Well, it's summer in other parts of the world but it's our cold time here in Tanzania. Still, we can't help but refer to June, July and August as "summer."
So what's up these days for the Wild Hope family?
Val James arrived in early May and has earned the name Val the Valiant Visitor. She is volunteering with us for the "summer" and has proven to be a hard-working, multi-talented relief person for our over-worked Tammy Russell. Val's particular passion is kids and she has stepped in to cover the end of the home school year for the Russell twins and provide a lot of neat extra activities from kick-boxing to sewing class for the twins plus Heather Borden. Taking this major work-load off of Tammy for the final six weeks of the school year freed Tammy to concentrate on many other growing projects.
The development of Wild Hope's property has begun. It may not sound like a lot but we have started the process of fencing the acreage and we're excited to see little trees making a start now that they are protected from goats and cows.
We have a lot of visitors coming and going. Making guest beds and welcoming people into our homes is a weekly thing right now. We are currently 10 at the table in the Borden house and it's fun, (if a little loud and messy.)
We're working to expand the Artisan Project and this means experimenting with new products and doing test runs with new women. It's a pleasure to see traditional Maasai art done so beautifully as we look at ideas for new product lines.
The friendship and support between local pastors in the Matale area of Maasai north of Arusha has been neat to see developing. Peter and some of his close Maasai friends have been instrumental in encouraging this gathering for growth and mutual encouragement.
On the family front our kids are happy that the school year is over and we are all pumped for Skyler Russell who has done a good job on his SAT and is now beginning that whole college application stage of life. The Borden and Russell boys (and Jonny Pollard) are leaving today on a long trek to cover some major ground along the Kenya/Tanzania border. We expect them home on the 4th of July. Those of us who remain behind are preparing for a quick trip to Zanzibar (how fun is that??) to share in the wedding ceremony of Kendra Woods and Jeremy Stephenson. The Woods were our teammates during our years in Kenya and the Stephensons have been good friends to Wild Hope in these first few years here. We delighted to share in this special time.
As I look at these weeks we're in, I'm struck that while we might be piling on the jackets and cranking up the fires, our summer is probably still pretty similar to yours. We have friends and visitors and work and play and days out of school and weddings and trips and barbeques and camp-outs, (though you may not be expecting elephants around your camp!)
Fullness and joy seem to be the order of the day :-)
(Photo by Jesse Borden)
