boxing days day

At LAST! The internet has been really slow....
Well, Christmas in Africa was fun, and I was so full I didn't have dinner last night or breakfast this morning...We had a large meal on Christmas eve, waffles for christmas breakfast and a buffet lunch for christmas lunch.
Its strange celebrating christmas away from family, but not really sad. I think I missed home more in the days preceding christmas than on the actual day :)possibly because I was living with the Russells who are a family family.
I got some interesting presents including an awesome African Injambe drum from Owen and Lois here at En Gedi.
Just over a week and I'll be off to Zanzibar and snorkelling + wimming for six days! Can't wait. I've used my spare time reading a lot and spending time with the other missionaries here. Missionaries are so cool

On another note, I thought I might post up these quotes which are creating a lot of thinking for me about my heritage from the West. Please don't get me wrong, I love NZ in many ways but I think we really don't understand or can be bothered understanding what is going on outside the 1st world, and heve very little patience for understanding other cultures unless we are that way academically inclined. I see this in myself as well as others, and we are totally ignorant of our ignorance.
For one thing, we think the rest of the world is so different, but really it is quite the contrary, conpared to the rest of the world we in the West are the strange ones.

Look at our 'tolerance' ideals we expect the rest of the world to have, like us:

Openness-and the relativism that makes it the only plausible stance in the face of various claims to truth and various ways of life and kinds of human beings-is the great insight of our times. The true believer is the real danger. The study of history and of culture teaches that all the world was mad in the past; men always thought that they were right, and that led to wars, persecutions, slavery, xenophobia, racism and chauvinism. The point is not to correct the mistakes and really be right; rather it is not to think you are right at all

-Allan Bloom

(Now in the previous post I quoted a book who tried to show that this is how we are today, politically, and in a way I believe he made a good point, looking on from an aitheistic veiw point. But in a way we should also strive to correct wrongs, because there is a right way to run a government. We often have to support the lesser of two evils in a world of grey. What do you think?)

Citing a terrorist attack, Meic Pearse wrote

Too many westerners take refuge in simplistic explanations: fanaticism, extremism, 'fundamentalism', insanity. Such dismissals advance the task of comprehension not one jot; they reveal more about the speaker than about the things, or persons, described. They indicate not so much an understanding as a refusal to understand. All these epithets indicate, in practice if not quite in theory, a mental banishment: "these things are so far distant from my own feelings or judgements that I shall make no attempt to understand why these people, in their own estimation, act or think as they do." And thus we are condemned...

It is a choice not to take anothers culture seriously.

its so interesting, living here in Africa for a short time to see the good and bad effects of westernism (whatever that is these days). In some ways it is fantastic to see an attampt to advance the education system of Tanz, and a goal to push the millions of students to a high level of education, and to increase the number of children able to attend High-school (a tiny ammount at the moment). But, of course, it is also a danger as we will probably (unknowingly) impart some unhelpful parts of our culture onto them if we aren't not careful. Tanz is still a pretty poor country, although hugely rich in natrual resources. It is the raping of Tanz by other countries which adds hugely to the problems here, as well as the underlying corruption.

Anyway, my thoughts aren't that clear at the moment...but do you get my drift?
There are awesome things happening and great advancement going on due to missionaries in Tanz, and I'm excited to be a part of it. But, if you find it in your heart, please pray us westies would be sensitive, carefull and watchfull in this interesting culture.

society

Society is, always has been and always will be a structure for the exploitation and oppression of the majority through systems of political force dictated by an élite, enforced by thugs, uniformed or not, and upheld by a willful ignorance and stupidity on the part of the very majority whom the system oppresses. - Thirteen by Richard k. Morgan

Society in the hands of a fail able human that is.

Woot. Christmas. Thoughts

Well, Christmas is here! Pretty much.
It was good to sing carols again at church and I have one more day of work before 2 days break for Christmas. And I'm going to Zanzibar in less than 2 weeks! woot.

Here are a few thoughts from the last few days (I've had some time to think).

