Slamming on the Brakes

Over the years, I have slammed on my brakes for various reasons. You know when you feel like the light goes straight from green to red and you never actually see the yellow or when someone stops in front of you quickly or pulls out in front of you. well, yesterday I added a whole new category of reasons to slam on the brakes. As we were driving out to one of the villages, we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a GIRAFFE! Yes, I am serious. Right there in the middle of the road just staring at us as if to say what are you doing on my road was a giraffe. We stopped within a foot of him and I could even see his big beautiful eyelashes. On both sides of the road were other giraffe just staring at us calmly probably wondering what kind of animal we are. Even a little baby giraffe came up to see what was going on. Can you believe it! I LIVE IN AFRICA!!! How insane! How amazing!

Shagala Bagala

If ever there was a phrase to describe my life, this is it. It is in swahili and means everything is crazy and scattered. I think that I thought that the craziness would stay in America when I came here, little did I know that it would follow me across the ocean. I envy those of you that live your lives in a permanent state of peace and calm. =)

But I digress, the real reason for this post is to update you on swahili and ask for your prayers. My language is coming along well, sometimes not as fast I would like. At times I feel like I have learned so much, at others I feel frustrated that I am not able to converse with ease.

So,.... this is my prayer: I am praying that I would be able to converse with ease by Christmas. I know many of you have already been praying for me. ASANTE SANA (THANK YOU) na endelea tafadhali! (and please continue)

Love you all!

Oh no, What have I done!

Do you ever have those moments, you know where you realize what you have committed to and you feel completely incapable? You think, oh no what have I done? What was I thinking? I just finished a two day workshop for all of the teachers from the schools that I work with at Imara. As we began on Thursday morning and I saw all of the faces of the teachers staring at me in expectation, my stomach bottomed out and I got scared. They traveled so far and gave up time with their families to come here. I asked if it would be a good idea before but it is in the culture here to tell you want they think you want to here out of respect but it might not be what they want. I thought what if this really is not what they want, what if it is not applicable to them? What if I am just bringing my mzungu (white person) ways and not doing something that is appropriate for them. ARGH! What was I thinking? Is it too late to run away?

One of the project managers from Imara led them in a devotional time to start our time. He said that Meagan probably does not know exactly why she brought you all here, but I know it is from God and exactly what everyone needs. All the teachers agreed. Whew!

We had a time for a lot of discussion, to hear from them to get their ideas, input, hear the challenges they face. They were given time to discuss things together, to hear from each other and to learn from each other. My desire is to create a community amongst all the Imara schools and teachers. We did lots of team building activities and activities for them to get to know each other better. After we heard about the challenges they faced, we gave them time to try and come up with solutions in small groups and then share corporately. WOW! They had wonderful ideas and everyone participated. I was blown away.

On Friday, we had a time where each school could share prayer requests and then we would all pray for them. Can you imagine dealing with the district commissioner campaigning against you? Can you imagine having people you thought you could trust turn against you because they are not getting money on the sly? Can you imagine teaching children that walk hours to get to school without food? Can you imagine dealing with weather issues when they walk so far? Can you imagine dealing with parents who are apathetic about the need for education or even resistant? This is just the tip of the iceberg. WOW! What a powerful time of prayer as we lifted them up. I hope the teachers felt encouraged and cared for. I told them that I wanted them to know that they are not in this alone.

Each day, we also did some practical training. We did math training mostly and classroom management. They are given a lot of material but have no idea how to use it all. We gave them supplies and had them make teaching materials and then taught them how to use it in depth and had them use it themselves so that they could easily take it back to their classrooms.

At the end of the time, I told them to speak freely because I did not want to do this again if it was not beneficial. They have to give up a lot to come and I would only do it if it will help them. They all quickly responded with YES!!! They were so enthusiastic and thankful. We had such a wonderful time. We finished with singing praise and worhsip together, African style!!

I guess the moral of the story is: I did not know what I was doing, but God did....

