Monday: Catching Up and Being with Friends

Today, Mpeli and I went over some of the small things and made plans for beginning the actual construction of the secondary school. The clearing of the land and grading the area for construction will begin next week. News to all who know him: Sadiki, now, really knows some English. Three of the four children are graduating secondary school. We will be talking with them on Thursday and Friday about how to move forward in January. Today was spent handling customs issues with the rifles. In the U.S., we do not appreciate our freedom. We do not realize that we are so different from the rest of the world. Also, the customs officers could not believe that the rifles were a gift. Someone had to purchase them. The other thing is realizing how expensive rifles are here - at least three times the price. Finally, everything has been resolved. Mpeli will pick up the rifles and ammunition next week. Tonight was a very special night. Advocate Lawrence Nyombi and his beautiful wife, Hamida, took Mpeli and me to the Sea Cliff ocean front restaurant for dinner. The restaurant is on the harbor - beautiful. The Nyombis are special friends. He told us that he is now the Chief of CDI (comparable to our FBI - he is over all criminal investigation in Tanzania). We prayed for him as he serves the people of Tanzania. You may remember that Hamida was with us for a few days in October 2011. They were both very excited about Michal's upcoming marriage to Mike Hudson. As a side note, he was an official observer during the Kenyan election. Another side note: Dar traffic is worse than ever. (We only had two near misses of head on collisions today.) But, they are making some significant improvements that by the end of the year there should be a great improvement. They are making special bus lanes and bus stations that are separated from the rest of the road. Tomorrow, Mpeli and I leave the Nyamnani at 5:30 a.m. to avoid the jam to the airport for our 7 a.m. flight to Iringa. Tomorrow after we arrive, we will travel to Nzihi to the Asante Sana Children's Home, farm, and see the new well. It will be a full day. I hope to be able to share with you some photos and info then. Thank you for your prayers.