Coffee Tour!

This past weekend, Marc and I were able to get-away for a few nights.  Back in November, a local airline, FastJet, had a big sale. I was able to buy two round trip tickets for us to Moshi, Tanzania for $40. Our kids got to enjoy staying with two different families while we were away - they had so much fun - I'm not sure they missed us at all!

While we were in Moshi, we visited the Union Cafe (a few times!),  Milans Indian restaurant, the YWCA to swim for an afternoon, the Mountain Inn for another great (and super cheap!) Indian meal, Shah Industries (local leather manufacturer that employs those with disabilities), stopped by some local shops and took more taxis in a weekend than probably my whole life combined.  

Walking through the village. It was beautiful and peaceful. 

Our favorite activity, however, was a coffee tour that we took on Sunday morning that our hostel arranged for us.

This was the home we were able to visit. 

We ate a quick breakfast at the hostel and got picked up in a taxi at 9am. We travelled about 45 minutes towards Mt. Kilimanjaro. We could feel our ears pop and the temps drop as we climbed the hills. We turned off the paved road onto a dirt road which we followed another 15  minutes or so, our guide leaning out the window and greeting a lot of the people who we passed walking on the road.

We finally pulled up to a bright green house with a large tent outside of it. It seemed out of place in the peaceful and simple village we had just passed through. We discovered it was built by a family in Dar Es Salaam and given to use by this particular coffee union/co-op. We sat in plastic chairs under the large tent, drinking weak coffee and listening to Peter, one of the Tanzanian men involved in the co-op . He shared with us different facts and figures - the climate for growing coffee, what happens when the coffee leaves the farm, where the coffee is processed and sold and about the local farms like where we were to visit.

Her chicken coop. On the mat next to it is mazie/corn
that she is drying out in order to grind and turn into Ugali..

After Peter, we were handed off to Denis, a Babu (grandfather) who then took us on the actual tour. We began by walking back down through the village, greeting people as we went.                                                                                           We arrived at the home of one of the farmers. Whenever they do a coffee tour, they rotate between the farmers homes, so they all get an opportunity to host. I'm not sure we ever learned the name of the woman who hosted us - she was very quiet - I'm not sure I heard her speak at all while we were there. She let us look around her garden/yards where she kept a cow, a few goats and chicken. 

Why, hello cow. 

The goats. 

Looking at the back of the house. A traditional home, made out of sticks and mud with a tin roof.
Dirt floor throughout. There was a door on the bedroom, but no doors anywhere else. You can see
in the top right corner of the pic a brick structure. This is a home being built for this women.
Here, you build as you have money, so I'm sure this has been in process for quite some time. There were
plants overgrown all over it, as if it hadn't been worked on for a while. 

Inside the house. 

Babu began by showing  us a coffee plant being grown in a small plastic bag. They start their plants like this until they are about 9 months old, when you transplant them into the ground. At month seven, you're supposed to dig a hole 2 feet by 2 feet and leave it for one month. At month eight, you fill the hole with manure/dirt and put a stick in the middle of it, to mark the place for the seedling. At month nine, you transplant.

Babu (Denis) showing us a young coffee plant.

We learned that farmers plant banana trees among the coffee plant for shade/protection and also because banana trees retain a lot of water, so during the drier seasons, the coffee plants can get water from the banana trees. 

Here you can see the banana trees and coffee plants together. 

We then walked out to the coffee plantation/farm. They typically end the harvest season in January, so a lot of the coffee plants were picked over, some starting to grow new fruit already. We spent some time checking out the plants, trying to find some of the red fruit - ready for picking. 

Harvesting coffee. 

A branch from a coffee plant. 

Here you can see a coffee plant that is not very healthy.
Babu showed us ways that they deal with insects or disease in their plants. 

What a fun adventure to share together! 

Ready to pick! 

Farmers will often harvest by themselves, or alongside their families. Some farmers have to hire workers as well. Typically, picking a bucket full will earn you 1500-2000 shillings, or between 68 - 90 cents. And this is a fair trade farm.

I asked how many buckets can someone pick in a day. Babu said that women are better pickers, because they have smaller hands to pluck the berries. A good and fast picker can maybe reach 10 buckets a day. A man might only pick 3-5 buckets. So a full days work of picking, if you're really good, can earn you tops of around $9/day. Which, when you compare to the wages of many other Tanzanians, really is a fair wage. I'm not sure what the wages are on a non-fair trade farm. 

