"What's your name?" "Uh, I'm, um..."

How did "What is your name?" get to be such a difficult question? Both Andrew and I have found it tricky at times to know how to answer that one. And you yourself might have been confused at some point by wondering why we're using a different name than the one you know us by and might have wondered what is up.

Well, you see, I was Michelle Smith for a long time. It was pretty straightforward, except when there was another Michelle Smith around. Yeah, have you ever tried going to camp, the doctor, or church and had to clarify which Michelle Smith you were? That was my life until I went to Tanzania in July 2006.

Upon arrival, I discovered that Tanzanians couldn't pronounce the name Michelle. The i, ch, e, and l gave them trouble. Oh yes, and when they look at it written out, it looks an awful lot like 'mchele' to them, which means 'uncooked rice' in Swahili. I even had a man at the Kenya border look at my passport and announce "Michelle is not a name, it means rice!" and write out my Kenya visa for Frances, my middle name. So, thus the introduction of my new name: Misha.

Misha is a nice name - there aren't too many Mishas in the world, and it's really easy for Tanzanians to say and remember. For the sake of consistency, I had everyone call me Misha, my expatriate colleagues and Tanzanians alike. I was a Misha Smith in Tanzania and to all who knew me from Tanzania, and Michelle Smith to all who knew me from elsewhere. It worked pretty well, although I got confused at times when visiting North America after having been in Tanzania for a while and started hesitating when asked my name.

When I met Andrew, I first introduced myself to him as Michelle, since we were in Olympia. But then, when I realized that things might get serious, I asked him to call me Misha, unless we were with other people who already knew me, and then he'd better call me Michelle, or else they would be confused. The poor guy was kind of confused himself after that explanation!

So, Andrew's friends in North America call me Misha, by my friends call me Michelle. Yeah, that one can be tricky...

On Andrew's side, he was Andy until he went to college, at which point he became Andrew. I guess Andy Sandeen can start to sound a bit too much like Andy Sandy for comfort! So all of his family and pre-college friends call him Andy, but all of the college-era and after ones call him Andrew.

And then he came to Tanzania, where there is someone named Andre at our office. Because of the confusion, he goes by Sandeen with the Tanzanians at the office. For all the others here and for Tanzanians who are not at the office, he's Andrew. Yes, that does make it necessary to pause and think sometimes before answering "What is your husband's name?"

So, for example: to Andrew's family, we're Andy and Misha. To my family, we're Andrew and Michelle. To expat friends in Tanzania, we're Andrew and Misha. To the Tanzanians at the office, we're Sandeen and Misha.

Legally, as of last week, we're Andrew and Michelle Sandeen. After one year, I finally got my last name changed! But there sure are still a lot of things on which my name is still Michelle Smith... it takes a while to get it all straightened out!

Finally, we wish you to call us whatever you like from the list of above options. Sandeen, Andrew, or Andy; Michelle or Misha, choose your own adventure!

Rent

How do you pay your rent? Here is our rent for the next year - it took us quite a few trips to the bank to get enough cash out of the ATM to be able to pay! It made such an impressive stack I just had to take a picture to share with y'all. :-)

First of all, paying in cash for rent is kind of an odd idea, as is paying for an entire year at a time. But hey, this is Tanzania, and neither idea is that unusual. One problem is that the highest denomination of money in Tanzania is 10,000 shillings, pictured here, and it's only worth about $7.25 or in US dollars. So, thus the big stack of cash!

I guess we're committed to staying in this house through June 30, 2011. The exterminator is coming again on Saturday to work on getting rid of the termites... again. Maybe the 10th time is the charm?

Cold Sunday afternoon

My family is kind of cold today... they tried huddling together for warmth on the couch, which apparently worked well enough to knock them out for a while.

It's the dry season here, which coincides with winter. We've been hanging out in the 70s, and it feels cold when there is some wind along with it! This morning I went running in the rain, a first for me here in Tanzania. Because of furlough in the second half of 2008 and then being away again in the second half of 2009 because of getting married, I have missed two consecutive cool seasons in Musoma, and it's a fun surprise to remember what it's like here in July and August. Nice!

The Word Connects

www.thewordconnects.com

The Word Connects website has four videos of the work here in East Africa! They were filmed a little while ago, so I'm still Michelle Smith in the one about the Mara cluster project, and Andrew hadn't yet arrived. But the info is still good and you can see some footage of our little town, and some other places in Uganda and Tanzania.

These aren't the same videos as the ones you might have seen earlier (the one about the Christmas story), so click and watch these new releases!

Conference Sharing Time II (Andrew's version)

Here are the highlights, lessons, and prayer requests Andrew mentioned at conference:

Highlights:
-Getting married on July 18, 2009!
-Spending four months in England with a wonderfully diverse and cohesive group of students. The Scripture Use course was particularly good.
-Arriving in Musoma in early February, shedding the feeling of being homeless.
-The great backyard views of Lake Victoria, especially as the sun goes down!

