A Stark Realization

When any change takes place in your life, difficulties may arise. I took this picture from our "office" at the end of a very long day. At the time I was feeling frustrated with the language, and feeling kinda homesick. For me, it's easy for my mind to play that game; the, "where would I rather be, what would I rather be doing" game. At the end of my brief internet session, and still feeling unsatisfied, I looked out and saw the sun setting over the mountains. I came to realize that despite all of the frustrations that may arise, we're in a beautiful place, with beautiful people, and should learn appreciate every minute of it.

swahili is elephant meat

or nyama ya tembo ni kiswahili. this is a local saying we heard yesterday, and i'd say it gives an accurate description of the language. The saying essentially means that the swahili language is huge, or too big to even know what to do with it all. apparently this is the problem one is faced with when butchering an elephant.

just another picture of some of our best buddies

we know its wrong to pick favorites, but Said, 5th from the right and holding a baby, is our favorite. He is always helping out around his house (usually carrying a bucket of water back from the spring, on his head of course), he's a fearless soccer player, there is always a smile on his face, and he's so gentle and caring with little kids, as seen in this picture. I hope my mom doesn't come visit, because i have no doubt that she would kidnap him and cause a scene.

There's only one thing to do after a massive rainstorm...

and that's play in the mud.A few people have mentioned that i tend to look stern in every picture. I think they just don't get that that's me looking cool, not angry, but hopefully this smile is enough to hold them over til the next one comes along. and if it's not, the pasty thigh should be.

this is how we roll

It seems that every car in this part of africa falls into one of two categories:
1) It's a brand new $40,000 land cruiser/land rover owned by the UN, one of the countless christian ministries, or some international charity.
2) It's a beaten up frankenstein of a machine where the only remaining original part is the seat belt, and that's just because it's never been used.

We here at GOSESO are proud to belong to the latter group. As long as our toyota hiace can get us from a to b, we'll use the money where its really needed.
(This picture was taken after a rainstorm, and thus it is a bit misleading. Seen any other day, you would swear our car was painted brown.)

our house

here is our house. in the foreground, on the right side, you can see one of our gazebos. on the left, you can see our mini soccer field, and a small child.

forest economics

this is a paragraph that i found in an old book about gombe national park. i really like it, and its pretty relevant to our re-forestation goals/what we are trying to recreate.

"The economy of the forest is marvelous to contemplate. Its raw material is the same thin soil that supports a meager cassava crop in the crowded valleys beyond the park. Its income is the same sunlight and rainfall. But a forest is an investment, the sun and rain and wind of many seasons stored as roots and trunks and branches. Everything that the forest produces – The leaves and fruit that fall, the rotting branch, the bones of the colobus, the dung of the chimp, the wing of the butterfly – everything is returned to the soil and invested once more in the forest."