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.