The Malmgaard family

HEllo!!!

2011-02-25T00:56:00.000-08:00

Hello out there! Yes, I am in fact still alive! Hard to believe -I know!!! I was planning on having my family continue to tell of their Tanzanian adventures here, but oviously, that hasn't happend!! For now, I am not sure whether I will just let this blog go, or if I will continue writing.. we shall see!! Love, Cecilie

This is it

2010-07-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

This is it. In about 10 ½ hours we will be flying out of Dar, heading for Denmark. AKA Mor, Asbjørn, Kristine and Cecilie. Far will join us later. The four of them (I'm the odd one out) will be coming back, while I will stay in Denmark for schooling. I can't describe how surreal all of this is, I think the best way to say it would be to quote my facebook status:

Cecilie Malmgaard is heading off to Denmark tomorrow... Some would call it an adventure, some would call it a return to home, but I'm gonna call it a journey -a long, hard, lonesome journey, yet a journey with God by my side (and what else can I ask for then)

Talk to you guys later, in the land of teh Danish!

Princess Night

2010-06-04T06:32:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, our volunteer, Lina, invited all the girls to a princess night/sleep over. Of course we were VERY excited (who wouldn't be!!). We were to bring our princess stuff to her apartment (she lives on the compound) and then we would dress up together and take some pics...

Of course Kristine had her huge basket packed days before the actual thing, and she repacked it quite a few times! I myself had quite a lot of stuff too, much more than any of the other girls (except Kristine) had, Johanna even borrowed a dress from me! At first I was embarrassed, but then I realized, who cares? If I wanna be more girly than the rest of these lovely, lovely ladies, then why not?! It was one of those daily lessons that I appreciate so much (afterwards!)

Finally the expected Saturday came, and at 4 o'clock, we all headed up to Linas apartment, carrying half of our closet with us! We had a blast! It was SO MUCH FUN! We got to laugh A LOT and generally just enjoyed being girls, pretty crazy girls!!

Johanna and I were pretty tired after a whole afternoon of being princessy!

Sleeping Beauty!

The sisters posing together

Two lovely ladies; Lina and Kristine

Johanna and I (my unbiological sister!!)

All of the princesses!
Lina, Kristine, Elisabeth, Johanna and Cecilie

Doing Johanna's hair, it took FOREVER!!

Awesome ELisabeth!

kristines amazing make-up!

It fits me perfect, right?!!

We ended the night with home-made pizza and chick flick!

What a nice way to spend a Saturday!

A few of my favorite pics of the "Soma Biblia kids"

2010-05-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

Another few cute Easter pics...

2010-05-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

So these are all from Irente view point in Lushoto...

A few Fun Easter pics I found!

2010-05-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Okay, so since Easter was to busy this year to do a whole, nice structured post about it, I'll just post some of my favorite pics (plus Picasa can only upload 5 pics at a time!).

That's right! We found a real pastrie shop in Arusha, we were so excited!!

Cecilie and Bedstemor (Grandma), very excited about their cakes! (and REAL hot chocolate!)

Asbjørn, Kristine and Bedstefar enjoying theirs too!

And... just a cute one from Lushoto!

Last few SEW pics

2010-05-01T04:06:00.000-07:00

So I'm sorry these pics are in three chunks, but as already mentioned, the Internet has been kinda weird lately so anyway. If you see this for the first time, go down the post titled SEW and read that first. That way it will makes more sense...

Aren't they precious?!

All of us!

Three great friends, Cecilie (Denmark), Eilidh (Scotland), Christina (Tanzania)

Look at all those tiny shoes, aren't they just too cute?!!

Eating ugali was one the "hard things" we had to do. Actually the ugali (a very stiff maize porridge) in itself wasn't so bad. It was eating it that proved to be a real problem for me. Expert ugali eaters can eat it without getting dirty hands at all, however, I got my hand completely stuck in it! (I figured you needed special talent to get your hand THAT yucky!) Anyways, other than that, the stuff we ate from wasn't exactly clean, however, none of us got seriously sick, so praise the Lord for that!

Emma teaching!

SEW pics

2010-05-01T04:02:00.000-07:00

In order for this post to really makes sense, read the post below...

This little guys stole all of our hearts, all the time we were there he was playing with that can as if it was a car and he was too afraid of us to join any of the activities we had planned. Instead he played happily along, making little noises as he drove his "car" around.

"Ooh, I know, I know!"

Us with all of the adorable kindergartners!

The second day we got to do some very cool bead work with some of the older students, it was great to see their smiles and faces when they taught us something new.

SEW

2010-04-29T03:25:00.000-07:00

Hello out there!
Yes, this is in fact slacker Cecilie writing! Let’s just say it’s been a busy few weeks… Anyway, I wanna tell you guys about something that happened before Easter, way back then! You see, the last week before Easter we had SEW (Service Enthesis Week), now for those of you who don’t know what this is, this is a week where all Hopac Secondary (6th-12th grade) students spread out over Tanzania to serve.
This year we had some very exciting trips, including working/helping at various orphanages, teaching at a deaf school, teaching sports, building walls to reduce erosion, working at homes for street kids as well as a youth prison and many, many more. I was fortunate enough to get to work together with an awesome group of people at a deaf school called, “Buguruni Deaf School”. It was an awesome experience.
I love SEW because it gives me a chance to put everything that I’ve been learning all year into practice. Obviously not Math and Chemistry, but everything we’ve been taught in Assemblies throughout the year. The school theme this year was “do hard things”, and believe me, teaching at a deaf school was a very hard thing! It was just so great to get to go out there and actually DO something! Not just sit therein assembly and nod your head intelligently at whoever is sharing, but actually, physically doing something. I think that’s great!
Now, every year we’re encouraged to try to learn something from this amazing experience and I’m always surprised at what it is I learn. Last year I learned that people of another religion than me are actually humans too. –seems quite obvious doesn’t it?! Well, it just hit me. Anyway, this year, I learned (or was reminded) that often God has a much bigger and greater plan than we do. You see, when we arrived at the school, we had all these great plans about we were going to teach them, and it was just going to be awesome for them and us. But then then we get there the second day and basically they were like, “oh, we don’t really need you today”, so we ended up doing random things like teaching Kindergarten and making beaded necklaces, and you know what? It was so much better than anything we’d planned! We got to know the kids so much better, and all I could do was simply stand in awe of great our God really is!

