Another Update

Hello! This is Kara again scrambling to type with my remaining internet time. irst, thanks so much for all of the e-mails you have sent to my yahoo account. I read them at breakfast or on the car ride up to Irente. We love to hear from you.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I didn't even think about sending cell phone pictures until today. Pictures don't even do it justice, but it is a start.

Tomorrow is our last day at Irente and that is about all that I can type about that without getting tears in my eyes. We will all be so sad to say goodbye Tomorrow we are spending the day at the orphanage. Lisa Rook and I are ready to live here. I am not sure the orphanage will be the best way to end this trip. The orphanage might just keep us here.

Today we visited the Rainbow school for special needs children and we also visited the school for the blind. It is important to realize the stigma that is facerd by the blind and special needs children in this country. Also, at the blind school there are 7 albino children. In this country, some believe being albino is associated with witch craft, and often these children are killed. Sometimes, when someone kills an albino person, they are praised, because of the beliefs that are directed at albino people. When a child is blind or has a special need they usually go unwanted and hidden. It is a disgrace to the family.

The Rainbow School and the school for the blind are both transforming lives and beliefs. Parents can now send their children here. They realize their child can live a full life. They realize they have a child worth educating, worth loving and worth something to this society. This parish, Irente, is so much more than a church. It is by no means to say that those two schools go beyond providing education to saving lives. The children are angels. They are loving and spirited and full of joy and life. It has been incredibly eye opening to see the contrast in how special needs children are regarded in the US and how they are regarded here. There are no inhome services for these children and there is nothing once they are adults either. But, Rainbow tries to teach them a skill to learn a trade. In addition to the 26 students, Irente also has 350 children in an outreach program. This mean volunteers go into the villages to children who cannot get to school to educate the children and the families. These schools and the people who work tirelessly there are truly God's work.

I am not sure how much more I will get to update before we are home. Please keep us in your prayers especially on Thursday as we travel 7 hours by car to Arusha. Thank you again so much for your love and prayers.

And Just for fun...

You know you are in Tanzania when...

1.) You wake up in the morning and there is a moth in your bed and rather than screaming you say "oh at least it is not a mosquito."

2.) You fit as many people as you can in a car. A lap is a seat. You discover that the more people the better because the more you are squeezed in the less you bounce around on the roads. FYI--our record is 16

3.) You don't care if your clothes match anymore

4.)When you say you're "doing laundry" what you really mean is you are wiping your clothes with a shout wipe, and you actually feel clean after this.

5.) you hoard toilet paper because you never know when you won't have access to a western toilet.

6.) You count Deet as perfume.

7.) What are clean sheets?

8.)You are way more excited than you ever were before about a clean bath towel.

9.) You marvel at the thought of just being able to turn on the faucet and have clean water run out.

10.) In the morning the first thing you ask is " Do we have electricity?"