-

I've been reading a book called 'Why the rest hates the West' and it really does have some great insights. The author is a christian, but is quite academically minded and has clear thoughts which are relevant to both believers and non-believers alike. The West is becoming less and less unified, he says. 'A 4th century Japanese, a 14th century English peasant, an 18th century Maori will all have more in common both materially and in their assumptions about the world, than any would have with a 3rd-millennium American, Brit or German...''...for these people, most of human history and culture is a closed book to them.'
And I must admit, coming from such a culture, the gap in our thinking is widening hugely, and we in the west assume so meany things we would think people would see as 'common sense' when it is really something very particular to our own culture. I'm only just through the introduction, but it should be a good read!

-

The Lamb
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee;
Gave thee life and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight;
Softest clothing, wolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee;
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee;
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himslef a Lamb.
He is meek and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name
Little Lamb, God bless thee;
Little Lamb, God bless you;

William Blake

-

Tanzania is a country with a beautiful heart;
But on its face I often seen pain
And in it's eyes I often see fear.

-

Well, love to you all,
And Word to the Father!
Have a good Xmas!!!

merry merry ...merry..

hey eveyone, thanks for your replies and comments. Jay, good to hear from you and from your mum. Hope you guys have a great christmas, and keep safe, thanks for the hug :) Hye Isaac, I hope you guys have a good one too.
Mum, its good to hear from you and get an ear into whats been happening arround the home. Its great Sorawti and Richard are going camping..when do you guys leave? will you be at home to skype on christmas?

Well, I am moving house again tomorrow, back to sally and PC's house. They are a very nice kiwi family with two kids, and I will be having Christmas with them and the couple from NC, America who are also staying there and also are very nice people. Everyone is nice here!
I had a few moments while sitting in the Russell's house and listening to carols in the background when I really did miss home. But its great that I'm going to have christmas with my extended family over here too.

We are going to a Christmas carol night tonight, after we have a carol practice for sunday at vineyard this afternoon. Confusing? Well, I think I'm going to be carol'ed out pretty soon -_- but not yet!

I've been working on this curriculum all week with a pastor who is also training here at Joshua, but is an artist and even used to work for a news paper company in Dar Es Salam a few years ago as a comic artist. Hes really good and its been fun just working together. I couldn't believe he hadn't watched Lord of the Rings which I think is compulsory for any artist to watch, or any creative person, so we watched a bit yesterday. He really liked it, but I had to pause a lot and explain what was going on. Having never come into contact with something so allegoric and complex in film I totally understand why it would be such a challenge. The people of Tanzania are educated strongly in non-fictional things, but not very much in non-fictional things, like poetry, short stories, film and novels. In some ways that reminds me of China.

I might get another post up before Christmas, but its going to be a busy few days, so no promises. Marry Christmas!

fun

Last night we had a Christmas carol service which was really fun. Quite a few people from arround Arusha came and the families from joshua each led a few carols. It was a great night and awesome just to sing together in joy, you know?

I saw a little snake today! I was walking alone up frem the offices and something whiched looked like a big gecko skidded out in front of me. I tried to get a better look at it but it dissapeared under the grass. It was brown and a little green, and moved really fast for it's size.

well, gotta go!

Ants, but not in my pants

Did I mention there are lots of termite mounds all over the place? They are strange little things, a lot like ants and churn the ground to produce a hard pillar of dirt and hardened by some means I'm not to sure on. But they help enrich the ground as there are no earth worms over here. They, like ants, have a queen who burrows a metre or so below the ground, and is quite a big insect, long and skinny with a bulging head. The termintes are about twice as big as ants in NZ. PC, the Eng Gedi supervisor often has the job of digging the queen out.

I've also seen some really big ants, and occasionally a rhino beetle flying through the air. Because it has been raining on and off some species of ants grow wings and fly arround in the evenings and nights. The Russells' say they catch one species of ant while they fly and eat them. Apparently the taste like bacon....?
Last night I was out in the dark with a torch and saw hundreds of red ants flying around and crawling on the ground, not the ones that stings, some other species. There was a toad hopping around happily eating them one by one. The ants didn't seem to mind.
I saw another toad as well, but one of the guard dogs, a lovely German Shepard called Mocha bounded up and promptly sat down on it, totally unaware that she did so. I saw the toads face squash and distort to the side of its head as her weight came down on it. When she got up the toad just calmly hopped away. Neither of the two animals seemed to mind at all...