More pics to come, but the internet is being stupid right now, so maybe this weekend :)

Restaurant Junior!

2010-03-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, Johanna, Jonathan, Asbjørn, Elisabeth and i decided it was time to cook for the parents again. Now although I try to cook dinner once a week, I'm sad to say it doesn't always work out that way and quite honestly, it's much more fun cooking with these guys than by myself!

This was the menu:

Starter:
Tomato soup

Main menu:
juniper stew
tomato/green bell pepper salat

Desert:
homemade juice

Elisabeth's solution to cutting onions was to wear goggles and a snorkel!

All in all, it was a fun night and the grown-ups got to have the night off as the kids even washed all the dishes (my hands will never be the same again!!)

Who says I'm done with you?!!

2010-03-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

The other day, Jonathan and Asbjørn borrowed my camera to do a little acting. This is what they came up with. I think mom described it best when she said, "This is a real guy movie!" Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and basically the main line in the song that's repeated over and over and over again is, "Who says I'm done with you". -Just a little note for our lovely english speaking readers ;)

Emma

2010-03-06T03:22:00.000-08:00

This is Emma. For those of you who don't know, Emma was my grandparents' dog. She was the best dog ever, and I hardly remember a time where I couldn't hear her walking around the house or barking at people on the road outside. She was an awesome dog, but last week, she just couldn't anymore. After a few days without being able to eat and her back legs paralyzed, my grandparents took her to the vet and ended her misery.

Although, of course I'm sad that she's gone. I still can't believe it, maybe because we're so far away and can't even try to imagine my grandparents house without her.

It also brings something else up in me, "I hate goodbyes." I know, I know, after living in Dar and going to Hopac for almost 4 years, I should be pretty good at the whole thing by now, well, I'm not! Trust me, every time I say goodbye it's like a tiny piece of me is leaving. Although Emma was "just a dog" she was still part of the family and although I'm not crushed, it still makes me sad. Makes me sad for my grandparents that they have to say goodbye to their faithful ol' dog. Makes me sad that there's even a need for the word "goodbye". Makes me sad that things will never be the same again. And then, then we just have to hope and trust that God has something better in store for us. I think that's become my motto nowadays, just trust that God has something better in store, and that it's just around the bend!

Anyway, I just wanted to dedicate a post to Emma, probably the best and most patient dog in the world!

IMPORTANT BEFORE YOU READ THE POST BELOW!!!

2010-02-28T08:55:00.000-08:00

So I just realized that I hadn't uploaded the video after all... Don't know what happend, but oh well.

Enjoy, and you can read what I wrote about the song on the post...

I'm not cool.
some people tell me that i look kind of funny
my nose is red and the braces don't work at all
they say the clothes i wear are all out of fashion
i don't fit in and should be shopping at a different mall
i studied classical piano
when i could've been playing guitar
i used to drive an el camino
and i'm not even sure it's car
Chorus:
i'm no cool but that's okay
my god loves me anyway
i'm not cool but that's alright
i'm still precious in his sight
i'm not cool but i don't care
how i'm supposed to do my hair
i'm not cool but that's okay
my god loves me anyway
it doesn't matter if i know all the lingo
he doesn't mind if i'm not hanging with a certain crowd
some people still believe in building an image
but i am finding that's a worry i can do without
i used to wish i was athletic
but football was never my game
i made some friends in mathematics
but no one can spell my last name
chorus
he says that i am a one of a kind
and i don't have to try to be somebody else
he believes in me and says i'm free to be myself
i can be myself

By Scott Krippayne

2010-02-28T07:53:00.000-08:00

As I promised yesterday, I want to share some thoughts on the song that I made a music video for.

I love this song, especially the text. It just encourages me so much. Ever feel like you have to be a specific someone, and if you’re not that specific someone, then you don’t really matter? It doesn’t really matter what YOU think, you just have to be a clone of everybody else. I know I have.

Sometimes I don’t even think we realize how much we try to be the person everyone wants us to be. I know there are times where you are definitely sure that you’re almost being told to your face that this is how you’re supposed to be, but what about all the other times? What about when you’re afraid of giving your opinion, because the others may be of a different opinion? What about when you’re dressing in the morning and you can’t help but wonder what other people will think of what you’re wearing (okay, so I know this probably only applies to girls)?
Isn’t this what fashion’s all about?

I can’t help but realize how often I do this, okay so I realize this probably have something to do with me being a teenager, but I’m sure everyone else can relate in some way or another.
I also love this song, because it frees me from all of these things, it frees me from having to be like everybody else. It frees me from needing to have a great hair day every day. It lets me be ME.

I also love that it’s all the small things that it focuses on, all the small things that really shouldn’t matter, but really just do, all the small things that many of us don’t even realize that we’re doing. Because that’s really the root of the case, right? All those small things that built up to make a big thing!

The fact that I can just be me shows how much I really matter to God. I really like the chorus where it says: “I’m not cool, but that’s ok, my God loves me anyway.” It just shows that to God we’ll always be his wonderful little children. He doesn’t care about those small little details (not in this sense anyway). It’s just so encouraging to know that I can be whoever I want to be, I can wear what ever I want to wear, God still loves me.

However (yes, I need a contradiction or it won’t be me writing!), why did the “revival” at school last year bother me so much then? Everyone who’s ever been to school knows how it goes, some kind of idea gets popular and suddenly that’s all everyone is talking about, doing devotions on and whatever. In this case it was the “be different, be yourself bla bla bla”. I think it was because it put so much weight on “You HAVE to be different”, that it bothered me. It put so much weight on the; “it’s not good to be the same”. Now I’m sure there were some great points in all that, but I just want to make it clear, that what I think God really wants is just for us is simply to be ourselves. That can be being different and original and doing your own thing, OR it can be being like other people.

I think it’s important for us to remember that God sees you as one person; he doesn’t compare us to other human beings. To me, this puts everything in a whole new light. Because if he doesn’t compare us to any other humans, then we’ll really all be original and cool, right?!

