Hope Shines

On Sunday afternoon Tammy and I baptized Gabby, a member of our Summer '07 team. Gabrielle Hope grew up in The Netherlands, Portugal, England and the States. We thought it was pretty cool that ever since she was a little girl she had thought of being baptized in Africa some day. This was her first ever trip to Africa and she took the plunge in this beautiful mountain stream surrounded by friends who love her on the final day of her time here. She said her baptism symbolized her declaration, "No turning back." Hurrah!

(Photos: Jesse Borden)

Too Small, My Words

I am trying to call up the words to talk about this last week away on safari with our kids and the Wild Hope summer crew, but it's all too rich and wild and good and big to figure out which words will paint for you this most excellent time.

Plus, I'm dead tired. Dead tired but very happy :-)

I think the beauty came from the mixture of traveling through dramatically varied landscapes, having deep conversation around the issues of being whole and free, launching into adventurous exploits, cross cultural friendships, exploring Creation and discovering the bigness of God.

Were there any troubles along the way? A few. My emergency pit stops by the side of the road on the final long day of travel without "facilities" reminded me that it's not just visitors to Africa who need tummy soothing meds from time to time. But over all, it was pretty dreamy.

Our first day's (very dusty) drive delivered us to the foot of the rumbling volcano, Oldonyo Lengai, where we pitched our tents on the somewhat stable shores of the saline Lake Natron. We lost track of how many tremors we felt and wondered which part of sanity told us to make camp at the epicenter of recent quakes that are making news in East Africa.

We traveled on from the heavy heat of those prehistoric vistas (where we thought it would be fitting if a dinosaur appeared from behind a big pile of rocks) and made our way through wide open plains, up into softly rolling hills and into forests that still befuddle many a wanderer.

And that's just the geography of where we went. In community we went into honest, raw conversations and prayer times, looking together into the unspeakable love of God and finding such freedom there to become ourselves, the selves He has been dreaming of.

He dreamed us, as he made us. He dreamed us free and full and givers of grace and life to those around us.

This wild safari we call life is getting us there. These final ten days with our summer team gained us all new ground and we are grateful.

The house is quiet in a sad and restful way as Tommy, Dane, Carly, Christian, Gabby and Joel are no longer here with us.

What good traveling companions they made!

(Photos: Jesse Borden)

Off and Away

We head off tomorrow early, early for 8 days out of town with the summer team. We'll be heading toward Lake Natron in the morning and then venturing into the Maasai regions of northern Tanzania.

We've been having great talks and we thought it would be good to get into a whole new kind of classroom.

Incidentally, we've been having a lot of earthquakes. There have been at least three or four daily for the last six days. Here in Arusha we experience them as window rattler, bed shakers, floor rumblers. The epicenter is 100 km north of here. Right where we're headed. Oh dear!

We Get Grumpy

A certain well-loved friend who also happens to read this blog confesses to thinking that we're always having cool times and being endlessly happy and joyful.

What a crock!

We get grumpy. We grouch around and snap at each other. I retreat into my room when the dance parties fall on nights when I am too worn out. We get short-tempered, impatient and ugly, (not to mention moody, rude and selfish.) All of us.

Besides that, we also get sick. I landed here knowing I would soon be hosting a team from Europe and the States and yet I failed to remember to pack any Pepto Bismol. Imagine having six new stomachs experiencing the various degrees of reaction to Africa and not having any Pepto to soothe them with?

Friends who recently passed through Arusha asked us if we needed anything from the States. "Yes, please!" I said, requesting a bottle of the pink goo. Our team's tummies rejoice! That was a really good house warming gift, no? I thought so.

But it was our second house warming gift. The first came from Arrival in Arusha Angel, Pam, who brought us the always appreciated package of tea and sugar. Yea, Pam!

Breaking the Stigma of HIV/AIDS

I'm so proud of the Tanzanian president, Mr. Kikwete, and his wife who were publicly tested for HIV/AIDS today in Dar es Salaam. Many other leaders joined them in this effort to break the stigma against the disease and launch a new initiative that helps members of the public gather their courage and get tested.

There are terrible biases against those with AIDS and people who struggle against it are often left to struggle alone. Our summer team delivered food to shut-in AIDS patients this week and heard first-hand the stories of how they are shunned by their communities. This new campaign hopes to raise public awareness and break the holds of fear and shame that keep people from a) being tested and b) caring for those who already have it.

