Truck bed.

In america, missionary means poor. In Tanzania, it means rich. It is an identity struggle all missionaries deal with.

We prayed recently for our truck to be an asset to our neighbors and friends. Since then, we have had the opportunity to:

-Haul a few trips of sand from our house (aka sandpit) to a house site being built by one of our old neighbors on a rocky hillside.

-Haul gravel back from this friend's house to ours (men, women, and children hammer away at rocks all day to make gravel).

-Carry five bicycles and their owners home from a leaders meeting (jason did the driving)

-Help a family kicked out of their house by a greedy landlord by moving all their stuff. Including 20 ducks in the backseat.

-note: never move ducks inside your truck. When the truck starts moving, the ducks go crazy, and expel all bodily fluids in some sort of survival mechanism.

-Drive various friends and their families to the hospital. We can get our truck places taxicabs don't go.


It is encouraging, because much of your time spent as a missionary is seemingly unproductive (though sometimes it is productive relationally), and our assets (a car, accessibility to health care, a secure home) often separate us from others. It is nice to see our assets place us in closer community with others.

The God's must be crazy.

So everything is pretty much the same in Mwanza as when we arrived in 2006. The airport got a baggage scanning machine. We got a new ATM machine. And a few new speedbumps.

Well, we are back online, and apparently, things in the rest of the world aren't so static. I went to check people's blogs, and noone has updated since 2006. Internet problems? doubtful. Then I keep hearing something about facebook.

So I signed up, and found out that noone blogs anymore, instead they write on people's walls. OK.

More useful to us is Skype, which I finally successfully downloaded last week. Free international calling will be great!

But, since I am wearing the exact same clothing that I wore in 2005, I am going to stick to the blog thing for a few more years.

read this article for an insight into life here:

Tanzania: It Was Hard Enough, Now Authorities Want Their Carts

fyi: the story refers to a salary of 2000 shillings, which is a little under $2.

feeding giraffes

feeding giraffes
Originally uploaded by lindermans

since we last spoke...

the last post, back in September, was filled with excitement over our new internet connection.

Then it rained. And it seems to now work about one hour a week.

So what have we been up to?



-Josiah has started school. It is a British school, and his classmates are Tanzanians, Indians, and a couple Germans. He is picking up a British accent, and helping translate for some other students that only speak Swahili. He loves school, and dreads weekends.


-We have plane tickets for a Christmas visit to America. It's been about 18 months since we have felt a temperature below 70, but we are looking forward to our trip!

-The Zeanah's came to visit us! They came and blessed us, served us, encouraged us, and reinforced our southern accents.



-our puppy Cade had 10 puppies. Waiting for paternity test results from the neighborhood strays. Elijah carries them by their tails.




-Our team hosted a group from Harding University, mostly pre-health/nursing majors completing a semester in Zambia. It was fun being with some in the village, translating for them as they taught useful health tips such as making your own Oral Rehydration Solution.

-Ramadan came and went. I was sad that we weren't invited to any of the feasts of Eid, the end of Ramadan. But afterwards, when I asked my Muslim friend Rajab about his Eid, he said, "it was good, except that I didn't invite you." He said that he would invite me to the next feast, and since he is also our plumber, there is a good chance that I will see him before then.

-Our family took a vacation... to Shinyanga? While this dusty town has about the vacation appeal of Winslow Arizona, we went to spend some time with a missionary who is working with various ministries related to HIV/Aids and orphans. We stayed in her home with some once-abandoned children, and lended some helping hands for a food distribution. Josiah and Elijah made some new friends, and Charity and I have a new hero.



-We are improving in our Swahili, and Kevin has started studying Kisukuma. By the time we get to America, we will be so confused that we will have forgotten English!

enjoy the pictures!