the teachers observed his potential. The following is the more recent history, much of which we have experienced with him. For the most part, you can enjoy the broken English skills of our students in these updates. Edit helps are in parenthesis.

Your Hands & Feet in Tanzania,

Gary & Joanne

(Editor's note: George’s article was forwarded as typewritten words in an e-mail, with edit helps by Gary & Joanne that are in parenthesis. It is unknown if George typed the article himself, dictated as it was typed, or written on paper and later typed out by Gary or Joanne. Assuming the latter, while maintaining it as unedited, for visual impact I took the liberty to change the font to simulate handwritten words and to display it on tablet paper images to better replicate what George's original article may have looked like.)

Pig Parts

(Internet photo representative of the topic)

Here is an audio presentation, about cross-cultural relations at mealtime, in Gary’s own voice.

(At the 1:10 minute mark you will hear a brief interruption as Gary’s son-in-law, Trevor, instructs Gary to restart a particular sentence over again.)

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.

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

Good Fences Make for Good Neighbors

Gary splitting bamboo for fencing.

free-range chickens

The variety of greens and vegetables are so few in the village life of rural Tanzania, we’ve opted to “attempt” gardening in this harsh environment. There are drawbacks to having a spoiled American pallet, I guess.

free-range chickens

Actually, by the time the garden begins to produce, we’ll be half way through our tour, but having fresh Swiss chard, carrots, summer squash, green beans and the like will hopefully be worth the effort.

neighbors goats

As most of you know, the climate here is either wet or dry and hot or hotter. As a result, you are either carrying water to your garden or digging ditches to carry the flood waters away from your garden. The saying, “Timing is everything” is certainly true in the planting of our garden.

free-range cattle

Too early in the rainy season and the hard rains will wash the seeds right out of the soil. Too late and the dry season will make it almost impossible to keep enough water on the plants for them to develop fruit. The trick is to get them established in stages to both survive and benefit from the rains.

flowers before goats

Sad experiences have taught us that gardens in the midst of free-ranging chickens and goats don’t mix. So, for the fourth year now, we’ll try to build fences that are high and close-knit to keep the chickens out and strong enough to keep the goats and strong winds from breaking them down.

flower before goats

With termites active from underground, there is the added challenge of finding materials they don’t eat or treating the posts with chemicals. Although we’ve always gone the organic route in the past, we’re trying the alternative this year.

Last year was such a blessing in not having goats on the campus.

flower before goats

Sadly, a couple of the teachers have chosen to raise goats as a means of accumulating additional funds for college. You can’t blame them, but the result is the devastation of the environment.

flower bed after goats

(See the before and after pictures of our front flower beds.)

We’ve found decorative plants that chickens and goats don’t eat.

goat proof planting

As volunteer teachers, we can only make suggestions. For an economically struggling, national teacher, the cost of fencing the animals is prohibitive, as is the hiring of a child to herd them.

fencing bamboo cut to length

So, we build fences. The purchase of bamboo is minimal and benefits the students who cut them for us.

fence under construction

Hopefully, the protected garden will provide an abundance of vegetables that we will be able to share with our neighbors.

finished fence

Not only do fences keep peace, but shared food promotes good will in the cause of Christ.

In His love and contentment,

Gary and Joanne Grenell

"Opinions"

-an article by alumni student George Kibona

The following was a note passed to me (Gary) the morning following a Bible Club meeting. The writer, George Kibona, has been featured in other updates. He, like Nestory, was a graduate this year and is currently working with his father and "chased" mother, helping each on their farms. He often shared his desire to develop in business and own land in order to employ and bless poor people. He wrote in reflection on our Bible Club lesson on church unity. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all Christendom would hear and heed the words of this African teenager?

(Editor's note: George’s article was forwarded as typewritten words in an e-mail, with edit helps by Gary & Joanne that are in parenthesis. It is unknown if George typed the article himself, dictated as it was typed, or written on paper and later typed out by Gary or Joanne. Assuming the latter, while maintaining it as unedited, for visual impact I took the liberty to change the font to simulate handwritten words and to display it on tablet paper images to better replicate what George's original article may have looked like.)

Cat Whisperer

Here is an audio presentation, about their linguistic feline,Tanzy, in Joanne's own voice.

Tanzy

(Tanzy was a much welcomed, yet uninvited, guest that appeared at their door early in their first year of service in Tanzania. Tanzy has since passed on, but left a legacy of five kittens, one of whom “serves” along with Gary and Joanne today. Her name is Callie.)

Callie

Gary spoke of the usefulness and primary purpose of cats in an earlier audio presentation, Cats, and the felines have been mentioned in other postings:

How Do We Feel? We Feel At Home.
Tanzy
Greetings from 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.

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