Hi Everyone,I know it's been a million years since my last email, and that is really because it's been very busy, many things happening and mammoth amounts of work! Life in Arusha continues as usual, I haven't been frequenting Times Square and the mall lately, which means I have no exciting stories to tell on that front (just a joke). All is going well; the school is very interesting as always, but very full on and always crazy, which probably won't change. We are half way into term 2, rebuilding from the last storm at Usa.And the best thing is the rain has stopped for a while. We are drying out and the sun is shining. I have never been so excited to wake up to see sun before but it is freezing. Imagine, it being around 55 and windy, that may not seem cold but when your office/house/kitchen does not have any form of insulation nor glass on the windows, everything is cold. And I am sure the temperature drops lower at night. So remember you think its cold just be thankful your house has insulation and windows. The biggest news in my life is that my little sister, Annie has graduated from college. Can you believe it? Time sure does fly. An also my parents arrive here in a few days, YIPPPEE.For some sightseeing, safari, Zanzibar, and for a much needed break. They also will meet there sponsor student, Erick check out the picture in my photo album.It will be fantastic, can't explain how excited I am. So, hopefully I'll have more exciting things to report on, photos and stories.

St Jude big news is that we are gearing up for our new student recruitment for 2009, where we have about 1,000 -2,000 students a week attempt to get into our school.Not only do they have to pass a test to get into the school then we research there background, family financial status, and the bottom line are "they poor enough". What does that mean? well it means they live in a mud hut with no electricity or running water, and there family makes probably no more then a few dollars a day. We will go from over 10,000 applicants this fall to about 175, turning away many who really want to come to St Jude. This all begins on Aug 15th and will end at the end of November. I am excited and full of anticipation to see how this event all happens. Lots of work but a very clear insight to the reality of life here in Tanzania, and how desperate people are in terms of the need of good education.I have started to do many house visits, school visits, and touring around town in order to prepare my self for this testing period.Emotionally this time is really hard.I have had to tour some of our student's houses, learning what would pass and what not. Which house is poor enough and which is too fancy. If you have windows that might be too fancy, for our standards.Its very trying and emotional straining, every where I look you see extreme poverty. Makes you question why we are all so lucky and these people have nothing- and I truly mean nothing.

I've been really enjoying the kids here lately - just hanging out, laughing with them outside of work.It makes everything here worth while, just get past all the corruption and frustration- and hang out with little people.It really makes me realize why I am here and what I am doing.I went to a baby orphanage last week with 5 of our students to give some donations that we received which we do not need.It was quit an experience about 40 babies and a few small children live there.The orphanage is called Cradle of Love, funded and operated by an American couple. It was great to see our students interact with all the babies and give them all toys. Wish I could explain how moved I was. Most of the babies are orphaned due to Aids and will never have a home to go to. Just breaks my heart, you would have to be really strong in order to work there on a daily bases. I have attached a few photos of all there lovely faces. It just reiterates how lucky and privileged we all are.

Then I spent 6 hours on Saturday at our lovely local hospital- 4 kids to see an eye specialist and another one needed to see the ENT. The ENT just didn't show up, welcome to the third world and the equipment of the eye doctor was from 1834. Then he proceeded to perform the eye test, which was so fast the students could not begin to comprehend the letters/numbers. If you had 20/20 vision or even were completely blind you would not have been able to pass his test. The whole day made my skin crawl with anger, so after a wasted 6 hours we all decided to go out for chicken/ French fries and a soda, which is a huge treat here. I just laughed off my frustrations and prececced to take them all 2 days later to another doctor. Which not to my surprise all the children had a different diagnosis, one child can see he is just dyslexics. No wonder he can't read the charts. Welcome to my daily dealings, this is truly testing my patients.

As I see it God does not put you in situations that you can not handle and then he surprises you and sees how worth while this all is. A little friend of mine, who is in Kindergarten/Prep named Prosper, has shown me the brighter side of things. Last week he approached me and showed me his shoes- on one of them the sole was completely gone. And with out saying anything just pointed to them, completely innocent. In his own little way he was saying "um I need new shoes" how it works here, we would send a letter home and his parents would pay the $4 for new shoes. This is a lot of money if you only make $40 a month.Well as it would be I completely forgot, and then the next day he came back and said "Miss Jenny shoe". I could not but begin to laugh and smile. So then I took him into our uniform and just bought him the new shoes. The next day as soon as he saw me across the playing field he ran over and lifted his little pants to show me his new shoes. He had a smile from ear to ear, and then looked at me and gave me a huge hug. The feeling that came over me, the excitement and happiness he felt of his new shoes had just made my year. He was proud of his new shoes and wanted me to see them.He didn't even have to say thank you- I knew what they meant to him.Can you imagine not being able to buy new shoes that cost only $4? Stories like these are what keeps you going here knowing that you are really making a difference.

I have attached a sermon from my church in Aptos, interesting how you can relate what I'm doing here to children back home. http://www.aptosumc.org/audiopages/mp3/june08/kids.mp3 And on that note, if any body is interested in Sponsoring a child, donating money, or even spreading the word of St Jude please let me know. We are always looking for more help and I can send you a DVD about the school or just check out our website. www.schoolofstjude.co.tz .It looks like in the next month or so we will be tax deductible in the states which then I am sure you will all help me spread the word of St Jude, as my dad calls me I will be the "boots on the ground" and you can all join as my team from home.

On the other had-Very exciting news…..I have almost finalized my Kilimanjaro climb (very prestigious and a highly anticipated event with about 6 others) on December 5th for 7 days, so I'm on the 6 month get in shape gym challenge (just without a gym!) Nervous and very excited, so when you all see me in December I will be a new person.

Okay, I'll be off for now. For those of you I haven't called recently, apologies, I'm trying very hard, but the time difference is a killer. And its so much better if you have skype, which is free on both ends. I have wanted to write down all these stories, the good ones and the hardships but its very hard for me to begin to explain what happens here. I hope everyone is happy and healthy, and hope that I eventually catch up with you one way or another soon!

Lots of love, Jenny

About the Photos I have attached: The Central Market in town. One of our students house and fruit stand- her name is Fransisca. The lovely Road we drive on everyday and guess what they are fixing it. Craft market- Masai ladies making jewelry. Kids from School . View from my home. Soccer tournament that our 2nd grade students were in...A few of the baby orphanage- Cradle of Love