Greetings from Tanzania's Southern Highlands

Greetings from Iringa, Tanzania, the city on a hill!

Yesterday we arrived in Iringa, a larger “city” in the Mufindi District in which we teach. We had a pleasant bus ride in which we were actually not squished like sardines. Iringa is about 3 hours by bus from Nyololo, the closest bus stop to our home. It was a frightening ride up a winding road in the Daladala (bus) to the town situated in a valley high in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. So far we’ve enjoyed lattes, burgers and panini’s and hot (well warm) showers.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been focused on spending as much time with the people in Bumilayinga as possible. Our village lady friends, have visited our home for tea and banana bread. And we have visited the orphanage for lunch and spending time with the children. Rehema, a Tanzanian who works at the orphanage, has a really sweet spirit, and we are already planning to leave her our Swahili Children’s Bible in order to share with the kids. My tutor, Upendo, continues to try to teach me the language, and on my part, I am trying to speak it more, which helps in my knowledge. On our way to Iringa, we stopped to visit Mama Upendo, in Nyololo. It’s a beautiful thing to see the complete thanks offered, not to us, but to God, for our ability to help Upendo with school fees. Likewise, Zamayoni who is another student who works for us and he has been such a blessing. We call him the bike doctor because he always fixes our bike (and our bikes do break on a weekly occurrence); we also joke that he is our son because there is no one who spends more time at our house besides us. He evens come on Saturdays and Sundays to see if there is work to do or sometimes he comes just to hang out. Anyway, I mention him here because his mother came to us a couple months ago (as you might recall from previous updates) to implore us to let him work for us. Since then his mother has made the couple hour trek from her home to bring us baskets, food, and other things. Every time, she comes her face beams with thankfulness and appreciation of the help we’re giving her son. If we ever doubt why God has brought us here or if our lives here really our making a difference, we just stop and think of Mama Zamayoni and all our misgivings fade away and we thank God. Praise be to God! We are blessed with so much in America, it takes coming to Africa to remind us to have a giving heart. Students and families often bring gifts to us to thank us for our service and help to students. In America, giving a gift is something that we need a special occasion for. How many times have I given a simple gift to a friend just because I wanted them to know I am thankful for them? I think few, if ever. Tanzanians, whether in their home or giving a gift, give what they have. Potatoes, beans, wheat, or baskets. They give all they have to offer. And not for anything in return, just because they want to express thanks.

Students just finished mid-term exams, and also have a week long holiday. We continue to have almost all teacher positions staffed, which is benefiting the students immensely. The Form 2 class will take government administered exams in June will determine their ability to continue to Form 3. Bukimau currently isn’t “registered” which means the students will have to travel to another VST school to take exams. The process of registration involves government officials coming to view the school. Also, they require a ‘laboratory’ to be partly finished, which is now under construction at Bukimau.

At school we have had two recent football (also known as soccer to you Americans) matches against two government schools. The fist we traveled to was about 40 minutes from home by bicycle. That week we had construction workers from VST staying, and they kindly took two loads of students to the match riding in the back of a dump truck. The next game took place at our school, and the day included a netball game (Tanzania’s version of basketball for girls), and a debate. As we have explained, English is the medium of Secondary school in Tanzania. However, Maduma, the visiting school, refused, or was unable to debate in English. It’s a sad reflection of the state of schools here. Our students learn how to debate from the start. We have had two debates with our Pre-form students, in their extremely broken and limited English. Form One and Form Two are also capable of debating in English. However, this nearby government school, which goes up to Form Four, was unable. It’s a rewarding thing to know that for the state of education to change, students simply need to learn English, and at Bukimau, we make sure that they do. J

As we have expectantly approached and passed the three months remaining mark, we are starting to be filled with both joy and sadness. We are looking forward to the next chapter of our lives and to see what God has in store for us. We also will leave precious students and friends behind. Something we keep in mind is that such a young school that Bukimau is, there needs to be many planters before there are harvests. We trust that the Lord uses the seeds we have planted and that the next person in the plan at Bukimau will take their place in the planting, watering, or harvesting process.

