A "typical" week...

"Typical" is the key word here…there really is no such thing as a typical week because every day is an adventure here and you never really know what to expect! But here is my best description of what my days usually look like…

School starts at 7:30am so we try to get there around 7ish which means that I am usually up around 5:45 in order to get myself awake and ready. Since we don’t have any hot water at our house and it is a little chilly for a cold shower in the morning, I usually boil a pitcher of water for my shower and then take a “bucket bath”.

Monday morning we have a secondary assembly where we have announcements, worship together and have a speaker. The past three years teachers have been assigned an assembly to speak at so I have had the chance to share three times – I think that it is a great chance for students to see that their teachers are real people who struggle and to hear our stories. Every other morning we have a 15 minute homeroom time. I work with the grade 10 class and have been with them for the last 2 years. This year we have been reading some of C.S. Lewis' books together and the students have had some good questions about them. It’s a short time each morning, but it is a nice chance to get to know the students better and to start the day with prayer.

My grade 10 classs - we are dressed up for a student council activity

The rest of my days are filled with classes or other responsibilities. I teach four lessons a week of grade 7 English, one lesson of Art and the rest of the day is spent working with my learning support students who need extra help. I also teach one of the service learning classes and take students out each week to work in a local school teaching English. I do have a few free periods during the week, but they somehow always get filled with some other activity!

Some students in my English class...working hard as usual!

Teaching English at a local school

Some of my girls who like to hang out in my room during lunch...they call themselves "the lunch bunch"

One of the other things that I do at school is working with the student council. We meet every Tuesday as a leadership team and then once a month with the rest of the class representatives. Our time is usually spent planning different activities and thinking of other things that we can do to make HOPAC a better school. It is so much fun to work with these student leaders and to watch them grow as they work together.

The leaders of the student council...all great students

Most days after school we hang around for a while to get things ready for the rest of the week or do other things (except when I was coaching basketball and then I had practice or games most afternoons). We have a prayer meeting on Wednesdays right after school and then usually have staff meetings after this. Tuesdays and Fridays there are after school activities that the students can stay for if they want. I am in charge of the yearbook and I meet with some students to help put it all together. It’s a lot of work, but great when it is all done!

My basketball team...having fun while running around the school

Friday night is youth group and while it always takes a bit to get excited about going out on a Friday night, I love hanging out with the kids. We usually start about 6:15 and we have an hour for small groups. We usually spend a good chunk of time chatting and catching up (even though we have seen each other all week at school!) and then spend some time working through a book and talking. The rest of the kids start to arrive about 7:15ish and we hang out for a while before we start at about 8ish. We usually start with some game and then a discussion time – we have been watching the Nooma videos and discussing them lately. After we are done, the kids just hang out until about 10:30 when I finally head for home and bed!

My small group

Our weekends tend to be spent at home recovering from the long week and relaxing. It’s a good day when we can stay in our pajamas until 10! We usually stay home on Saturdays unless there is something that we need to do in town. Meg has 2 Tanzanian friends, Burest and Asha who come over sometimes and spend the night with us and hang out.

Burest and Asha hanging out in the hammock

On Sunday, Melissa and I usually go to the Vineyard chuch in town – its an English speaking church that is mainly made up of missionaries and ex-pats. It has been a nice church and good chance to worship together with community. Since we are always in town on Sundays, we do our grocery shopping after church before heading back home. My AIM team meets together every Sunday night for fellowship. We rotate the house we are at and who leads it and it is a great time of encouragement and community as a team.

The other thing that we do a lot of here in Dar is sit in traffic. No matter what day, what time or where you are going, there is always traffic some place so we tend to spend a lot of time in the car! Traffic is bad enough when it is dry, but it is much worse when it is raining and everything gets flooded! I enjoy driving here because it is always an adventure!

Don't worry...we were stuck in traffic when we took this picture...I am a great Tanzanian driver!

Driving one day in the rain...the picture does not do justice to the amount of water that it covering the road...it is literally like driving through a lake.

We also spend a lot of time doing things around the house...cathing rats, killing other critters, getting water trucks when we run out of water and any number of other things that happen unexpectedly. It is great to have Gibbie, a young Tanzanian who lives at our house, around because he is like a brother to us and is always there to hang out or help with problems!

Meg checking out the water tanks to see how much water we have...we don't get any city water so we buy all our water by the truck load.

Gibbie helping us once again...yes, there is a rat under the orange bucket...it is dead though!

So there you have it…a glimpse at a “typical” week in my life. Not that anything is typical or normal living in Africa! But that's what I love about it!

