Hellos and Goodbyes

A big hello to the most gorgeous baby girl!  Baby Favor is already very popular, but thankfully copes well with all the attention.  Francis and Vicky are amazing parents and she is already growing so fast!  Finally I have a reason to buy cute baby clothes at Memoria.  This girl is going to grow up so loved and cared for.  

Only a week old

Nap time on my knee

Celebrating Baby Favor

The result of some fun Memoria shopping...
one for now, one for when she's bigger

It fits!

Then there are the goodbyes.  Marenka and her youngest son Josua have left for Germany to welcome another little bub!  I'm so excited for her family, but sad that I won't see then again before I leave for Aus.  I love the way they have welcomed me into their family and I will miss family nights!  Thankfully, we are sisters in Christ so will see each other again in the future.

One last time watching Fireman Sam!

Another goodbye has been farwelling Semi as she goes back to Korea.  She came into my class about this time last year and could hardly communicate in English.  Thanks to her bubbly attitude and carefree nature she has done so well!  The class are really missing her funny personality.  They are hopeful she will be back in Tanzania sometime in the future.

Cheesecake for the first time in nearly 2 years!

General ramblings

Once again it's been a while between blog entries...oops! I'm determined to post at least once a month for the rest of the time I'm here, because I know how good it is to be able to look back on memories.

Speaking of looking back, I will be moving back to Australia in June this year.  My original commitment was for two years (until June this year), and I did consider extending a further year for a while.  Leaving here will be heartbreaking as it really has become home.  But God has given me a vision to use education to change the world - at least one small part of the world anyway.  I want to use education to raise up students who are critical thinkers and world changers - leaders filled with compassion who will go on to do great things for God and their country.  Students who do more than learn from books but are truly in touch with their local community and are given the highest standard of education possible.   I want to be able to discuss with an individual student their dreams and aspirations and then teach what they need to know to achieve their absolute potential.  A very fitting quote:

Amen!  Teaching at Hope has been a special part of my journey, but not a perfect fit for someone who wants to change the way education is done.  I am filled with so much love for my students though, and having a cruisy job has allowed me to study which will be great for the future.  So, the best is yet to come!

Enough passionate education talk....what else has been happening? Study has been a bit crazy as I'm doing double the subject load now.  My original finish date was June 2018, but in returning to Aus I want to finish by February 2018 in time for whatever is next.  I have had some crazy weekends smashing out 2000 word essays in a single day (and passing, which is rather miraculous!) Despite the pressure, the content is really thought-provoking and I'm loving the course.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the students in my class (+ me!) are struggling to concentrate/stay awake/not leave sweat marks on everything we touch.  The school is fundraising to get fans in our classrooms, which in total will cost about $2000.  If you want to donate, let me know!!!

Time for some photos. This last month we spent a week ignoring the textbooks and hosted our own Science Fair!  It was so fantastic to see the students go from choosing their experiment, designing and conducting it, then presenting their findings in an interesting way for parents and younger students.  They learnt so much from the process, and were so professional in explaining their projects to others.  Proud teacher moment!

 To finish, here are a few pics of this wonderfully crazy bunch of kids, taken by Sacha when she visited:

Aussie adventures

 It has been soooooo nice having Sacha visit!  We have visited a few cafes, been on a few adventures, and also spent a week doing school.  The kids were so happy to have a visitor, and Sacha even filled in for the art teacher!  One adventure was to Maji Moto, a hot spring about 1.5 hours out of Moshi.  We had to arrange a guide to take us (the road is not great) and Kara and Alyssa joined us too.  I've been before, but it was definitely on my list for a second visit.  Our guide took us a different way than last time, and stopped often to show us the sites.  There are heaps of Baobab trees so it was nice to see them close up....and of course our guide took photos. I'm happy to play tourist for a day :)

Baobab tree with a huge hole

Photo of us in hole...of course!

Kiddies getting a bit curious as to why white people keep hopping in the trees......

 Finally we arrived at Maji Moto!  There are heaps of little fish in the water that eat the dead skin off your feet.  Last time I couldn't stand it, but I've now decided it's quite therapeutic.  I couldn't take any photos, but at one point I had 20 little fish nibbling on each foot.  I'm quite satisfied to know that there are several fish swimming around with little tummies full of Leesa :)  Thankfully, our food was quite a bit more tasty - Chips Mayai, which is an omelette with hot chips in it.  So tasty!

The best place for Chips Mayai

 A beautiful place with beautiful company :) It was sad to say goodbye to Sacha, but not long before it's Tassie time for me anyway.  Who else is up for a Tanzania visit????

Beach fun at Pangani

4:45am is never a nice time to get up...especially if you didn't get to bed until after midnight!  That said, with the hope of a lovely ocean getaway we were all up and ready for the 8 hour drive to Pangani, on the north coast of Tanzania.  I had a spare seat next to me in the van (it sounds like I'm on an airplane!) so snuggled up and read about instructional and transformative leadership.  Yep, assignment writing time :(

I didn't go last year, and this year there were a lot less people - only 3 carloads of kids, tents, and cooking supplies.  Once we arrived I set up my tent and then went in search of the promised wifi (assignment due in 2 days - I had looked at reviews to make sure there was wifi).  Alas "wifi" was about as slow and ineffective as wifi can be...eek.  So, I went next door to a cafe/accommodation place and begged use of their internet.  They said I could come back tomorrow and use it for the day...hooray!

So, my first full day at the beach looked something like this:

2000 word essay in 9 hours straight from start to finish....Praise God that it happened because I usually need so much more time....I really didn't leave this position the whole day.

Did I mention that it was crazy hot? Mid 30's during the day but so humid and then only getting down to high 20's at night.  Thankfully the next day it was time for snorkeling and a trip out to the disappearing island (a sand bar that is submersed when the tide comes in).

looking back at our campsite

ready for some snorkeling!

Beautiful clear water!

Disappearing Island

The last night was even more ridiculously hot so I was up at 5am to go for a dip in the ocean (which is like swimming in warm whale pee), and take pics of the beautiful sunrise.

Perfect time for a swim :)

So that was our fun beach adventure.  Here are some more pics of this beautiful place.  Now to motivate myself to smash out another assignment and get ready for school going back in less than a week!

Love this gal :)