Lastly, where’s the line between following the crowd and simply being considerate?
Just some stuff to think about…

(P.S. I shared this post on Heart to Heart with Holley)

31 Bible verses for comfort

2010-02-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

I recently made a booklet with all of these verses for a friend with all of these awesome verses, and I thought you guys might wanna read them too. I was so encouraged by these, we really do have an awesome God. - Even when it feels like we don't.

May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the God of Jacob protect you.
May he send help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.
May he give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
May the Lord grant you your requests.
Psalm 20:1-2&4-5

For the eyes of the Lord range through out the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
Chronicles 16:9a

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51:17

Let me hear your loving kindness in the morning;

for I trust in You;

teach me the in which walk;

for to You I lift up my soul
Psalm 143:8

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or imagine…
Ephesians 3:20a

Be strong and of good courage;

do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,

for the Lord your God is with you where ever you go.
Joshua 1:9

Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him.
Job 13:15a

You are from God little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he is in the world
1 John 4:4

My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches glory in Christ Jesus
Philippians 4:19

And the God of all Grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong and stead fast.
1 Peter 5:10

For I am convinced that neither death nor life neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord
Romans 8:38-9

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his are attentive to their cry
Psalm 34:15

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.
James 1:2

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our heart by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 5:3-5

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:18

But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31

Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.
Psalm 37:5

Yet I call this to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lords great love we are not consumed, for his compassion's never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:21-23

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and they are saved.
Proverbs 18:10

Shout for joy O heavens;
Rejoice, O earth;
Burst into song, O mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
And will have compassion on his afflicted ones

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
The Lord has forgotten me.”

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!”
Isaiah 19:13-15

The Lord is good,
a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for those who trust in him.
Nahum 1:7

May your unfailing love be my comfort,
according to your promise to your servant.
Let your compassion come to me that I may live.
Psalm 119:76-77a

I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
Jeremiah 31:13b

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will no more death or crying or pain, for the old order of things have passed away.
Revelation 21:4

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart!
I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord is my strength and my song,
He has become my salvation.”
Isaiah 12:2

My comfort in my suffering is this:
You promise preserves my life.
Psalm 119:50

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit
Psalm 34:18

He tends to his flocks like a shepherd
He gathers the lambs in his arms
And carries them close to his
heart; he gently leads those who have young.
Isaiah 40:11

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

I'm going to challenge you guys to share these verses with at least one other person. Now I don't want this to be like one of those annoying emails that you "have to forward or you're not a good friend" or what ever, but just think a minute, do you have a friend who might benefit from hearing these verses? I know they helped me.

(P.S. I shared this post on Heart to Heart with Holley)

Doll house...

2010-02-16T10:24:00.000-08:00

The other day when Kristine got all worked up about not being old enough to do her sisters embroidery, I got an idea. How about if we used some old shoe boxes, paint and old cloth and made her doll house instead. As a sister project?

As it turned out, Kristine was all for it. We went very slowly... Firstly because Kristine still wasn't totally well after being sick for a week, and so couldn't really take too much at a time without being overwhelmed. Secondly because I knew I would tire out if we didn't take it, one slow step at a time, and thirdly because I was still in school and had various other things to do (this including homework :))

Most of the time it was group work, however, in the end Kristine tired out and Johanna helped me get the curtains in. We also had Lina's help with the painting.

Anyways, here's the final result... Sorry there are so many pics, I had a hard time choosing!

Bet you didn't know I can use of these! (I can't really, it never turns out quite right... oh well)

Johanna stabling the curtains

The Front door, don't you just love the green color?!

Bathroom and entrance

More entrance

Bathtub...

Bedroom

More bedroom

and even more bedroom!!

PINK girl room after Kristines request

More girly room

Living room/kitchen

The living room part of it

Kitchen

...and a bit more kitchen!

Last kitchen pic!

Fastelavn!

2010-02-16T05:54:00.000-08:00

Now for those of you who aren't Danes, you might be very confused right now. Don't panic (yes, I have been in school for WAY too long!), basically it's a tradition that every February 14Th, you dress up, as whatever. Then you have to hit down this pinata (filled with candy of course! :)) and last but not least you eat these amazing rolls with creme inside them!

It was a great afternoon, despite the lack of people, costumes and coldness!

Johanna, Jonathan and I were "Olsen banden" (I'm sorry, you really have to be Danish to get this one!)

Asbjørn as a girl, and Kristine as Sharpay (from High school musical)

Elisabeth was a robot

Trying to hit a pinata in a robot suit is not very easy!

Keld being very scared to hit!

"The girl" hitting!

I lost a tooth!!

2010-02-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

Kristine recently lost yet another tooth, she was so excited when she finally pulled herself together and took it out. I love being able to hear the smile and excitement in her voice, oh to be 7 and full of excitement and energy again!

Boys Birthday....

2010-02-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

Since Asbjørn is turning 12 years (I know, scary!) on Friday, he had some boys from his class over last weekend. They had loads of fun and spend most of their time in front of the X-box! For dinner we made pizza over the fire, just to do something different and more fun... after the first bite one of the boys exclaimed, "I like it better in the oven!" Oh well, so much for making a fun dinner!

Josh, Timmy, Asbjørn and Mikey

The traditional b-day cake, except that it this year, was a soccer ball

Having fun!

Enjoying the delicious cake made by dad

Crutches fun!

2010-02-07T05:45:00.000-08:00

As many of you guys know, I have been using crutches for the past 2-3 weeks or so. The other day Jonathan and Asbjørn had some fun with them, trying to do different stunts.. At least someone enjoys them, even if I don't!

Not sure what this is... sit-ups?

Push-ups!

I wish I had some more pics than these, other than the push-ups, there were also jumping jacks, skipping, hand stands and a Russian dance...

Chocolate much?!

2010-02-07T05:36:00.000-08:00

The other day, we decided we were gonna eat the rest of our Christmas chocolate... YUM!

Quite a tenting trip!

2010-02-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hey you all! Hope you're all well, sorry it's been so long... Anyways, I'm writing to tell you guys about a very interesting tenting trip we had during Christmas break (I know, that's old news, but better than anything, right?!)

We all headed out to Kipepeo Beach to have ourselves a good ol' tenting trip! We were all very excited and happy about this opportunity, since it had been very long since we tented last and because we got a new, bigger tent.

