Mom and Dad in Tanzania

It's been a few weeks now since my parents came to visit us in Tanzania. In some ways, it feels like they were here just a few days ago, and in other ways it feels like their visit was a simply a really good dream and I have to pinch myself to make sure it was real.

But it was real. And we had a marvelous time together.

We felt like we were able to introduce them to quite a lot of our life here during their brief visit. We traveled and did some of the "touristy" stuff, but we were also able to spend an entire week at our home in Dodoma, which was probably my favorite part. It was great for Mom and Dad to see a slice of our life: meet our friends, see our office, go to our church, and experience how we shop.

Here are some snapshots of the visit:

We spent their first day in Tanzania at the beach in Dar es Salaam. It was a nice, relaxing way to start the visit and help them begin to adjust to the time difference (8 hours head of what they were used to).

Josiah wanted Grandma to experience a bajaji (3 wheeled scooter) ride in Dar.

We also had to take my folks to T-Square, one of our favorite inexpensive restaurants in Dar, where you can get delicious Tanzanian food.

On our way out of town, we overwhelmed them a bit at Slipway, a tourist place where you can buy arts and crafts from all over the country.

Halfway home to Dodoma, they got to experience a "Tanzanian drive thru," buying pineapples and cashews through the car window.

At home in Dodoma, we took them to our church,

They visited our office and met our co-workers,

I took them shopping at our local open-air market,

And we had dinner with our house helper and her family.

But as wonderful as all of that was, I think my parents would say that two of their highlights from the trip were our visit to two Burunge villages and a wildlife safari at Mikumi National Park.

In the village areas, they were able to get a tour of some Burunge farms and homes,

And we had a lovely lunch with the family of one of our co-workers. Mom and Dad had so much fun!
During our safari, we all put our cameras to good use shooting photos of of elephants, giraffes, impalas, buffalo, and zebras roaming around in their natural habitat. We even saw hippos and lions, which are sometimes difficult to spot.

We all had a wonderful time being together again after 1-1/2 years. It's hard to think that it will be another 1-1/2 years before we see them and other family again back in the States. But we're so grateful to have these memories to hold on to until then!

Snapshots of 2010

2010 was our family's first full year to spend in Africa, and it was Josiah, Anna, and my first year to spend entirely away from America. After a year and a half in Tanzania, we all feel very comfortable with life here and this place feels quite a lot like home.

As I look back on 2010, I can say wholeheartedly that it was a very good year. Sure, it held it's fair share of challenges, but as a whole, we have a ton of good memories of 2010.

Here are some snapshots of our year:

January

Paul traveled to Dar es Salaam to take part in his first consultant check on the books of Acts and Revelation.

The kids and I ended that week without Daddy by getting our first real aerial views of Tanzania as we flew in a Cessna 206 to meet him in Dar and then drive our new (to us) Land Cruiser home to Dodoma a few days later.

February

Josiah and Anna made fast friends with the other children on our housing compound in Dodoma. We feel so blessed to have such a great community of friends in our area.

March
We've learned to do a lot of things "by hand," including grinding our own fresh-from-the-market beef.

April
In April, we took a safari to Ruaha National Park.

We added an animal (Chica) to our household as well.

May
Josiah took part in Sports Day for the Nursery and Reception Classes at his school.

June
I got the chance to teach a few of my friends how to cook Mexican food.

July
In July, our family traveled to Kenya for our branch conference. We loved fellowshipping and worshiping together with our colleagues.

And the kids had a great time at the beach too.

AugustJosiah and Anna started back to school after a 6 week break.

And we celebrated our 6-year-old birthday boy!

September
This month is was Anna's turn to celebrate a birthday - her 4th! I had a birthday too, but we'll keep the age part a secret. :)

October
We traveled up north to Musoma to visit friends and co-workers and to bring back a computer server for our office in Dodoma.

November
We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and even had a turkey!

December
Early in the month, Paul and I took a day trip to some nearby mountains to celebrate his birthday.

The kids and I made Christmas cutout cookies.

Paul enjoyed his week off from the office and put together the puzzle he got for Christmas. (Unfortuately, we think our dog already got one of the pieces.)

The kids made the most of their Christmas break by spending the majority of their time outdoors playing. While playing one day, they discovered this colorful chameleon in our backyard.

I'll say it again: 2010 was a very good year. We look forward to all of the memories we'll make in 2011.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas Wrap Up

How was your Christmas this year? While I'm still getting used to spending holidays away from extended family, I can say that our Christmas 2010 season was quite happy.

The festivities began on Christmas Eve with a barbecue. Two of our friends, Jo and Andrea, were visiting us from Mbeya, so we had the privilege of sharing the meal with them. Paul is getting really good at grilling over charcoal. It was delicious!

After our Christmas Eve feast, we snuggled up in the living room to watch a Christmas movie with the kids.

On Christmas morning, we had grand plans to enjoy a Christmas breakfast of eggs and homemade cinnamon rolls, but the electricity company nearly foiled those plans. Just after we put the rolls in the oven, the power went out. We do have a generator on our compound (for which we're extremely grateful), but 6am just too early for the loud noise it makes. So, thinking quick, we all piled in the truck and drove over to the office to make our breakfast (the office has access to a generator that keeps computer servers going, so it comes on automatically whenever the power goes out).
Thankfully, just as the cinnamon rolls were finishing, the power came back on and we were able to return home and still enjoy a nice breakfast.

After breakfast, we let the kids look in their stockings. At the bottom of Josiah's was a clue. They were about to start a gift hunt.

We sent them around the house and the compound looking for clues.

With his newly-acquired reading skills, Josiah got to be the designated reader.

We even got our guard involved.

At the end of it all, they found their Christmas gifts - bicycles! Thankfully, it was a lovely, sunny day, so they could take them right outside and give them a try.
In the afternoon, we joined a group of friends for a delicious Christmas dinner, then we returned home and got the opportunity to Skype with both sets of our parents.

It was a good day!

Christmas Party

Over the weekend, Josiah and Anna were able to take part in a Christmas party for the kids on our housing compound. Five of us moms worked together to put on the party, and everyone had a great time.

We had a craft, games, food, and even a visit from Santa Claus/Father Christmas (depending on what culture you're from and what you call him).

Josiah making a Christmas card:

Anna running back to her team in the clothing race relay:
Santa/Father Christmas arrives:
(A lot of us thought he looked more like a kindly, old bishop than Santa, but the borrowed costume was all we could find. The kids didn't mind.)
All the girls received "Barbie" dolls that Paul found during his recent trip to Dar es Salaam:
All the boys received a package of racing cars:

I think the packaging from Josiah's gift describes the day best:

It was a wonderful, memory-making day for our kids.

Frogs Can Bite?

I never knew there were biting frogs out there. Sure, I knew some of them excrete poison, but I never thought about frogs having teeth.

Well, I was grossly misinformed. This big guy definitely has teeth.

The kids discovered this frog hopping around our compound yesterday afternoon. Rainy season is just beginning here in Dodoma, so he was out feasting on the flying ants that emerge after the first rains. After being warned not to touch the frog, Anna's curiosity must have gotten the better of her because not 10 minutes later, she ran in the house screaming, blood dripping down her hand.

We talked to our guard, and he told us these frogs aren't poisonous but that Tanzanians know to leave them alone. We now understand why.

Thankfully, a Dora Band-Aid seems to fix everything.