Refugee Status

I have achieved refugee status here in Tanzania. Yes, it's true. Crazy but true! As you have probably already read, there have been a few water issues in my home. So, now we sleep in one place that does not have running water because it needs the electricity from the house that was flooded. So we use the bathroom in another home. We shower all over. We eat at another home and do work in another place. All that to say they now call us refugees. =)

What is interesting is that I have begun to teach once a week to a group of pastors at the pastors college here where I teach at the teachers college part time. One of the men from my group is from the Sudan. I do not know his story yet but I can only imagine since there are so many refugees from there. People's lives here are so different.

Little side note: Tomorrow and Friday, I am having the first ever teachers conference/workshop for all of the Imara teachers from the villages. I hope that this will be a spiritually encouraging time for them as well as an equipping time for them. I want them to have a deeper understanding of what they are a part of in transforming their communities. Please pray! Thanks!

Shhh... Don't Tell My Mom

She would totally freak out if she saw what I have been driving in. Just so you know that most of the roads here are dirt roads and dirt plus a lot of rain means a whole lot of mud! =) Yesterday morning when I drove I do not think I went above five miles an hours. People would zoom aroune me but not too long after I would see their car stuck in the mud along the side of the road. I even learned that you can actually drive horizontally and fishtailing can be quite fun.

Home is where the roof is

So, have you ever had one of those days where you think that all that has happened is just plain ridiculous. You know that moment where think nothing more can happen and then looking back you realized that was just the beginning. Oh where to start.... If I had to guess, God is trying to get it through my very thick skull that this is not my home and that heaven is. You know that verse from Hebrews that says we are citizens of heaven. Other verses such as resting in Him seem to be of most importance lately. At one point this summer (or winter depending which side of the equator you are on) I realized that I had stayed in one place for more than three days. Eventually I was able to say in a home with a wonderful family for about three weeks. Then, I was back at Joshua for a few days and then off to Karansi with a team for about a week and a half. When I finally returned to Joshua, I was so happy to realize that I could settle in somewhere. Well....

The roof to the house that I was staying in needed to be replaced so we needed to move to the tent. The tent has beds in it and is attached to a bathroom so it is not quite like camping at home. There is a thatched roof over the tent to help protect us. We had to pack up everything and put it under plastic sheeting on the bottom floor of the house. It is the dry season, but what if.... I went to Magugu this past week and when I returned home, I discovered that the roof over our tent was now gone. I could not help but laugh.

So, now is when the real fun begins. Yesterday morning as I was working at the Imara office, I felt an earthquake. It was the most significant one I have felt. Then, I look at the window and I see rain. Oh no, the tent has holes.... The rain is not too heavy but we realized that if it rains more all will not be well. We have the base manager put duct tape on the holes. Duct tape isn't actually water proof. So last night, we go out to town and come back to a pretty heavy downpour. We need to call for help because our house is raining on the inside. I go to call and ... the phones are down. So, I walk up to his house. As I am telling him about everything, ...the power goes off. We do not have enough buckets for all the holes. There is plastic sheeting on the ceiling of the bottom floor but it is about to burst because of the rain. Our beds are wet inside the tent (even my pajamas). We have no idea where anything is because we have had to throw everything everywhere to protect it. We sleep in someone else's home. The rain continues to increase in intensity and we go back to empty buckets and see what else we can do to control the damage. At the moment, my roomates and I just laugh. What else can you do.... When we return to the house where we are staying, their cat left a nice little dead mouse at the door for us. I think that was his way of offering us a sympathy gift.

Plus... I move again next week to another part of town.

All I want to know is does this earn me an Africa merit badge???

Please pray

So.... not at my best right now. I am fighting some sort of stomach, icky thing. But I learned a new treatment, charcoal. No I am not joking that is not a misspelling, charcoal. That's right the stuff you use to grill hamburgers actually also has medicinal purposes. Who knew! I cannot seem to beat this and I have been sick since Saturday. I am supposed to travel tomorrow and I need to be better. I want to go but I wish I could get there by staying in bed..... I would greatly appreciate your prayers!!
Love you all!