Man I need to carry my camera around with me more!

I'll be back, keep me up to date on your lives too :)

what day is it? thursday?

So the fast finished last night, and it was a very good thing. It was good to get back into some American cooking, as the family I'm staying with are American.

Its been raining hard here in Arusha which is good for the farmers as the land has been very dry, there was even hail on Friday. The weather has been cool and there are often dark clouds in the sky.The pups are awesome, but often covered with mud due to the rains.

I don't know if I wrote about this already, but one night last week when it was just myself and a few others in the house, the Russells were on holiday, we heard the puppies crying really loudly. After a moment I went to check out what was wrong, but when i got to their kennel they were frantic, and biting at the cage mesh. They were covered in something wet and when i touched their coats my hands were stung by what felt like acid. I immediately thought 'spitting cobra!' because they are quite common arround and spit acid which can blind if not dealt with. I though the pups were covered with acid. I ran across the base to the Iscaries (guards) stay and they went running over with their spears and bow/arrows, then I ran and got the couple who were responsible for the pups while the Russells were away. But when we got back, I had left someone to wash the pups out we found out what the real problem was. Red ants.
They were covred with red ants who have a painful acidic bite. they can be quite dangerous an even kill small animals like puppies and even infant children. We washed them away with boiling water and the pups are fine now. Karibu Tanzania.

I'm going to have a jam on the guitars with skyler this afternoon, and lessons for the student teachers has stopped as they have exams next week :(....

I don't have much more to say, its good to here from y'all, but it doesn't really feel like christmas :)

wellllllll.......Lion King will do Pom

Thanks for putting up those photos Sorawit! I can't wait to see how the film photos turned out as well, has Graham developed them yet?? The photos of Shinyanga and Mwanza will be great to get up on the blog.

We are on a three day fast started yesterday to pray for the coming year here in Tanzania and work out strategies etc as a team, and although Im only here for a while I think God wants me to pray with them. There is many very sad things in Africa, and just as much so in the church as outside it. If you could, pray against ignorance, because there is a whole lot of it here. Pray that the eyes of the people would be opened.

I'm still working on illustrations and things, and when I scan them in to the computer I will try and put some up here. I love that rhino picture. There is a tiny amount of rhinos left in the wild, about 2,500, so they are VERY rare to see up that close. She was one of two we saw, and she came to check us out. we saw here at Ngorongoro crater.

I'm going to be working with an African chap today who is a very good artist. I had a headache last night which was quote painful, then had a dream of a good friend of mine, Rueben, showing me his new artwork and being very impressed...prophetic?

Well, hope NZ is still floating below that long white cloud... :D

National Geographic Magazine

The Crocodile

HOW doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheefully he seems to grin!
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!

Lewis Carroll

saturday..again!

Its already the eighth of December, and I've been here over a month :) time sure does just fly...but its amazing how we barely have time to notice we're flying along with it. The Russells who I'm staying with will be back on tuesday which will be great, although they will start moving into their new house when they get back...
I haven't got a lot done this week, I've beem dealing with stomach problems..ugh. But I did design the Joshua schools report for Lynda, which was a bit of work. I've been helping prepare resources for the Maths curicullum as well, and that involved a whole lot of cutting and laminating and cutting again.

I caught a Daladala with Collin yesterday whcih is like a van which acts as a bus and fills with as many people as possible and is about thirty cents for a ride into town. I'm going to be playing guitar with the worship team at Vineyard this sunday and we went to a practice. Theres only four of us, Collin on the bongos whoo is really good, Nadine singing and her brother Jeremy on the piano. These guys are great musicians and I'm going to learn a lot of them..wohoo can't wait till Sunday!


