Tag: Medina Life Page 5 of 7

Medina Life, September & October

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On October 30, 2016

In Other

School started at the end of August, and Lily has the same teacher that Josiah had last year for second grade.  We’re pretty thrilled about that!  I already wrote about Grace starting fifth grade, and Josiah was too eager to run off and play soccer with his friends to get a first day picture in third grade.  

Meanwhile, Gil started off a new term with this incredible bunch of people.  

His birthday came up while he was teaching, and when I showed up with a cake, I discovered that the students had already brought him one!  

We invited Gil’s students over for a birthday party, where we introduced them to Jenga and Spoons, which they took just about as seriously as the exam Gil had given them earlier that day.  This is a competitive bunch!

Fifth graders at HOPAC get all kinds of leadership opportunities, including running for Elementary Student Council.  The students ran in teams of three, so Grace ran for vice-president along with Angelique (president) and Muchahi (secretary).  

We had a campaign day at our house, which meant that an explosion of markers and poster board and bottle caps (for buttons) blew up all over my living room.  But hey–it must have worked, because Grace’s team beat out five other teams and WON!

Johnny’s big recent success was that he started riding his bike without training wheels–much to his extreme excitement.  

Visiting one of our students and he and his wife’s beautiful new baby girl.

Josiah’s first-term third grade assembly.

Daddy is reading through Pilgrim’s Progress after dinner these days, but even the children’s version is just a little too exhausting for this five-year-old.  

The Grass is Always Greener in Arusha

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On August 21, 2016

In Other

Lauren and I have dreamed about Arusha for a long time.  We always knew that this northern Tanzanian city was in the region of Mount Kilimanjaro (home to where your Starbucks coffee is grown), the Great Serengeti (home to Simba), and is lush and green–at least 10 degrees cooler than Dar es Salaam.  As far as we were concerned, that made it a paradise.

So when the opportunity arose for all of us to attend Swahili language school in Arusha for three weeks, we jumped at the chance.  After all, we all needed to boost our Swahili, and a chance to spend time in Arusha would just be icing on the cake.

So we went.  We headed ten hours north on the two-lane road, buses and semi-trucks dodging us at breakneck speed.  We passed miles of sisal plantations and scrub brush savannah and villages of small mud houses.  We went with our long-time friends Ben and Lauren, and our new friends Luke and Amber, and a gaggle of nine kids under the age of ten.

Arusha did not disappoint us.  We stayed in guest cottages on a mission compound that is a version of Eden, where the chatter of monkeys woke us in the morning and the avocados dropped from heaven like manna.  The temperature dropped into the sixties and we shivered in our hoodies and bought thick socks at the market to wear at night.  We discovered that the grass really is greener in Arusha.

Of course, the bulk of every day, from 8:30 till 4, was spent on things like the seven noun classes of Swahili, and if you don’t know what a noun class is, then you can thank your lucky stars that English only has one.  Our heads worked hard and words words words sorted themselves into slots in our brains with labels like “causitive,” “stative,” and “passive.”

that gaggle of kids with their teachers
the kids’ Swahili classrooms

It was hard mental work, and we were exhausted many days.  But we were in such a beautiful place.  And we were with beautiful friends who are like family, and we ate meals together and the conversations were as nourishing as the food.  We walked the half hour to and from school every day, through corn fields and over streams and across a pasture of purple flowers.  The kids spent every afternoon roaring around on scooters and slept every night on a wooden loft, snuggled under blankets in the frigid sixty degree cold.

walking to school 

army ants!  don’t want to mess with those….

at a natural spring–that’s my boy flying high on the rope!

We had a good, good time.  But even though the grass is greener in Arusha, Dar es Salaam is home.  And there is always something sweet about that.

Medina Life, July

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On August 4, 2016

In Other

The biggest news of the month is that Johnny’s adoption was officially finalized on July 27th!  He is pictured here with his faithful social worker, who deserves our heartfelt appreciation.  I doubt we would have a fourth child right now if it was not for him. 

Johnny had no idea why “going to court” was such a big deal, since he had already decided that he wanted to stay with us, so as far as he was concerned, it was already a done deal.  Instead, his biggest accomplishment was completing his first 100 piece puzzle all by himself.  I know, I know, we need to find some non-princess puzzles.  

