Day 1 - SEW Olympics - Faster

Today was the first day of the Service Emphasis Week for the Sala Sala Kids' Club.  There are numerous teams from HOPAC spread out all over the city and even the country doing other service projects.  We had teams go to Dodoma, Morogorro, etc, etc.  They are visiting nursery schools, doing building projects, and helping set up things here at HOPAC.  You name it, the kids are involved somewhere!

The group we're involved with has 14 HOPAC students and several of the teachers.  It is lead by the Sala Sala Kids' Club Leader, an independent from HOPAC, missionary from England.  They spent several hours on Tuesday and all day Wednesday setting up an Olympic themed fun time for about 60 kids from Sala Sala, the rock quarry area behind the school.

Today's theme was Faster...keep looking and reading and you'll get the idea about what we did today!

Yesterday we got to decorate and hang up a bunch of flags

My team!  We're RED!

The girls, doing a warm up and singing a song

Joseph, Shabani and Baraka...A few of the kids as they were showing up

The Opening Ceremony and Parade

The National Anthem, by none other than our friend, Anissa

Julia and Makenzie leading the warm-up exercises to "The Eye of the Tiger"...hilarious!

Look at those jumps!

Our Memory Verse today, in Kiswahili

1 Corinthians 9:24  "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize!"

The kids reciting the memory verse

Keeping track of the points on the Olympic Track

A Potato and Spoon race

Decorating the team flags

Oh yes, what a mess

Loving the painted hands

Good pose there Makenzie

Some great flags were made

The black team

Finishing up the red flag

Oh yes, we won first prize!  Ten Points!

Red and Black Team Flags

Green Team

Yellow and Blue Teams

The Bible Story and Skit

Working hard, digging for treasure in the hot, hot sun

.

...and we're off to the races!  Look at those girls fly...and with no shoes on.

Some of the boys, they sure can get some height.

Ahhhh, Sissi and Helena!

They just love to have their picture taken...in fact, they kept trying to take the camera from me and I kept saying "subiri, subiri" (can you guess..."wait, wait")

My boys, they were TIRED!

Another race.  We had the 50 meter and the 200 meter.  We ran it for boys and girls, 8-9 and then 10-11 years old.

Wow, she's a runner!

A few more coming in.  We're cheering them on!

The beginning of another race!

You can do it!

Getting their awards at the end!

Sissi helped to put their stickers on and give them their medals

Wrap up...going into a busy week

Thought I would put up a quick blog with some photos before we head into Service Emphasis (SEW) week at HOPAC with the Sala Sala Kids' Club and then the "Walk Through Easter" production that we're helping with for the last day of the term for school.  Looks to be a busy week!

My cutie pie.  She still loves to wear her Easter dress from last year ;)...

Might need my Mom to get her a new one for next year though, she's growing up!  Maybe she can find a clearance sale in a couple of weeks at Kohls?

A top view of her "crown hair"

The road out in front of our house.  You can see the ruts and how uneven it is.  Hoping we can get it fixed after the rains run their course.

My darling Krypto finished up his "Delta" 4th grade book this week and moved into "Epsilon."

Sissi finished up two books this week, her Explode the Code Book A and she moved into Book B and her Rod and Staff books, too.

Sala Sala Kids' Club doing some dancing to a fun song

Sissi helping me to grate tomatoes so that we could make a large pasta dish for dinner.  This way we'll have some leftovers for lunches during the SEW week.

Ladies Luncheon and Fashion Show

Today was the International Baptist Church's Ladies Luncheon and Fashion Show.  What a mouthful, right?!

It was amazing.  I'm so glad I went to share the time with friends, to see some wonderful clothes, hear a timely message, and eat some delicious food.

Before I even left, Sissi was so upset that she wasn't coming with me.  I promised her that next time, we'll make it a "Mommy and Daughter" date and that I would take lots of pictures.  Today though, it was "Mommy's Day Out!"

One of the beautiful Indian dresses

One of the Western styles...day at the beach

Another Western style dress

An African Maasai dress.  It was custom made for this very show!

I liked the bead work on this dress too

An Indian wedding dress!  The beadwork on this was exquisite....very heavy too, I got to hold it later!

One of the shirts I bought, I'm going to take off the sleeves.

I loved this outfit, when I tried it on, the color was perfect (I happen to love purple ;))  It comes with the scarf (laying on the side in the picture) and a pair of pants too.  I'll also be taking off the sleeves (or shortening them) on this top, too.  The embroidery work is just beautiful!  I'll take a picture when I wear it!

Then, we had a guest speaker, Catherine Katala from Njiani!  I loved her message, part of it was taken from 1 Samuel, which again, just happens to be the book of the Bible I'm reading this week.  Thank you Lord for tying in so many threads for me.  I was happy to share the message of God being more concerned about our hearts, the inner self, than the outward appearance (a tie in to the Fashion Show) and the second part of the message, the story of David and Nathan, with my boys when we got home.  So often, they take our rebukes in a bad way, they get sullen, or snippy, or downcast, and I've tried so many times to tell them, "I am correcting you because I love you."  Relating it to the story of Nathan and David and how immediately David took responsibility for his sin with Bathsheba, how he changed, how he asked for forgiveness and repented really hit the mark.  They got it today.  David didn't get sullen or argue with Nathan about his sin, he knew right away that he was in the wrong and moved forward to make amends and do the right thing.

Proverbs 3:11-12 "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in."

I think this might be a memory verse for the week!

The food was really tasty too, lots of treats and tea and food to fill us up.  I'm so thankful that I could go and spend time withe some great lady friends.  (Sigh!)  What a great day!

Field Trip - Mukumbusho

Today, our homeschool co-op, took a field trip to the Mukumbusho Village Museum.  It is "in town" for us; but, when it was built, back in the 60's, I'm quite sure it was on the outskirts of the city.  It is a large plot of land with over 20 different traditional Tanzanian huts and gardens growing, surrounded by multi-level bank buildings and apartment complexes.

We learned quite a bit about many of the different tribes that live here in Tanzania.  There are over 120 different people groups that live here.

Just a few 'fun' facts:
- Many tribes practice(d) polygamy and build separate homes for the junior and senior wife.  In some tribes, the junior wife gets the bigger hut, because she takes care of all the household chores including the cooking.  The senior wife in these tribes gets the smaller hut, so she can relax.  In other tribes it is the opposite.  The senior wife is in charge, so she gets the bigger house.
- Some tribes have the man getting his own hut and all the women and children live in the other hut.  We saw tribes where the children live in their own hut and all the adults live in the second hut.  Oddly enough, we didn't find a single tribe where the women get their own hut and the men live with the children!
- One of the tribes builds a different style of house depending on if they are in war time or peace time.
- One of the tribes builds a hut that is mobile!

We enjoyed seeing many types of plants, we bought greeting cards that are made out of banana tree bark, heard and saw a little bit of traditional African dancing, and ate many of the traditional African foods for lunch.  The kids weren't thrilled with many of the options; but, I hearkened back to their ISMK training this summer...try everything, don't complain, and then we chanted "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit!"  Thanks Chiefs for the great reminder!!!

The path leading up to some of the first huts we visited

The kids, outside of one of the longhouses

Sissi and her friend, Ariana

A place to smelt metals

ahhh yes, the old fashioned way to grind your grain.

Be sure to see my post from a few weeks ago about grinding grain, if you don't understand why this is funny :)

Many of the household items they would use

Krypto likes all things aquatic

Yes, bugs here are big.  That is a child's hand...so you can just imagine.

Some dancing by Ariana, Sissi, and Esther, to the African drummers that were playing.

Some maintenance being done.