Hope all is well in NZ, keep me updated :0
I tried calling home today but nobody picked up, tried calling Sorawit and the same thing happened, must be a busy saturday night...I sent a lteer home anyway.

The sunsets over here still amaze me, I'm going to pull my camera out more often I think...Oh, yeah and I went to a snake park on monday, and quickly found myself with a snake arround my neck. He was very friendly though, and didn't bite me.

saturday

Well, its the weekend and it feels good to have so much done this week. Many of the peopel who work here at Engdi, the forigners, are leaving the base over christmas shortly, so its going to be a bit empty by the feels of things. I'm still plodding away with my music lessons with the training teachers, but it seems hard to find time to meet with them as they are coming up to exam time. I will try and find them this morning. It was fun last night, we went to the cinemas in Arusha and watched daddy day-camp. Although the movie was a very predictable it was funny.

heres an insane little poem by Lewis Carroll called :

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.


The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"


The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead--
There were no birds to fly.


The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"


"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.


"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."


The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.


But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat--
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.


Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.


The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.


"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."


"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.


"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."


"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?


"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice:
I wish you were not quite so deaf--
I've had to ask you twice!"


"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"


"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.


"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.


The Walrus and the Carpenter

bungalo ungalo

Hey, sorry no update for quite a while
My cup runneth over, yet time runneth short.
Its so good to hear from you all, Mum, The Burrens co, Roger, Paula and others. Its nice to be in touch with you so far away. Hey please don't bother signing up for blogger, just use the anonymous button at the bottom of the text box when writing a post and put you name a tthe end of you message so I know who it is.
Im really enjoying my time here though, even over here on the horizon and equator. I've just started working with Sue Dow doing Illustrations for the new science ciricullum she's writing, illustrating bible stories and images to use in the health section at the moment. There seems to be a abundance of work here for a huge range of skilled people, so if you think you have something to offer you should think about coming and helping out. It looks like I'm gonna be busy for the next month illustrating...AWESOME!
The Safari was great, and I have asked Sorawit to put the photos up which dad has on his laptop. We even saw two rhino and a cheetah. yup....
The music lessons are going well and the guys who I'm teaching are really enthusiastic and improving fast. Theres quite a few keen artists around all of a sudden.
I've moved accomodation to this great family called the Russells. They have four kids and have lived with the Massai for many years. Skyler is the oldest at 17 and wae've been jamming on the guitar for quite a number of hours now. Chase I went to the Gorge and drew with for a few hours which was fun. The other two are twins, a boy and a girl. They also have four really cute pups...they're awesome, and even sing a long to skyler on his Harmonica. Hes quite good and Im gonna try and learn off him, cause its very hard to learn by myself. And in two weeks I will be moving out of that house as well because they are moving...ahhhh, the only thing certain is change huh?

Well its good to hear home, and that the family liked the bracelets from the massai market, and that deb might be an ambassador, that Isaac liked his club, that geoff and Vas' and going to aussie soon and will have a great trip, that my friends have helped mum out (you guys are awesome), that the simmons' are all doing well and busy, and that I better go now. heheh, well God bless you guys....

Mwanza!!

Well, its been a great trip to Mwanza. We went on a small airline called Costal Air on a small plane There were only six people excluding us on the flight to Mwanza, but the 12 seat plane was full on the was back. We can say we’ve been to the Serengeti now! We stopped on every runway they have anyway and saw quite a few animals, including zebra, a Hippo and Gazelle from an aerial view. Oh and some giraffe…

Mwanza is a big city, with some 2.5 million people living there. Its crowded even at night when we arrived, with the streets full of people and crazy drivers. There were a lot of kids on the streets which was sad to see. They have these huge birds as well, giant Malabu, with big stringy necks like old sagging skin.

