A Little Village

It has been two days since I talked to Jordan - I called last night to find out how their first day with Village Schools International went, but the phones weren't connecting, and when I finally was able to connect to one of their cell phones, it was 11pm here (9am there) and Dave answered. He said they were inside one of the schools, introducing themselves and he had just ran out to answer the phone. I told him not to bother Jordan, but that I would call back around 6pm their time. Then, when I called back, again, I was unable to connect the first few times I tried, but when I did get through, it was Dave again. This time he wasn't even with Jordan. Dave was out walking around a remote village with some of the people from Village Schools, and Jordan was with the woman who, with her husband, started Village Schools International on a walk around the village to visit and convince people to get tested for AIDS. I guess Susan (the woman Jordan spent the afternoon with) is a big advocate in her village for AIDS prevention and intervention.

So, finally at 11pm their time (around 1pm here) I called again trying to get a hold of Jordan. I actually started calling around 10pm their time, but again after a few times of not being connected, I gave up for a while. Then, once I do get connected, it's right at the moment Jordan gets in the shower. Again, I talked to Dave, and again he told me to call back. So I waited 15 minutes and finally got to talk to my wonderful husband!

He said they are in a very small village in Southern Tanzania and are staying at Steve and Susan's house (the founders of Village School International). They have two boys, and Jordan, Dave, and Musa are staying in one of the boys' rooms. He said his shower was from a bucket, but it was actually warm, so that was great! I guess they heat up the water on coals and then (because it's almost boiling at that point) they mix it with cold water in a bucket, and there's your shower!! He said it was different, but he liked it and it felt good to just get to take a shower after the day he had in the village!

Other than that, he told me more about the village where they are and about how different life is there from here and even from life in Moshi (Northern Tanzania). He said Steve and Susan grow all their own food - vegetables, fruits, etc. and they go into town every once and a while to stock up on everything they cannot grow there. But, he said it is an amazing place because it is SUPER lush and green! They can grow almost anything, I guess, and he compared it to Western Washington - just very green and beautiful. People in the village mostly work as farmers and grow everyrhing from corn, to coffee, to fruit, to tea. He said there are miles and miles of tea fields and it was so amazing to be standing in the middle of all that. I asked him about farming and if it's a lot of corporate farms in that village or if it's family-run, African farms. He said the corn is mostly family-run farms, but the tea is pretty much all owned by Europeans who pay the African's nothing and take all the profits for themselves. So sad.

Of course, he also had to mention the size of the spiders he's seen in the village where they are now. If you don't know, I am terrified of spiders. Not sure why, I'm not exactly the girly-girl, but for some reason they really freak me out and I hate them. I freak out over ones the size of a nickel and say they're "huge." Well, apparently, Jordan has seen numorous spiders that are in their webs (so not tarantulas) that are three or so inches long!!!!! Seriously. When I heard that I asked if he had seen any spiders like that in Moshi and he said no. So I said, ok, I can live in Moshi, but not in some remote, lush, beautiful village. Sorry.

No, just kidding. I asked him if he would kill all the spiders for me (only if they were in our house or something - not if they were minding their business outside in their webs) and he said yes. So I could do it. And in case you don't know Jordan that well, he absolutely loves it where he is right now! He's in his element - in a lush, rainforest where they grow all their own fruits and vegetables and he even got to go swimming because he said they have a pretty sweet water system going on with a dam that backs up water to form a small pond (about 15 feet deep he said). I think they went swimming yesterday with some of the kids from the high school in the village and I asked him if any of them knew how to swim. He said most of them didn't, but that a few had taught themselves. Pretty crazy, huh?

Well, I guess that's all to report. I didn't want to chat for too long because I could tell he was SUPER tired and it was almost midnight there. But he's doing well. I think he's really learning a lot about himself and what he wants for our family. His eyes are being opened to the way people in other parts of the world live, and I think he likes it. Please keep praying for him (and Dave and Musa) - they have to drive 14+ hours tomorrow from the village back to Moshi, and then on Saturday morning get up and drive about an hour to the airport to fly out to Burundi. It's going to be a crazy couple days for them!!

Love to you all! Thank you for reading and thank you even more for your prayers! I'll keep you posted on their time in Burundi as well...