HAPPY EASTER - Upendo Style

Eric and I hung out at the orphanage on Easter and had a blast! Easter is a huge deal here...they celebrate for 2 whole days and the orphanage was no exception! The sisters slaughtered two pigs for the feast (Eric was lucky enough to witness that process... I thought he might pass out afterward) and they brought out soda and balloons and had a party! The kids all have fancy outfits they get to wear on special occasions and they were decked out! They all looked so cute and they were so proud to show off their formal wear. Instead of playing in the playground all day...the kids and the mamas danced and sang around the courtyard. They were so joyful and so excited to celebrate! This is Poli (below)! He is one of the younger boys and is one of our favorites. He is still learning to walk and talk, so he squeals all the time and walks like a drunk guy! He's hilarious!

This is Sister Rupert, but we call her Sister Sweetness! She is by far the coolest nun I've ever met! She plays tricks on people, is constantly running around like a crazy woman and loves these kids to death! We have become pretty close to her and she's taken us under her wing...teaching us Swahili and inviting us to choir practice! She's even taught us some sewing!

Everyone in their Easter-best clothes! It's hard enough to get kids to stand still for a picture, but for some reason Tanzanians have a hard time looking at the camera!

Eric and I and some of the kids!!! I'm holding Poli and Eric is holiding a kid called Kelvin. Kelvin is constantly peeing his pants, but looks pretty good in this picture. The little girl in front loves playing with Eric and is always striving for his attention! We love it here!! It is like one HUGE giant family!

Kilimanjaro decided to show herself! Since rainy season began, we haven't seen much of Kili...but Easter came and she showed up! Eric and I are constantly amazed at how huge this mountain is. It just towers above everything! It's crazy to look up and see snow and know that Moshi will never experience a snow storm!...Katie

Preaching in Moshi

This past Sunday I had was incredibly blessed with the opportunity to preach at a local church here in Tanzania. I was pretty nervous because I have never had an opportunity like this before.
I was originally supposed to speak to the youth group but on Sunday morning the head pastor asked me if I could tweak my sermon to preach to the entire church for 45 minutes. I was like heck yes I can! It ended up being between 75 and 100 people that I ws speaking to.
One of the reasons it was super fun was that the crowd was really getting into what I was saying. They were lifting their hands, yelling AMEN, and Praise the LORD! It was super encouraging for me while I was up there.


It was so much fun and I am so thankful for this opportunity. Preaching with a translator is sooo much fun too. After about 40-45 minutes I was done but i didnt want to be.Freddy, my translator did an awesome job! Thank you freddy!!

Livin' the Moshi Life

This is where Eric and I are living at the moment. It is a beautiful house and right now, Hannah is turning up all the soil to plant Maize seeds! I love it! The power really likes to go out here, we were without electricity for over 24 hours the other day!!
Freddy brought home a cow's heart the other night to "snack on". I did not find this too appealing, I'd rather look at it and name all of the anatomical structures! Eric, on the other hand, loved the heart. It was enormous! Hannah and Freddy just sprinkle some salt on it and eat it like potato chips. It looks raw, but it's actually boiled...yum!
This is the orphanage we work at!!
Just a little playground amazingness!!!
Me with some of the lovely ladies!!! ...Katie

UPENDO!

The past week we have been at the Upendo orphanage. Here are some of the kids that we have been helping with. They are sooo cute

This little guys name is Brian. He has quickly become my favorite kid. He has the cutest smile from ear to ear with the biggest dimples ever! He is always walking around by himself making weird noises like farm animals. HAHA hes awesome!

This is Lucy. She is hilarious. She is always hanging out with the boys. during eating and sleeping time the boys and girls are supposed to be separated but for some reason she is always with the boys. Eating sleeping bathing and everything. She is way to nice and sweet to be hanging out with them too. They boys are roudy and loud and the girls are all very quiet and nice.

This is Josie she is really quiet and shy. She has a twin sister named Jackie.

I am not sure of this little guys name. Dont let his awesome smile fool you. He is a big cry baby and instigates a lot of the trouble that happens on the play ground. All while being hilarious and really easy to love on!

Our Home in Moshi

Eric and I arrived in Tanzania about 4 days ago and are trying to ease into life here in Africa. We will be living with a married couple, Hannah and Freddy. They have a beautiful home a little outside of the town of Moshi. It takes us about an hour to walk from home into town. They are so nice and Hannah is an amazing cook (African food is delicious). Our yard has banana, mango, passion fruit and pomegranate trees in it. It is a really cool place to live because we get to meet all the locals and see how they are living. Everyone calls us mzungu (white people) and are really excited to talk to us. Our Swahili is coming along, but we still sound really funny speaking it. This is what we see when we step out of our "drive way". It is so beautiful!

From our bedroom window, we can see Mt. Kilaminjaro. It is massive!! The tallest peak is called Kibo and the smaller peak (you can't see it in this picture) is called Mawasi. This picture is actually taken from a farm just down the road, but it's awesome. On our walk to the orphanage, we have one of the best views of the mountain. Yesterday, the bottom half was covered in clouds, but the peak was sticking out. It looked enormous.

This is a "dinner party" at our house the other night. Freddy and Hannah invited some of the guest pastors over to their house for dinner. It was great getting to know everyone. They were hilarious. Their church is really dynamic and has welcomed Eric and I like we've never experienced. Eric has been invited to speak to the youth this Sunday...be praying for that! In this picture, Freddy is standing second from the left in the striped shirt and Hannah is the woman in the yellow t-shirt. We are loving it here!!!...Katie

Dogs are fun

Pan

While we were on the island of Koh Kradan there were a ton of dogs that belonged to the island. No one really owned them but they never went hungry. They were strange though. Very unattached from people. They would not even get excited when we would come near them at first. Not even the slightest wag of the tail.
We named the brown one Pan. He was by far the coolest of them all. He even had a ridge of hair going up his back just like the rhodesian ridgeback i want. This is the one we got to know the best. It took a couple days but he ended up warming up to me and would even give a little wag of the tail when I would approach. He even followed us out into the water when we were going on in the kayak. We tried to put him in but he was having none of it.
The black one was named marbles. He was way cool too. He would just come lay in the shade right next to us and not really pay any attention to us unless we made the first move.

There were other dogs there too. One that we named Edna and one that we named peter. Unfortunately we never had the near arround when they were around. I will be posting more pictures of more dogs later. time is short and internet is expensive here in africa. I will also be putting up some africa stuff soon! so be on the look out!.....eric

FUN PIC

This is one of my favorite photos that I have taken so far. Just thought I would share this with you as we are leaving the islands and heading to Kenya!......Eric