In the beginning, everything seemed to go great. We got the new tent set up, and then spend an awesome day at the beach.

After a nice dinner, trouble began... After about an hour or two of trying to sleep, I got tired of turning every second, and started reading while listening to my music. Kristine couldn't sleep either, so we shared my head phones while taking some photos that are not meant to put on the web (it was about 12 o'clock, okay! Isn't that an excuse?!!). All of these things brought quite a few giggles from both of us girls, to much irritation for Asbjørn who was actually able to sleep before we started making noise!

After some time we got tired of this and tried to sleep once again. It was horribly inside the tent, although Asbjørn and Kristine got a little sleep, I simply couldn't. At 2 a.m. I was sick of turning and turning and feeling like I was melting, so I headed outside... Here I started reading a new book I got for Christmas (The Message). After a little while, Asbjørn and Kristine joined me and we read the story of Noah and the big flood. About 30 minutes later, everyone headed off to bed again, except me, since I refused to get into "the oven" again. Therefore, I brought my pillow out and tried to get some sleep on the two chairs I had out in front of the tent.

About an hour later or so, I realized that the on and off blinking that I'd been seeing, was actually lighting. I realized this because it started raining. First I just headed into the middle room of our tent, but then this started getting flooded, and before long the middle room of our tent was like a river!

After some laughing and snuggling with the siblings, I finally got some sleep from 6-8 a.m. and we all headed down to the beach to get a morning swim before breakfast. Although cold, the swim was nice and we dried ourselves and went up to get breakfast.

Here, Kristine fell backwards and hit her head very hard on the cement floor. Although she kept complaining that her head hurt, we were pretty sure she hadn't gotten a concussion.

When breakfast was over, we headed down to pack up the tent. While packing up we could see that more rain was coming our way, so we tried to hurry with our packing. As we were packing the last bits, it really started raining, other than the strong winds that were already fighting us. We ran around, trying to get everything into the car before it got too wet. Since the restaurant was also flooded, we only stayed there for about half an hour before we jumped into the car headed home. Here Kristine started getting nauseous and finally started puking.

Finally we got home. Although a very unlucky trip, we all look back at it with smiles on our faces and although this trip has officially been named "the worst tenting trip ever!" we still had fun and it really was quite interesting!!

Christmas Eve!

2010-01-04T00:47:00.000-08:00

As some of you might know, we Danes celebrate Christmas on the 24Th (I know weird!) Anyway, this year we had Simon and Inge-Marie over before they go back to Denmark. It was a great evening. We started it by having our own little Christmas service in the guesthouse, for all the Danes from our mission who were in Dar. We ended up being around 30 people, quite a few after our standards (usually we're only the Larsens and us for our "Christmas Service")! After that we all split up and went home to do the last Christmas preparations, AKA, make the food ready. Around 6 we sat down to the most scrumptious dinner ever! I must say, one of my favorite meals of the year is the Christmas dinner, even this year, being with with Giardia (a stomach parasite) I still enjoyed the meal immensely!

The dinner party!

Our beautiful tree!

After dinner we walked around the Christmas tree, singing Christmas Carols. Phew, that was one hot tradition! We had live candles on the tree, so we had to turn off the fan. It was worth it though, the tree was so beautiful with all those live candles on it, lighting up the room...

After the singing, we read the Christmas Story in Luke and then it was present time!

Simon waiting to get his presents

Yup, I was sick, buuuut, not this sick! When Mom took the pic, Dad was like: "You know Cecilie, you might as well look REALLY sick!" So as a good girl, I listened to my Daddy and did just that!!!

Inge-Marie sporting the scarf that Kristine knitted for her

Christian and Bardur, two volunteers who live in Iringa and Kiabakari

Lina and I

Kristine in her usual position for Christmas Eve, sleeping!

Mom and Asbjørn

Inge-Marie and Kristine, I think this might actually be the 25Th...

Giving us a little piano concert!

Christmas Preperations!

2010-01-01T06:37:00.000-08:00

The last few days before Christmas are always crazy and filled with activities, this doesn't change when you're in Tanzania!

Tuesday the 15th, we had the Secondary Christmas Carol Service (pictures to come later), here students and teachers worked together to create a beautiful service and contributed with both singing, playing instruments, reading Bible passages and leading worship. It was a great evening and other than the tranquil atmosphere, created by loads of live, burning candles, we were continually reminded what Christmas really is about.

Wednesday the 16th, Lene had her birthday and turned 38, whoop whoop! Sadly we don't have any pics of that day, but it was still special! We had all the danish missionaries over for coffee (or more like it, lemonade!) and cake. In the evening the five of us went out to eat at BBQ Village.

Thursday the 17th, Ole left for Nairobi to help some missionaries from our mission who had been in a bad car accident. (Want something to pray for? Pray for the Sølvstens and Lina)

Friday the 18th, loads of things happend... Asbjørn was the STAR in Primary's Christmas production (once again, pics to come later). It was also the last day of school (yay), Secondary had lessons uptil 11 o'clock and then class parties until 12 o'clock. Primary practiced and performed their production. Last but not least, we also had the Soma Biblia staff Christmas Party.

Saturday and Sunday we relaxed and baked cookies (check out earlier post on cookies).

Monday we did some Christmas shopping.

Tuesday we did some more Christmas shopping. Ole got home from Nairobi and Inge-Marie, Simon and Lina got here. Simon and Inge-Marie have been living in Mwanza, working at the Soma Biblia there, but are going back to Denmark soon. Lina has been working in Tarime, home schooling 6 year old Nicoline.

Wednesday, we decorated the Christmas tree, with some expert help from Lina and Inge-Marie. Other than that, we also made "konfekt", a danish goodie made of almond paste and whatever else you wanna mix in with it, chocolate, nuts etc....

So yeah, that was pretty much our Christmas Preperations... Take a look at a few snap shots from it!

Taking a try at dancing around the tree? Does it work?!

Ole making some expert konfekt!

The "chocolate ladies"

Cecilie, Inge-Marie, Lina

Cookie baking!

