It's Tammi!
1/23/07
So we have been here in Mwanza for a little over 2 weeks and we are feeling right at home. I feel like the three of us could not be in safer hands. The three nuns here are such a blessing. I never in a million years thought I would be such good friends with nuns. They are inspiring every day. Michael one day looked at me when we were visiting the nuns in Nairobi and said “you wish you were a nun don’t you”. For a split moment I thought, hey it is like a slumber party all the time. I am sure it can be hard at times however they are always laughing and having a good time and really understand what it means to live in community. I love it! While we have been here we have also met some Franciscan monks from Italy and they are so cool. One is a Mac owner and was so excited to find Michael, they talked for hours about Macs, it was really cute. Michael said that if I became a nun he would become a monk. The nuns here however wanted the baby. Either way we are being humbled by all of our preconceived notions of the Catholic Church.
Speaking of the Catholic Church we have found one that we have been going to for the last three services. The first Sunday was coming around and Sister Jennifer told us that we were free to go to any Church we wanted to go and she began to tell us where some were in the area. We asked where she and sister Denise went and she said they do not go to the same church all the time. We live on some property that was given to Sister Denise by the Diocese so that means that a Church is very close and Sister Jennifer goes to that church most Sundays and Sister Denise goes to a church called St. Francis Xavier. The church is a few minutes away and the service we go to is in English. So from the first time there we felt like it was a very nice community. We have met other Americans in the area that I think will be nice friends. We have also been able to take communion for the first time in five months and it is beautiful. I know what you are all thinking, “I did not think you could take communion in a Catholic church if you were not a Catholic”… however we felt like we completely understood what it meant and that is what was important so we take it with out a second thought. Also the Priest is from America and he is great and we enjoy his sermons very much, many people here have a hard time with his accent however we think he sounds like us, so sometimes I think he is preaching just for us. The music is amazing, I have thought about being home the words to some songs but then I realize it is not he words to the song, it is the sound, and you can’t have that sound anywhere else but here. The music comes from one of the pews, where there is a Tazaninan women who plays an acoustic guitar and sings and her voice is so different and beautiful and then you have a drum and shakers and sometimes a keyboard. It does not sound that impressive however it is and I can’t bottle the sound up for you and that makes me sad. Speaking of singing, the two nuns here at the house come from a community in Nairobi that sings before and after a meal.
Whenever we would go to visit the nuns in Nairobi and we ate with them they would sing and I loved it. So now I have asked the two nuns here if they would sing after the meals and they have and it sounds like angels singing. I have asked them if they were required to sing well before they could become a nun and they just laughed. I love meal times here, everyone works together to prepare the food and to clean up and we all eat at a large table and we pass the food around and we eat and eat and laugh and talk about the day and just enjoy each other and it makes me what to have a big family. Also the food is always a little crazy and you never really know what we are going to eat. Tonight for example we have left over spaghetti, rice, beans, potatoes, green beans, beets, bananas, oranges, cucumber, carrots, and a random mango. So you can see every meal is kind of a buffet of sorts. We call them crazy meals.
So how am I doing you might ask? I am doing very well. We are very excited about the little person that will join us in another 6 mo. I think I am already getting a belly (or it could be the crazy food) however I feel like it is harder to hold in my gut. I have found a very nice Tanzanian Doctor that I will see every month until we leave that seems very nice. I feel ok most of the time except a little tired, but every day has a few hours in it for me to take a nap, so I am very grateful for my naps. All the women here are very excited for us and could not be anymore supportive. Some days it is still hard for Michael and I to really wrap our minds around the idea that we will be a mom and dad but it is getting easier as time goes on. One of our only worries is Malaria, I am not taking any drugs against it and I am just using creams and spays and a net at night however it has rained every day since we have been here and the mosquitoes are crazy bad here. Already Sister Jennifer and Isabella, one of the little girls here, have gotten Malaria and we are just trusting God that if I get it I will be fine and if I don’t then that is more then ok too. Please keep this in your prayers.
I am sure there is much more that I am forgetting to talk about however it will let us have stories for you all when we get home. Love you all.
----
Also, I have been uploading the few pictures we have taken here in Mwanza after about a month of not uploading any pictures. Enjoy them!