Let's pause the coffee tour & let that sink in a minute. 

 When you pay $5 for a cup of coffee in North America, that's more than 1/2 days wage of the exact people who picked the very coffee you are drinking. It's an entire days wage of a not-so-quick-picker. I'm not advocating you give up your Starbucks (though, truthfully, some of you really might need to for many different reasons). I'm advocating for you to buy and drink fair-trade coffee. While I'm dutch, and fulfill the stereotype of being cheap/thrifty, I would rather spend more on wise and ethical purchases than less on non-ethical purchases. Including coffee.  I encourage you to do the same. 

Okay, welcome back to the coffee tour. Let's continue. 

Inside one fruit/berry is typically two coffee beans.
There is a special type of bean, called peaberry, which
only contains one bean and is a slightly different shape.

After picking the coffee, we headed over to the neighboring farm, the only one in the village who has the crank/machine to get the outside fruit off of the beans. You pour the fruit up top, then slowly pour water in as you crank the machine. It spits the beans towards the front, into huge cement 'holding tanks' while the fruit part gets spit out the back.

Babu poured the water while Marc cranked the beans through.  

The outside fruit being spit out the back. 

Beans shoot out the front. 

When the fruit is peeled off, the beans are left extremely slimy and slippery. At this step, the beans are left in the holding tanks in clean water for 24 hours to clean them off. They then get spread out in the sun to dry for about 24 hours. We obviously couldn't wait for our own beans to be washed and dried, so we had to switch over to some previously dried beans.

This is the point where the farmers job is mostly done and the beans are taken into the city to be processed and sold at auction. We, however, got to continue the process to make our own coffee like the villagers would. Here, like many places in Tanzania, however, chai (tea) is consumed more than coffee.

The next step is to use a mortar and pestal to crack the shells off the beans.

Here you see one of the green beans without its shell on it and a few with the shells still on. 

Marc pounding the beans to get the shells off. Again, you can see the drying maize in the background. 

Here the shells are off.
You use this woven plate to toss the beans in the air to get rid of the shells,
much like you do with rice. 

 Once the shells are off, it's time to roast the beans! We were told it is best to use a clay pot, not metal. You have to continually stir the beans with a wooden spoon over the open fire. You can hear the beans 'POP' as the moisture is dried out from them. Marc and I took turns with our host stirring the beans to a medium roast.

A traditional stove - 3 stones. 

Now it's time to grind. The beans go back into the mortar to grind them up.

Finely ground & read to brew!

Marc took three scoops of the finely ground coffee and added it to the boiling water our host had ready for us. She stirred it around very quickly and we strained it into the plastic red carafe. We went back into the house, sat on our little wooden bench, and enjoyed our coffee together.

Not only did Babu share all his knowledge from years of being a coffee farmer, he also shared about life and customs in the village. Marc was able to record some of that, so hopefully that will be a post for another day.

I'm pretty sure Marc and I would say this has been our best Valentines Day yet!

From plant to cup in pictures: 

Young Coffee Plant

Coffee Fruit 

Beans with the shells still on. 

Green beans without the shells. 

Roasted beans 

Ground Coffee 

Brewed Coffee. 

Complete life cycle of coffee - from plant to cup! 

A bit quiet - let's catch up!

It's been months since we've posted anything here. We've been to the States and back again and experience so much in the last several months that it would be impossible to play catch up. So, instead, I'll start with where things are at now.

We're 4 weeks into the school year and 5 weeks into our 3rd year of being here in Tanzania. In some ways we've settled back into 'normal life' easily, although that looks a little different than it has in the past. 

Marc is teaching grades 9 - 12 this year as opposed to both middle and high school. This helps to lighten what was a heavy load, and also frees him for more intentional time with students outside of class.  Isaac is in grade 2 and has joined the primary swim team. He has practice three days a week after school. I've started to give him piano lessons as we were able to get a keyboard from friends who left at the end of last year.  Hope has started preschool again (2 days a week) and just celebrated her 5th birthday. Geneva is now potty trained and joins me for our weekly adventures of driving people places, worship team rehearsals, swahili class, leading assemblies, going to the market and prayer meetings. 

