Happenings at the Learning Center

Top: Scary faces? Funny faces? Anyway, the faces were one of the last clay projects the kids did in art. Next, we move back into 2D art, with mosaics. I loved seeing how their clay skills have grown.
Middle: Puppies are here! Thanks to two mama dogs on property, we often have a new batch of break time playmates. I enjoy watching the kids' joy.
Bottom: Modern history! We've studied empires, revolutions, trade, and more from 1500-1900 AD. Here, the kids sorted cards that show what themes were important during the 2 sections we've completed, and what's coming in the last section which starts with WWI. I've learned a lot and been impressed by how 9 and 11 year olds can process the complicated events.

Happy Birthday Gati!

One of my favorite walks takes me by the home of these kids and their parents. Sometimes kids along the road call out wazungu (basically it means white person) and/or ask for money. These kids are always a breath of fresh air because they are so friendly and polite, shaking hands and using the appropriate greeting, shikamoo

A while back the middle brother respectfully asked my housemate for a puto. We didn't know what that was, but pantomime showed that he wanted a balloon. Who could resist such a request?!

When my mom came to visit I asked her to bring some puto. As you can see, they were a hit. And, the timing was perfect because it turned out to be the oldest girl's birthday!

Need Coconut? ...Have a Goat?

Shredded coconut. Of course you don't just get that at the grocery store here. It's much more interesting. You buy a coconut at the market, then you smack it a good one... open coconut! Next you get out your goat to grind out the delicious filling. 

Yes, I said goat... that's a direct translation of the device pictured above, a sit-upon kitchen implement with a serrated  blade made specifically for grinding coconut. It's an "mbuzi" in Swahili, which is the word for goat... Looks sort of like a goat, right?

Mom-er-if-ic!

She's a foreign lady! She's an artist in residence! No, she's my mother!

My mom is visiting Musoma for the month, experiencing my house, work, and life here. She's trying out Swahili, eating local foods, and navigating the town solo.

...And yes, she is making me dinner tonight. That's just one of the ways she's been helping out. The kids LOVE to see her work with clay, our current focus in art. It's pretty special to have such an artist to observe and be inspired by.

Boggle Cup Challenge

At a recent missionary potluck I saw this cup... If you're familiar with the game Boggle you'll have an idea of how I strung words together from letters that my eye could connect. How many words can you find?!

Keeping in touch with family far away is important... and I love how we do it creatively (e.g. Skype tattoo or pretzel-making sessions). Latest breaking group activity: Boggle Cup Challenge (via email)!

Lindsay: I wonder what it means that the first word I saw was: brie.

Gabriel: Pie!

Olivia: glib, fief, miel for honey in french and if you read j's backwards. 

Mom (most thorough award): 24 “legitimate” words: brie, nib, tine, brief, tie, jet, pet, rift, fit, net, kin, bin, ken, pen, nifty (if it’s really a “y” and not a “v”), mine, brine, mite, fie, tin, ten, kit, rife, mine. 28 “exotic flow” or foreign words: pie, miel, glib, fief, grin, grim, lien, grief, time, wet, ire, glib, kiln, few, rip, pin, dine, lie, dim, mire, met, fire, lire, lift, met, tire, lei, drift, pine.

Then Olivia raised the ante to writing POEMS with the words!

Michael:

mine brie & miel tin,

dine time!

lift tine...

lift grief, lift ire!

grin, drift, lie... :)

pie.

Ronit (honorary family member), doing haiku:

Mine nifty pet tie

met few glib mite (drift lift rift)

ten pine, ken mine, brine

Sarah:

Ode to an Airplane Dessert

Mine pie, fire met...

dine I, in a jet.

Olivia:

The brie was brief and full of brine.  

Baked in a kiln with fire of pine,

we ate it off of a tin tine

we left our grim and our grief to dine!

 by the dim fire, Sarah played her lire

we felt our mire lift drift and tire.

Fie! rife broke out over the jet pen nib, what a fit! Mine mine mine!

the tie of kin fixed the rift

and it was time to dine dine dine

Window into the Literacy Department

Yes, there is a literal window... but figuratively, here's a look into the literacy department at our SIL office in Musoma. They literacy team has been printing four small books in the Simbiti and Ikoma languages, with upcoming plans for other languages. The small books contain short stories about counting, animals, from the Bible, et cetera. 

Small books are an accessible way for people to start reading in their mother tongue. As they gain fluency they will be able to read bigger books (like Scripture).

Lenten Seder

It started out wishing that there was a time like advent leading up to Easter, where people gather to reflect and anticipate. Then I remembered Lent. I remembered how we gathered for Lenten soup and bread suppers at my church growing up. I thought, "We could to that here in our house."

My lovely housemate, Ronit, agreed and added on something from her background: the messianic Seder... where you go through the Jewish retelling of God redeeming Isreal from Egypt, and look at how that story foreshadowed the redemption Christ brought at Easter.

So we began. Night number one Ronit braided up a slew of Challah (pictured above) and I concocted a couple pots of soup. We took out the couch and threw down the cushions, transforming our living room into a middle eastern haven. Friends came. We reflected on the Cup of Redemption (kadesh=קדש), part one of the Seder. Then we shared soup and bread and good company.

And so we continue, each Friday reflecting on a portion of the Seder and sharing soup, bread, and good company, until the celebration of His resurrection on Easter Sunday.