Mom and Dad's African Adventure Part II: Zanzibar, Tanzania

"SMILE UR IN ZANZIBAR!"
So, we did!

Mom buying fabric in the open market.
We LOVE an open market!

You may not believe this, but it's true.
One afternoon Mom, Dad and I got massages!
Dad practically insisted that Mom and I also get a pedicure.
So, we did!

Bliss!!!

Mom's birthday dinner at my favorite Zanzibar restaurant,
the Red Flame Tree.
The jumbo shrimp are well, jumbo.

A daladala - Zanzibar's form of public transportation.
I love packing into the back of these open air trucks.
Mom and Dad were a little less impressed with the two hour cramped drive.

The Birthday Girl Combs the Beach

So Many Shells!

The boat ride back from our snorkeling trip to Chumbe Island.

Also, Beaut-i-ful!!!

Chumbe Island Lighthouse

Chumbe Island

Few things scare me, but heights most certainly do.
I could just imagine myself tripping and falling through the less than adequate railing
as I walked down the lighthouse's 250+ stairs.
I was sweating like a pig
and so tense that my legs were sore for almost a week afterward.

Much happier on the top of the Chumbe Island Lighthouse.

Catching the boat to Chumbe Island.
Check out Dad's shoes. His sandles were in the lost luggage...

Barefoot, Beach Dinner

The water on this beach was at least 90 degrees -
like a hot bath.

Spice Tour Lunch

Mom and I on the Spice Tour
We saw nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper and clove trees,
plus the source of lots of other tropical treats.

Zanzibar Market

Mom and Dad bartering for fabric and island spices.

Old Slave Chambers
Zanzibar used to be a major slave trading post.

Mom's Shells

One Hot Momma!

Stone Town - Zanzibar

This is why I LOVE sunscreen.
An almost sunscreen free swim in Zanzibar is never a good idea.
Sorry Dad.

These girls were collecting seaweed, sea cucumbers and other sea treasures.

Two in Orange

Breakfast
Fruit, omelets, fresh bread, real butter, fresh squeezed juice and chai.

We spent two nights in a little seaside town on the east side of the island.
Mom and I spent her birthday morning walking the beach, searching for shells and watching the local women and children collect seaweed.

Aaaahhh, yes...

Chumbe Island

Enjoying the view from the top of Chumbe Island's lighthouse.

Mom and Dad tasting a new and obviously tasty tropical fruit on the Spice Tour.

Spice Tour
Jak Fruit - a cross between a banana and a pineapple - not my favorite.

Mom and Dad's African Adventure Part III: Masai Mara Safari

The Masai Mara impala, elephant and sleepy lion living it up in Kenya!

Inside our tented camp.
It was rainy and COLD the first day!!!

Dad found this toilet at the entrance of the park.
I am sad to say, that in the 3 1/2 weeks my parents were in Africa they never experienced a real nasty squatty potty. This one is pretty plush.
Now, what kind of tour guide was I?

Guinea Fowl

Beaut-i-ful Africa!

Sausage Tree

Grey Crown Crane

Mom and Dad in the Safari Van

Zebras

Little Antelope and Tree

Mom and Dad in front of our safari tent.

Masai Mara in the Rain

Lions Playing

Mother and Child

Zebra with Rain on the Horizon

Referendum

Referendum registration center in Nagishot, Sudan.

Registering

Lojore with his Referendum registration voting card

Ready to vote!

On January 9, 2011, after six years of relative peace between Sudan’s Arab North and African South, the Compression Peace Agreement will be ending. The Referendum offers Southern Sudan the opportunity to remain one unified country or succeed from Northern Sudan, depending upon the January vote.

Sudan’s history has been a tumulus one. Please join us in praying that God’s will, whether it is in the form of unity or separation, will be done through the January Referendum. Pray that peace would reign in the country of Sudan.

Please pray for:

Godly leaders to rise up in Sudan.

For God’s will to be done on January 9, 2011.

For a peaceful resolution.

October 14th, 2010

October 14th, 2010
Praising God for these past 2 years in Sudan!!!

but I wanted to spare the rod...

I am guessing that if you asked most teachers what their least favorite part of teaching was, most would say either a.) huge loads of paper work, b.) working with overbearing or under-bearing parents or c.) disciplining students.

The only paperwork I do these days, is that which I have deemed essential and it is a blessing to say that so far, all of my encounters with Didinga parents have been nothing but positive.

However, I am going to tell you a little secret. Promise not to tell? As shocking as this may seem, life is not perfect here in Sudan.

