Polls and People

It is election day in Tanzania tomorrow. We don’t get involved too much in politics, but we hear things about the current president vs. his opponents. Some things about elections are similar the world over—big promises, big crowds, tension in the air. Some things take different shapes over here, like yesterday, when the currently-in-power CCM party was handing out brand new 1,000 Tanzanian shilling bills to everyone in the village who came and was going to “vote for CCM.” Don’t get too excited—1,000 Tsh is only about 65 cents, but it is still the equivalent of two hours’ wage. An interesting way to get votes!  For us, election day means lying low and waiting for the results that “we will hear unofficially on Monday, and officially, Tuesday,” according to one of our staff.

Time goes by so quickly that I haven’t had time to write about our friend Jacob, who came out for three weeks. He is from Montana and came to visit our off-campus families and do whatever he could to help. We put him to work!

One of our off-campus homes (the incredible family of Martin and David—you can read their stories on the Mavuno website here).

Enjoying the sunset while he sets up solar panels!

“Crazy face” picture that Jacob wisely skipped out on “in case that goes on the blog.” :)

While he was here, we also celebrated Hannah's birthday.  We now have a 14-year-old on the premises!  We celebrated the gift of having Hannah another year.
Launa and Hannah (perhaps not your typical teenage girls) with the sword
that Launa made her for her birthday.

Not too sharp, because they want to duel and don't have proper chain mail. :)