Agape Children's Village - Morogoro, Tanzania

I had the privilege of leading a group to Agape (Love) Children’s Village during HOPAC’s Service Emphasis week. This is the second year we have done this and it is a time when the whole secondary school focuses on service and goes out on service projects around Tanzania. It is so much fun to get to know students outside the classroom setting and to see them serve each other and the community. Each group kept a journal of their time and here are some parts of the journal that my students wrote and of course some pictures. Enjoy reading about this amazing experience through the eyes of HOPAC students…

Saturday, March 8
by Ab

We arrived at the orphanage at around 1:30pm. The kids were ecstatic to see us. They were crowded all around us and could not wait to help us with our bags. I was very happy when I got off the bus and saw Elia (a young 6 year old who I remember from last time I came). We all worked together to put up the 3 tents and they looked great!

Ab and Elia, a little boy who has AIDS - he is alway smiling and loved to be held or close to one of us all the time

by Savannah

After devotions, we played with the kids. Some of us did tie-dye, which was really fun. Some of the kids were really good! We also got to make our own shirts, which was really fun too. Meanwhile, some of us played with kids. We did the parachute and the kids really enjoyed it. We spun them up in the parachute, threw balls up with it and Jason caught kids under the parachute which was amazing. Others played catch, football and hula hoops. Some also started playing baseball, but the kids weren’t so interested in that. After dinner, we had devotions with the kids which was cool and interesting. We all introduced ourselves and the kids were quite shy although little Pascali was so outgoing and cute.
At 10pm, an hour later, we had to go to our own tents. We stayed up a little later but when a HUGE spider was seen in the center of the canopy of our tent, we all screamed and went into our little sections and pretty much went to sleep. The guys stayed up for hours longer. At about 1:30am, it started to rain…it was so strong! The part of the tent that Madison and I were in got went and my sleeping bag got damp. Emily and Melissa got up and saved some things left outside.

Doing tie-dye with the kids - it was messy, but the kids love it!

Playing around with the parachute. The kids were always around so we spent a lot of time just hanging out and loving them.

Displaying one of the crafts that they did.

Addendum from Emily

Today was a great day overall! The kids were so excited to have us all there and they remembered some of the students who had been there year before. The kids were so helpful in unpacking the bus and were enthralled with the tents as we put them up. For devotions today, I shared about the sovereignty of God in all areas of our lives and how God brought each of us together on this trip for a reason. I shared the metaphor of weaving and how all the little threads come together to make something beautiful yet each thread is needed and unique. We all got different colors of string and passed them out to each other to make bracelets with all the different colors representing each group member – to show how we all come together to glorify God and make something beautiful. The kids loved doing the tie dye and they were all asking if this was going to be their new Sunday clothes! We all ended up with dye all over us, but it was worth it to see the smiles on the kids faces. While some were helping kids with their shirts, the rest of the group played games with the kids and it was amazing to watch the HOPAC students interact with the kids and to see the smiles and excitement. For devotions, we just introduced ourselves and learned some of the kids names, and the Aloyce shared and the kids sang some songs to us. Then is was time to get ready for bed…
Just as we were packing up for the night we were debating about whether it was going to rain or not and Matthew said “It’s not going to rain tonight” so we took his word and left all the things outside the tents…but lo and behold about 1am it started to trickle rain. Melissa and I looked at each other and finally agreed that we should get up and move some of the things inside the tent. It was just sprinkling when we first got out but was progressively getting harder. We started to move the action packers and things inside the tent and then had to get towels off the fence and move a few other things. Then we noticed that some of the tent windows were open so we went around to both the girls and guys tents to close windows – by this time I am pretty wet. I then noticed that the guys bags and things were all getting soaked outside their tent and that they were not moving very fast to move it. It started pouring so I was waking them all up and trying to get their things inside the tent to keep them dry. When I finally made it back to my tent I was drenched…like I had taken a shower in my clothes…so I had to find dry things and I did not have any more pants so had to put a skirt on. As soon as I was dry and lying back down, the rain suddenly stopped! It was unbelievable! I think God just wanted us to have something interesting story to write in our journal about!

Sunday, March 9

by Ruhi

The weather was lovely, cool with a gentle breeze. We all gathered in the living room and practiced for our church service and it was quite fun. Holding up the puppets made our arm muscles ache, though. When we headed back towards the house the kids were fascinated by the puppets. Then they sang 3 songs for us – 2 in Kiswahili and 1 in English. It was AWESOME seeing them. They sang SO much better than us at school during assembly! We sang songs for them too – Jesus loves me, Our God is so big, and Very Big God-O. I think the kids loved it because they all cheered. When we made our puppets sing songs, the music stopped several times, leaving us to think quickly and sing the songs ourselves. The skit went well too. The kids have A LOT of knowledge from about the Bible! Afterwards, they all sat down to color a picture of Jesus with little children in His arms. We then took the kids outside and did a craft with them – they decorated a cross that said “Jesus Loves you” on it. They all seemed content.

