Category: Other Page 134 of 181

Gangsters and Gals

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On May 16, 2010

In Other

Twinkly lights, roses, sparkling punch, feathers in the hair, great music, and of course…dancing! Last Friday night our Youth Group was transported back in time to the Roaring 20’s…and what a fabulous evening we had!


In Youth Group, we love our theme nights. There’s not a lot of places for teens to go around here, or things for them to do, so we make up for it by putting on Theme Nights. Every time they get better. I think this one was the most fun so far. This is me and my co-leader, Carley (third from left) with our Discipleship Group.

It wouldn’t have happened without Kate (2nd from left), our good friend and fellow Youth leader who also teaches at HOPAC. This really was her idea…and since she was the only one who knew the dances, she made it happen! Kate decided to name our 20’s “club” the “Charleston Charge.” She told the kids that only Carley, Gil, and Amy would “get” it….but that we would think it was pretty funny. She was right…and I’m guessing that some of my readers from my generation will “get” it too. 🙂

Kate and Christa (who is a naturally gifted dancer) demonstrating for the group.

They all got out there and tried–even the guys!

But I think the guys were more into the guns than the dancing….

About half of the group.

And of course, we had the cutest little Gangster and Gal of all….what is kind of scary is that no one asked her to pose like that.

Sigh….my very own Gangster. Isn’t he fabulous? And my dress….didn’t I tell you?

When I came out of the bedroom with the dress and the hair and the hat and the bright red lipstick…Josiah just stared and stared with those expressive eyes. Finally he said, “You look cute, Mommy!” in his two-year-old voice. Fabulous.

It Always Starts and Ends With a Letter

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On May 11, 2010

In Other

I visited social welfare again today, for the first time in over a year.

Ah, the memories. That long drive, parking down the street, walking down the sidewalks of downtown Dar, past the shoeshiners, the beggers, the deep-fried bananas, the guy with the bathroom scale that you can step on for 25 cents to check your weight. Riding the elevator to the fourth floor. Usually returning disappointed, impatient, sometimes in tears, sometimes elated.

Today, I had a letter.

Dear Commissioner of Social Welfare,

….we would like to apply to foster a third child so that Grace and Josiah can have a younger brother or sister….

You get the idea.

Here we go again!

Dressing Those Gals

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On May 8, 2010

In Other

What do you do when you know you have a costume party coming up and need vintage clothing? Go to a thrift store, of course!

And when there are no thrift stores in your country? You go to the market! Because guess what? Ever wonder what happens to all the clothes in the thrift stores that don’t get sold? They get boxed up and sent over to third world countries! And end up in markets like these:



And how do I know that these clothes are thrift store cast-offs? Because they all have labels like this:


Since our Youth Group is having a “Gangsters and Gals” (Roaring 20’s) theme night on Friday night, a bunch of girls and I headed out to the market today to find costumes. I wasn’t terribly optimistic as to what we would find, but boy, did we find some gems! I know you just can’t see it now, but this really is a fabulous flapper costume. (Can you believe the thrift store got rid of this fabulous dress?) Just you wait until the pictures of Friday night!


It was great. We all even found matching hats–adorable hats–to go along with our fabulous dresses. Of course, it is a little awkward trying on dresses over your clothes, with four salesmen watching, all of them suggesting the next dress to try on. And of course, I did have to tell those men numerous times that, no, they cannot marry any of the girls I was with. That still didn’t stop them from proposing.

But what do you expect? They are indeed beautiful girls.

I love the uniqueness of groups like this. One 9th grader, one 10th, one 11th, and one 12th grader. One from America, one from Denmark, one from Germany, one from Holland. All MK’s.

Fabulous.

West Meets East…or Something Like That

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On May 4, 2010

In Other


Grace asked us recently, “Can we go to the Indian restaurant?”

I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about. “Anghiti’s? Copper Pot? Copper Chimney?” There are numerous (scruptious) Indian restaurants in Dar, but I never thought Grace would actually choose to go there.