2009-12-27T05:30:00.000-08:00

It being December and Dad being away in Nairobi, us three girls set out to bake christmas cookies, one hot, humid day. They didn't look super profetional, the dough constantly melted and we must've spilled the egg about a million times, but we had fun. We put on some Christmas music, turned the AC on in Asbjørn and Kristine's room, and really tried to get into the christmas mood. Here are some snap-shots of what we did...

Highlights!

2009-12-27T04:45:00.000-08:00

The other day, Mom bought some make-it-yourself highlights from some friends who are leaving soon. She decided she wanted to try them, and asked me to do it for her. I was very afraid I'd totally mess up her beautiful hair, but the end result wasn't so bad. Sorry, I don't have any "after pics", but I'll post them as soon as I get some.

Putting the color in

"What is she doing to my hair?!"

Just a normal ride home from school...

2009-12-22T04:12:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I forget that i live in a third world country. I simply get used to block all the unpleasent things from my mind and only look at all the new, good roads and cinema's and shopping centers. However, I think it can be quite benefitial for us to just now and then stop and look around. Stop and see all the stuff we have, but many don't.

I randomly happend to have my camera with me, on one of the last days of school, and therefore had a chance to try to capture what country it is we're living in. Because yes, we do have cinema's and cars and electricity, but we also have many poor, struggeling people.

Someone making a living by selling corn on the road...

Here, people will stop anywhere if their car breaks, even the middle of the road. Also, notice the huge mansion behind the car. It's almost scary what a huge difference there is between the rich and the poor locals.

This is a local primary school, I (Cecilie) have been there to teach English quite a few times. In the building you can see there are three classrooms, each classroom has about 70 or more kids and one teacher.

A local dala-dala (mini bus) station.

Everyone has a wall around their house here, because of security.

Rabbits!

2009-12-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

As some of you might know, Kristine and Asbjørn love animals. Ever since one of our close family friends got rabbits, she's been begging to get some too. When these friends announced that they were moving back to the States, it seemed perfect for us to buy them. She was very excited about this and talked about it non-stop until we got them a few weeks ago.

She still loves playing with them, and the first thing she does every morning is to give them a morning hug. She carries them around like babies and they're finally adjusting to her. Asbjørn is also part of the festives, and helpes her play with them and clean out the cage.

As you can see they get lots of cuddles and attention!

Oh, and by the way, their names are Bugs Bunny and Thumper.

What happens when you let guys into the make-up!

2009-12-08T06:34:00.000-08:00

So when we got home today, the power went off and Jonathan, Asbjørn, Johanna and I (Cecilie) wondered what we should do with our time. After some time spent lying on the floor (it actually cools you know), the guys decided they were gonna do Johanna and I's make-up. Now the fact that they had no idea what neither mascara nor eye shadow was, probably should've told us to stop right there. But..... we didn't!

We made a vidio with the best/funniest of all the pics we took.

It's Christmas time, it's Christmas time....

2009-12-07T05:42:00.000-08:00

It finally came! The wonderful month of December. Time for hot cocoa, sleigh rides, family visits, curling up beside the fire in woolen socks, building snow men, going to at least a million Christmas parties, watching the whole city transform into a live christmas wonderland, right? Okay, so maybe that's not excactly how we do Christmas here, but hey, a girl's allowed to dream right?!

We do our best to get into the Christmas mood anyway though. Sitting here, listening to christmas music, looking at our decorated house, thinking about the honey cake dad's going to bake, it's not too hard to get into the christmas mood after all. The fact that I'm wearnig a tanktop and that I can see our green garden, kind of blows it down a bit, but christmas is still christmas!!

As already mentioned, one of the first steps to christmas is decorating our house, (other than the christmas gifts we've been recieving since June, that are now stacked nicely in mom and dad's closet, and all the christmas candy Grandma send to us! (now that was a hit!))

Anyway, here are some pics of all our decorations. Yesterday Mom said, "we've been here for so long now, almost all our decorations have their specific places. It's actually kind of nice." I totally agree, other than the decorations, it gets easier and easier to get into the Christmas mood, despite the heat, year after year!

So here it is, our beautiful home!

These calenders (all the kids have one) were made by our great grandpa. If you aren't Danish, allow me to explain how they work. Ideally, every day a new present gets put on the number of that day, however, since we're all older now, we get something every Sunday and then Grandma send along a candy calender where we get a piece of candy every day.

I love these wooden angels...

Bringing a litle Tanzania into the christmas decorations.

So this is actually Asbjørns, but he's allowed us to have it in the living room. When you turn the trigger, it playes music (christmas music, mind you).

This is yet another danish christmas tradition. Every Advent Sunday, you light a candle while singing a special song, and then at the end, you light all four candles.

Another pic of our beautiful advent wreath

Yup, ANOTHER danish tradition! You put these "crawling elfs" up around your house (usually in the kids' rooms), because they're big with kids in Denmark. This is one of my favorite ones, they're portrayed as very funny and clumsy in all of the cut outs.

Kitchen decorations...

That's right, you're welcome to come visit ANY TIME!

Merry Christmas everybody!

RAIN!!!

2009-11-23T04:53:00.000-08:00

Yup, in case you didn't realize it, I am writing a post about rain! Now, if you're danish, and rain is pretty much all you ever get, this might seem a little strange to you (okay, I'll be honest, VERY strange!) Anyways, it rained today, and in Tanzania, if it rains, it really rains and I mean really raines, as in you get drenched within minutes! You might be thinking, okay and your point is... my point is that rain is amazing right now! As some of you might know, it's just getting hot, hot and hotter! Right now it's 30 decrese and about 31 percent humid and it's even cooled off a little. When it rains, it cools down, considerably and if you're like me, from a northern country, you love it!

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that rain is awesome and this is just one of the many things God has really taught me to be thankful for, living here.

Thankful, that's quite a word isn't it? I mean, what does it really mean? Is it really all that important to be thankful, and if, why? I sure don't have the answers to all that, but I do think God wants us to be thankful. To be thankful to him. I think it's so, so easy to just go through everyday only noticing the negative things. Only looking at the grey side of things and while we're walking, looking into the gray ground, we miss the beautiful sunrise, or rainbow, or friends or rain or whatever, that God has provided for us! I know, I do it all the time, "Oh that's a nice flower, or that was a really good conversation I there, okay, cool, whatever." Whereas if something bad happens I'm like "God, how could this happend?! Why did you do this? How could you? Why are you so cruel?" I don't think those things are wrong, I just think it's really important to thank God for what he HAS done for us. All the GREAT, AWESOME stuff that he's doing, instead of focusing on what he's not doing.