Doing puppets for the kids - I think the Mama's liked them more than the kids...they laughed the whole time!

Craft time again...always a little chaotic

by Madison

When the bus came to the house at 3:30 we all piled into the bus. First, all of us got on and then slowly Miss Wiarda began to pass the children back to us. We were finally off for the waterfall. We all had about 2 kids on our laps. When we arrived at the path, we all climbed off the bus slowly, chose at least one kid to walk with and started down the path. When we reached the water, we began to climb up and over big boulders, passing and carrying kids. Once we found a place to stay for a while, we let the kids play in the water. It was the first time they had gone swimming and it was so fun to watch them. They were so cute, so full of life, splashing and laughing. But soon, their teeth began to chatter, and they climbed out and tried to dry off and we headed to the restaurant. When we arrived at the restaurant we ordered soda for the kids which seemed to be a treat for them and then had to wait quite a while for our chips mayai to arrive.

Squished on the bus...over 50 of us!

On our way to the waterfall...about here I started to wonder what I had gotten us all into...

But here it was all worth it...to see the joy and excitement on the kids faces as they splashed around in the water.

Addendum from Emily

Another great day. The group did amazing with the church service and every one had a different part in it. They sang some songs, did a skit about Jesus and the children with the puppets and then sang some songs with the puppets. The kids really enjoyed coloring the pictures and doing the craft and then we played duck-duck-goose with the kids which they enjoyed. A lunch we finished all the bottled water that we had brought with us so we were kind of stuck for few hours. And yes, we did get a little thirsty but it was only a few hours and then the bus driver brought us some cold water! So don’t listen to them when they say we were dehydrated! I am a good leader…
Melissa shared for devotions today and she talked about serve and how we are called to serve those around us and we thought of different ways that we could serve each other on the team both while we are here and when we are back at school.
The waterfall was great but about half way up it I started wondering what I got us all into! We wanted to do something for the kids that got them out of the orphanage and gave them a new experience. So after packing about 50 of us into the bus we headed about 20 min to this waterfall. Now, I had envisioned a short walk to a cascading waterfall…but as you quickly learn in Africa, nothing is ever as you expect. We started our hike to the “waterfall” and ended up climbing over these huge rocks as we walked up the stream. I was at the end of the group helping some kids so every one else was way ahead of me. I thought for sure someone was going to get hurt…we had little kids and they were like monkeys climbing over the rocks…it was crazy! When we finally made it up the river we came to a pool of water and let the kids swim. They were all a little timid at first, but then they just jumped right in and had a blast. It was so much fun to watch them have fun and to see the joy on their faces. Most of them had never been swimming before but they were like fish in the water and were splashing all around. The long climb over the rocks was well worth it to watch the kids. After a while we headed back to the restaurant and had soda and chips mayai (eggs and French fries). We had to wait so long for the food that when the kids were done I took them all back to the orphanage and came back for the rest of the group. One the way back we got a puncture and had to repair it and I had to stop and stock up on water…I bought 60 liters! I think that the waterfall was my favorite part of the week.


Monday, March 10

by Matthew

The kids went to school at 7am leaving us to do the chores around the complex. We divided up into different groups to do work projects around the house. One group painted a brown section at the bottom of the building, which ended up really wonky but looked ok from a distance. Another group painted two murals in the houses. The murals were of the world in bright colors with the words “Jesus loves you” at the top. They put handprints around the sides with the kids names on them. We left a momento of our stay with one hand that had all our names on it. The last group worked on fixing windows which was a long and tedious job as they had to match screws and rescrew them back into the frame.

Painting a mural - they put hand prints around it with all the kids names on them...it looked great.

Painting the bottom of one of the houses...and having fun doing it!

by Jason

After lunch we started to work again and painted the bottom of the buildings with brown paint and Alex completed the window. Some people got sunburned and some got chemical cleaner in their eyes. During the time of painting the kids came and made visors with different designs. Madison, Lotta, Melissa and Emily wrote on the tie dye shirts and the kids were playing around. I was pretend fighting with one of the kids with a stick and a bat which was great fun.

Showing off his new hat!

