hello to you all

HI to all of my supporters...
so  I firstly need to make a huge apology for not writing to you all sooner, as always life is super busy especially with working full time. no excuses really as I am just plain terrible with communication sometimes.
so now I have a moment to sit with internet that is actually working and not cutting in and out constantly.
so life here from the last time I blogged has been crazy, full on and lots of fun...
im so loving the role that im in teaching and being able to have so much input into the lives of these kids and teachers lives.
as of this term I have been able to make it once a week to visit the families from my class. this has been to get to know them and to talk with them about what we have been doing in our class throughout the term. the out come of this has just been so amazing, God is truly working in all of this and for that I am so thankful.
its so encouraging to be able to visit these parents and to be able to build community with them, through one common purpose there children. my aim is to be able to visit 2 families every Tuesday and then once im through the first round to do it all over again.
so far I have visited 9 families out of the 26.
I have also had the chance to walk out to the village to greet some of the teachers who don't live on our base. its such  a  beautiful walk out there and such a great way to build community together.

the very first parents house that I was able to see I went away thinking WOW God how amazing you are.
after talking and much conversation about  his son he has been the one parent who really seems to be on board with the new changes to my class and then it just kept going and again each week I have been amazed at how God is moving in the lives of these families.
Im constantly amazed at how God can bring things together for his own purpose and will.
as always in this transient place I have to say goodbye to so many people whom I meet.
in the last month and this month I have farewelled 3 amazing families that I have become friends with over the time of being here.
this is a challenge to see such good friends come and go, but by Gods grace I am able to see the season of what he has given to me.
I am so blessed to be living on a base with such community around me. where someone is always around, and community living is happening at its best and not so best....
very soon within this month of July I will get 2 new house mates coming from New Zealand, so the house will become busy and full again.
I have also just had my good friend Miriam come to visit from the states. she used to live at my base but moved back to the states. so it was so nice being able to catch up with her and have a house mate for a bit.
I have recently stared back at Frisbee again and its so much fun. I go into town to be able to play once per week which is a great way to be also in community, and at the end of August I have my parents coming to visit me which im sooo excited by... ill update more when they come on all the fun times we will spend together.

there have also been a few times that have challenged me over the last few months, like when a boy form standard 3 lost his mother. she died which was very sudden.  it really makes me stop and give thanks to God for the people that are in my life. we took a visit to his home with a few kids from his class and  some of our teachers. and the children's families from our school gave money to help out in the time of need. to me this truly shows community living, and in so many ways it makes me stop   and look at the simplicity of life.

we are still talking so much about sewing and reaping on our base and through this we are able to help educate and work with the people on our base. that its not just all about getting but what we can give into our community and peoples lives.
this is through the way in which we do things the way in which we live our lives. the way in which I live my life, and am reminded of how in a professional development time with our teachers Lynda on our base shared with us about the 'lost' child, and how we need to count our children. not to let the ones who are struggling get to far behind before it seems just too late.  this just hit home so hard for me, and made me think about the 26 kids that I look after on a daily bases, this is when I know that this is the calling that God has placed upon my whole life.  
to not just give up on the one child who is too tough but to work with that child and to give them a hope that they are worthy of being helped, when all that's within me may just want to give up and say this is all just too hard, but it is gods grace and peace that passes all understanding that when things get tough I can look to him and rely Gods great strength and peace.
I don't write any of this to make any of you feel bad, but its something that I felt to share with you about and how it has challenged me.
its not always easy living in a country that has corruption coming out of its ears but its something that has been on my mind over the last few weeks.
I am so humbled by the fact that its by Grace that we have been saved. and that nothing can separate us from gods great love, not even the 'lost' children that I see everyday.

so there you have it a quick update that took ages to compose, on how life has been here for me.
I love hearing from you all and look forward to communicating again via the big wide internet.
so if you want to get in touch with me then here's how.  please feel free to write to me at greeningcarly@gmail.com
or you can send me a facebook message, or Skype me at carly.greening.

until I blog again take care.

 

 

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.

The first 2 months back in Tanzania

So friends, the time has come where i really actually have created a blog, yep i know I'm so far behind the times of this technology stuff but better late than never right.

these past few months well 2 months actually have been great, I'm now working full time with The Joshua Foundation. Here i am working full time in the preschool class year 2. i have 26 kids and 1 assistant Godwin.
This has been such a great time, and i really have that peace that passes all understanding that this is where God has placed me. i am loving the challenge of what i do, and am loving being able to teach again.
though as any new job it does not come without its challenges. Some of the challenges that i have experienced since beginning my new chapter of being on the mission field has been the language barrier with my class. i would say that this by far has been the hardest challenge so far. It really makes me stop and think about what i am saying how fast its being said and if its completely understood. But my kids are understanding my English very well and have begun speaking more and more in English each day, with a slight Australian accent mixed in with the Tanzanian accent.

