mbagala blast update

Thank you so much for your prayers. I wanted to reflect a bit about the bombing that happened a few weeks ago. As many of you know, the military had a horrible accident. A ammunition storage facility became too old to contain itself and simply exploded in the Mbagala section of Dar. It was a HUGE explosion with pieces of all types of munition traveling in the area.

To add this misfortune, the city had expanded since the site was originally built meaning that the army base was surrounded my homes. Many people lost their entire houses and even some lost their lives. It was a confusing time for everyone until people could figure out what was happening.

Some people at HOPAC came together to give some relief and we collected food, clothes, blankets, etc as a school. On Saturday a group of us took the relief down. It was so amazing to be able to offer assistance. Most of the time you hear about awful things happening, but are too far away to help.

It was awful seeing all the houses bombed. It reminded me of pictures of war zones that I have seen, but this came from their own government negligence. However, so far they were given tents to live in to keep their stuff dry and them a place to sleep that isn't in danger of the roof caving in! No pics...the military that was there keeping the peace was not happy with pics. I didn't get any taken.

Once we got to the church (or what was left of the church) we realized that the information that mzungo's were coming had leaked out! There was just crowds of people hanging around seeing if they could get anything. Most people were awesome to talk to! They were thankful that we had even just come down to visit them! I met a few that spoke good English and was able to have a few conversations. The rest of the time, I tried (not very well) to use my Swahili and make some friendships.

At one point, the kids were just swarming a few of us, so we decided to teach them some songs! It was fun to hear them repeating the words (in English) when they really didn't know what they meant! Hayden was able to translate "My God is so big" into Swahili and we all sang that together. It was a fun time. You never really know what to expect when things like this happen.

There was also a Tanzanian that came to offer entertainment to the crowd. he dressed up like a clown...well in crazy clothes and did dances or tricks. It was so fun, but hard to see from all the people pressing in. At one point he pulled me into the center of the crowd to play a game! I was against a local boy....don't worry they only laughed at me a bit.

please keep this area in prayer! Safety and that the government would be convicted and follow through on their promise to provide new homes for all that got damaged.

Besides that my class is quite busy! We finished our testing and are moving into the last few weeks of class. The crunch is on to cover what they need to know before moving up to (scary) secondary. I have loved working with these kids, they have been working hard to learn this year and I will miss the self motivation that is so prevalent. These students know the value of education and are trying to gain as much knowledge as they can. Its easier for them because they are faced with the discrepancy of those educated and those not. It is huge here!

I'm quite excited to be going home in just a few days for Andrea's wedding! It hit me just recently that she is changing her name and becoming connected to Chet forever!! I will have a new brother in just a one more week. Crazy to think about.

Please pray for my forever plane ride! I hope I can sleep a lot to help pass the 14 hours!!!!