On to Kenya

We have stayed in Tanzania much longer than we anticipated. We were
truly blessed by our stay there but it was time to move on. As I
write, we are on a bus to Nariobi, Kenya where we suppose to start
this year of African adventure. We are being hosted by Carol
Chenoweth's family who work in Naibori wiht USAID. Carol is a member
of Mentor UMC who made me a great bag out of African fabric that I
have been using on a regular basis. The political unrest in Kenya has
been settled and we are going to travel to Kisumu to see the clinic
that Danny's friend and colleague Bonyo has started. We hope to also
visit a UMC mission at the Maua Methodist Hospital.

We ended our time in Tanzania in the Moshi/Arusha area where we were
hosted by Mwimbe's family the Kamm's. They were amazing hosts and
more friendships were made. We spent three days on safari with more
photos than are reasonable to post on our blog. But now, back to our
purpose for travel, visiting mission sites and discovering the need
for aid work in Africa.

Mt. Kilimanjaro

We ran into this, Mt. Kilimanjaro, on the way to safari and Kenya!

Final Days in Mvumi

Kathy preached again this week, twice! Palm Sunday is one of her
favorite Sundays and she preached in the morning with a translator and
then in the evening to the secondary school who all speak some level
of english, so no translator. Kathy was very energized to be
preaching and doing a form of youth ministry again. Here are a couple
of photos.

We have left Mvumi, Tanzania. It was not easy to leave new friends
after six weeks of working and living with people. As you can tell by
past blog entries, we have loved our time in the village of Mvumi and
working with the hospital staff and other people and missionaries in
the community. The hospital has been frustrating at times, a full
learning experience. We have built friendships that will last a
lifetime as well as friends we may never see again. In November of
2007, the Anglican Diocese here in Tanzania had a day of prayer for
Mvumi Hospital. People have shared that they see our being here for
six weeks an answer to those prayers. Tanzania has been an answer to
our prayers as we changed plans in early January from Kenya as our
original destination and point of entry for Africa. As we move on we
will head to Uganda, via animal safari and possible Kenya. Let the
adventures and the prayers continue!

Women in line for vaccination of new babies at Mvumi Hospital.
Someone coming by "ambulance" to the Out Patient Department at Mvumi Hospital.

Preaching in Africa

Here is a photo of Kathy preaching on Sunday. It was a three hour
service, started at 10:00 and finished at 1:00! About 5 offerings,
tons of dancing and singing that was wonderful! Drums and guitars
hooked up to car batteries and speakers, the time really did go
fast! This was Kathy's first time using a translator. It seems to
have gone well! Kathy is scheduled to preach again on Palm Sunday
morning at the same church, St. Andrews Anglican Church in Mvumi and
that same evening for the Anglican Secondary school in town.

Our Mvumi Experience

It has been very interesting working here in Mvumi. We are learning
much about how to run a clinical program. Hopefully we will learn
from some of the mistakes others have made. Danny and I have said all
along about this year, that we will hopefully be smarter about how to
start or run or rehab a clinic. We hope that it will be true. It has
already been an exciting two months. As great as life is for us to be
in Mvumi, it is hard for the local people to live here. People are
working hard in the fields, carrying and drinking not so clean water,
and hungry people are relying on the weather for food. People work
hard to live here and they live in basic shelters without running
water or electricity. Local people live in mud houses with either sod
or tin roofs.

Kathy has been working in the office with the payroll. People at the
hospital are living on between $2-$15 a day, paying taxes, a form of
social security, and even saving money through a program that the
hospital provides. Housing is provided by the hospital for their
employees. The patients, the people in the village are making much
less, depending on selling in the market and odd jobs for employment.
There is good news. There has been a reduction in malaria because
more people have mosquito nets.

Kathy is excited to be preparing for preaching this Sunday, March 2nd
at an Anglican church in Mvumi. She is also going to be preaching at
a youth service on the evening of Palm Sunday, March 16th at the Mvumi
Anglican Boarding School here in the village.

Danny meeting with a patient at Mvumi Hospital.
Danny teaching the clinical officers/medical students.
Our house in Mvumi, Tanzania.

Mvumi, Tanzania

We are now a part of a Task Force to help evaluate the many departments at the Mvumi Anglican Hospital. It has already be rehabilitated physically by the German Anglicans. This is a great place for Danny and I to learn how to develop employees and systems of effective operations. Much of our task will be to observe people working as we build relationships and help to encourage and set expectations following Mwimbe, the head of the Task Force and her assistant Marie's lead.

Danny has gone right to work at the hospital; assisting in surgeries, doing rounds with the clinical officers/doctors, teaching at the Medical School, and consulting with doctors about individual patients. Kathy will be working with the Pediatric nurses on a food program for the children who are patients. I am going to work withe nurses to implement a program in conjunction with the World Food Program. I will be making certain that children who are malnurished are being weighed every day and then seeing where they fall in the criteria to see what food they should receive. Their mothers are then taught how to cook the food so that their nutrition can continue to improve. Kathy is also helping in the administration office with payroll, employee files, and other responsibilities.

Mvumi is beautiful country side, mountains, big trees called Baobob Trees, green, sun and clouds. The weather here is pleasant temperatures, breezes, and sunshine! So much nicer than Dar. The recent rains have turned this desert into a green flowering jungle!
We were a part of lively Swahili worship on Sunday! It was colorful, alive, wonderful, inviting, joyful, and perfect! We did not understand everything, but another British missionary translated some for me. There was a very dynamic 12 year old who led music, read scripture, and prayed. She was enzuri sana! very good! Kathy is going to be preaching at the church on March 2nd with the hospital chaplain Meshack translating into Swahili.

We really love living here! We are blessed! We have become very good friends with Mwime, the head of the Task Force and her family and her assistant Marie. We plan on staying until at least Easter. Pictures will be coming in a few weeks when we get back into Dodoma to update.

Dodoma

We have arrived in Dodoma. Such a different place than Dar! Cooler
days and nights, quieter community, and smaller than the big city! We
were greeted by Mwimbe and her husband Constantine. They have just
moved back to Tanzania from Germany themselves. Mwimbe, who is
Tanzanian and German, is a consultant who has been hired to assess the Mvumi Hospital that is in need of some attention. We are going to be
working with her to meet with doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and
administrators on how to be effective health care providers. It is a
perfect place for Danny and I to learn and experience what it means to
transition and be a part of creating a facility and people into a new
vision. This helps to meet our goals and objectives for this year.
We are very excited.

We are going to spend the day, Tuesday, February 12th loading up
supplies for life in Mvumi which is more rural and without many
resources. We are being hosted today by Naftal, someone who is known
by our friends the Gingriches. Naftal's family and he are friends
with Karl Gingrich who did much work in Tanzania. Through that
relationship Naftal was sponsored to come to the US to go to college
at Bowling Green State University. In the small world of things, some
of his best friends in college were from Nordonia High School, where
Murphy graduated, and we know some of the same people! He is also
good friends with Mwibme and her family and lives right around the
corner from where we are staying at the Humble House in Dodoma. He is
getting us a phone and taking very good care of us! God is preparing
a way for us! It really is a small world.