“What has God done in your life during your years at Idigima?” – Part III

The title of this blog post, What has God done in your life during your years at Idigima? – Part III, is the final follow-up to the previous blog post from this past July where responses from Form III and Form IV students on a weekly Bible Knowledge test to this same question were posted.

That blog post can be accessed thru the archives (scroll down on the right hand column) or click on the following link:

“What has God done in your life during your years at Idigima?”

Gary & Joanne were asked to respond to the very same question. Gary’s response to the same question was posted on September 14, 2012. You can review Gary’s response post by accessing the archives or by clicking on this link:

“What has God done in your life during your years at Idigima?” – Part II

Joanne’s response to this question follows.

(The above is a picture from their photo file that was selected and
submitted by the Grenells as an appropriate visual for this post)

The Lord has been teaching me many things about myself and what it means to really be humble.

For instance, it is culture to bring a gift, no matter how small (a bar of soap, a pen, a small bag of dry beans, or a small bag of salt, etc.) to the host/hostess of where you are going. Many students really appreciate our being here (all the way from America, leaving our family, etc.) to help them in their education and helping some meet their daily needs (food, rent money, encouraging words).

So, often, students will bring us gifts from their home villages. Sometimes they say the gift is from their parents or maybe it was a harvest time for that crop (peanuts, maize, Irish potatoes, rice, etc.) and they just wanted to bring something to us to make a pointed “Thank you.”

One of my “love languages” is acts of service. As many of you know, I seem to need to be doing something all the time and for someone else, to show my love. With this comes the “‘no need to say, “Thank you,” feeling. So, put me in this culture and poverty, where someone is bringing ME gifts that I know is quite a hardship and sacrifice for them, and I am greatly humbled!!

Your Hands & Feet in Tanzania,

Gary & Joanne

Greetings from Tanzania!

In London with Big Ben in the background.

Dear friends,

Our apologies for not communicating sooner; we’ve simply not had the opportunity.

We had a 10 hour layover in London, so I coaxed a very tired Joanne into taking the tube into town to see some tourist attractions . . . places you see in movies. We saw Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Westminster Abby, and the Parliament building, then jumped back on the tube and caught a short nap before boarding for our flight to Dar.

We arrived “home” at about 11:00 pm on Thursday, September 6th. A dinner was waiting, prepared by the lady teachers. By midnight we’d found the bed sheets and organized paths through the luggage.

The highlights of the trip were the bus again being boarded by immigration officials and our shipping bins not being loaded on the same bus with us on our trip to Mbeya.

The officials asked if we had our papers, but did not demand to see them, and the luggage arrived safely on Saturday.

After spending most of the first day in bed, we took a walk around campus and found our cat, Callie, living in a storage room.

She was obviously pregnant and happy to see us, following us back home and scarcely leaving our sides since. She delivered three kittens on Friday, the 14th.




We hit the ground running here at Idigima, as the quarterly exams were scheduled to begin on the 17th, and the typist had shifted to a new location. Our arrival brought a sigh of relief to the Academic Dean and Headmaster. To add to the abnormal “normal” of African life, the generator was broken until the 18th. The Headmaster borrowed a small gas generator to charge the computers for typing the exams, which we were able to complete in just a couple of days.

Joanne got back into the classroom right away, reviewing and preparing her Pre-Form students for their exam in English. Gary had a few opportunities to enter some of his classes and review what would be on their exams.

On the home front, it is the time of year when snakes like to find warm places... One evening we had just finished washing dishes and entered the “great” room to find Callie squared off with a snake that matched the cement floor color so well that Joanne couldn’t see it right away. Note: there are no lights in this room. Joanne held the flashlight while Gary dispatched it with the panga (machete). In the picture, we’re checking it for fangs; it appeared to be non-poisonous, but better safe than sorry. Next on the agenda was to search the house for possible companions . . .

Gary was the first to use the First-Aid supplies. He was going to market on the “back” of a transport pick-up truck, standing on the fender and holding onto a bar at tailgate height. Almost to the village, they hit a bump that jolted a passenger sitting against the tailgate into Gary’s head, knocking his glasses off onto the road. Instinctively, he jumped off to retrieve them, but didn’t hit the ground running as planned. Instead, he hit the ground rolling, with scuffs on his hands, shoulder, elbow and knee. Some TLC, salve and Band-Aids from Joanne had him up and running again by evening.

Thanks to all who contributed to our increase of protein resource.

We were able to bring some bagged tuna, salmon and protein drink mix this year.






Also, a very big “THANK YOU” for the support we received while stateside: housing, transportation, tech support, and fantastic fellowship and encouragement. Although we love you very much, we are feeling quite at home here.

Your servants in the Lord,

Gary and Joanne Grenell