I love what Louis Giglio says when he says "I used to council God all the time, but then I realized he was the one who should be counceling me." I think we do that often, I know I do, tell God that what he's doing is aweful and wrong and that he should stop, but do we ever see the big picture?

In art we're working with acrylic right now, and whenever I get really frustrated because it just doesn't look right, my teacher always says: "It's 'cause you're not there yet. Bagamoyo won't look like Bagamoyo until you get there (for those of you who don't know, Bagamoyo is a town about an hour away from Dar). You can stop halfway and say oh, this doesn't look like Bagamoyo, I must be wrong, I better turn around. But it's just because you're simply not there yet!" What I mean with this is that, I don't think we'll ever actually see the end of this journey, I don't think we'll ever actually see the big picture before we get to Heaven, but that doesn't mean we should tell God halfway to Heaven what God's doing is not good, because it is, you just haven't gotten to Bagamoyo yet, you just haven't finished the painting yet,

Anyways, just a few things to ponder on about rain, thankfullness and getting to Bagamoyo!!

Yep, we're still alive!

2009-11-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

Yep, despite our lack of writing, the Malmgaard family are still up and running!

As you know, a new school year started which brought changes to everyone, except Ole. here are some of them and some pics of everyone. Enjoy!

Ole!

Admirering Ruaha national Park

Lene and Ole

Playing with Kristine, those two know how to have fun!!

Buying oranges, tanzanian way!

Uhh, watch out! These two look dangeruss!!

Lene

Lene still teaches As and A-level Biology, but this year she is also 11th grade homeroom teacher.

Lene and her very good friend, Susanne, who came to visit us with her family this summer.

beauty sorrounded by beauty

Lene and Pauline

Yup, that's a real, live snake she's holding! What can I say? I've got a super cool mom!!

Cecilie

Started 9th grade which brings a whole lot more work, as she's now working towards taking an IGCSE exam. Other than that, she joined the swim team and the worship team for accembly.

Emma (a good friend) and Cecilie at international day

Cecilie and her new best friend!!

In front of Lake Manyara national park

Cecilie hurt her leg in summer vacation and has struggled a lot with it since, fínally though, after quite a few doctors visits and some scans, the physio seems to know what she's talking about and it's slowly going better.

That's Nogorongoro in the background

Asbjørn!!

Asbjørn has joined 5th grade, is a very active soccer and tennis player and still love his x-box! Other than that, he is also still his fun, crazy self!

Brother and sister

Father and son admirering the crocodiles

Mathias and Asbjørn playing the beloved X-box!

WOW!!!

Asbjørn has found yet another little animal

Kristine

Kristine has started 2nd grade. She likes her new teacher very much, and eventhough school still isn't her favorite thing, it's certainlty not bad either!! Other than that she is still carefree, crazy, funny and caring. She has started diong piano as well as violin and she is very, very talented!

In Iringa on "the big rock"

Spice tour in Zanzibar

Moshi

A HUGE lego castle

Holding yet another snake

So, yeah that was it for now! Feel free to say hi if you're reading this!

Have a great week!

Camp!

2009-07-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hello out there! Hope you're all enjoying your summer loads! We certainly are!

While Kristine and Asbjørn went to an awesome Basketball camp held at school, and got some very cool Basket skills down, I (Cecilie) went to a Youth camp.

The camp was called Bamba Youth Camp! It was really, really great. It was held right at the beach, so it was BEAUTIFUL! In the morning we had chapel (with amazing worship) and then seminars about all kinds of different things including photography, spending time with God, salsa and dealing with a crisis. Then we had lots of really crazy games; the people planning the camp must've been really creative because there was always a new, very fun game planned. After games we would have cabin time, I always enjoyed this time where we could just slow down for a little while and get to know each other better.

In my cabin we were 4 girls and 2 leaders. There was two indian girls called Mirrah and Bernase (I'm almost sure I spelled both of those wrong), and then there was South African Anja, Anja and I are good friends and we go to Hopac together. There was also Kate, Kate is American and she was my Homeroom and Chemistry teacher last year, and Becca, Becca works here in Dar as a missionary and is also American.

After cabin time we would have lunch and then free time. In free time you could either do arts, such as painting frames or making T-shirt bags, do sports, such as basketball or volley, or you could just hang out. After this we would do more crazy games and then dinner. We had amazing food at this camp by the way, Tanzanian food, but really good Tanzanian food. We had chapel again after dinner, one of my favorite things about camp was the worship; it all seemed so sincerer and real, I loved it. We would end the day at around 11.30 after more games. All in all it was an amazing camp and I really enjoyed it, God is so good!

Here we all are, looking fairly serious, this doesn't give a very good picture of how camp was though!

Ahh, now that's better! Yeah, we were wild and crazy and fun, but what ever, it's summer right?!!

They put every one into 4 teams; Pepsi, Coke, Sprite and Fanta. As you can probably see, I was Fanta. It was a super great team and I really enjoyed getting to know each one of my team mates better. We also got a second place in the overall competition.

The awesome worship team; Kate, Christa and Sarthak (Hannah joined them later.)

Three of the very cool leaders; Kevin, Laura and Phil.

Worshipping our heavenly dad

On the last night of camp we had a campfire with s'mores, mmm!

Getting to know each other better.

Now this was one of the insanely wild games; they tied us all together and we had to walk like that and do different stuff like shoot a soccer ball and climb through a three. Notice that we are all smiling here, that's 'cause we haven't started yet!

Anja and I our cabin, can you guess what teams we're on?!

Our little musician!

2009-06-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

The other day there was a mini concert at school for all the people doing music this year. There was some guitar players, piano players and last but not least, violin players. Kristine was one of the violin players, one of the very gifted ones! After the show a very, very talented Secondary student who plays violin came up to me and said, "Kristine was definitely the one with the best pitch."

So here she is, our little talented musician!

