Janet my Fundi

  This is Janet's measurements book for all of her customers. They describe to her what they want, and then she draws it out with the measurements. This was the "blueprint" for the first dress she made for me.

The rest of the pictures are not edited for sake of time, but I'll share them with you so you can get to know my friend Janet a little!

                                                                  New sticker books and toys!

        Janet is my dress-maker. She is fantastic at what she does! Often times I would stop at her house on my way to or from the post office just to visit. She would teach me Swahili as she sewed away on her cute little sewing machine and I would teach her English as we would both try to communicate :) She is such a beautiful lady! Her mother, and 7-year-old daughter live with her in a house that is smaller than my dorm room. They have a "living room" and a bedroom behind that they all share and a kitchen arend squat pot out back. Whenever I would approach her house, I would hear her call "Karibu Betha!" (pronounced Baytha..that's my Swahili name) She always invited me in and served me something! Sometimes a mango, sometimes tea..
Before I left she had me over for a special goodbye meal. It was lovely! Her niece was living there with them at the time too so I gave the girls some goodbye gifts and we all enjoyed chakula! (food)

                                                                The cat outside climbing the tree
                                                                       ...si jui kwa nini

                                     As soon as I gave little Janeti her stuffed animal, she tied it on her back with a blanket like all the ladies do with their babies. It was really cute.

   The girlies and their candy (you can see Janet's sewing machine in the background...the one that made all of my wonderful African dresses :)

 A neighbor boy took this picture for us before I left. The window on the left is Janet's house and the window on the right is a shop that Janet's friends own. These are some of my many genuine and wonderful local friends that made my Tanzanian experience all the more meaningful! I miss them!

Spring Skiing

                                                                            Brookie Cookie

                                                                              Megan

                                                                              Nathan

                                                                               Friends

                                                                      Surrounding Mountains

                                                                             Spiffy Beau

                                                                      Nathan taking a slide

                                                                              Beautiful lake

                                                                                 trying to fly

                                                             Daddy snapping a picture of Beau's jump

                                                                     Mr. Beau and his shadow

                                                                       Beau and Brooks

                                                                          the three of us!


My sister, Brooklyn, turned 8 on March 20 and my brother, Beau, turned 17 on March 24 so we went skiing right in the middle on March 22 to celebrate both birthdays! (and partly because it was "girls ski free" day)
Everyone can out-ski me now. Brooklyn zooms ahead, blond pony-tail flying behind her. Beau zooms ahead all ducked down low and flies over jumps, making me shiver. Dad zooms ahead, carving the mountain behind them to catch them both on video so Mom, (cuddled in front of the cozy fire at home) can watch them ski! This leaves me snow-plowing down the hill by myself as I try not to run into other people's paths. As for me, I would have a heart attack if I were to go any faster, so I'm quite content to coast down on my own time. I'm proud of my speedy-skier-siblings, though! We had lovely weather and good friends to share the day with us.

I know I have said that I would continue to blog about Africa and I haven't done that yet. I just got to college so  my blogging time is going to diminish significantly, but I hope to update once a week or so and be able to share some more pictures, stories, and last thoughts about my time in Tanzania.

Brooklyn turns 8

My baby sister turned 8-years-old today...not much of a baby anymore! She chose to have an international party and asked the girls to dress up in clothes from their countries of origin. They each prepared a game, dance, or song to display their country and brought a dish of food from there as well. Brooklyn was a little German girl, Kiana a Russian, Megan a Mexican, Katie and Sarah were Swiss girls, Paige and Emma were from England, and Amy a little Chinese girl. (Beau and I were Tanzanian) It was so much fun! The girls were super cute as they described their dish of food and explained how their family originated from the country they represented.

Hope & Lazaro

On the last Sabbath before I left, Sarah, Lilli, and I made it out to Ngaramtoni to visit Hope and Lazaro at SOS Children's Village. It was a long dala dala ride, but very worth it! 

Twins, Hope and Lazaro left Cradle of Love at the very end of October after they turned 4-years-old. I couldn't wait to see them again in their new home! I was a little bit nervous that they wouldn't remember us since four months had passed since we had seen them last.

SOS Children's village is set up like a neighborhood. Each house has a "mother" who lives there with the orphans, loves them and cares for them as her own. The children are able to grow up with "siblings", go to school, learn to work, play and have fun with their families. It's a beautiful system and the families seem to be very happy. When we entered Hope and Lazaro's house, the mother was cooking lunch and the kids were playing in the courtyard. As the eight of them piled inside to meet the visitors, Lazaro was staring at us with eyes growing bigger by the second. You could see his brain working very hard to process our familiar faces. Soon a smile spread across his face, he whispered our names, and Hope scooted on to our laps. They remembered us! We sang all of our old preschool songs and they even remembered Philipians 4:13 and were able to recite it with us. They told us all about their siblings, classmates, and school work. 

To see Hope and Lazaro growing up and doing so well was a wonderful Sabbath blessing. It was encouraging to see that they remembered their memory verse and songs from our time together. They're beautiful kids and God is blessing them in their new family.

Forever in my Heart

                                                                                Asha

                                                                                   Amity

                                                                                      Cosmas

                                                                                  Abdi

                                                                                Catherine

                                                                              Amani

                                                                                   Clinton

                                                                                      Baraka

                                                                                   Elisha

                                                                               Charles

                                                                                   Clara

                                                                                     Ellinipa

                                                                            Immanuel

Gloria

                                                                           George

                                                                                      Helen

                                                                                   Hidaya

                                                                                 Ibrahim

Emmanuel

                                                                                   Jackline

                                                                                   Jackson

                                                                                Jeremiah

                                                                                    Jessica

                                                                              Josephina

                                                                                     Kareem

                                                                                  Lucy

                                                                                    Mark

                                                                                      Maureen

                                                                                 Noel

                                                                              Patrick

                                                                                     Princess

                                                                     Raymond

                                                                            Rehema

                                                                                 Tom

                                                                                     Tumaini

                                                                                      Upendo

                                                                               Wema

                                                                              Witness

Amani

                                                                            Zawadi

                    Twins: David (left) and Silvamos (right)

                                                       Twins: Dotto (above) and Kurwa (below)

                                                              

                                                               Twins: Dylan (above) and Kellie (below)

                                                        Twins: Eric (above) and Peter (below)

 

I'll love you forever and think of you always. My beautiful babies, forever you'll be. Your Heavenly Father loves you and will bless you as you grow. Thank you for the love you showed me and the lessons you taught me. I already miss your sweet voices, kisses, smiles, and tears. It's my prayer that you will know and love Jesus with all your heart. I'll see you in heaven, if not before!

Love, Beth