The Well Project in Magara

This week we went to a small village called Magara where we helped drill and build a well for the community. This well will provide clean water to over 1,000 people! 

When we first arrived in the village, we passed through a small river where many people were collecting their water for the day. I also saw people doing laundry with the water, walking their animals through it, bathing, drinking from it, etc. The well that we built will be public and available to all of these people! What an amazing experience to be involved in something so far-reaching.

This is the small river they came to for their water source.

These beautiful layered waterfalls lead into the river.

This drill was invented by some BYU Engineers. It requires lots of teamwork!

We got good and muddy!

It was a lot of fun!

We left our hand print in Africa!

What an exciting thing to be involved in!

THANK YOU FOR THE BOOKS!!!!

I am so grateful for each of you that donated the wonderful children's books to these adorable little girls. I have the best family and friends in the world! 

The moment we delivered the books was priceless. I have never seen children be so excited to receive a suitcase full of books! It made me really reflect on what is truly important. Thank you so much for helping these young orphans. These books will continue to help empower, educate, encourage, and teach them. God bless all of you for your efforts! 

 

The girls were so excited, as well as their two teachers.

These little girls pulled book after book out, just fascinated with the pages. They have never had anything like this before!

Thanks Marianne for hauling down the suitcase of your donations!

GLADI

SOFIA

ROSIE

MONICA

REBEKAH

VERONICA

QUEEN

Libby Bailey is also very grateful for each of you! She is the founder of Your Sisters Orphanage. She is originally from Oregon and was a real estate agent, hiking mountains on her free time. She came to Tanzania about five years ago to hike Mount Kilimanjaro. She said she fell in love with the people and the country and felt her new life mission calling her. So, she moved to Tanzania and started this orphanage. Right now she has 7 orphans. She plans to build the orphanage into something much greater, having capacity to take care of and educate 25 girls. Her vision and mission for her organization is inspiring. I admire her dedication and her dreams to help these young orphans have the best possibility at life. Down here in Tanzania, a lot of orphanages are not like this one. Many of them just provide shelter and hardly enough food for the children to merely survive. Libby's vision extends much greater. She is an honest, hardworking woman, who wants to empower these young orphans to contribute to society and reach their full potential. It has been a privilege to be involved with Your Sisters. Thanks again for all your help with these books!

SAFARI

Matt and I went on a safari this weekend to some of the prettiest places on earth! It was breathtaking....

Our Safari took us to Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, and the Ngorogoro Crater.

Last summer was so busy that we never got to camp as a married couple, so this was our first time! And what a way to start it off.....in the Serengeti!

Watching the sunrise in the Serengeti. Life doesn't get much better than this!

Camping on the rim of the Ngorogoro Crater. It was freezing!

Looking down on the Ngorogoro Crater.

Our cook made Spaghetti one night. I was so happy!

Meanwhile, in all these places, we saw hundreds and hundreds of animals. We felt like we were right in the middle of The Lion King! You name the animal, we saw it.....

RHINO

LION

BABOON

ZEBRA

GIRAFFE

MONKEY

OSTRICH

You can't really see it, but CROCODILE.

HYENA

ELEPHANT

WILDEBEEST and WARTHOG

There are so many other animals that we saw, but to upload more pictures of them to this blog with our slow internet modem here in Tanzania would take another FOREVER. But we also saw: HIPPO, CHEETAH, WATER BUFFALO, IMPALA, GAZELLE,  CRANE, STORK, JACKEL, VULTURE, PELICAN, LIZARD, FLAMINGO, VARIOUS LARGE AND SMALL BIRDS, etc. It was an amazing weekend trip!    

 

PRIDE ROCK

Everything was so beautiful!

Our Safari Truck

They drive on the right side of the car on the left side of the road. It is so strange.

I can't believe we are finally here in AFRICA! A dream finally come true!

JUNE 27, 2012

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband today! Celebrating it in AFRICA! I love you champ!

We spent the day teaching first aid to these cute young girls.

Matt loved spending the day in service.

Since Matt is so old, you would think grey was growing in his beard....but it is actually RED! I never saw that coming!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

This week has flown by. Matt and I have been super busy with many projects. Matt will be mainly volunteering in hospitals/clinics, leading an eye camp for the Albino Peacemakers Group, teaching first aid, and being involved in other health related projects. I will be volunteering with a couple different orphanages - Your Sisters and Cradle of Love, involved with street children at the Shilom Center, and helping Matt with his health projects and eye camp. We are also involved in construction and well projects with our whole team.

This was a building of dung and mud for the caretakers of the orphans at YOUR SISTERS to cook. However, it was very old and there were snakes coming up from the floor scaring the girls. So we helped tear it down to build a nicer place for them.

This is after all the walls came down. We got good and dirty this day!

These African men used their bare hands to help us.

The 7 Orphans at YOUR SISTERS.

Behind me in this picture, you can see what's called a "dala dala." This is Tanzania's mode of public transportation, stuffing 30 people in at a time. We ride in these vans a lot, and they are always packed to the rafters!

This is QUEEN. She is an orphan.

This is VERONICA. She is also an orphan. She is a bundle of energy!

This museum sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the poverty of Arusha.

We love the culture here! It is a lot like what we have experienced in South and Central America....However, there still is a different feeling in the air. I can't explain it. All I know is that my heart feels something that it hasn't felt before. Something is calling me....