The good-bye tour begins

Dancing with the children's choir

Our present

Well, the big good-bye tour started this morning.  I remember watching Cal Ripken have an entire good-bye season and thinking that 162 farewell games was a bit over the top, and I hope that our tour isn't quite as ridiculous.  Due to not having quite as much time as he did to spread all that adieu-ing over, we should be okay.

It's very strange to think that we only have three weeks left in Tanzania.  When we started talking about how we felt God prompting us to leave, we didn't think it'd happen on such a quick timeline.  For most missionaries, the big struggle is having to leave everything in their home country and trusting God to help them as they move around the world to their country of service.  For us, it's the reverse.  It's a little different for Andrew, who had a real job and everything in the States, but for me, I knew I wanted to be a Wycliffe missionary starting when I was in college, so never accumulated much stuff in North America, and I went straight from college to grad school to Tanzania.  But since I planned on living in Tanzania for years and years, I certainly collected a lot here!  But, just as my missionary colleagues bravely put their faith in God's call and gave it all up and got on a plane, so will I - good-bye, Tanzania, hello, USA.

It's not just one good-bye, though - there are some places we really want to visit and some people we really need/want to see before departure.  Today we traveled out to a Zanaki village, Kibubwa, to one of our favorite churches (see blog post from Easter 2012: http://www.amsandeen.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-snapshots.html).  We had called ahead so they knew we were coming to say good-bye, and they were genuinely happy to see us.  We got to sit in chairs that we played a part in them acquiring, which was exciting.  (Thanks, friends who you know who you are, for making that happen!  These chairs were WAY better than what they had before, and all the kids had space on a bench and the adults got real chairs.)  They gave me a nice cloth, which I'll have made into something that I can wear.

It just so happened that someone (man in the picture above) I met at some Zanaki orthography workshops way back in 2007/2008 happened to be there today!  He was astounded that I was still around Musoma and still working with Zanaki, and had gotten married and had a kid.  It was fun for him to see Zanaki Scripture, which he played a little part in making happen.

And so the tour has now officially begun.  Next week we're off to another church, our other favorite one.  It's not coincidence that it's also Mennonite, also in a Zanaki village, and also a place we've gone to before on Easter.  We're consistent in what we like!

Christmas presents in Musoma

Cows.  What else could you possibly want a picture of, if you're Andrew?

Village life

It's not easy to figure out Christmas presents when you live in Musoma.  I am not even sure what "normal" folks in the States do, but I'm sure it's different than what we do here.  I actually would find it very overwhelming to be somewhere with lots of options and high expectations, so I'm not writing this blog post to complain.  Neither Andrew nor I really expect the other person to come up with anything astounding, and so we work on a low budget and low expectations and are regularly thrilled with the other's creativity in not very gift-friendly circumstances.

I was really proud of what I came up with this year for Andrew - paintings!  I commissioned a young artist who lives near us to do two paintings for Andrew.  It was fun to plan the paintings with him and try to figure out where he could get paints and frames and all that.  I mean, he did most of that work, but since it was all original work made-to-order, I got to advise him however I liked.  How cool is that - I was like a patron of the arts, commissioning someone to do a personal painting!

Andrew was thrilled and would have been shocked if he hadn't sort of known what he was getting...  Yeah, we had a timing accident one day - the artist came over a lot later in the day than I'd asked him to, so Andrew happened to be at home and knew I was concocting something with him.  Oh well.  He was still pleasantly surprised with the final products, even if he wasn't totally blown over.

And if you're wondering what cool creativity Andrew whipped out on his own side, the best present he gave me was a gift certificate titled: 24 hours of Zarya - and you are free.  It has 24 empty boxes on it, each representing one hour during which Andrew will take care of Zarya.  (I clarified that these are above and beyond hours - the regular times during the week when he's already on Zarya duty don't require boxes.)  How fun is that?  I mean, I love my little sweetie, but 24 hours of no-questions-asked, just, "Honey, here's the kid?!"  There were other gifts, too (we specialize in food presents - cashews, cereal, juice, chips), but those were the best ones.