Hanging out with the kids. I think we were trying to teach them "duck, duck, goose"

by Lotta

Today we had to do devotions for the kids. First we had to write a skit and practice it and it was really good when we performed it for the kids. We also did puppets for them. We weren’t so good at that, but the fact that we were so bad made it pretty funny. We sang some songs such as “We have a very big God-o” and a few other songs. It was really cool because we were all getting into it without really caring what other people were thinking. It was different than at school because at school we are always concerned about what other people think of us.

Singing and dancing with the kids...so cool.

Addendum by Emily

Most of today was spent doing work projects around the compound. Every one worked very hard (most of the time!!) and we were able to get a lot accomplished. Jimmy shared for devotions and shared a little about his life and how in God sovereignty He plans everything. Nothing out of the ordinary happened today. I loved watching the group do the devotions for the kids. They planned everything themselves – wrote the story, practiced the songs, etc. They read a story in Swahili and had others act it out and then they asked questions of the kids. They also did puppets and sang songs to the kids. I loved watching them sing “Big God-O” because they all go into it and were jumping around and singing. I loved watching their enthusiasm and willingness to sing boldly! Maybe I should have them sing in assembly…


Tuesday March 11

by Alex

Today we painted buildings, worked in the garden and fixed windows. The window work team actually fixed a window but then found that it was not fixed right. There was a 2 inch gap at the top and it didn’t close. So after lunch they will fix it again. The paint team worked on painting the guard tower but they still have a little ways to go. The gardeners hoed and weeded. After lunch they will fertilize and plant seeds in the field. The rest of us did crafts with the kids and gave the kids back their tie-dye shirts – the kids were all so excited to get back the shirts that the had made.

Working in the shamba (garden)

Modeling our new shirts!

Trying to paint the water tower...

by Bernice

We did devotions again tonight and we sang “Big God-O” to the kids and we taught them the song and they really enjoyed it and we so enthusiastic and energetic about it. We also sang “Hakuna Mungu Kama Wewe” in English and Swahili. We all sounded really good even without instruments. The skit we did tonight was David and Goliath. We read the story in Swahili while the rest of the team acted it out. The last song we did was “My God is so Big” and even though we messed it up in Swahili, in the end it turned out really good. After our performance, the kids sang lively songs and for a treat in the end they performed and taught us our favorite song – “deep, deep, deep” which really brought us to life again after a very long, tiring and hot day of hard work. Since it was our last night with the kids, the father of the orphanage spoke some encouraging things and really appreciated our team for coming there and hopes to see us again. When the kids heard we were leaving, they all got very sad and a few of them started to cry and the rest were clinging on to us. The kids had become so attached to us and it was sad to see them cry and feel sad about us leaving.

Addendum from Emily

Another great work day! We continued with some of the same projects and a few started to paint a large water tower as well as working in the shamba (garden). Painting the tower was a hard job because the surface was just cement and was hard to paint with a roller. For devotions, Melissa had each of us write encouraging things about each other as a way to show how our lives have become intertwined. We tried to do another craft with the kids but they were a little too hyper so it did not work very well. We did give all the kids back their t-shirts and they were so excited to have them. We wrote Agape Childrens Village (the name of the orphanage) on the front and we wrote all of their names on the back. It was great give them something that had their name on it and that was theirs. They all put their shirts on and we took a group picture. Most of the kids then took their shirts off and folded them up to keep them nice and clean! Again they all did a great job with the devotions and they taught the kids “Big God-O” and got them all up doing the motions. The kids then taught us the song that they sang to us and we all joined them in singing. The kids were sad to see us leave because they become very attached in the few days that we were there. It was a great time with the kids and I know that we all left changed…

Just loving them...

Wednesday, March 12

We woke up at 7:00am and started to pack up the tents and we were supposed to plant 60 trees in the field next to the orphanage but we had to wait a little for the trees to come. We were going to try to plant as many as we would before we had to leave at 10am. The trees arrived about 9ish and they were about 10 times smaller than the holes that we had to plant them in. Most of the team headed out to plant the trees and ended up planting a few trees in each hole. The rest of the group stayed back and played with the kids who were not in school. When we were done planting we started to pack up the bus and got ready to leave. We all gathered together with the children and family and we prayed and sang together before saying our final goodbyes. Then we climbed onto the bus and headed back to Dar.

Addendum from Emily:

Although it is sad to leave after investing in the lives of the children, we all knew that it was time to go back to Dar (some asked if we could stay longer…). We all had a great week and I am so proud of each of my team members and it is my prayer for each of them that they continue to develop into the men and women that God has called them to be and that their hearts will be molded into servant hearts. Thanks for all of your hard work, good attitudes and many laughs!

My whole team - a great group of kids

All of us together with our tie-dye shirts on