Power Outage

We had a power outage last night that went from 7pm to midnight. Both of our cells phones kept beeping because they needed to be charged. We had candles lit and sat and talked for awhile, but then I got fed up with the mosquitoes and finally went to bed just to be under the net. When I do that Dan always remembers how Max would go to the tent on canoe trips in an effort to get away from the bugs. "He was no dummy." The Tumaini campus was all lit up and they were the only ones with lights so Dan thinks that they have a generator so the kids can study.

Sele, our gardener, came to us last night and asked for an advance in his pay for his room rent - 5,000tsh - equivalent to less than $4. I think that he told us that that covers him for a month! His father is deceased and his mom lives up in Dodoma. Minna, who is the wife of Tommy, who lived here with their two kids said that Maria sometimes asks for advances as well. We usually invite her to eat lunch with us, when she is here. She has three kids, all girls. The oldest just finished Form 4 and passed her recent exam to advance to Form 5, but Maria cannot afford to send her. Her second daughter is in Form 2 and will take an exam upon completion to go on and her third is two years old. So my guess is that the first two are from the same father. She is very sweet and works very hard. We told her yesterday that she only needs to come in three days a week, because with only two people, there is not enough to do. We will pay her the same wage.

Bariki, who has been our friend since our first group trip back in 2007, had a bad incident on the bus recently. He had just finished up his student teaching assignment and they threw him a going away party. He was really well liked from the sounds of things. They gave him money as gifts, then when he was getting off the bus, from that point to the next, someone took his wallet and his jacket as well. He found his wallet later, money was gone but thankfully his ATM card was still there.