A long, bumpy road I will never forget...

Yesterday, I went with Grace, my friend from the story below, to take pictures of her daughter, Nancy's, school. Well, the journey begin bright and early that morning!!!
I met Grace and her son, Ben, at 8am at the USA River Market stop and we jumped on a big bus to head out to Moshi. As I was riding with Grace we were talking about her childern, life, God, what foods we like, etc. It was so nice! I enjoyed every minute of the ride!
We came to Moshi about and hour later to pile onto another bus to Rumboo village, where the school was. Ok, to say it was a LONG, BUMPY road would not even give it justice. The bus was packed with people standing up in the aisle and we were the last row that had 5 people jammed together. We were quite cuzy back there! I was flying off my seat most of the time, my knees kept digging into the metal part of the seat infront of me, and the dust was ALL over the place(think of how thick fog can be where you can't see a thing infront of you, multiply that by 100 and change the color to red and thats what we drove through) In fact, my gum started to taste like dirt, and yet, I was having a great time, thinking to myself "now, this is an adventure!!!" Sweet Grace gave me a conga(a piece of material all the women wear here as skirts) to cover my hair and face! She also kept saying "Polle DaDa", which means "sorry sister"...but, I was like "no problem, this is so great!!"
As we kept driving, the bus was flying!! I mean, I was praying the whole time as I was looking out the window at the edge of the ditch of dirt beside us. I was also looking at the faces of the people we were passing, the clouds, the blue sky, and the mango and banana trees. I saw two very small childern carrying a large bucket of water together, another one carrying their sister on their back, a goat that had its two front legs up on a tree standing up eating, which was so hysterical, and I saw many, many people covered in dust that it almost looked like their skin was a reddish/gray color.
Two hours later, we got to a market of Rumboo village, where we were dropped off and told to get a taxi to the school...sooooo, that is what we did, but it was not your typical taxi, it was a large truck with bars up above to hold onto. It was awesome! I climbed in, held onto the bars above me, along with like 30 people all crammed in, and tried desperately to keep my balance while standing up. I didn't fall, which was such good news because the ride to the school was bumpy and crowded, but so FUN!! I liked that ride the best!
We got to the school and I was FILTHY! I looked down at my clothes that had changed colors from the dust, my feet were dark brown, the creases of my arms, by my elbow, were lined with dark, sweaty dust that had compacted there, and sweet Grace had to take her hands and clean my face off because it was sooooooooooo dirty!!!! Again, I was laughing at all of this and thinking that it already was an adventure I would never forget!
The school was so nice! I was greeted with many "Welcomes" and "How are you?" It was lovely with large brick buildings and wild flowers all along the paths of the school. It was graduation day for the 4th year students and it was a BIG celebration!
I walked down the path with Grace and Ben to 5 large tents packed with family, friends, and all the students at the school. I was the ONLY white person there, among hundreds, and I don't think I've ever felt so many eyes on me as I did walking through that crowd in my life!!!!! We were late, so we had to walk through everyone to get to our seats!! I might have stood out just a bit!!! I did get lots of smiles, so that was nice! I just followed Grace and took lots of pictures. We were at this celebration for 4 hours and then we ate lunch. I was SO hungry! A nun, who are the teachers at the school, came to give me a plate of food, which was so nice. I thought the nun had forgotten to give me a fork so i got up and went searching for one, until finally I looked around and saw everyone eating with their fingers, oops! So, I sat back down and I joined in! I don't know if I've ever eaten that much food with my fingers!!! I loved it!!!
We headed home at 5:30pm and didn't get back to Cradle of Love till 8:30...it was a LONG DAY and SO WONDERFUL!! I had the best time ever and loved being with Grace and Ben, meeting Nancy, who is precious, and loving this adventure God blessed me with!!!
It was a 12 hour journery packed with new things and I felt VERY BLESSED to have made it to the village and back...
I will never forget that long and bumpy road...hugs and kisses, Hallie

A taste of paradise and small blessings...

