LIfe- a little on the crazy side.

Hello again to all my friends, well let me just begin by saying what a month it has been and we are only half way through.

so much has happened in the month of May already, some being great stuff like celebrating my birthday to other more serious things that have gone on here.
The week has been crazy and as I sit here and reflect upon it, I have to stop and remember that this is 'life' here serving in Tanzania.
In this week alone so many things have happened and its all by God's grace and his hand being upon it all that I have gotten through
As I was teaching one morning on of my parents came to class to take her daughter early as one of her brothers had just died. this just made me so sad, as I saw the sadness in her eyes, knowing that there was little to nothing that I could say to help make it better. So that was where I just have to pray, for the family during such a hard time.

I also had a little boy who collapsed at his home, once we found the home, at first we walked in the wrong direction on to be told it was back the other way we had just come from... directions here...  he was admitted to hospital and was put onto a drip, but they think that this is caused by Malaria. he seemed to show no signs in my class of being unwell.  this is a common thing to have here, but I would ask people to please join me in praying for this little guy, and for a recovery that is fast, so that he can return to school again. I met with his Dad who was so thankful that we went to visit his home.
I left there just being shocked, by this whole situation. You know no matter how long you live in a foreign country where things like this happen often, this really made me just stop.

the compassion that I feel for these families as they go through these hard times is something that only God can give.
its so easy to become hardened in our hearts to all of this, but of late I am being reminded of compassion, love and care.
there have also been some good times too, like I said earlier I celebrated my birthday with team dinner and then a pedicure on the weekend and dinner with some close friends too.
as I sat and had my pedicure I was reminded of the washing of Jesus feet, and how he would do this to the leas of his followers.
sitting getting my feet washed and made somewhat 'clean' again I was thankful for this time that I could sit and enjoy a treat, for an hour. (on a side note, my feet haven't looked this good in ages)

this part in my day was great and then I got a phone call. it was from my neighbour, who lives right next to my house, (as in we share a stair case). he seemed rather upset and a little worried asking me when I was returning home. I said calmly what's happened. he told me there was a snake outside my bedroom door. For those of you who know me well I hate snakes. I am so scared of them I can handle any other creature but snakes I loathe.
the upshot of all of this is I stayed a my friends house as I was already taking her home from dinner.
I came home the next day and had a friend help me check the house for snakes.
I am so thankful for community living in this case as someone is usually around to help you out.

I truly believe that this is again by god's grace that I didn't see the snake. in fact in al my time being here I haven't seen one yet, I have just been told how close they have been to me and all that.

and so the days continue on and the weeks continue to go by. I am amazed at how I have now been back for 3 months and how this time has flown by.
in regards to my work life its going great, and I am constantly busy with something weather that be programmes, kids, or just being part of the community life here.

I am amazed each day at how much more the kids in my class are learning and how they are beginning to write sentences, and read basic books.
what is even more of an encouragement is working alongside people who are like minded, who all have a similar heart to me, in regards to education here in Tanzania. I really feel this is just the beginning of something, that is so much bigger and greater than what I can see.

so as I close up this blog time I would ask you to join me in several prayer points in living here.

• pray for the little boy in my class Joseph who collapsed, please pray for his family and for fast healing in all of this.
• pray for the parent of my class who lost her brother, her name is mama Belinda. pray for comfort in her family during this time.
• also please be in prayer just for me and no more snakes in my house. pray for protection around our base as well.

if you want to know more about anything that I have just posted or posted in the past send me an email its greeningcarly@gmail.com.
I love hearing from you all.

so for now I shall go, so greetings to you all and may you all be blessed.

May update...

Well what a week it has been here in Enjiro Arusha. its only Tuesday and already the week has been filled....
so let me start at the beginning as that is a good place to begin.
last Monday i started the new school term, term 2 actually, WOW where did that time go eh????
so last week almost seems like a blur, as so much happened, but i think i can manage to re tell some of the happenings from here. as school is now back and the term begun, i was given 3 new children to add to my class of what was already 26 children. but in that being said some children were then moved and shuffled around, and thus now i am back to having 28, only one less.
on Wednesday i had a public holiday, don't really know what this one was for, but i sure was grateful for a 4 day week. a nice way to begin the new school term. on this public holiday i was without my car as it was being fixed in the shop by the fundi's. Apparently the suspension had gone. nothing surprising, but alas i took the dala dala (public bus) into a cafe to skype with people. but alas the Internet that day was so horrid that i gave up and was about to leave when i saw 2 friends who i rarely see much of these days. so we sat in the rain (for some of the time), and ate ice cream and caught up. then i  began my journey back home by dala dala again. this time i had to share the floor with several chickens that had there feet tied up. (i think they were going to be dinner for some that night). they lasted only part of the trip before they left the dala dala and i was able to put my feet completely on the floor... this did bring me back down to the reality, that i live in Africa, and that its not uncommon when catching public transport that it will often be shared with chickens and goats, and many other living animals. i then got off the dala dala and walked for quite a while down the road before  being rescued by some friends who were driving. what a day that was...

it then got to Thursday, where this was back to a 'normal' working day. though when i say normal really  i mean expect the unexpected here at anytime.
every other week we have a team dinner with all the staff on my base, so i was able to go to this, and enjoy some good fellowship with great people.
Friday rolled on by so fast i blinked and the day was over. it was filled with meetings, and work and then a great dinner had with a good mate Jenny. we enjoyed good food and good dessert too. this was a really nice way to end the week.

the weekends here really do just seem to fly by. by the time Sunday rolls around i stop and think where has this time gone... as I'm sure we all do.
weekends here are usually filled with catching up on rest , washing, and preparing for the week ahead.
every other Sunday night we have team worship, as we finished the worship time we found out that the power line had fallen down right outside of our base. don't worry we are all ok. no one was hurt or anything, unlike in Aus where you call the people to get them to come straight away here we waited for 2 and a half days for the lines to be fixed, they were not actually going to fix them but were convinced by some of our workers fix them....
SO as with having no power, we then had no water, as the power needs to pump the water. so a day without water, was had, and we were all so grateful to borrow the bases generator to pump the water. this just makes me stop and thank God for what we do have here, and just how precious our water is.
in saying all of this we have had some really cold times here. the rains have come and we have had 5 days of on and off rain.... the rains come down so much that it then prevents some of the kids walking to school.

as some of you may know i was in the wedding party for my house mates wedding. this all took place just before the end of the school holidays. it was a great time had by all. but now I'm so thankful to be back into a routine. though holidays are nice, 1 month break was enough for me.

well i shall leave you all on that note and will update again soon.
blessings to you all.