Last night in Dodoma

Hello everyone. Well, it is our last night in Dodoma and we are leaving for the Safari early tomorrow morning. We have been quite busy touring around since our windmill has been finished. For those of you who may be wondering what we have been doing, I will say that there has been almost too many adventures to name! We spent a day at Mother Teresa's Sister's of Charity compound where the sisters look after orphans, as well as physically and mentally disabled people. Many of these people have been abandoned. The sisters will actually go out and look for those who have been left, just like Mother Teresa did. We also went to a leper colony in Sukamahayla, and  the birth place of the CPPS Mission, which is a town called Manyoni. The CPPS brothers run a trade school to train young men in mechanics, autobody and carpentry.We traveled with the Kamloops group to a town called  Iyumbu. This group had built a windmill system in 2005, so they wanted to go back to see it. A few years after they had left, the village built a medical dispensary(clinic). You can see how the village is flourishing. Many of the houses have been replaced with brick houses and many people have gardens.  We were also able to go see a very intense soccer game just down the road from the compound the other day. Last night we had a special mass for BRO and a wonderful supper, celebrating his 65 years of service as a Brother. So, as you can see, the building of the windmill and providing water for a village was obviously the focus of our trip, but there has been many more opportunities to see other areas where people get help from the CPPS Mission (delivering rice, cornmeal, clothes, medicine to those who need it).
NOTE: The last pictures we posted were primarily from the windmill celebration we had when the Bishop came to see us. It was a wonderful celebration. The Bishop spoke and the village women danced for us. And as you can see, the girls all got a chance to try out the drums. Roxanne and Vanessa kept busy with the babies as you can tell. And the village presented us with a goat as a gift, which in this culture would be seen as very special!
So my fellow Canadians, hopefully we will have more time to blog in Dar es Salam.

Last day in Dodoma!

Well it's our last day in Dodoma. On Sunday we all went to mass at the local parish and were treated to African music and really cool liturgical dancing. Yesterday was Bro's 65 anniversary of being a brother with CPPS and we all laughed and shared stories. Tomorrow we head to mikumi national park to go on safari. Internet may very well be spotty but I'll make sure to post once in Dar. Pray for our safe travels. Mathew

Celebration of ~ people helping people help themselves ~ handing over the well to the village

Our windmill and water tanks ~ a life time of water for Chihoni

Bishop Albert enjoying a tour of the Compounds with Brother Anthony in his Bro Mobile

Exciting news

Well it's another beautiful day here in sunny Tanzania. The rest of the group to a trip to the great Rift Valley and the leper colony and will undoubtably blog about that when they get back. I stayed behind to write this blog. We had an earthquake at 2:15 yesterday and I kept with tradition by sleeping through it. Had a little ice cream as a treat, am waiting for the group to arrive back at the compound.

Today, I am the student

Hello everyone. I hope you are enjoying our blog. I have come to realize that since I have been in Africa, I believe the Tanzanians have given me more than I have given them. Yes, I have helped raise money and helped provide them with clean water for many years to come. But when I prepared for this trip, I did not realize how much they would teach me. These are my lessons today:

  I have realized that hugging,touching and holding hands is a wonderful way to show love and affection and respect.Tanzanians are extremely affectionate.  Do we hug our children enough? Do we hold hands with our mothers?Our fathers? Our grandparents? 

   The Tanzanian children have NOTHING, but they create games, they make toys out of nothing, they run, and laugh, and run and shout and run some more!  Do our children have imaginations to create fun from a few sticks and rocks? How often do our children get bored when there's no TV, video games or other such stimulation? 

    I have witnessed 3 and 4 year old children hauling huge rocks at our worksite. I have seen young girls carry 5 gallon pails of water on their heads for miles.  They are learning how to help and contribute to their family and village.  How often do our children want something in return for their work? How often do they complain when we ask them to do a few chores? 

   I have seen what some villagers eat. Our daily rations of beans and rice I realized, is actually a treat for them. These people eat to live, where we tend to live to eat!  How often do our families complain if they run out of milk for the day, or they don't get desert, or they have no more ketchup for their French fries! 

   I have listened to some young women talk about how they have worked hard and saved money to help their parents, or to help put their younger siblings through school. I have listened to them talk of what they have given up to care for others in their family. How often do we put ourselves first? How  often do we push our kids out after graduation because we have this crazy idea that they don't need us anymore? Or we put our elders in homes because we don't have time to care for them? 

  One more: The women here respect themselves by covering up, and not showing off their bodies in inappropriate ways. Since women breast feed their children for about two years, you will often see them feeding their babies any time, any where. It is so comforting to know that women here can be free to do what God has created them to do; feed their young.  Isn't is ironic how we at home, do not always dress respectfully, and we sometimes show off our bodies more than we should, but when it comes to feeding our babies, we are embarrassed, we are ridiculed, and we are taught to hide ourselves in public?

OK, so I could go on, but I 'll close by saying that we need to be careful that we do not make assumptions about what we could do to help and teach others. We may very well become the students, with many things to learn. And today, I am grateful to be the student. Take care everyone and God bless, Roxanne (sorry it's so long but lots of emotions and thoughts go through my head here!!!!)