• Prayer Requests:
• School registration: construction, water intake, electricity
• Energy and peace in our last 2+ months
• Travel Safety going back to Bumilayinga and home in June
• Continued health
• Quality time and conversations with students including Zamoyoni, Upendo, Stewart, Margret, Sessy, Upendo and all our classes
• Relationships with Rehema and Mama Nevadina

Much love, Emily and Matt

back to reality....

The holiday's are over, the cookies are eaten, and the hot chocolate consumed, its time to get back to reality. For us, that means making the journey back to Tanzania and more specifically, Bumilayinga. We have been blessed by so many this holiday season. We were blessed by the hospitality of all the VST family at Madisi for Christmas. And then we continued to be blessed by the entire Hamelryck family here in Zambia for New Years and this whole week. We've made new friends and partners in ministry in Africa. As Courney D. calls it, the "Hamelryck Resort and Spa" has been just what we needed as our half-way point in our ministry.

We are excited to return to the new school year, meet new students and teachers, and continue building Bukimau Secondary School. Thanks to a sweet group from BEP, we were blessed with the best Christmas present ever, a solar charger! Thanks to this, we also hope to be able to share our knowledge with students and teachers so they can learn to use a computer. Often students and teachers have no experience with computers until they reach University level education.

Tomorrow morning, Friday, we make the journey by train to Mbeya Tanzania, and will arrive there Saturday afternoon. Then Sunday we will continue by bus to Nyololo where we've stored our bicycles. Then we will strap all of our Christmas gifts, gifts from home, and grocery store treasures to the backs of our bicycles and make the ride back to Bumilayinga.

Much love and blessings from Zambia!

Emily and Matt

We made it to civilization!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011!

We are enjoying some MUCH needed rest and relaxation in Kabwe, Zambia, with our fellow family in Christ the Hamelrycks. Even now I’m sitting on the Hamelrycks porch enjoying the sunshine and watching all of them play football (soccer). We have had a simply delightful Christmas season, and feel refreshed and ready to head back to the village and start the second half of our time in Tanzania.

Our Fall has passed extremely quickly, Halloween was spent enjoying a few of our American candy bars that we brought across the world with us. Matt chose a Twix, and I of course, chose a Snickers. We had one day off from school during the Fall, which was National Independence day of Zanzibar. So we taught and taught and taught throughout the autumn months. November came quickly, and as the month progressed, the rains began. The rains began slowly, with just a couple of showers maybe two afternoons a week. By the time we left for the holidays, it was raining consistently every afternoon for several hours. And I’m not talking showers, but torrential downpours.

Our Pre-form classes’ English has progressed immensely. From only being able to say “good morning,” our new students can now have complete conversations in English. We even have been able to read some stories in English with rather good comprehension. The school experience for us has been two-fold. On the one hand, we love the classroom, because the children just want so much to learn English. Students know that education, including English, is their ticket to a better life. We are quick to remind them about the purposes of education. We find ourselves consistently reiterating the importance of education not just to improve their own lives but also to improve the lives for their entire village. And we rejoice when we hear students talk about how they all don’t want to be educated in order to move out of the village and search for financial success elsewhere, but they want education to better themselves, their families, and their village. On the other hand, many things in Tanzanian classrooms are extremely frustrating. As school began winding down, we were faced with several issues. First, we flat out had a severe lack of teachers. From November to January, there was no math, geography, civics, or history teacher. Rather than spreading the classes between other teachers only responsible for one subject, the students simply were not taught. But of course, they continued taking tests on those subjects. Also, there seemed to be a severe lack of teaching from the teachers that were present. It was not uncommon to have all 150 Form 1 students sit without a teacher for several hours, if not all day. The philosophy of teaching here is extremely hands-off. “Teaching” most often consists of giving students a book with notes. I think a lot of the problem is that the teachers really don’t understand English enough to even expound on the notes. I certainly couldn’t explain Physics in Swahili! And we understand that is partly while we are here. This is the cycle that we are trying to break! If the students can learn English well enough to TEACH in English, the domino effect in education could be phenomenal! It is with this problem in mind that VST is in the processing of building a University (It should be finished this year or next). The hope is that once the University is up and running, VST can try and supply their own teachers. These teachers would not only speak English well, but they would also have a greater understanding of VST mission of doing education differently in Africa.