Service Enthesis Week

2009-06-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Now, I realize it's kind of late to write about this, since SEW was in April, but you know what they say, "Better late than never"!

First of all, let me explain what SEW is. SEW or Service Enthesis Week, is one week that Hopac has every year, where the students go to into different places of Tanzania to serve. This is done in many ways; teaching people how to swim, distributing mosquito nets, teaching, playing with kids, constructing, painting and lots more. Some teams go out in the mornings and then go home to sleep in the evenings. Other teams (like mine) stayed at a guesthouse and didn't go home before the end of the week.

My team went teach English at two different schools; a Hindu school and a Muslim school. This is how the week went...

Friday, before the actual service week, we had a prep day. This involved: getting to know your team mates better, competing against other teams, and an introduction to what the different teams were going to be doing.

This is the whole team on prep day. Note the pink shirts, every team had their own colored shirts, and unfortunately my team had the pink ones! It did make us stand out though!

Working together to try to pull a frozen apart, before putting it on one of the students.

Sunday my team met at the place we were staying to do the last preparations for the coming day. The first day, we taught at a Hindu school, here we are, trying not to look too nervous and ready to teach!

We started out by reading a story to the kids. As you can probably see, they were extremely cute!

We then split into groups to do some worksheets before doing the super fun art project!

During this time I had a little girl look at me very intensely and say, "I like you teacher!" She melted my heart, and I was so sad that she didn't know Jesus and it started a passion in me for reaching people with the gospel that I have never felt before.

My group, very proudly, presenting their art projects. We were teaching them patterns.

All of the kids showing us their awesome creations.

The next day, we went to a Muslim school, here I'm going through the new vocab with the Kindergartners. They were also extremely cute!

Listening to the teacher!

We taught them about colors, and then did a worksheet to show what happens when you mix colors. It was very hectic, even with only three kids, but it worked out well and I think they got the point!

Playing games with the last few minutes remaining of "class".

Working hard...

Doing the same project with second graders.

Two of the awesome girls in my group. They were so good!

The guys having fun!

Proudly showing their pattern projects!

The last day is over. We were all very tired, and happy we weren't teachers yet. However, it was very weird to say bye these amazing kids, knowing I would probably never see them again. Sigh..

All in all it was a very moving trip for me. I learned so much; about God and love and people and thankfulness. But i think the most important lesson I learned was that we should love everyone, no matter who they are, where they come from or what they believe in. Here is a poem I rote about that..

Share a little love
Everyone is special,
Everyone is beautiful,
Everyone is loved and created by you.

It doesn’t matter what we believe in,
It doesn’t matter where we’re from,
It doesn’t matter what our skin color is,
What clothes we wear,
What language we speak.

You love us,
You created each of us in your image,
You made us funny and beautiful and thoughtful and smart and kind.

You want everyone to know that,
That they’re loved,
That they’re created for a purpose,
And that they’re all unique and beautiful,
created with all sorts of different talents.
That everyone is worth more than they can ever imagine.

You want us to share,
Share what we know.
Share a little love, a little time, a little of us.

Help me to know that and to treat everyone that way,
Help me to never forget that everyone is a child of you,
Whether they’ve turned their back on you or not,
And you expect all of us to treat everyone with equal respect, no matter what.

Denmark!

2009-05-23T04:36:00.000-07:00

As some of you might know, we recently went back to Denmark for two weeks. It was really great to see everyone and to talk face to face with the loved ones again. Also, we got be cold and wear our longsleaved shirts and warm sweaters! We also went to two confirmations. One was Sofie's confirmation. She is a family friend. Jeanette (Sofie's mom) and Lene has been friends since high school and now Sofie and I (Cecilie) are very good friends while Asbjørn and Caroline (Sofie's little sister) also are great friends. Anyway, we went there and then we also went to Simone's confirmation. Simone is a cousin. Both confirmations were very beautiful and fun. We were all so thankful we were able to go.

Here comes what the different people in our family thought was the best:

"To go to Simone's confirmation and see the family." - Kristine

"To see family and friends and to see spring in Denmark." - Lene

"To get to work with Oskar in his truck and to play soccer with cousin Emil." - Asbjørn

"To get to talk to the people I love, face to face and to basicly spend time with them all." - Cecilie

Kristine and cousin Ida, in front of kristines very yummy birthday cake!

Beautiful danish countryside

Cute little cousin Peter!

Another beauty pic

Bedstefar/Grandpa and Peter

More danish country side

Oldemor/Great grandma and I (Cecilie)

4 generations of mothers and daughters

Oldermor/Great grandma,Kristine, Lene, Cecilie, and Bedstemor/grandma

Henriette and Kristine at Sofie's confirmation

Beautiful Sofie at her confirmation

Asbjørn and Kristine having fun playing with Aunt Anne and Uncle Carsten's cat Wilson

Freezing in the windy weather!

Aunt Anne, Cecilie and Cousin Caroline

Kristine and her cousins Ida and Lucas totally absorbed in Barbie movie

Gorgeous Simone at her confirmation

Fun at the confirmation

Anne, Asbjørn, Cecilie, Ida

Thought this pic was kinda cool. It's from the plane, right when we were flighing over the North African coast.

KRISTINE!!

2009-04-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

She is funny

She is amazingly cute!

She can sleep anywhere, anytime

She is a very talented singer

She is a princess

She is beautiful

She is very generous and kind

She is sweet

She has no front-teeth

And she just got a really cute skirt from her great grandma!

-Hun er helt vildt med den, Oldemor. Som du kan se er den rigtig flot på hende!

She is Kristine and she is an awesome girl! She get anyone to laugh within minutes, no matter how their day has been. She is a great little sister, yes, we do fight, pretty often. BUT, she is often the one to take the first back into becomming friends, and yes, like the rest of the family she has a lively temper! And she is quite an artist!

It's amazing to think that she actually turned 7 this Saturday!

Happy birthday Kristine, we love you!

Kristines birthday!

2009-04-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Kristine turned 7 this Saturday. Consequently she had all the girls over on Friday. It went really well and they had a lot off fun. I (Cecilie) did a beauty salon where the girls could get their nails painted, get on lipstick and perfume and other girly stuff. We also did a variety off different games with them. All in all it was fun!

