Malaria, Moving, and goodbye Mwandege...

Okay. So I know that it has been a good while since you all have heard something from me about what is happening here in Tanzania. For that I am sorry. This last month has been pretty crazy. Beth and I started out celebrating the New Year with a mass crowd of Tanzanians. We went to an overnight prayer and worship celebration at the Uhuru National Stadium with some of the people from the base. We were the only white people there! It was pretty incredible, but I have to admit that both of us couldn't make it through the entire night and fell asleep at different points during the night. Since then, as a team we have been taking a lot of time focusing on team unity. We have really enjoyed the new staff that arrived last month and I cannot believe the change in dynamics that they alone brought to our team. Bek, Sarah, Rachel and Menno are amazing. They are servant-hearted, gracious, and a lot of fun. I have really enjoyed Bek being here. She is pretty wonderful! She is from Seattle too and her sister Molly and I did our SBS (School of Biblical Studies) together in 2005. She has similar humor as her sister, so I am enjoying the jokes and laughter. Last week, I started to feel really tired and weak. I went to the clinic on base and it turns out I had malaria! Just a small little case. Nothing major. I was given some medication and was feeling back to normal within a couple of days. The worst part of having malaria though, was finding out the news that the team is moving to another location for the remainder of the time in Africa. Oh, and not that we are moving, but we are moving in the matter of 3 days! By the grace of God I was able to pack up my things and managed to get enough rest to recover from malaria. The decision to move was one that the staff took very seriously. Several of us had built very strong relationships with the staff and families on base as well as people in the village, so the idea of leaving was very painful and difficult for us. I was one of those people that had a hard time adjusting to the idea, rather the fact that we would be leaving people that I loved behind to move in order to accommodate for the external needs of the team. In the end, I did have a lot of peace about the decision and know that it was a necessary change made to help us move forward in positivity and unity. It is closer to the hospital that we work at, we have air conditioned rooms with our own bathroom, and personally I have one of the best roommates out there...Bethany. A big thank you to the staff for working so hard to find a beautiful place for us to live. So we are moved and settling in. We have had some opportunity to explore our surroundings. We are living in a Catholic Monastery and what seems like a mini walled city. This is what I have found so far, a dispensary, an orphanage, a nunnery, a somewhat cryptic cemetery, a church, and 3 canteens. It is pretty cool. I have more to explore though.
Today I delivered another baby! It's a girl! Hannah. She was born at 11:19am weighing 3.4kg and was perfect. At least I think so. It was a pretty smooth delivery. Her mum did great! Her name is Aisha and she is 16 years old. Hannah is her first baby and Aisha was able to take her time in pushing so there was only mild grazing. An answer to prayers. Bek assisted me. She was speaking praise to Jesus over the mum and the mum repeated the praise at different points of her delivery. It was really uplifting. Glory to God for a healthy mum and baby!
Ok that is all for now. Internet time has run out. I will be posting pictures for you all tomorrow! Many blessings!