In November, we had a “weekend away” in the near town of Mafinga. So, for our dazzling weekend of romance, we got on our baiskeli’s (Swahili for bicycle), rode the hour and a half to the nearest town with a bus stop, and hopped on a daladala, minibuses, which are the backbone of transportation in rural Tanzania, and took the 40-minute bus ride to Mafinga. We stayed in a guesthouse, (I think we were the only ones in the whole place) with an American toilet, and semi-hot shower, uh trickle. But for us, it was a blessing! We also were able to meet with another one of the American teachers, Marisha, who had become our “text buddy” while in the village.

Thanksgiving came and went with little worth mentioning other than we got POTATOES! We made the greatest (and possible the first) mashed potatoes ever served in Bumilayinga. Now for all of you Americans, that can walk, or drive rather, and buy an enormous sack of potatoes whenever you want, this may not be exciting. But coming from rice, pasta, and ugali as your main dish for two out of three meals a day, it was the greatest meal we had thus far. We also opened a hoarded bag of CRAISINS, in lieu of cranberry sauce. Here's a picture of our Thanksgiving meal!

For our school, we were given the enormous task of typing all of the schools exams. This doesn’t seem like such a difficult task, but you must not forget that we have a serious lack of electricity, which can make typing exams difficult. So, once our computer was dead, a student, graciously rode the hour and a half to Nyololo, the nearest town, sat for four hours while the computer charged, then rode back, in order for the exams to be typed. December 14^th began exam week, four days of monitoring the six classrooms and 12 exams. We also celebrated Matt's birthday, and he killed a chicken all on his own, we have video to prove it!

December 22^nd we made the bike trip to Nyololo, the bus trip to Mafinga, and then another bus trip to Madisi, the main VST School, where we completed our training in September. We weremet by the wonderful Vinton family, Sarah Bickel, Mary Jenkins, and the five other American teachers from the Rukwa region, Tyler, Hannah, Piper, Sara, and Kayla. We had several days of sweet fellowship with the other teachers hearing of their experiences, their students and schools. We watched Elf and several Office episodes together and enjoyed our shared English language. The leaders of VST truly made a wonderful Christmas for us! On the Thursday before Christmas, we all piled in to a van and were given our Christmas “bonus” to be used for Christmas shopping. We went to town and had a wonderful meal together and enjoyed choosing presents for each other. Christmas Eve, we played games, cut down and decorated the tree, made cookies, cinnamon rolls, buckeyes, and chocolate covered pretzels. Christmas morning, we had a large brunch complete with yogurt! We spent the day opening gifts and being together. You know you’re in a remote foreign country when the greatest present opened is a bottle of Heinz Ketchup.

The Day after Christmas, we had a sort of half-way debriefing with Sarah, who previously completed our initial two weeks of training in the village. She asked us to give three emotions that we have felt since being in the village. First off, I admitted to frustration with teachers, lack of teachers, teaching and lack of teaching. Secondly I explained the complete lack of stress that Matt and I feel here. There is a beautiful, simple way of living in a small village. No bills, really no true needs, just sustaining ourselves on what little we have. I can’t say there has ever been anything that I felt I truly needed, that I didn’t have. There some wants, but I feel even less than in America, which doesn’t really make sense! In America, I really need for nothing, but there is always sooooo much that I feel like I NEED, and most certainly WANT. In the village, I know I have what I honestly need and am actually happy with what I have. This is a huge realization and concept difficult to explain. But, I encourage all of my friends and family at home, to evaluate our true NEEDS in America, as I will certainly do when we return. Matt added the third emotion saying, “contentment”. It is a wonderful waking up everyday knowing that your life is making a significant difference in the lives of hundreds of kids. Not, that we in ourselves are anything special, we are two people who feel a unique love for God and others. We are just following the will of God, and He is using us to make an impact.