HI!!!! I must apologize because i haven't updated in about two weeks now...the four of us were out of town this past week in Zanzibar, Tanzania!! A gorgeous island off the coast of Tanzania...its paradise there for sure...we stayed in little huts that were painted white with porches...pink and orange flowers covering the roofs of them and a big, beautiful rooster waking us up at the crack of dawn every morning. I think he was on our porch specifically to be our own personal alarm clock...
We had a beach water view and we went down to the ocean every morning for breakfast on the beach...we mostly stayed in the hammocks and read during the day, which was AMAZING!!
We did a snorkeling all day trip with Captain Tiger to the island of Memba, Bill Gates owns it, and it was one of the most BEAUTIFUL islands ive ever seen...we jumped off the top of the sailboat with our snorkeling gear and then we had fish on the beach for lunch...it was so nice to get away and have a short vacation from poopy diapers and screaming from 32 babies:) I must say though that Im so HAPPY to be back at Cradle of Love!!! I didnt know i would miss my angel babies SO MUCH!!!
When we arrived back to COL we went downstairs to see all the babes and they just ran full speed into our arms!! I mean, my heart lept like a thousand times every time i picked one of them up to plant on them 100 kisses!!! They are all doing so well!! I feel as if they grew up alot in only one week...
I had a precious moment with Salimu(he has mild Cerebral Palsy) this morning, one of our toddlers...he is learning to walk, which is so great! He sat in my lap today in the grass and we just were singing, smiling and i was kissing his chubby cheeks...we were looking at the sky, birds, and trees...he was pointing to them and i was telling him what they were in English...Im pretty sure im in love with this little boy:)!!!!
The week before we left for Zanzibar, we went to visit one of our nannys, Neema, families because her sister Violet is very sick. It was one of the most blessed moments to be at her house and just sitting there outside with this precious Jesus loving family! They offered us wooden chairs and Coca Cola. There was a young girl there, 9 years old, named Lightness. She is the nanny's niece. She prayed ot God in thanks for the cokes they gave to us and for a moment i thought about ALL of them MANY MANY BLESSINGS we are given EVERYDAY! She thanked God for my Coke!!! My eyes were opened a bit more that day to God's small blessings that i just look right past...Thank you Lord for revealing to me the smallest of gifts such as a cold beverage on a HOT day:)
When we left that day from that family, Christy and i walked hand in hand with Violet, who like i said, is VERY sick!! The three of us just chatting away. Violet talked about how she is suffering, but that she knows God is with her. She expressed MANY thanks to us for coming to visit her. Her eyes were so sweet and tired looking, but she did know her God was with her, you could see it revealed in her smile that was so heart-warming.
Please pray for Violet and for her to have strength every morning by God's grace alone...I miss ya'll SO MUCH!! MUCH LOVE, Hallie

"Jehovah Yire"

Jambo Rafiki's!!!
Ok, so I'm practicing my Swahili...that means "Hello friends" and the title of my blog means "God is the Giver", which I love and I will tell you why I named this blog entry that right now...
SOOOOOOOOOO...before i left for Africa, my friend Jim Bolton, told me about a woman him and his family had met named Grace. He gave me her email address and told me that I had to meet here because she lives in Arusha, Tanzania and that she is WONDERFUL!! So, i emailed her and got no response and to be honest, I forgot to continue to email her to try to get in contact...
sooooo, this is the FUN part...im at this huge market called the Massai Market where loads and loads of jewelry, anything carved you want, scarfs, bowls, baskets, you name it, they have it there and im just walking around looking at all the stuff, wanting alot of it, ofcourse, but feel parched so i stop to get a Fanta at this little shop next door...
i have a new love for FANTA by the way, anyway, a woman behind me randomly starts asking me where im from and do i know anyone from Tennessee because im from America and we just chatted for a bit, but i thought nothing of the conversation just that she was so nice and wanted to chat with a visitor from America.
Towards the end of the conversation she told me to come to her shop, #94, at the market to look at pictures of her friends from America. I told her i would go to her shop at some point during my stay here. I told her good-bye and i left to meet up with my friends at the market.
As i head back to the market to find my friends....i spotted Christy and she had just purchased a coffee bean bracelet, which for all of you who dont know, I LOVE COFFEE, ALOT, so, ofcourse i was like "where did you get that, i must get one!!!"
Christy takes me down a passage way to try to find the woman who sold it to her, as were walking a woman yells "DADA", which means "Sister", i turn around and its the same woman from the shop i was talking to while buying a Fanta. So, Christy and I went in her shop, she greeted us with LOTS OF HUGS AND KISSES and we dont know her, but thats the SWEETEST thing about Africa. The people LOVE on anybody and everybody just to be welcoming and kind, its AWESOME!!
well, we are looking around her shop and not even a few seconds go by when she shows me her album of pictures of her American friends and there it is, a picture of Jim Bolton and his whole family!!! IT WAS SO AMAZING!!! I couldn't believe it, God had GRACE AND I MEET!!!! IT WAS SWEET GRACE!!!! I was so happy, almost in tears, we just kept hugging and laughing because in a million years i would NEVER think i would run into Grace in Tanzania like that...
the craziest part about this is that she had seen me walk into the shop where i was buying a Fanta and she told her friends that she must go talk to me for some reason, that she just felt lead to follow me. i mean, that is AMAZING!!! WOW WOW WOW!!
Yesterday, we were at the market so i went to visit Grace's shop!! She was there and we chatted and i just LOVE her and she is such a lover of Jesus!! The four of us, Christy, Heath, Steph, and me were given a piece of jewelry by Grace herself, it was one of the nicest things EVER!! She just told us to pick out a piece of jewelry and that it was a free gift!
We are going to go cook with Grace in 2 weeks at her home!! The name of her shop is
"Jehovah Yire" and i must say that YES, GOD IS THE GIVER OF ALL THINGS and the giver of my new friend GRACE!!!