The shame based fear that terrorizes the continent has led to many battles being lost in the huge war against this ferocious disease. Where many leaders have gone into major denial from the beginning, (and shockingly even up to today) President Kikwete raises the standard and encourages the nation to face this head on, together.

I love when there is good news in Africa!

Big Yellow (ok, Mustard) House

Here's the house we are renting in Arusha. A photo at last, for those who have been asking me for one.

The house begins to feel like a home as we settle inside her walls. The boxes and boxes of Byron's tools lining the hall and spilling over into Heather's bedroom aren't very cozy to be around, but never mind. Once the tool room out back gets security bars across the windows we'll be able to move them out there.

What IS cozy is the fact that our home is already full of people. We have six extra people living with us for July as our summer team is staying here. Lots of hubbub... lots of laundry.... huge vats of oatmeal porridge. And, for your entertainment, crazy music and dancing every evening as the dishes get cleared, rinsed and table gets wiped.

As the meal winds down someone will say, "I feel a dance party coming on," and it is remarkable how much more enjoyable chores are when you're sort of dancing along to them.

So that's the scoop... A mustard house that passes muster :-)

Zanzibar (or Trevor and Dane's Manly Trip)

Trevor and Dane (Uhler) took a little side excursion to Zanzibar last week. It entailed a bus trip to Dar es Salaam and then a ferry to the island. I confess to being nervous about pick-pockets and accidents and youthful forgetfullness, but they had a trouble-free journey.

Carly (Dane's sister) called it their "Manly" trip because it was their own adventure to celebrate graduating from high school. Dane and Trevor met as little kids but really became good friends during our six years in Portugal.

Congratulations, boys, on your graduations!

Looks like their trip was pretty fun.

Chai Break

I like this photo Jesse took of Gabby and Carly drinking tea with Heather in a little hoteli (food joint) out in Maasai.

Gabby and Carly were young girls when we first moved to Portugal in 2000 (and we've actually known Carly since she was one) but now they are grown and here with us in Tanzania on a summer team. It feels really precious to me to have our first team be mostly made of kids we've known since they were small.

Next week the team will be taking a few Swahili lessons and helping out at an orphanage in town. What a nice thing to have them here and to host their African experience :-)

Plastic Bags are from Hell

Honestly, plastic bags have got to be the scumiest scum of the earth. They block drains, plug rivers, hang in trees, blow across the plains and, (this one was new to me,) they poison the earth! There are so many of them ground down into the layers of soil here in Africa that they are actually souring the beautiful earth and inhibiting the ground from bringing forth to her fullest potential.

I first moved to East Africa in 1984 and most everything we bought came in a tin or was wrapped in paper. Very few items were wrapped in plastic. Many things you simply carried in your own basket. Like fruit and vegetables. We carried baskets to the market for those.

The good thing about tins is that they were used over and over. Re-cylced, they were. A tin of margarine or tomato paste, when emptied, was made into a little oil burning lamp for someone's house. The paper was burned, or it biodegraded into the earth.

It wasn't perfect. But it seemed manageable.

Slowly by slowly, as my Kenyan friends say, the slippery plastic bag grew in popularity and power.

Now, 23 years later, I find East Africa covered in the slimy things. It's really GROSS!

"No, no, no!" The governments of East Africa are saying "NO!" They have decided that these plastic bags are ruining the land at many levels and they are actually legislating against them. I'm happy about it, though I wonder to myself how they will enforce it. Like getting the cafes in southern Europe to enforce the no smoking in public places rule. Good luck!

I guess they can move toward the closure of factories that make them. I don't know about how all that works and I do hope that families don't get run out of business by it. But I am rejoicing in the idea of baskets, jute and cloth bags enjoying a resurgance of chic.

On a positive note: There are cottage industries in Africa and India that harvest plastic bag litter and fashion them into lovely articles that sell for a helpful profit. We have even been looking at what we could do with them in an income generating project here though if they are going to get scarce it may not be viable.

True confession--Even in my righteous indignation I am a regular forgetter of my basket when I go to the shops :-( Grrrr! I'm trying to be better.

Released

I am so happy to see on the BBC news site that Gaza correspndant Alan Johnston has been freed after nearly four months in captivity.

I have often seen his face on the website and prayed for his release. Today I feel really good to know he is safe.

And I don't know even know him. Think what his family is feeling!

Dear friends of ours, Jason and Linda, know what his family is feeling. Years ago, Jason's dad was kidnapped and held captive for 8 months in Chechnya. They know exactly how all this feels.

Thank you, God, for Mr. Johnston's release.