Going to Madisi, it was our intent, to then travel on to Zambia, to visit a dear family from our own home church! The Hamelryck’s are missionaries in Zambia. However, the best way to travel such a distance is by train. And, of course, the train workers were on strike! So, on December 27^th, we made the bus trip back to Mafinga, and an even longer, squishy 4 hour bus ride (when I get home I’m writing a letter to President Kikwete and telling him to pass a law limiting the number of people allowed on these buses) to Mbeya hoping and praying that the strike was over. This trip was a HUGE blessing because we were able to get train tickets to Zambia on Wednesday the 29^th! We had a whole little room on the train to ourselves, ordered food in our room, basically we were transported back to the 1950’s. We boarded the train on Wednesday at 1pm, and arrived in Kapiri Moshi, Zambia on Thursday, around 2pm. It was an amazingly relaxing way to travel and plenty of room to stretch! Paul Hamelryck picked us up from the train station, and we headed to his new home near the city of Kabwe. We have been blessed to have electricity, a refrigerator, car, shower, real mattress, Christmas tree, and most importantly a beautiful family to relax with. There is always someone to play with and we’ve been eating and partying like kings! It is a wonderful rest from village life! And even being here, we agree that we are excited to return to Bumilayinga as school begins on January 10^th, and teach, and live with our friends there again. On Friday we will return to Tanzania by train, then to the village by bus, then bicycle.

We have been blessed with contentment with our lives in Africa, and are excited to finish our time here and come share it with you all! We have several things we want to ask you to pray for as we embark on this second half of our time here.

• Pray that we can be provided with more teachers for the start of the school year
• We have been told that its possible our headmaster is being relocated, pray that if it happens, we can be supportive and provided with another to step up to the job
• For the other American teachers Kayla, Piper, Hannah, Tyler, and Sara. For their schools, students and village life.
• That our house at the school will finally be finished!
• Safe travel back to Bumilayinga
• That we can continue to build relationships with teachers, villagers, and especially our students. It has been a struggle for us on how to share the gospel with our students who have only been studying English for a few months. We are often reminded of the much-used (though impossible to over-use) saying of Francis of Asisi, “Speak the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words.”

We love and miss you all, we will remain in Zambia until Friday, email us and let us know how life is in good old America! Many Blessings!

In Christ,

Emily and Matt Sroka

Everything You EVER Wanted To Know About Life In Tanzania

Everything you ever wanted to know about life in Tanzania!
WARNING: Do not attempt to read in one sitting.