Since everyone was out of school this month (except for Gil, who was still preparing and teaching some training sessions), the three older siblings decided that Johnny needed some pre-school.  So they created an entire curriculum, complete with recess, ICT (computer class), report cards, and a very detailed teaching schedule.  Poor Johnny didn’t know what hit him.  
We had some excitement when a friend, who is a student in our program, asked us to take his wife to the hospital when she went into labor.  The call came on a Sunday morning, just as we were leaving for church, so we picked them up, dropped them off at the hospital, and went to church.  The baby was born at 1:30 pm, and then we got the call that mama and baby would be discharged at 4:00 pm.  Ummm….okay!  Our kids got the crazy (but awesome!) experience of riding in the car with a woman in labor, and then taking her back home with the baby only six hours later. 
Just in case this all seems a bit too idyllic, know that there was also a lot of this going on this month.
Spending time with one of our favorite-ever families, who go back as far as 2002 and our first term in Tanzania.
Spending time with the “Moja Mission” team who have an incredible ministry to Tanzanian teenagers, and also all happen to be studying in our program.
My latest post over at A Life Overseas is about the balancing act of educating kids overseas.  If MK education is a part of your life, or you know someone who would benefit from this discussion, please head them over to this post!  

As of August 1st, our whole family is now ten hours away from home, at a Swahili language school.  We are here for three weeks, all of us working intensely to improve our Swahili skills.  Since we’re gone from 8 till 5 every day, and have homework on top of that, my posts will be sparse this month.  That is, unless you want lessons on conjugating Swahili verbs….since that’s pretty much all that’s on my mind right now.  But don’t worry….I’ll be back!    

Medina Life, March through June

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On June 22, 2016

In Other

This term in 4th grade, Grace learned about ancient Greece.
Grade 4 on Greek Day
Josiah’s 2nd grade assembly performing “You Make Me Brave”…and we all cried.

These boys….they adore each other!  (Okay, 95% of the time, but that’s pretty good.)
Lily’s first grade class learned about the Masai this term.

Lily competing in the Bible verse celebration.
Me at the Haven of Peace Academy Board retreat.  Did I ever tell you I’m on the HOPAC board?  Well, I am.  It takes up a good chunk of time, and it’s really important, but doesn’t exactly generate exciting blog posts.  Or exciting blog pictures, for that matter.  
My little Narnian frozen statue.  Grace was thrilled to be a part of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” last month.
Preparing for the great battle against the White Witch.
Running:  The Medina kids all ran this term!  Grace and Josiah both were on the track team, they both ran the 5K and participated in school track days and an inter-school meet.  Lily ran on sports day, and Johnny joined her for the 1K.  We’ve got runners in this family!

Grace was pretty excited about the water station during the 5K.
Josiah, of course, blew us all away.   He’s got a big ol’ collection of ribbons now.  
Delicia Roberson, the beloved music teacher of all my kids, got married.  She had one of the most fun weddings I’ve ever attended, and it was so special that my girls got to be there too.

The HOPAC community at Delicia’s wedding…we kind of took over!
Tag rugby.  Someone needs to come over here and teach my son how to play football so he can try to be American.  
Sports Day.  Go Green House! 

HOPAC graduation:  I got to be an “auntie” in this girl’s life the last few years.  
Last Thursday, on HOPAC’s last day of school.  
Our awesome teammates (and friends), Mark and Alyssa, just left for a six-month home assignment.  We are on our own in the training program until they get back.  We will sure miss them!

Many thanks to Abi Snyder and Rebecca Laarman, who took a lot of these pictures.  

Medina Life, January through March

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On March 29, 2016

In Other

Lots of dress up days at HOPAC this term.  This one:  Crazy Hair Day.  The Tanners were staying with us that week so Caleb and Imani got in on the craziness as well.
And here we have Sadness and Disgust.
Book week:  Quicksilver, the Owl from Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, and a Masai girl from We All Went On Safari.
When he’s not creating amazing costumes for our children, Gil is teaching in our theological training program.  
One of the best parts of HOPAC is Service Emphasis Week, when the entire school goes out on service projects.  These next few pictures are from Lily’s first grade class playing with the kids at a local pre-school.  

Meanwhile, Johnny started his own long-desired pre-school classes twice a week.  The most important part is the backpack, of course.  
Grace played U11 basketball this term, and her amazing coach is there in the background.
On the day of the final tournament, HOPAC had enough players for two teams.  They both won their brackets, which means they played each other in the final game.  When the two teams started off the game with handshakes, they quickly turned to hugs.  It was all pretty wonderful.
Sweating for Jesus on our church’s sports day.  It just happened to be about 110 degrees that day.  Yes, I did just about die.  Thanks for asking.  
Our friend Grace, who has been through our training program.
Our own Grace, winning the sack race.

Me not winning in musical chairs.

Reuniting with our Lotta, whom we hadn’t seen in about three years.  She was my student in grades 5 & 6, then she was Gil’s student, and she even lived with us one year.  We love her.
Reuniting with our friend Zahir, way back from our first term in Tanzania in 2001.  We hadn’t seen him in about 13 years.   We love him too.
Gil was invited to be the keynote speaker at a retreat over the Easter weekend.  

This conference was for university students, with an organization Americans would know as InterVarsity.  Gil got to teach about 80 university students for 3 days on the book of Habbakuk.
Since the kids were on spring break, we all headed to Morogoro with him (about 4 hours away inland) and enjoyed the slightly cooler weather there.

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