Meeting Our Neighborhood Kids

Today started out as a wonderful cool morning, with two shiny shillings on the ground. We gave them back to their rightful owner, who was happy to have them back. We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes, noodles, and eggs. I don’t know about everybody else but I was ravenous from the last major activity. After breakfast we had a marvelous worship by me, which was about how God is always with you even though you may push Him away. Our driver came to pick us up to take us to Small Steps, the road was really rough today. The ride was extra bumpy and long; but we also saw a lot of the locals heading to church.

When we finally reached Small Steps we parked near the new building which we were planning to work on today. We didn’t want to go to the main house where the girls stay, because we would get caught up playing with them and not get as much work done (they are way more fun). We all piled out of the car and went straight to work. We sandpapered all the rooms and let’s just say it got powdery real fast. Mike even had a nice powder mustache growing half way through. Madi and Elivia were doing squats and other exercises while they worked. After making all the walls nice and smooth we wiped them off, to get ready for the painting fun tomorrow.

We gathered up all our supplies and headed to the main house to have a nice lunch made by Mama Josephine, the house mom. When we walked in all the girls were eating and staring at us again, it was really funny. So we gave them hello hugs and they went back to eating. Happy had food stored in her mouth like a little chipmunk, it was really cute. When we all finished our meals we played with the girls. They really are warmed up to us now, especially baby Dori. After sitting and having the girls do flips in our laps and jumps on us, we decided to do leg lifts with the girls sitting on our legs. Let’s just say some can do leg lifts better than others.

It was almost two o’clock and we were expecting company from the local children, so we headed out to the front gate to meet the kids. It was a big turnout we had over a 100 kids, it’s amazing how word can spread without technology or signs or anything. We had just decided on Friday afternoon that we would invite kids for Sunday and Juma “put the word out.” We had fun playing soccer, singing, and playing games. The soccer game outside was too rough for the little kids so we brought them inside. We sang fun songs that made them laugh and smile. It feels really nice when you can bring smiles to other people’s faces. Then we asked the kids to show us some Swahili games, it was hard to follow but we caught on. We ended the day with a game of Red Light - Green Light, snacks, and lollipops. I think the kids had a really fun time! They left with smiling faces and lollipops in their hands. When they left we played with our girls for a little, mainly just helping them open their snacks. Then we sat outside and waited for the driver to come pick us up. We said goodbye to the girls, it was cute when we drove off and you could hear little voices saying “bye bye”. The ride back wasn’t as bumpy and long but it was smelly, I don’t know what that was but it was BAD.

When we got to the hotel we had an hour and a half to take showers and relax. That was the best hour and a half of my life. When the time ran out we met to have worship it was really good and a lot of trading thoughts. After worship we headed down to dinner which we were surprised to see a buffet and other tourist tonight. Dinner was excellent as usual; even better was we had a music and acrobatic show. Some of the stuff the acrobats did was amazing to see, I wish I had gotten it on video. After dinner we decided to have a nice game of uno which lasted a long time, we have pro uno players out here. After the second round of uno we started heading back to our rooms to write in our journals, go to bed and hopefully get some sleep. Today was great but I think tomorrow will be wonderful. God is with us and keeping a good eye on us. Shout out to my mom and dad, I love you. 

This is Tai over and out from Tanzania.