Greetings from Bumilayinga!
We are doing well. Africa, especially Tanzania, is a suprisingly
delightful place to live. If all of you could pick up and move here,
I would highly reccomend it!
We live daily pretty much as normal Tanznanians would. Essential we
eat, sleep, and drink like Tanznians. Life of a teacher is sweet.
Each month a teacher recieves a salary and we make the same. For a
University educated teacher the salary is 205,000 schilings! So we
each make roughly 150.00 dollars a month. Yes, we live on 150.00
dollars a month and have a small fortune left over every month! So it
seems that all the teachers here should be rolling in the dough
because even with our excess spending (we eat rice as opposed to the
cheaper alternative of ugali; we are constantly buying lots of fruit a
luxury to the average person, we have hired four students to work for
us and we splurge and eat spaghetti once a week!) we are incapable of
spending our monthly salary in a month. However, most teachers are
either saving for college, or putting their siblings through school,
or sending the majority of their money to help support their family.
Money is interesting because you can live off so little here, and yet
a bag of pasta cost 2500 shillings, we have bought a bike (95,000
shillings) for half of a teacher's monthly salary. It seemed like a
fortune to us yet it has become somewhat of a necessity. Half a
month's salary for a mode of transportation isn't a bad deal. We hope
to buy another bike when we receive our next salary.
So, each morning, during the week, we either wake up at 5:45am
(inorder to make tea or coffee) or at 6:40am. (in order to run out the
door for school.) To start a fire, we either use already hot coals
and add new to it, or use kerosene and a match. Getting the fire
going and hot can be simple, if there is the perfect amount of wind.
Otherwise, you have to fan and fan and fan. (I'll admit Matt does most
of the fanning) It takes about a half hour to get it going if we're
lucky. Then boiling water takes time. Then we have tea! Typically,
people don't eat until 10:30am, tea time, but our home is too far to
leave school and start a fire.
We leave for school about 7:00am, it takes an entire 20 minutes to
walk there, longer if we don't push it. The students assemble at 7:30,
have announcements, and sing their school song and the Africa/Tanzania
National Anthem. Class begins between 7:45 and 8 depending on
assembly. Now, we are entirely responsible for two classes. Preform,
is an intensive English course for thes wanting to start Form 1 in
January. As you probably know, secondary school here is supposed to
be taught entirely in Englsih. We have a total of 60 kids in the two
sections of Preform. There is a great dispartiy in their English
knowledge, so that is a huge challenge. It depends on the Primary
school they attended. They are also supposed to learn basic English
there, but most don't. The curriculum designed by VST is fun and easy
to teach. It is based on the English syllabus from Tanzanian Primary
school. however, we teach many songs and games that the kids LOVE.
Simon Says, the Hokey Pokey, Mother May I, and all the Bible songs
you've ever learned.
The students are anywhere from 12-20 years old, but they all get in to
it. I should mention, in Tanzania, if you are not "chosen" to go to a
Government secondary school, based upon grades, you have no options
except to pay for a private school. They can be millions of shillings.
VST charges 40,000 schillings if you come from that village. (for a
boy) There are discounts for girls. It is less than half of what a
governent school charges. So, many of the students are older, due to
them starting late, because now they have a school they can afford.
So, we teach until 10:20 and then there is a 20 minute break. Women
from the village, and some students, come and sell mandazi, or fried
bread. Sometimes they have sambusa, samosas I think? They are both
delish and are 50-100 shillings. That usually holds us over until we
get home from school, although sometimes we bring peanuts or bananas.
Then we teach again until 2:30. The students assemble again and then
may go home. We walk as fast as possible home to eat! We are starved
in the afternoon. At home we normally have left over rice, with
vegetables, or Old Bay, bread, bananas, whatever.
At 4:30 the students have to go back to school. They do work, like
carry bricks, water, sweep and whatever else needs to be done. At our
home, we have three lovely girls that come around 4:30. They are
excused from school work to come helps us. Two of them, Beatrice and
Atu come to help with household things. Atu normally does dishes,
gets water, washes clothes, and anything else she can get her hands
on. She has a sweet personality, soft, not so good with English but
works without being asked. She just does whatever she sees that needs
doing.
Beatrice looks like a swimmer, I think. Skinny but solid. She is
energetic (slightly ADD) and can light up a room when she is
comfortable. She took some time to warm up, but now she is fun to
have around. She can cook almost anything. She makes bread about once
a week for us, and will cook rice and vegetables in the afternoon. We
keep them in "hot pots" and then we dont have to cook dinner. Her
rice is incredible! Much better than we make on our own.
The third girl is Upendo, which means love in Swahili. She helps me
study Swahili, for about an hour each day. She is soft spoken, but
