7/31/8

Dear friends-n-family,

We are finally back in our home here in Arusha! After 6 months away it is REALLY good to be back. By way of review, we had gone back to the US to get some much needed rest and to check on July's health. There was concern that her frequent cases of sickness here in Tanzania were a symptom of something serious. Well, after many tests we are happy to say that she is in perfect health, at least outside of TZ. So we have returned in good health hoping that whatever it was that was ailing her has passed.

It was a long trip to get home this time. We left California to Brooklyn for a few days, then on to Patterson. It was great! We got to see some friends at both facilities including Br. Noumair and Br. Stovall from the Gilead Faculty.

While at Patterson we also crossed paths with our good friends, Jamie and Darin Matlock (who are serving in Sierra Leone)

We also had a great weekend with our congregation that we were in during Gilead, New Milford South. It was so good to see them all again.

The Garcias came down from Boston too!

Rory-n-Yoojin were awesome hosts that weekend!

We then took off for two looong flights to get back to Dar es Salaam, TZ. There we stayed at the NEW Branch Office for about a week. It is a beautiful Branch. Here's a 3D render:

(More pics to follow)

Then after a ALL DAY bus ride we arrived in Arusha at our Mhome!

We have had some changes in our home. One brother, a MTS grad who has been here for about 12 years, just moved to his new home in Morogoro. He will be leaving the District work after 3 years to serve as CO. We also have a new couple from the 123rd class, the Santikkos. They are from Finland. They just finished their language course a week ago, so they are now thrown headlong into a full-time Swahili ministry. We are just getting to know them, but so far they are a very nice couple. We also have the CO and his wife, Rick-n-Malin Stringer. They moved here last Sept. And also we have our good friends the Muxlows. So it's a new family in some ways, but we are looking forward to settling and enjoying the new family.

I started this update two weeks ago and am just now getting around to finishing it, sorry. Last week we went with our mates, the Muxlows, to Arusha Safari Park. It is just a 30 min drive from our home, but in reality only 10-15 miles or so as the crow flies. It was a rainy, cloudy day, which turned out nice since the colors of the greenery were excellent.

We had a great (but cold) picnic overlooking the park. We were sitting at about 6,500 ft elevation. Didn't feel much like Africa!

Lot's of baboons on the roads.

Do you see the warthog on the far side of the pond?

There are always plenty of Giraffes.

Not a great picture, but look at how lightly colored he is. And it was odd to him in the midst of the forest as well.

Since we have such a large plot where our KH is located and since our missionary home is going to built there later this year, I thought it was a good idea to play some football (soccer) with some of our kids. So after the ministry and a bit of cleaning at the KH, we had a little fun.

First the cleaning...

Lil' Valerie got to play a bit of soccer with while the big boys worked. ;-)

Then we had our game. They really showed us that we wazungu don't know how to play very well.

Also, recently we started a new territory, this pic is near the bottom of it where July has started two pretty good studies, Just a little hiking after the drive.

A few of our sisters resting before the meeting on Sunday.

And finally a little chameleon doing his best to scare me.

I hope you enjoyed the update and we thank you for taking the time to visit.

Love, Scott-n-July