What God has been teaching me:
Through transitions, I've received a great opportunity to learn about...
-Perseverance. Working through the various stages of becoming a Wycliffe member and moving to Tanzania have required plenty of this. I'm still learning it as I continually strive to improve my ability to speak and understand Swahili.
-Patience. This is an odd one to learn at the same time as learning Perseverance, but I've been learning nonetheless. Again, Wycliffe processes and Swahili learning have challenged me. Should I mention that one our two cats has helped me to learn patience as well?
-Humility. This one comes up over and over again, yet I still have so far to go! Giving up my comfortable life and career in the dairy industry, starting a new career and life in Tanzania, and struggling through a difficult village stay are just a few examples of situations that have forced me to lose some of my pride.

Prayer Requests:
-For me as I continue Swahili learning process. It's difficult but extremely important for me to be effective working in Tanzania.
-For the Scripture Use work among the nine language groups we work with. We're in the planning stages and just beginning to develop projects. I'm the only full-time person at this point and the potential activities are endless!

Conference Sharing Time I (Michelle's version)

As mentioned in the big conference post, every member has some time to share with all of the others about their past year. We are instructed to include highlights, what God has been teaching you, and prayer requests. For me (Michelle), here's mine:

Highlights:
-Getting married on July 18, 2009!
-Spending four months in England working on the Swahili Front translation and having a good place to start our marriage that was a new spot for both of us.
-Coming home in February - it is sure nice to be in Musoma again, TOGETHER.
-Making great progress on the gospel of Luke with the Ikizu and Zanaki teams, and good relationships with the translators.

What God has been teaching me:
Through marriage, I've received a great opportunity to learn about...
-Communication. I thought cross-cultural communication with Tanzanians had its challenges, but let me tell you, I've sure learned that husband-wife communications can be pretty complicated, too! God is teaching me about being kind and clear in communication with Andrew and others, including God himself.
-Forgiveness. I need it, and I need to give it. A lot.
-Dying to myself. Yeah, I'm learning through my marriage with Andrew that I am not always right, and even if I am, it's not always loving or kind to insist upon my "rights". Every day I realize just how self-centered I am, and how much work it is to die to myself and serve others.

Prayer Requests:
-For me to prioritize well next year in the office. Several people will be away on furlough, so I'll have some added responsibility in the translation department. Also, I'm a translation consultant-in-training, so I have some work to do on that. Finally, I'm still working with the Ikizu and Zanaki teams, which is a full-time job!
-For a growingly great marriage.

Conference 2010

This is the view from the stairs up to our room (we were on the 3rd floor, which is kind of a workout when you have to run back to your room because you forgot one wee thing!)
Every year, the Uganda-Tanzania Branch of SIL International gathers at Turtle Bay Beach Club in Watamu, Kenya, for a week of meetings, fellowship, spiritual refreshment, and fun. Oh yes, and some good food. :-) This was my third visit there, and Andrew's first. We're already looking forward to next July when we get to go again!

First of all, it had been two years since I'd seen a lot of the folks in the branch, since last year conference was the week we got married, I didn't quite make it to the 2009 event. For Andrew, he'd met some folks on his trip to Dodoma earlier in the year, but it was his first time getting together with most of them. As part of the regular conference schedule, there is sharing time, during which every member gets a few minutes to stand in front of the whole group and talk about their highlights of the past year, and share prayer requests for the coming year. It's a great way to get to know our fellow UTB members better. I love meeting new folks and making new friends, and of course it is always good to reconnect with ones I've met before. We were intentional about trying to sit with different folks each meal, too, so with those visits and what we learned during the sharing times, we built a good social network together. It has work purposes as well as social ones, too - Andrew met with Scripture Use folks from Uganda and Tanzania, and I was able to talk with other Translation Advisors at other projects for ideas and encouragement.

Since this year marks the 10th anniversary of UTB, some time during the week was intentionally looking back and remembering what God has done and intentionally reflecting on his work in East Africa and in each of our lives. Some special guests from Wycliffe USA, The Seed Company, and SIL International were in attendance, too, which was quite the honor. It encouraged me to hear them share and it reinvigorated me for being part of Bible translation. Also, I was glad to meet some of these bigwig types and realize that they are humble, godly people who didn't set out to be executive directors and presidents, but are willing to serve there as God has called them for this time.

Some of our highlights were the fabulous food (we ate more meat in the past week than in the past several months!), worshipping in English, and swimming. This year there was a men's water polo game as well as a women's one, and although we couldn't do the married/single teams like usual because of imbalanced numbers, we split into north/south, which pitted Uganda, Musoma, and Dodoma against Dar and Mbeya, and that worked out well. Well... it worked out well for us, because we're from Musoma, and both the men's and women's north teams won! We both had a really fun time playing, and I'm still sporting some scratches and bruises. I'm sure I gave just as many as I received, so I won't ask for pity on my owies.

On the final evening of conference, we celebrated finishing all of the meetings (I'm just talking about the highlights here, there were other more business-type meetings during the week, too) with a fun night. Andrew sang "I'll Fly Away" with our co-worker/friend/neighbor Dusty Hill, and did a great job. I volunteered for a skit of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?", which proved that I might be as smarter than one, but not quick enough with my reflexes to prove it.

All in all, it was a refreshing week of getting away from some of the everyday stresses of life in Tanzania and enjoying some quality fellowship and productive and informative meetings.