Side note: a few folks asked me what Tanzanians do for Christmas and New Years.  Well, assuming the Tanzanians in question are Christians (non-Christians don't really celebrate Christmas, as it is a religious holiday), they go to church, maybe get new clothes, eat a big meal with family, and watch TV or something afterwards.

For New Years, everyone can celebrate, and there was definitely some noise-making happening in our neighborhood during the evening hours.  I was asleep well before midnight, so I couldn't tell you what went on then.  The next morning, though, I did see burn marks in the road.  It's illegal, but still traditional, to burn stuff in the road on New Years.  Why, I don't know, but I guess it's fun to make a fire and hold up cars trying to pass and do something very out-of-the-ordinary to mark the occasion.

January to January

January 2013

January 2014

What a difference one year can make!  I suppose I don't look different, myself (I'm now minus some prego chub I still had on me last January, but that's about it, unless you want to start tracking the start of little lines around my eyes or something depressing like that), but look at the other little lady!  She went from a little dark-haired blob in my arms to this charming ham, grinning for the camera and running all over the house on her own two feet.

Someone recently asked me, "Could she possibly be any cuter?!"  My answer is, "I'd say 'No,' except that every morning when she gets up, she's even cuter than she was the day before, so experience tells me that tomorrow will be even more adorable than today!"

I guess she'll reach a downhill point someday - the middle school years rarely do anyone any favors when it comes to cuteness.  But we'll enjoy the next 10 years or so until we reach that stage.

Christmas Walk 2013

We're pretty minimalistic when it comes to traditions, but we've got a few things we try to keep consistent every year, no matter where we're at when Christmas rolls around.  One of them, speaking of rolls, is cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast.  This is a tradition both Andrew and I grew up with, so it is not like we had to choose sides or anything when it came to deciding what to have for our own family's Christmas breakfast!

Another tradition that we have is going for a Christmas day walk.  It's a great tradition for folks who might be anywhere in the world December 25, because you can (almost) always go for a walk.  In 2008, on our very first Christmas together, (side note: this was two days before we were engaged) we were in Olympia, WA, and it was really snowy.  We bundled up in hats, scarves, boots, and all of that nasty junk and tripped and stumbled around the neighborhood where my parents live, wading through the drifts and trying not to slip on the hills.

The next year we had been married for five months, and were between our time in England and moving to Tanzania as a couple.  We were in Arch Cape, OR, with Andrew's family for Christmas.  We went for a short little walk, and I don't remember much about it.  I think it was raining, but we toughed it out for a wee while.

In 2010, we were living in our first house in Tanzania.  For lack of much else to do that day, we decided that since we had gone for a walk both of the Christmases before, we should do another and call it a tradition.  (To read about Christmas 2010 and see pictures from our walk: http://www.amsandeen.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-2010.html.)

We kept up the tradition in 2011 (in Tanzania), in 2012 (on the Oregon coast for a beach walk with Andrew's sister Karen and her family - although we confess we did that one on the 26th due to Christmas day logistics and two tiny babies involved in the event), and in 2013 - see pictures below!

The little strip of blue just below the far-away hills is Lake Victoria.

The lake really is huge - this is just a wee inlet of it between two peninuslas

Zarya loves going outside!  As squished as she appears here, she's really quite happy in her carrier.

I love the ginormous rocks around here!

Hi everybody!  I can walk!  Zarya got to walk the last bit all by herself.

December cold snap

Walking!

Zarya is now walking everywhere - crawling is like, you know, so totally for babies, and she's a big girl now, you know.  I wanted a picture of her walking, but she kept following me, so I took this picture while speed-walking backwards.  Her forehead got trimmed off, but it's the best I could manage under the circumstances!

Playing with Baba and CowCow in the morning

As you might have noted in the picture above, Zarya is sporting long sleeves and shoes.  It's pretty cold here this week!  This morning we woke up to a 70-degree house, so had to pull out the fleece and socks and shoes.  It feels like a true December day, with us all bundled up to endure the cold snap.