Our roles at church are different as we've come back. For various reasons, we are slowly phasing out of some of our leadership positions within the church. Marc is no longer doing all the tech/design stuff nor on the leadership team. Instead of leading worship every week, I am now in rotation every other. We are still helping with our life group. One of the things we recognized while being 'home' this summer was that our family time was beginning to suffer under the load of our church and school commitments. We may have a 'large capacity' for ministry, but we sometimes find ourselves saying YES to too much and it not being sustainable or healthy for our family in the long run. When we left for the States, we were there. Between that, some theological differences and the need for more Tanzanian leaders to step into leadership roles at the church, we are phasing out of some of our roles. Its not easy, as we love our Pastor and his family and we love our church! We've had some difficult conversations over the past few weeks, but we are at peace about the changes being made and continue to support God's Tribe and pray for the church, here and worldwide, to grow! 

The other challenge we have faced since returning is the recognition that despite our amazing supporters and our various church and small group presentations this summer, our funding is still low. The past two years have been difficult in regards to fundraising, and we've actual incurred a bit of debt just to stay here as some months we had only enough money to cover rent. We don't believe that's God's plan for us, to go into more (any, really!) debt, and we've come to feel that if we are not fully funded by the end of December, we may need to leave Tanzania at the end of this school year.  Our school will need to know in January if we are coming back or if they need to begin recruiting another Bible teacher, thus the timeline. We're trying to be open to the Lord's leading for our family. Would you please pray for the Lord to make his will clear to us as we contemplate and pray about our future? We would love to see huge breakthrough in the area of our finances and be able to testify to God's provision. We want to stay! We also want to follow Jesus if he's showing us a need for us to return to the States, whether for a year to fundraise and then return or for good.  We get that we don't see the big picture. This is just another way we are daily learning to rely on ourselves and our own abilities less and on Him more. We can't just go out and get a part time job delivering pizzas or something to help our own financial state - we're not in control! Please pray for clear direction and for patience as we wait. Our latest Prayer Letter will be going out later today which lays this out a bit as well.

So those are the big things going on with us. We feel at home here and are enjoying getting to know some of the new faces around the HOPAC and missionary community. 

Quirks & Oddities

 



We have bars on all our windows & doors for safety. This is one of our windows in the living room/entry way of our new house. First, you can see the loving care that went into painting the room (!!) - we've been scraping paint off the floor since we moved in. Haven't even attempted the windows (and screens) yet. BUT, just take a moment and think about the chore of cleaning your windows on the inside & having to navigate around the bars. Not an easy task!  caption

 

We are so glad to have an actual bath tub for bathing the kids.
Many homes do not have a tub.
 However, the faucet for the tub is directly above the SIDE of the tub,
and just spreads water along the wall.
Eventually it gets into the tub for a bath.  

 

Again, this is common here, but different from the States. We don't have a gas line
in our house, so we just have a gas tank directly next to our stove. Yes, I've run out of
gas before in the middle of cooking. :)



Sink in our dining room. This really isn't an 'oddity' here though.

 

It's common to have a sink in the dining room of your house or
restuarant to wash your hands before and after eating. Espeically
because you're more likely to use your hands to eat here.

One of the nice things about this house is that INCLUEDED were air conditioners in our bedroom
and the living room, and also a water heater. Those
are typically NOT included in the hosue and you
have to buy them separate if you want them.
I love how
they covered up the cords/wires with some folded cardboard...they could've painted the cardboard at least! Ha!

The other piece of folded cardboard to cover cords.

I didn't want to open that cabinet anyways...

Again, blessed to have a water heater, but it's much different that the States.
Here, you have to turn the heater on a while before you want to take
a shower/bath in order for it to heat up. We've gotten quite used to doing this, and
in the hot season this past year we really didn't even use the water heater, but
for 'winter' like right now, it's so nice to have!

Yes, that's the shower/toilet room. No walls/curtain to separate them. You just hope you don't spray
the TP and get it all wet while you're showering. And you have to squeegie
the floor after so there isn't water
left everywhere.

Things you don't hear in Grand Rapids, Michigan...

