20 July 2015

games, cake and a whole lotta dancing.

Before Michael and I took off to Europe, we at the LULU Project were running around like crazy people, putting on three days’ worth of our LULU Graduation. It’s an incredibly fun and exciting time yet the work is daunting, so I’m thankful we only put it on twice a year.


You might already have a decent idea of what LULU is all about, but I’d like to highlight our graduation, accompanied by some photography!

13 July 2015

all poverty is not created equal.

When Ashley and I told people nearly two years ago back in the United States that we were moving to Tanzania, a common response was, "There are plenty of poor people in the U.S. Why do you have to move halfway across the world to help people when there are so many in need right here?"

And of course it is true - there are far too many people living in poverty in the United States - more than 45 million people, in fact. We were called to East Africa for a variety of reasons, but an article I recently read reiterated that which I already felt: poverty in the U.S. is not the same as poverty elsewhere. Did you know that if you live at the poverty line in the United States of America then you are among the top 16% of income earners in the world? Yet in the U.S., you are poor.

That's why, when Tanzanians ask about life back in America, they cannot believe that there are any poor people. How can someone own a car, have running water, eat food everyday...and still be considered poor?


06 July 2015

something short and sweet.

As some of you may have seen on Facebook, we recently returned from Europe, our first trip out of Tanzania since we arrived and the reason our blog has been so quiet as of late. We were hit by a lot of what we expected - culture and homesickness, yes - but I was also surprised by what I missed about Tanzania while we were away.

In light of this and since it’s Fourth of July weekend (happy 239th to our home country!), it seems a good time to post some of the reflections we had about the U.S. and Tanzania while we were away.