The trip to Shikomo, Nkoma, was amazing. It was a long ride to the village, but when we got there we were warmly welcomed by our sponsor boy’s whole family, including grandmas, uncles, and neighbours. The kids were very curious of us, and apparently had never seen white people (Wazungu) before. Musa, the boy we were visiting was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and all the attention he was suddenly receiving coming from a family of well over ten. His father had two wives…
We were formally welcomed, and it was a bit awkward for a while, but they quickly got used to us. We went to visit the school Musa goes to, a primary school of 1075 students, and about 100 pupils per class! World Vision are definitely doing a great job there, and it shows. The kids were great, and we took heaps of photos, I’ll get some on the blog soon…Its funny, but when I got out my camera they all backed away like it was a gun, probably because it was so big.
In the end I think Musa felt very special, and hopefully our visit encourages him to do well in school and prompts his father to send him to secondary school. Not many people get that opportunity in Tanzania, unfortunately.

We are going on a Safari for the next two days, keep in touch!

the weekend

Hello all,

its been good to go out to church in the villages of Arusha today. The building looked small from the outside, but inside was packed. It was a rickety old thing with an alluminium roof, but next to it there was the foundations of a bigger building. We, of course, had to sit at the front, and the singing was powerful. I don't no what it is called but the choir seemed to be hitting every note in every harmony avliable and probably a few that weren't. Their lungs are so powerful they definitely don't need a sound system. Its was amazing to sing with them and play a song as well.
We also met with Caroline of Harbour Vineyard's cousin and her husband and son which was nice. They were very friendly and generous, and I think I will be spending a bit of time with them over the summer.
We are leaving for the visit to our sponser child tomorrow, so I won't be blogging next week I suspect, but if you're reading this leave a comment. Its pretty silent arround here...and I would love to hear some voices from back home...

Small Mererani

Vtech

Hey,
just a quick note. This is a great article on the Virginia Tech shootings by Ravi.

http://www.rzim.org/resources/essay_arttext.php?id=21

enjoy

Nimelala fofofo

Yesterday and Today I've had a stomach ache and sunburn which have made life uncomfortable, strange bowel movements etc...ugh. But its been great to spend some time with the training teachers here, Im teachning some guys the guitar. They are quitre musically quick, quicker than anyone i've ever taught anyway. They probably have just never really had the chance to try out any instruments, although some of them have.
Life is so casual in Africa it seems, but it is also very harsh. The plants are strong and wiry, the insects huge and tough, and of course the mammals have a hard time too. The women do a lot of the work here, much more than at home, they are often out in the fields farming while the men sit and talk. The men get a lot of part time work. The kids get it pretty hard, with lots dieing of sickness and disease. Education is hard because there are too many kids and the government doesn't support the teachers enough, with like 60 children per teacher. You hear about lots of corruption of aid from overseas by government officials and politions who expect bribes.....
Nimelala fofofo. I slept like a rock in Swahili. Its been good sleep here, its really warm at nights so you don't need many blankets.....
Its really good to meet some people who are walking with god here, and to worship with them.

Mererani

Yesterday we went to church in Mererani. PC, the father of the household dad and I are staying at called it the wild west of Tanzania, and it really is. Its definitely the roughest town I have been at yet, kids all over the streets, gangs, and apparently lots of killings. It’s a mining town and 5-6 years ago it was a peaceful town, but then some South African companies bought up some mines and caused trouble so Im told. These mines are the only place in the world you can get the stone Tanzanite, so it’s a tight market.
The church we went to visit there was only small a few years ago, but it now has over 800 people who are their members. Dad spoke at their church and they enjoyed it so much they asked him back that evening, and I also played a song on an electric guitar there which was fun. I got to met a lot of the people there and some dudes who were both my age called Tumaini and Haneyst, who both have a heart for the young people there. It’s a rough town, and Haynest and his sister are orphans, while Tumaini’s father left his family at a young age, but they both have compassionate hearts to see the place changed for good. Pray for them, OK?
African roads are dodgy as, but we survived with the keen skills of PC, who actually used to be a cop in NZ. He showed us this notorious bridge which has people drive off it all the time, and the huge gashes in the protective barriers which are proof. The bridge is about 50-100 metres high!
Its been an interesting weekend to say the least, but to, Monday, I have an upset stomach, ugh….

Beautiful People