This week I had a few laughs at things I heard, and said to Marc, "We would've never heard that in Grand Rapids!". So I thought I'd make a blog post out of it - some serious, some funny, some just different, but all things we likely would not have heard back in GR:

* Muslim calls to prayer 5 times a day over a speaker system

* a cow mooing while listening to the sermon at church

*  "Mama Isaac! Mama Isaac! Kucheza! Kucheza!" being yelled by the neighbor kids from the tree they climb so they can see into our yard. This happens daily. "Kucheza"  means "to play". They're asking when they get to come and play. My response is always, "Jumatatu, saa kumi na moja" which means, "Monday at 5 O'clock"

* "Shikamuu" which is the greeting you say to your elders. My house worker (who is 23) says this to me first thing when she sees me each morning. My response is "Marahaba". My kids must say Shikamuu to their elders as well. Greetings here are very, very important. You can spend several minutes greeting eachother before you get to anything else. Even Geneva is expected to "Shikamuu" her elders, even though she cannot talk. They way she does this is by taking her hand and placing it on the top of the elders head. She has learned this and will do it when we tell her, "Geneva, Shikamuu". This makes random people we meet SO happy that we've taught this important greeting to our baby.

* this announcement at the primary chapel:
          Principal: "If you see the monkey, should you chase it?"
          Students: "NO!"
          Principal: "Should you try to pet it?"
          Students: "NO!"
          Principal: "Should you try to corner it?
          Students: "NO!"

* Ceiling fans on constantly in the middle of March. Cause it's hot & humid.

* "Hey Mr. Pickel!" Marc hears this at school. There is another family here who we spend a lot of time with, the Pickels. They also have three children, a boy, a girl (in Isaacs class) and a toddler around Geneva's age. Our families get confused by students quite often. One of Marc's students actually told him that "all the white teachers look alike to me". Ha!

* Lizards that sound like birds at night. I don't know which kind of lizard it is, but we've been told that that's what we're hearing at night, not birds!

* "Mrs. Driesenga". I hear this everyday, and until we moved to Tanzania, I'm not sure anyone called me that! I was just "Gretchen" back in GR. Here, though, I'm in a different role. I'm a coach and a teacher at school, and therefore I am referred to as "Mrs. Driesenga". It's taking some getting used to, actually.

That's all I can think of for now...hope you can 'hear' a bit more of what life looks like for us here in Africa!

7 months in

We've officially lived in Tanzania for 7 months. Thought I would celebrate the occasion with a few lists of '7' for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

7  LOVES:
1. The amazing community we have through HOPAC and God's Tribe
2. Living so close to the ocean
3. Learning a new culture and language
4. Marc and I being able to work & minister together
5. A simpler life and pace of life
6. Fresh, non processed foods, delicious fruit/veg in season
7. Diversity within our community

7 CHALLENGES:
1. The heat
2. Cooking truly from scratch - it takes so much time and energy!
3. Learning a new culture and language
4. Bugs - in the house, in the food, on the dogs, on my kids...
5. Traffic
6. Not knowing how to respond to the poverty & injustice around us
7. Not having family nearby to watch the kids! 

7  THINGS I MISS:
1. Convienence foods/snacks
2. Carpet
3. The amazing family & community we left behind
4. Fall
5. Target/Meijer/D&W (espeically ones with a Starbucks inside!)
6. Andrea's pizza
7. Getting a paycheck & not depending on others generousity for your livelihood

7 THINGS I DO NOT MISS:
1. Snow
2. TV
3. Pressure to be trendy/keep up with the Jones'
4. Working. I still love being a part of ministry, but enjoy not having any obligations!
5. Hosting international students. It was good while it lasted, but great to be just our family for now.
6. Snow. Did I mention that already?
7. Marc working an hour away!

7 THINGS I'VE LEARNED
1. We are meant to be here.
2. I need to learn how to slow down and wait more.
3. God is working on my pride. It's not fun.
4. My kids are more flexible and insightful than I realized.
5. Language learning is both an amazing joy and huge frustation at the same time.
6. Greetings are VERY important here! My kids are learning to respect their elders much more.
7. Most things are just as expensive here, if not MORE expensive.