likes to teach. She makes up exercises and quizzes.
All the girls love to play UNO with us. We play in either Swahili or
English. I taught Beatrice how to make banana bread and she thought
it was wonderful, "like cake." They are only used to traditional
white yeast bread. I am excited to celebrate their birthdays, one in
December and two in March. We will try to make cake. For baking, you
have to let the coals burn down very hot, then you take most out of
the bottom, put the bread on, and cover the bread with a lid. Then
you fill the lid with hot coals and keep adding coals to the top to
keep it hot. It is a long process, but there is nothing like fresh
baked bread.
We pay each student 10,000 shillings a month. 5000 for school fees,
and 5000 to them directly. Its hard to put into perspective, 5000 is
more than enough to live on for a monght and yet they probably send
money home to family.
The teachers here are interesting. Already, since we have been here,
we have lost four teachers and gained another 3. Many of them teach
while waiting to be accepted to a University. Two left to go to
different Universities.
School dicipline has been quite a challenge for us. When we arrived,
several of the teachers asked us what we thought of beating students.
We kindly explained that it is not permitted in America, but that
often, a punishment of work might be better. The first week we were
here, two girls were brought in front of assembly and beaten for
engaging in "prostitiution." Not sure exactly the extent of their
actions. They each had to write a letter that was read to the school
with their apologies. Then things quieted down a little. But more
recently, it seems that teachers have been hunting for infractions.
Tardiness, improper uniforms, and not completing assigned work. they
have lined students up several times and beat their hands. It is
difficult to exactly understand the reason that a particular student
is being punished. The language barrier makes it challenging. all of
the teachers I am sure, grew up in schools where they were hit. We
also have to remember that it was the same in America not so long ago.
It is something we are dealing with and thinking about.
After school, in the evening sometimes there is a football match.
Either our team will play another school or the Form 1 students will
play Preform. Recently, we've had two staff vs. student games. Matt
was goalkeeper for both. This is as much soccer I think they will
get him to play. The girls don't play soccer, but netball, similar to
basket ball without the running.
It's been getting dark around 7:30 pm. Pretty sunsets and lots of
stars. We brought a star map for this hemisphere, but havent used it
a whole lot. But we will. In the evening Matt and I usually play a
game or read. Our Kindle has been wonderful. I loaded a lot of books
before we came. We are trading it off between the two of us.
Two students, Merisia and Piusi live near us. Their family owns a
store that we go to often. We charge our phone, kindle and ipods at
their shop. They have solar power. It wasnt strong enough for the
computer, but no problem. Sometimes the students come over and
"study" English at our house in the evening. Piusi has been helpful in
maintaining our bike.
So, dinner. I cannot lie. Our food experience in Africa has been
incredible! Not only have we managed variety, but we really enjoy
cooking and eating all the food we've had. Typically we either make
rice, or Beatrice has already made it for us. Then we cook a
vegatable to go with it. Onions, tomatoes, and garlic are always
available. Alot of times we get greens, like collard greens I guess?
We'll cook them with tomatoes and onions. We both really like greens
and cabbage too. Recently we went to a nearby town, Nyololo, and
found green peppers, coconut, mangoes, carrots, potatoes, and lemons.
Last Friday we had a movie night. We watched Lois and Clark and had
soda and ate pasta! I almost forgot! A few weeks ago we had avacados.
We made quacamole and the best homemade burritos ever. These were like
Chipolte style burritos. They were delish.
Its really awesome to know exactly what is in everything you put in
your mouth. Its all natrual and everythings pretty healthy. Of
course, we have our stock of granola bars, candy bars, and peanut
butter. (Gigi, the root beer candy really hits the spot some days.)
(Dad, the spices you bought us are a lifesaver!)
The time is going very fast. It is hard to believe that its already
November. School goes until sometime in early December we think.
There is roughly a month long break. Part of the time we will go back
to Madisi and the other half we'd like to visit Zambia.
Anyway, we've written a book, and could write several more, but that
should give you a good idea of what life is like. I think that Matt
was made to live in Africa. Its a wonderful thing to see him love
this place. Here, he has the gift oof talking to people, not
necessarily his gift in America. I on the otherhand, am pleasantly
suprised how good it is to live here. I hadn't expected to really
like it. I was more under the impression that I could do anything for
a year. We are blessed to have this opportunity and blessed to fit so
well here.
We love you all and miss you so much. We both feel that we could live
here forever if we could only bring our friends and family with us.
It is a sacrifice to be away from your arms and words, but a sacrifice
necessary for the work here in Bumilayinga.
We love you,
Emily and Matt