So cute!  We love our baby. :-)

What to do if you think you might be ill and you're in Musoma

This is a post without pictures, because, trust me, you don't want pictures on this one.

Well, who can resist a cute Zarya picture?  So here you go, a not-really-related-to-this-post picture:

Anyway, so I thought y'all might like to know what we do around here when we suspect we might be ill. Unfortunately, I've got two recent examples.

The first took place several weeks ago.  I had been feeling uncomfortable in my interior regions all day, gradually getting worse.  That night, I spent a fair amount of time in a room other than the one where my bed was, if you know what I mean.  Unfortunately, we were scheduled to go on a trip, leaving early the next morning.  I was acutely miserable and was 99% sure of what was ailing my guts - amoeba.  And so, not having time to do anything else before leaving town, and anticipating a four-hour-long trip with no rest stops possible (well, possible - there were bushes), I went online.  Who needs a doctor or pharmacist when you have the internet?  I found out which amoeba medicine is okay to take when nursing, and then on our way out of town, we stopped at a pharmacy on our way out of town and picked up my drugs.  They cost about two dollars.

The other example is from yesterday.  Zarya had been showing some signs of perhaps being sick, but I wasn't sure if she really was, or what it was.  All I knew is that what I was finding in her diaper looked a little different than normal.  (I told you this post was better without pictures!)  So, I got a toothpick and scooped out some evidence and put it in a plastic bag, strapped Zarya into her carrier, and changed into my outdoor flip-flops.  Then she and I went off on a three-minute walk to the other side of the compound where we live, where there is a little medical clinic.  We carried her sample to the young man who runs the laboratory, who looked at it under his microscope.  He told me that he didn't find anything out of the ordinary in it, so we paid our thirty cent fee and walked home again.  At this point, I am not sure if she's sick or not.  Maybe it's the kind of sickness where you need to do a test other than looking at poo under a microscope, or maybe the young man just missed it.  Or maybe she's perfectly healthy and just ate too much fruit.  I guess we'll see how she does over the next few days.

Masatu wedding

George Masatu and Amanda Swift got married on November 30, and it was one fun party!  I was honored to be the "besty" - matron of honor/bridesmaid/attendant/witness for the occasion.  It involved a lot of smiling, standing, sweating, eating, waiting, dress-carrying, and even some kneeling.  I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the festivities.  I played a tiny role in getting George and Amanda together, so feel very successful as a matchmaker now - only twice (that I remember... but successes are easier to remember than failures) have I tried to set folks up, and twice they've ended up getting married.

This is me and the bride standing at the back of the church, waiting for the wedding march to begin for us to start going down the aisle (we walked in side-by-side - the bride's family is at the front of the church during the wedding, but don't parade down the aisle in TZ weddings).  I was very surprised by how so many people crowed up right behind and and were actually pushing against us, stepping on the back of the bride's dress and squeezing in between us at times, trying to see into the church.  I mean, like, hang on folks, this is the bride you're shoving!

Amanda's parents and family attended the wedding via Skype at about 1:00am their time.  Helping them attend was the gift of a few fellow missionaries who held this computer up, carrying it and applicable cords and antennae around for the entire wedding and reception.

Rings!  I like how they hold the hands and rings up while putting them on at weddings and engagements here - it's a big deal, so why not act like it?

Gift-giving is a big part of the reception.  People come up in groups (this is the choir that sang at the wedding, thus they are dressed alike) and gift group gifts, for the most part.  If a large piece of cloth is part of their gift (and many were), they are draped around the bride and groom.  I think there is some humorous significance to wrapping the wedding couple up in sheets at the front of the reception hall, but it being a very proper wedding, no overt jokes were made (as is I think more normal at some types of receptions).  But everyone had a good time, and I think dancing your unwrapped gift up to the front of the hall with everyone watching has a few fun points to it, although I don't think the idea will take off at American weddings.

We wish the Masatus all the best in their new marriage!