These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

... revised to fit my life.


Jamming out in a mud church to African drums;
Bright red notices on Facebook and warm fuzzy emails;
Yellow DHL packages full of exciting news;
These are a few of my favorite things.


Gooey chocolate brownies and crisp Tanzanian shillings;
Skype phones that ring and exceedingly fast internet;
Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion from B&B Works;
These are a few of my favorite things.


Little Tanzanian girls with 'pom-pom' hair-dos;
Raindrops that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Rainy winters that evaporate into hot humid summers;
These are a few of my favorite things.


When the neighbor's dogs bark all night long,
When the termites fly,
When I'm feeling sad,
I just remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.


*Original song written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers.

Around the world...

... and close to the heart.

A few days ago, while chatting with a friend, they asked me ‘How are you”. This wasn’t the usual ‘hihowareyouohImfinethanksforasking’. You know - The ‘Hi, How Are you? Oh I’m fine, thanks for asking’ that becomes a mouth full of words rushed out before you even open your mouth (or type in my case) to reply. This was a truly sincere question about my well being. It was like a breath of fresh air to me. Someone was really concerned enough to ask how I was doing. For that I’m grateful. Grateful, because in this day and age, the rushed mumbo jumbo reply is the norm. I told them what was going on, they said they would pray for me, and we went back to our previous conversation. That was it; two minutes of sincere inquiry. We went on to laugh and tell each other the little bits of news from our corners of the world respectively and in general had a lovely conversation.

I continued to think back over our conversation (yes, I’m one of those people that ‘replay’ every word. Weird - I know) and how their concern was truly encouraging. Lately things have been CRAY-ZAY to the 59th millionth degree. *See previous posts*

So back to my thinking things over…I began to think about ‘how I was’. I asked myself ‘How AM I’? Am I doing ok? Could things be a little better, do I need to change my attitude? And on and on… these were some questions floating through my brain.

So yes, after much reflection and many ‘quiet moments’ (moments I take once in awhile just to ‘think’… doesn’t happen very often… ask my family. No wait… don’t), I realized something.

YES – I am ok. NO – things are not easy right now. Yes – I need to change my attitude. And YES – one day I’ll probably laugh, or at least smile, about all of this. But for right now, I’ve decided that I’m doing just fine.

I’ve decided that I’m going to be content no matter what happens and to give thanks ‘IN’ everything. (Philippians 4:11 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Dear Lord...

... I know you said 'Love your neighbor as yourself' ... but does that include my neighbor's dogs that keep me awake at night???

Just wondering.

A peek into 'R' life

Once upon a time...

In a little African town, there was a lovely missionary family that lived in a VERY quiet neighborhood. This little missionary family had a daughter that was suffering from sleep deprivation. *NO JOKE - QUITE SERIOUS! She was getting SERIOUSLY ill.* So the sweet missionary dad told his precious missionary wife, 'We need to do something about this; this is concerning me.' So precious missionary mama went to the duka la dawa (it's the pharmacy for those of you who do not have the privilege of speaking Swahili), to consult with her friend and find a nice little tablet for the darling missionary kid. So after arriving home from a trip to bigger African town, the precious missionary mama gave the darling missionary kid the nice little tablet, a glass of water, and said, " Good-night, I'll see you in the morning." So off the darling missionary kid went on her merry way, to the land of Nod. And there she stayed until...

... her RUDE AWAKENING! You see, the beautiful rain had began to fall with quite enthusiasm. However, the sweet missionary dad forgot that he had left the windows down on the great white Land Cruiser. And THAT is when the rude awakening came! The rain was falling, the windows were open, the neighborhood was as quiet as quiet could be, and the lovely missionary family was snug as a bug, sleeping in their warm beds. All of a sudden, with great noise.... THE HORN GOES OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The missionary dad jumps out of bed, fumbles around for the flashlight, the house AND car keys; the watch guard looks around quite suddenly, and takes off RUNNING around the house. He just KNEW that an evil thief had somehow entered in ever so quietly, and that this said thief was the cause of such a great noise! The missionary dad rushes outside, only to realized his great mistake in leaving the windows open. He opens the door of the great white SFC Land Cruiser, and does something that shuts the horn off, but then the lights came on. He tries to get the lights off, but alas, the lights would not turn off. So the missionary dad, tries, yet again, this time he triumphs over the lights, the noise of the horn, and FINALLY gets to go back into the warmth of his house.

The cause for all of the ruckus was, A) The missionary dad forgot to close the windows, B) the rain began falling, which brings us to, C) the rain, entering the car via the open windows, caused the horn to go off...!

The missionary dad and mama spent the day detailing the great white SFC Land Cruiser, it looks beautiful. The darling missionary kid, whom was oh so ill.... slept, SOUNDLY, for 13 hours!!! She woke up feeling great, and got much work done today!

The END

No Water + No Electricity = ....

... 2 extraordinarily tiresome weeks.
Hello my dear friends - Let me fill you in on what has been happening in our corner of the world for the past few weeks
Last weekend (April 2-5), Tanzania held a 'Missionary Fellowship'. We had the Crums from Kenya, Bro. Rd, and of course the guest of most importance (in my books), Pops! The weekend was great, as usual. Mom and I just about went crazy, with cooking and cleaning and 'hosting' everyone. Of course, the Bro. and Sis. Smoak helped, but they have no car as of right now, and therefore it is is difficult for them to get out and about town. SO... moving on. Did I mention that we had NO water? Yes I do believe I did. Why we had no water for 8 DAYS I have no clue. Call it 'African'. So here we are with NO water and Pops is staying in our house(OF COURSE), and laundry is building up, dishes are getting washed with the water that Patrick(our groundskeeper) carried from the well, and about half a bottle of bleach that Agatha(housekeeper) poured in. I think she wanted CLEAN dishes! Let us all say STRESSFUL. Enter everyone else. I quickly learned that 6 other people can SERIOUSLY use a LOT of water!!!