7 THINGS I FEAR:
1. Something happening to someone I love back home & not being there right away.
2. Being hit or hitting someone/something while driving
3. Not raising enough money for us to continue ministering here
4. Our supporters not seeing the 'fuit' of their giving through our lives and ministry here.
5. The long-term outcome of our kids growing up in a 3rd culture - will they resent us? not fit in whenever we move back?
6. Something happening to one of us & not haivng proper medical care close enough
7. Changing so much that relationships back home are no longer the same

7 QUESTIONS I HAVE:
1. How long will God call us here? 5 years? 10 years? 15? More? Less?
2. How long until I can converse in Swahili?
3. Who will visit us while we're living here?
4. How can God use us in our supporting churches? What does that look like?
5. Will we adopt?
6. What is God's big picture of us being here? Where do I fit in that?
7. Will my kids be fluent in Swahili one day?

7 WAYS TO PRAY FOR US:
1. For language learning
2. For support raising - we have about $14,000 more to go before we're fully funded this year!
3. Marc's role as a Bible teacher and leader in our church
4. My role as worship leader at our church - it's VERY stretching!
5. Ability to say NO, even to good things, when they aren't what God is asking of us at the time.
6. The kids health
7. Safety and protection against the schemes of the enemy

What do we actually DO each week?

I've had a few people ask what our weeks really look like here, so I thought I'd give you a rundown. It might be kind of boring, but will likely give you a feeling of what 'normal' life is here!

Monday:

Marc's weeks are a bit more regular than mine are at this point. He is teaching Bible to grades 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12, plus spending his free time with students around campus building relationships. This is why we came and our biggest ministry avenue right now.

My biggest " job" right now, besides the girls, is learning language and culture. I spend about 9-10 hours a week in actual 'lessons' and then time outside of that watching recordings to refresh my memory. My hope is that putting in all this time now will open up doors for ministry in the future. It's a bit hard to tell people about Jesus when you don't speak the language!

So, into our week...

Drop off Marc and Isaac at school around 7/7:15am. I head to Swahili lessons with the girls from 7:30am - 11:00am.
 Leave the girls with a friend & go to HOPAC to teach Grade 8 Bible at 11:20am

Go pick up the girls & hang out a bit with my friend before heading back to school.

After school (2:15pm), Marc coaches basketball and I coach swimming, so another wonderful staff member watches our kids. We head home just after 4pm and have the neighborhood kids over from about 4:45pm - 5:45pm.

Dinner, baths, reading, prayer and Bible time, bed. Most adults here go to bed between 9 & 9:30pm. I'm still working on being in bed by 11pm, but see the value in an earlier bedtime...this heat really is extra draining!

Tuesday:

Marc has a mens prayer meeting at 5:30am with other guys from our church. He comes home around 7 and we load up to head to school.

Head to Swahili lessons.. Tuesdays lessons are a bit further drive, so we usually don't get done until noon. Then we sometimes stop by the mall if there is anything we need from one of the bigger grocery stores rather than the road side 'dukas' that don't carry everything.

Pick up Marc and Isaac around 2:15pm and head home. Tuesdays are the only day of the week we do not have after school activities. That being said, I have bible study at 4pm and get home around 6:30pm.

Dinner, baths, reading, prayer and Bible time, bed.

Wednesday:

Wednesdays are my day at home. I let Marc take the car in the morning and we have Swahili lessons at my house, so I don't have to pack up the girls and go anywhere, which is nice. We alternate homes the 3 days a week we do Swahili between the 3 of us that have kids at home yet.

We usually wrap up around 11:30am on Wednesdays and I'm home the rest of the day. I typically get worship music together and send out the email for our worship team on Wednesdays. I try to get some guitar practice in as well - I need as much practice as I can get!! Marc has a staff meeting after school and then has bball practice after that, so he doesn't get home until almost 6pm. We quick eat dinner and he's out the door again to a leadership team meeting for church (kind of like elders) until 9:30 or 10pm.

Thursday:

Drop off Marc and Isaac then head home for the morning., I teach Grade 8 Bible again at 12:00pm, so have to do any last minute prep for that. On Thursdays I've been leaving the girls home with our 'dada'. Dada means sister, and it's what we call our houseworker, Elnert.

I come home after teaching and depending on the girls naps, either go pick up Marc and Isaac or have them take a bjaji home after Marc coaches bball.