Here on my base I'm so fully loving being apart of community living. we have team meals every other week and we have team worship every other Sunday evening. we have education meetings every fortnight along with just hanging out with people on the base, going to someones house for a meal or having people come over to our house.
on our Sunday night worship times we have been looking more and more into sewing and reaping.
our base wants to be able to sew and reap completely into the lives of our community and so our base leaders have been teaching us more and more about this concept. these teachings are practical and therefore am able to put them into a daily practise, or at least attempt to do this.

over this last term we have been talking in our school about stewardship and what that means to our teachers and most importantly how we can teach this to our children.
the teachers have had Professional development days every week to talk about how they can teach and show these children good models for life.
we have just had an amazing conference called TaCSA- ACSI this was a 2 day round table where christian teachers from Moshi, Dar, and locally have met together in a round table to talk about the Christian education.
the conference was held at our base in Arusha, and the main focus of ACSI is to strengthen christian schools and to equip christian educators worldwide as they prepare students academically to inspire them to become developed followers of Jesus Christ.
WOW well when i came into this conference i was excited, but after 2 days of hearing the hearts of our schools who want to make an impact i was not just excited, but became more fully aware that this is completely God's calling upon my life to be here serving right now. the slogan for the conference was Tanzania its your time. how true i feel that this is, its time for Tanzania to stand up and to make a stand in Christian education.
my words cant even completely express how inspired and excited i am to see this vision and to help be the change. to help make a difference, (which is exactly what i came here to do in the first place).

this past first term has been filled so much which is part of the reason i took so long to email and blog. for that i am sorry. i do want to take the time to also acknowledge and thank all the people who i got to see back in OZ, it was such a blessing to see you all and i was so encouraged by the fact that you believe in the work that God has called me to be doing. this i think has given me the extra straight to come back here and begin the work i know that God has called me to. i am so thankful for the break i was able to take in OZ, and feel so refreshed being here now, each of you have blessed me in more ways than you ll ever imagine, and for that i am and always be thankful.

in the times of being so busy since i arrived back i have also had some good fellowship and good times with friends here too.
i have the joy f being part of my house mates wedding in April and have been able to catch up with people here in arusha too.
some of the not so fun times have been when 2 of my bank cards got eaten by the ATM's and i got one back but the other is still with the bank. In true African style on the 2nd bank card incident as i went into the bank they told me to come back on Monday, so back i go a few days later only for them to tell me come back in half an hour. ha i thought here we go ill never get the card back, but to my surprise i did get the card back PRAISE GOD, after a rather short process.

another of the harder time has been that i had to go back to Likamba to say 'goodbye' to the Pastor there and tell him that i had moved on from Imara. he took this all very well and he understands that we cant argue with what the lord says.
during this time Corrine and i stopped on our way to pick up some ladies, Corrine asked them in Swahili has it rained much lately?? the ladies both quickly responded with No no rain here.
we arrive up at the school and within 10 minutes of us arriving the rains come pouring in. followed by the rock rain. (hail).
i stood there with Pastor as we watched the rains and rock rains come pouring down and was amazed. as this has never happened in all the time i have been coming to Likamba.
we came to leaving time, and well if you have been to Likamba then ull understand that getting out after the rain is a challenge. the dirt is like an ash dirt, so out came the 4b4 skills. it took alot of skill and prayer to get out of this without getting stuck or slipping to the side completely. we had one point where i wanted to go one way but no matter how hard i tried the car wouldn't do it. so i went with it and got out fine.
i stopped after we got out and said to Corrine lets just take one moment to breathe and praise god for getting out. at that same point it hit me oh yeh that's right I'm in Africa. not in OZ.

we have been blessed by some great rains in the evenings and great sunshine in the day times. this is just great.
i do have a few prayer requests that ill ask that you as a body would join with me in.

• please pray for health- pray specifically that no more sickness comes to me. its been more of a frustration as i have been sick a bit since arriving back.
• please pray for our base and the staff here, just pray for there families and the work that they do here each day as they serve the lord.
• please pray for the protection especially on the pastors in arusha and Tanzania.
• pray for our school as children are on holidays and the teachers too.

if you would like more specifies on how to pray for these needs then please email me.
also i would love to hear from you as well. Prayer needs from you i would love to get so send them my way and ill certainly pray for you all.

for now may god bless you :D