Friday- All the guest arrived in town and everyone came to our house for lasagna(BTW - IT WAS AMAZING!), banana bread, salad, banana bread(Did I mention that we had banana bread? Hate bananas,but love banana BREAD - go figure.) all in all, we had great food and fellowship.

Saturday- Bro. Rd., Mom and Dad, Bro. and Sis Smoak, Pops, Bro and Sis. Crum had morning devotions. After devotions, I played tour guide and took Pops and Sis. Crum shopping to a few of my favorite little hole-in-the-wall shops and all in all had a grand time. That night we went out for Indian food @ a near-by restaurant. MORE food and fellowship.

Sunday- Pops, Mom and Dad, Bro. Marco, and myself took off for the village in Chemka (it means boiling. There is a hot spring near by). This church is amazing! About 90% of the saints are 15 or younger! Pops did a great job preaching on the subject 'Jesus Loves You'. We closed the service by singing the song 'Jesus Loves Me' in English... that was a HUGE hit. I love listening to Tanzanian kiddos sing in English, even if they have NO clue what they are saying(Now I know what I sound like when I speak Kiswahili.)!
Thankfully on Monday morning, water arrived with a vengeance and Agatha started doing laundry with EQUAL vengeance!
Moving on to THIS weekend...
Thursday- Mom and Dad have been in TMF (Tanzania Missionary Fellowship) meetings all day, I've been at home just chillin around the house. Mom and Dad return from a 5 or 6 hour meeting, exhausted beyond all exhaustion, and of course - the power goes off. Mom, was NOT impressed, and Dad was convinced that it would come back on before we went to bed. I was not so sure. We waited, and waited, and waited some more... by this time it is 11:30 pm and we are ALL exhausted(missionary midnight had passed 2 and 1/2 hours before). So off to bed we go.

Friday- We wake up, after a night of swatting mosquitos, and tossing and turning. That day passed E X T R E M E L Y slowly. By this time, Dad has called Tanesco(our electrical company) about 45 times and the answer keeps coming back 'A transformer has a problem. A fundi(repairman) is working on it, you should have electricity today'. So dad was like 'Ok guys, just wait it out a little bit longer.' Well we are now into the evening, and the mosquitos that visited on Thursday night, brought their friends for 'All you can eat Wazungu' buffet. Mom and I were NOT impressed. So another night of tossing and turning, mosquito swatting, and heat suffering passes.

Saturday- Dad gets up and lets the guard out (@ 6am) and immediately calls Tanesco. AGAIN. I'm pretty sure that the tension has crept into his voice, and he 'firmly' tells the operator, 'I NEED ELECTRICITY TODAY!' Of course, the people continued to answer him with 'Oh today Bwana... today'. By this time it is 3ish in the afternoon. And Dad CONTINUES to hold onto the sliver of hope that we will have electricity. I have reached the 'I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it' point. After much persuasion, I convinced Dad to start the car, so I could charge his computer, and my ipod(THANK GOD FOR CAR CONVERTERS!). During all of this, it is raining. I mean RAINING!!! Like serious, open the windows of Heaven kind of rain! It's now late evening, and Dad is BEYOND frustrated. So yet again.... a sleepless night in Moshi.

Easter Sunday- Mom excitedly wakes me up, as is her custom on Easter Sunday, and convinces me that I HAVE to come downstairs. I know that she is just waiting for me to jump up and down with great excitement over this basket stuffed to it's gills of 'STUFF'. Of course, it's all extremely GREAT stuff... but stuff nonetheless. My poor brain does NOT start to work that fast in the mornings... So the enthusiasm wasn't expressed to the level of Mom's hope. Never the less.... I did get a new skirt, a new pair of shoes, a new skirt, a cover for my ipod, a iTunes gift card, a couple of headbands, and a whole bunch of candy... Moving on to the electrical drama. (Yes we did have a drama on Easter Sunday... just not your 'Normal' Burial and Resurrection Drama.) We get dressed and head over to the missionary apartment for a special Missionary service with the Smoaks. On the way there, Dad drives into town so that he may speak with the people at Tanesco... YET AGAIN! So here we are, at Tanesco, Dad is shaking his head and making all sorts of hand motions to emphasis his point. He FINALLY speaks with someone who is polite enough to tell the TRUTH about the problem and says that he will call dad just as soon as it is fixed. So off we go to the missionary apartment. We arrive, and are in the middle of our 'service' when my dad's phone starts to sing a merry little tune! Dad jumps up, answers the phone, and says 'I'm on my way - Five minutes' and walks out the door. After about 15 minutes... he returns and WONDERS OF WONDERS... We have electricity. So we continue with our service, eat an incredible lunch of chicken tacos... and came home to a house with electricity. Did I mention that we had been 70 hours WITHOUT electricity? So of course, Mother and I had to clean out the fridge and freezer... we lost EVERYTHING! Ugh - Let's just say that it was DISGUSTING!
As I have so fondly said over the past 3 and 1/2 years... 'Welcome to Africa'. I do remind myself 'In everything give thanks'.... and not necessarily 'FOR everything give thanks'.

Until the next chattering...