And then I made the connection: Oh, the Indian restaurant: Spur.

Spur is probably the closest we get here to Applebees or Fridays or Chilis. Fully air conditioned. Slick photo menus. Padded booths. Salad bar. Even a kids’ section in the back with a slide and face painting.

And the food? Well, let me put it this way. If you’ve been in Dar for at least 6 months, the food is fabulous. If you go there only a few weeks after arriving from the States, well….not so much. As long as you stick to the burgers or steaks, you do okay. I remember, years ago, when I first went there (shortly after coming from the States) excitedly ordering “nachos” from the menu. Uh, yeah…that was the last time I ever did that. Imagine cottage cheese instead of cheddar cheese and spaghetti sauce instead of salsa…you get the idea.

Anyway. The most amusing part about Spur? The theme. Just as Grace said, the theme is indeed “Indian.” As in “American Indian,” “Native American,” or “First American”–whatever the new politically correct word is.

Let me describe this in a little more detail. Spur is a South African chain. South African. With an American Indian theme. And not even politically correct American Indian. We’re talking teepees, head dresses, warrior face paint, and feathered spears. The kids even get little paper Indian feather headbands reminicent of Burger King crowns.

I’m not kidding.

This Other World

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On April 28, 2010

In Other

It’s been almost three weeks since we’ve been back. But it seems like longer. Now that I am fully awake and fully functioning, it feels like we never left. Sometimes my two worlds feel like different planets…they are so different that it’s hard for me to even imagine the other one from the vantage point of the this one. I forget, really, how different this world is, until I go to America and have the cold water of American life splashed in my face to remind me.

Some small examples of the “normal” parts of life for me here, that I forget are not really “normal” for most Americans:

• Wrestling to get my fridge to cool properly in the heat. We moved it about a foot from the wall, put a fan behind it, rearranged the food inside, turned the temperature gauge up as high as it will go….and still food is spoiling from not cooling properly. I start thinking we need to buy another fridge, and then, lo and behold, we have a “cold” day (70 degrees) from all the rain and the fridge starts freezing everything inside! I had to throw away a perfectly good bowl of (expensive) lettuce this morning because it was frozen….whereas two days ago, I couldn’t get it cold enough. This pattern has repeated itself a few times during the last couple of years.
• Getting the shocks on our car fixed for the fourth time in two years….replacing blown out tires for the second time in a year….gifts from the Dar es Salaam roads.
• Paying for all our bills in person, in cash….carefully planning this out since we can only withdraw a certain amount of cash per 24 hours.
• Taking an hour to drive less than 10 miles because of traffic
• Being responsible for organizing household workers
• Bringing Grace to the local salon to get her hair done….four hours (thank goodness for our iPod!) and $5 later, and it’s done for the next month.
• Going through a 10 pound bag of flour every week
• Lighting my stove and oven with a match
• Communicating often with those who don’t speak my language…or my dialect. Even those who speak English as their first language(British, Australian,Irish)often have a totally different vocabulary.

People in the States often asked me if I “like it there.” That’s such a tough question to answer. Do I like the inconveniences? Of course not. Do I like being away from my family? No. Do I like the beauty, the culture, the adventure? Yes, definitely. But even those reasons aren’t why I would say I “like” it here. I guess “liking it here” simply comes from the conviction, as I’ve said before, that this is where I am supposed to be. After that, it just comes down to just getting used to the way of life (it’s amazing what we can get used to, even when we think we won’t) and choosing contentment. I don’t always succeed in that. But most of the time, yes, I like it.

In other news….Almost all internet in the entire country (even all of East Africa and West India) has been shut off this past week….this has been a challenge mostly because we do so much local communication by email. Imagine….I’ve had to resort to phone calls! Since all cell phone calls (other than text messages) cost about 30 cents a minute, this is a crisis indeed! Thankfully, got a connection today and am trying to catch up…we’ll see if this connection, weak as it is, allows me to make this post.

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