Every culture, every generation is affected by certain sins, certain strongholds. Oh, we Americans have ours. We most certainly do! And the Didinga, well they have theirs too.

Methe, the local brew, is their god. They structure their every living moment around it. They work for methe, they play for methe, and they starve themselves and their children for that all consuming drink.

My class, though indirectly affected at this point by methe preparation and consumption, is directly affected by another Didinga cultural sin – dishonesty.

In the last few months, student after student has been caught lying, stealing, and cheating inside the walls of P3. Even the most unassuming and lovable little tykes have flat out lied, though not well, to my face.

I have lectured and praised good behavior. I have punished the whole class for the folly of one, I have made everyone run sprints until a little liar came forth revealing what we all knew to be true. Water has been carried and recesses have been missed.

And though we have had no repeat offenders, so to speak, each week there seems to be a new ten year old eager to see if Teacher Kim’s patience will falter.

In late October, I realized what most of you probably would have realized months before.

For a Didinga child, there is only one end to a serious offense – an “amogee” or spanking. Any other punishment, though it might be less than enjoyable, is not taken seriously.

In other words, I can talk until the cows come home, quoting the Bible and explaining not only my displeasure, but God’s in light of a student’s dishonesty. However, my students were seemingly unable to see their offenses as a true flaw in their forming character and harmful to others, until I showed them that it was.

Remember the movie, Anne of Avonlea? In the beginning of that movie, Anne has to swat one of her students. A big frizzy haired girl who I think was named Josephine. Anne hesitated spanking the child, but in the end, she knew that she must. The first time I didn’t spare the rod or spoil the child, I think I felt exactly the same way that this literary icon must have (if ol' Anne was real, of course).

Though most that have been spanked have never shed a tear, I always get choked up. My tears are those of disappointment, love and prayers for the very souls of these children.

Please join me in praying that the sins keeping my students’ parents in darkness, will be pushed aside as these children turn towards the light of Jesus.

Playing House

Our little neighbor Nacore has a charming way of poking her dirty little hands into everything. She’s inquisitive to say the least.

One afternoon, Nacore’s figure wandered into my tukal, bound and determined to pull me away from the lesson I was trying to plan. Not yet ready to be interrupted, I settled this little lady down with a bag of plastic bears I hadn’t yet taken over to the school.

Her play was so interesting, so familiar, that it didn’t take me long to leave my working perch on the bed.

Sitting beside her, I watched her without redirection.

After putting every bear into one meandering line, she carefully divided the bears into small family groups. A mom, dad and several children were always represented, with the wee one either on the back of the mother bear or breast-feeding in the front. Next, each small bear child was given its appropriate Didinga birth order name.

Watching her play I was pulled back to days of yesteryear. Long afternoons spent in my parents’ loft playing “Block People”, Barbies and dolls with my sisters.

Nacure, a girl growing up in a remote Sudanase village, a girl who has never set foot in a toy store or lumbered glossy eyed in front of Saturday morning commercials, plays ‘house’ just like I did all those years ago in Valleyford, Washington as a girl.

Is it just me, or is this somewhat strange?

Though I haven’t tested it, I am super curious to see how a little Didinga boy would play with those same colored bears. Do you think that he would put them in small family groups, taking good care to breast-feed the wee one? I am guessing not!

A bit of nurture, a dab of nature and a great deal of God’s handy-work knits together the little boys and girls of the world.

Map Day

Friday, November the something (it was awhile ago) was Amazing Race Map Day at school!

After weeks of studying maps in the classroom, my little explorers were ready for a true mapping adventure.

The class was divided into three competing teams. Each team received a map with a different circled Nagishot location, such as the airstrip, clinic, football field or the market. The goal was to read the map, travel on foot to the location as quickly as possible, and complete a pre-determined task such as a multiplication and or double digit addition/subtraction practice sheet (ok, so the tasks were slightly less edge-of-your-seat-exciting then the real Amazing Race, but this is school people, not an episode of reality television). Once the task was successfully completed, a second, third and then later a fourth map was given to the group until they were ultimately led to our front porch, where I was waiting for them.

After racing up and down these Nagishot hills, everyone was pretty hot and tired. The cold juice, popcorn and bubble gum, for the winning team, were received with big smiles and appreciation. As a special treat, we watched a BBC Planet Earth, Pole to Pole, video. Actually, I should say they watched a video. I was much more interested in watching their eyes grow wild with excitement as their world grew to include such peculiarities as snow, penguins and the great white shark.

Yes, teaching sure is fun!