So we have been here in Mwanza for a little over 2 weeks and we are feeling right at home. I feel like the three of us could not be in safer hands. The three nuns here are such a blessing. I never in a million years thought I would be such good friends with nuns. They are inspiring every day. Michael one day looked at me when we were visiting the nuns in Nairobi and said “you wish you were a nun don’t you”. For a split moment I thought, hey it is like a slumber party all the time. I am sure it can be hard at times however they are always laughing and having a good time and really understand what it means to live in community. I love it! While we have been here we have also met some Franciscan monks from Italy and they are so cool. One is a Mac owner and was so excited to find Michael, they talked for hours about Macs, it was really cute. Michael said that if I became a nun he would become a monk. The nuns here however wanted the baby. Either way we are being humbled by all of our preconceived notions of the Catholic Church.
Speaking of the Catholic Church we have found one that we have been going to for the last three services. The first Sunday was coming around and Sister Jennifer told us that we were free to go to any Church we wanted to go and she began to tell us where some were in the area. We asked where she and sister Denise went and she said they do not go to the same church all the time. We live on some property that was given to Sister Denise by the Diocese so that means that a Church is very close and Sister Jennifer goes to that church most Sundays and Sister Denise goes to a church called St. Francis Xavier. The church is a few minutes away and the service we go to is in English. So from the first time there we felt like it was a very nice community. We have met other Americans in the area that I think will be nice friends. We have also been able to take communion for the first time in five months and it is beautiful. I know what you are all thinking, “I did not think you could take communion in a Catholic church if you were not a Catholic”… however we felt like we completely understood what it meant and that is what was important so we take it with out a second thought. Also the Priest is from America and he is great and we enjoy his sermons very much, many people here have a hard time with his accent however we think he sounds like us, so sometimes I think he is preaching just for us. The music is amazing, I have thought about being home the words to some songs but then I realize it is not he words to the song, it is the sound, and you can’t have that sound anywhere else but here. The music comes from one of the pews, where there is a Tazaninan women who plays an acoustic guitar and sings and her voice is so different and beautiful and then you have a drum and shakers and sometimes a keyboard. It does not sound that impressive however it is and I can’t bottle the sound up for you and that makes me sad. Speaking of singing, the two nuns here at the house come from a community in Nairobi that sings before and after a meal.
Whenever we would go to visit the nuns in Nairobi and we ate with them they would sing and I loved it. So now I have asked the two nuns here if they would sing after the meals and they have and it sounds like angels singing. I have asked them if they were required to sing well before they could become a nun and they just laughed. I love meal times here, everyone works together to prepare the food and to clean up and we all eat at a large table and we pass the food around and we eat and eat and laugh and talk about the day and just enjoy each other and it makes me what to have a big family. Also the food is always a little crazy and you never really know what we are going to eat. Tonight for example we have left over spaghetti, rice, beans, potatoes, green beans, beets, bananas, oranges, cucumber, carrots, and a random mango. So you can see every meal is kind of a buffet of sorts. We call them crazy meals.
So how am I doing you might ask? I am doing very well. We are very excited about the little person that will join us in another 6 mo. I think I am already getting a belly (or it could be the crazy food) however I feel like it is harder to hold in my gut. I have found a very nice Tanzanian Doctor that I will see every month until we leave that seems very nice. I feel ok most of the time except a little tired, but every day has a few hours in it for me to take a nap, so I am very grateful for my naps. All the women here are very excited for us and could not be anymore supportive. Some days it is still hard for Michael and I to really wrap our minds around the idea that we will be a mom and dad but it is getting easier as time goes on. One of our only worries is Malaria, I am not taking any drugs against it and I am just using creams and spays and a net at night however it has rained every day since we have been here and the mosquitoes are crazy bad here. Already Sister Jennifer and Isabella, one of the little girls here, have gotten Malaria and we are just trusting God that if I get it I will be fine and if I don’t then that is more then ok too. Please keep this in your prayers.
I am sure there is much more that I am forgetting to talk about however it will let us have stories for you all when we get home. Love you all.
----
Also, I have been uploading the few pictures we have taken here in Mwanza after about a month of not uploading any pictures. Enjoy them!
posted by Michael & Tammi at 4:04 AM
1 Comments:
Noticed you have on your Christmas pajama bottoms, Tammi. Lookin'good. Tell us about the two girls. Could we send them anything? Small and light, of course. We love you.
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