Thursday nights I have worship rehearsal. I usually leave around 6:30pm and get home around 9:30pm. Marc handles dinner clean up, baths, bedtime by himself.

Friday:

Drop off Marc & Isaac then either run home for about an hour, play on the school playground for an hour or find an errand to do. Our church has a women's prayer group at 9am on Friday, and we always meet close to school. We catch up for a bit, spend a lot of time in prayer and worship and have a few snacks together. From there, I've typically been running some errands - going to the grocery store or whatnot. After school I have swim practice again. After swim practice, the school pool is open for swimming, so we periodically bring all the kids stuff and the whole family swims for about an hour. We usually have the pool to ourselves or maybe one other family. It's great!

Friday nights vary. Some nights we just come home and lay low. Some nights we meet have friends over for games or movies. Every once in a while we might go out to a 'restaurant' called Vernas. She and her husband are from South Africa, but make mexican food & serve it out of their home. :)

Saturday:

Saturdays are different each week. Some weeks we visit the orphanage that our church is partnering with. Some weeks we have leadership training through our church. Some weeks we have nothing and stay at home. Some weeks we head to the ocean and pay $6 for our family to sit poolside at the local resort. Some weeks we invite other people from our church over for a meal to get to know them. As we get to know more people and as Marc gets more involved with the leadership of the church, Saturday afternoons or evenings might become a prime time for discipleship groups to happen. We'll see!

Sunday:

We get to church by 8:30am. I am currently the worship leader, so we get there early to practice for the morning. Marc heads up the greeting team, so he hangs out by the entrance to welcome people as they get there. We are so grateful that a few other families are there early & their kids usually keep an eye on our kids. During church, I am obviously up leading worship and Marc has the responsibility of passing out welcome cards to the visitors, and we both take up the offering. After church we typically head home, though sometimes we visit the local 'fast food' which is anything but fast, but it's good and cheap food when  we don't have the energy to spend an hour cooking when we get home. Sunday afternoons we all rest and usually most of us actually sleep for a bit. It's amazing how much we really need the rest. The added stress and heat of living in Dar certainly takes it's toll on us and we're all exhausted by the time Friday rolls around. Having not many plans on the weekends is such a blessing! Marc did just start meeting up with some others on Sunday nights for Ultimate Frisbee as well, which is a  fun physical and social outlet. I stay home with the girls and Isaac usually goes along and plays with friends.

So there you have it, if you've stuck with me for the whole thing! :)

Life is similar in so many ways to what it was before and completely different at the same time. Feel free to ask questions about anything we're involved in right now! We'd love to answer questions!

 

 

 

 

November Photo Challenge - Our House

When we first decided to move to Africa, some of my initial thoughts were about our housing situation. Where would we live? What would it look like? Would it be small? Would it be in a neighborhood? Would there be a yard? Where will the kids play? It's Africa...and while I knew it wouldn't be a mud/straw hut, I didn't really know what to expect.

Where we live doesn't look ANYTHING like what I anticipated.

It's big - 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms (room for guests!). It has a large yard. It's not really in a neighborhood. There is one house directly next to us, but our property has a wall around it, so it's not the same as what you'd imagine. It's comfortable - there is plenty of room - actually more than enough room. As a family, we love having people over & have great space to do that here.

We are in this furnished house for this year. Then, the family comes back from their home assignment back to Dar & will either a) move right back in and we'll find a new place and have to furnish it or b) move into a different house & obviously take their furnishings.

Either way, we realize that beginning in the New Year, we'll have to slowly start collecting things for our home - everything from couches, beds, table/chairs to mosquito nets, pots & pans, bathroom rugs. We cannot express what a blessing it's been to not have to worry about those things this year, as SO much is already new. We have already begun praying about where God will have us next year & we look forward to seeing how it will all unfold. God has certainly provided for all our needs here and we pray we will be good stewards of his gifts.

Looking from the entry way into the living room. The door at the back goes to the bedrooms/bathrooms. We lock & bolt this door at night to separate the back part of the house from the front part.

Living Room
 

Kitchen. Lots of space in it, though a small single sink (and remember, no dishwasher!)

Dining room. Windows look out onto the front porch, where the big dogs are usually napping.

MORE PICS TO COME! :)