Jambo!

Happy Sabbath from Tanzania! I am here, safe and sound. I arrived at Cradle of Love on Thursday evening around 10. It is so wonderful here! I have spent my first few days getting to know how this place works—buying groceries, playing with the babies, showering, and trying to get a little bit of rest. With a time difference of 10 hours I am still quite jet lagged. This morning I woke up at 4:30 and was not able to go back to sleep at all. So, I set out to fill my day full of life here in Tanzania.

It’s been a different sort of experience here. There are 3 German girls volunteering and I really love them but it’s hard to break into the their group with such a language barrier. They speak English pretty well but naturally they want to speak German! I went to sleep last night feeling a twinge of loneliness and longing for all of my WONDERFUL friends back in the states. During my devotions early this morning I prayed to God about it. I continued praying on my walk around the compound. It was such a gorgeous morning. The air was thick and the ground moist from the rain we’d had. I found a plumeria tree with a fallen flower. It was perfect. It had water droplets scattered all over the petals. I picked it up and ohh it smells so good! The flower is such a beautiful and yet simple reminder of God’s presence in my life and desire to LOVE me. Just now, I am filled with such a peace. Rachel, Michele, Chelsea, and Tanzi (and anyone else who has read Captivating) it reminded me of John’s whale and Stasi’s starfish. Do you remember that part of the book?

I wandered back over to the baby home and found the nannies changing the kids’ diapers. I shyly greeted them and in turn was greeted by a friendly little one. She grabbed my hand and took me to one of the play rooms where 10 babies were laying, swinging, and crawling around. I sat down and immediately had three of them around me. It was interesting, the first child that was in my lap definitely felt a sense of ownership. She would push away the others that crawled on me! It’s incredible to me how much these children need LOVE. And not just smiles and love pats but real good one on one “I am fully focused on you and am delighting in you” LOVE. It’s really what we all need but with these babies it’s more evident because they don’t have parents to give it to them.

After coming back to the apartment, eating breakfast, chatting with Matt and my mom I was in a car headed to church! I love driving around because I get to see everything! A lot people ride bikes here and walk. The compound is just off of a main road though so there is a bit of traffic as well. We arrived at church while Sabbath School was wrapping up. We stood outside and waited until they were done to go and sit down. There were so many children there! The Havilah kids go to the same church. Havilah is another orphanage that is here in Usa River. One friendly girl came and sat next to me. Her name is Ruth and she is five years old. I would look down at her periodically to find her staring at me with a shy smile on her face. Eventually she moved her hand closer to mine and started playing with my fingers. My, she was fascinated. She twisted and bent, pulled and squeezed, the works! She even tickled my arms then lifted up my arm and went for my armpit! Now, we were sitting in the second row so at that point I had to put a stop to the major movements but it didn’t stop her from playing with my bracelet and trying to break my fingers. While all of this was going on there were three girls behind us trying to sneak tugs on my hair. I would glance back at them and they would burst into giggles. So adorable! I really enjoyed my first church experience here in Tanzania.

We came back here to our apartment and made quite the Sabbath lunch! We had veggies, rice, and a peanutish sauce. It was pretty good but almost like straight up peanut butter. I’m excited to experiment more with the foods they have here. In a bit we’re going to take a walk with Davona, the director of the baby home. Then I think I’m going to head to Arusha, the bigger town here, to get Tanzanian shillings and maybe pick up some groceries. School and preschool don’t start until the 13th so I have this whole week to try and get a feel for what I’ll be doing! I’m looking forward to it.

I hope you are enjoying this blog. Please comment! And email me to at drjenson@puc.edu. The internet here is pretty good but majorly slow and sometimes it doesn’t load my email page at all. This morning at 4:30 it was super fast though! Please continue to pray for me and the other volunteers here and for this whole organization. Check out their website! It’s cradleoflove.com. There will be more soon!

This blog was written yesterday...the internet hasn't been good enough for me to post it until now! It's Sunday morning. :)