September 19 Update

Hello Friends and Family,

Good news! We have survived (though barely) training! Today, Sunday we had a church service with the other missionaries here at Madisi Secondary School. We also found out where each of us will be moving. We have been placed at Bukimau Secondary School, which is in the same region we are currently, Iringa. It doesn’t seem too far from here, but here, everything is far. So, Wednesday, we will leave with two other girls who have also been placed in the Iringa Region, to be dropped at our village. Matt and I will temporarily be placed in a house in the village, which is apparently directly next to the school, until our house is finished being built. We don’t know a whole lot more about the school other than there is currently no electricity. They are in the beginning phase of building the “administrative building” and once that is completed, VST will provide the school with a generator.

(from an e-mail by Matt & Emily)

Living in the village has been difficult, mostly due to lack of sleep for Emily. We have lived, breathed, and eaten as if we actually live the life of our student. We have practiced teaching an English intensive course that we will be responsible for at our school. It is a course designed to equip students to learn basic English skills in order to continue their education, which is supposed to be taught completely in English.

We are thankful to know of all of you praying for us. Pray that God would be opening the hearts of our students we will meet at Bukimau. Pray that our house will be finished quickly, so that we can “settle” in. Pray that if God allows to have access to electricity, that that would also happen quickly. Pray for travel as all of our team spreads out across Tanzania. Most of them have much farther to travel than us.

Much love, Matt and Emily

Greetings From Tanzania

(taken from an e-mail from Matt & Emily)

Hey Everyone! Sorry we have not been able to e-mail sooner; it has been a crazy few days here. We arrived in Dar at 7:30 and made it through the airport with no difficulties (praise God). From there we drove and drove and drove about 16 hours until we reached Mafinga at 2AM! A very long day! Then we drove the next morning to Madisi, in the Iringa region. We arrived in the afternoon and met our student. We went directly that night to begin living with them. So now we have been living in the village for a few days, and life is very difficult (Emily got bit by rat in the middle of the night. Ah!). We are experiencing the food, language, living, and relationships of Tanzania. So we cherish your prayers, and we are already looking forward to the end of training and being sent to our school. Sunday we will meet with the leaders and be told where we are going. Hopefully at that time we can write again. When we are on the way to our school next Wednesday, we may be able to write and give you a better address to send to and what to expect about email. We have not got our phone working yet but if we do we will try and call. It is much colder than we thought as it is the end of “winter” and will get keep getting warmer. We miss and love you all. We will hope to write you again soon, but as you have already seen emailing is going to be very unreliable.

Love and miss you all,

Matt and Emily

And we're off!

Hello again boys and girls,

Emily and I are now just a few hours from embarkation! And as we get ready to board our flight we cannot help but think about all those who have helped make our serving in Tanzania possible. From the many family members and friends who helped us with events like the car washes, yard sale, and us moving from our house, to all those who have given financially, to all those who have and will continue to pray for us. Let me reiterate that our ability to serve would not be made possible without you all. That is why Emily and I both feel strongly that we are not alone in this journey, but we our walking alongside all of you that have and will continue to support us. We will update our blog as often as possible, and as you read it we would ask that you do not read it detached as one reads a novel of some far off place in some far off land. No, we would like you to read our updates as if you were like Bastian reading The Never Ending Story, not just a bystander but playing an intricate part in the story. Follow our blog, pray for us, write us, and together a year from now we will look back at all the things God has accomplished through our (this our includes you!) willingness to serve.

A couple reminders:

Mailing Address:

Village Schools Tanzania

Attention: Matt Sroka

Box 183

Mafinga, Tanzania

Emails: sroka.matt@gmail.com or emilyesroka@gmail.com