Kristine and I with our yummy cakes that we decorated!

All the girls that came to the party

Kristine and her friend, Ingrid

Kristine on the morning of her birthday, opening a present.

Easter

2009-04-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am again, sitting in front of the computer, updating our blog. Sorry it's been so long!

Anyway, Back to the point. Easter! We had a very quiet Easter, quiet, but nice. We stayed home during the whole two weeks and just took a few day trips, and just stayed home. One day we went to the beach with the volunteers from our compound.

Me (Cecilie), Martin, Merete, Keld, Ole and Asbjørn. Lene and Kristine were there too somewhere.

Asbjørn and Kristine build a sandcastle by the beautiful blue water.

We also made our own Easter eggs. Marzipan eggs covered with melted chocolate, they were yummy!

On Easter Saturday the kids, after tradition, looked after chocolate, Easter eggs. They did it right from the morning, Kristine was so excited about it went and woke up Cecilie who wasn't too happy about being woken up "early" on her vacation!

The three of us!

Kristine and her "Easter stuff"

On Easter Sunday we went to the Sunrise service. It was held in the church we usually go to, DCF (Dar Christian Fellowship), which is situated right next to the sea. The whole side off the room that is overlooking the sea is made of windows. It was beautiful to watch the sun slowly make it's way up the sky. Unfortunately we forgot our camera! But, what was even more beautiful was thinking off and remembering what happened that sunday, so many years ago. Where two women went out to a tomb to see a friend they both loved dearly and found the tomb empty. It must've been amazing! But it can still be amazing for us today, Jesus died for you and me. Not some far away really good person, no he died for you and me, did you hear what I said? You and me! He loved us so much he was willing to do anything, and so he did what I think most of us fear the most. He died. But not only did he die, he rose again! He got up and because of his great love for us we can now become children off God. We can come to him just as we are and he will open up his arms and say, "I'm so happy you came back to me!"

Now isn't that amazing?!

Painting contest!

2009-04-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

In art 6-8th grade had do paintings based on the schools theme this year; Creation, Chaos, Christ. They could then chose if they wanted to participate in the contest. There ended up being an 8th grade contest and a 6-7th grade contest. Cecilie, being in 8th grade won the first place in her group, she was very surprised!

She drew an apple tree, first with the apple flowers on it. Then the apple flowers died and fell off and then at last the apples came!
Up front, getting the price!

Bless the Broken road

2009-03-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

I made this video partly because I was bored and partly because this is one of my favourite songs. To me it says that no matter what happens, in the end God will work it out for good. He will use it in his plan. To me, that's been a huge comfort during this past year, that somehow or another God's going use all this crap for good, in his plan. Yeah, I just think that's great, I mean God can do anything, even using something as tragic as an early death for his purpose. I just think that's just amazing to think about!

Our Family..

2009-03-14T22:48:00.000-07:00

Here comes a quick selection of some of my (Cecilie) favorite pics of us! I was bored on day and had some fun making this... Hope you guys enjoy it too! And sorry that the last part of the clip is only sound, I forgot to take that off.

And oh, yeah, some of you might know that Kristian Larsen. One of the missionaries Ole and Lene work together with has been in Denmark for two lung surgeries. Anyway, he came home this Friday which we are all very thankful for.

Mid Term Break...

2009-02-26T04:47:00.000-08:00

Then the Mid-Term break came, yay! We spend the break going to the Danish our mission has in Iringa called: "Den Danske Skole". Asbjørn and I (Cecilie) sort of bummed that they had to go to school, but oh well! Most of the lessons were just fun anyway! It was weird to experience how most of our Danish "school vocabulary" was totally gone. Lene and Ole took all the Danish kids from our compound, this included the Larsen kids. Jonatan (13, 7th grade), Johanna (11, 6th grade) and Elisabeth (7, 2nd grade). So on the way there, there was lots of fun and teasing going on! We also had lots of fun activities after school,
Thursday afternoon we did some fun games first, and then we had a water/soap slide, very fun! Then Friday afternoon we had what we in Danish call "Fastelavn". To those of you who are unfamiliar with this tradition, it is a time where people dress up (usually only the kids and teachers) and then have pinata filled with candy.
On Saturday we went for a walk in something called Issimila.
Sunday we headed back!
As you may see on pictures, Iringa is a lot higher, which means it very nice and cool! It was great to be able to wear jeans and sweaters again! It probably wasn't very cold compared to Denmark, but compared to Dar it was pretty chilly!! Ole also got to have some days off, so he and Lene also enjoyed their days in Iringa!

Kristine getting ready to become a princess!
The Larsen kids, Johanna, Jonatan and Elisabeth.

Us three! Can you see what we were?? I was a waitress (I know, very creative!), Kristine was a princess and Asbjørn was a cowboy.

One of the games. I had just gone around a soda bottle with my finger in it 10 times and I was holding an egg on a spoon!

Princess Kristine hitting!

The winners (the ones who shot down the 2 pinatas first)

Two of the volunteers from our mission who live in Iringa.

Lillian and Anette

On the way home from Issimila all the kids got to ride on top of the car!

A typical pic from a little village outside Iringa

2009-02-14T12:05:00.000-08:00

Asbjørn turned 11 this week. He was woken with flags, song and of course…. PRESENTS! Thursday, his birthday, he had all the people from the compound come over and then Friday, he had 4 guys come over for a sleep over, I can’t find all the pics, so you’ll have to wait for some better pics for a bit later.

11!

2009-02-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

He’s funny. He’s very scientific. He’s always ready for a fight. He’s very positive except for when it comes to doing dishes! He’s amazing at sports, very nice and super great brother! He’s Asbjørn! And I can only say that this guy is unique, he’s not afraid to be him and we all love him! Happy 11th birthday Asbjørn!

Blessed be Your Name!

2009-02-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

Some of may know that every Thursday Jonathan, Johanna, Asbjørn and I (Cecilie) meet with the volunteers on our compound for devotion and some fun…. Sort of like a small you group for younger kids… Don’t really know what you’d call that in English…. Anyway, the moral of the story is that last Thursday I was supposed to do the devotion and I ended up talking about praising God trough everything, inspirited by Blessed be your name. Partially because this is one of my favorite songs and partially because that’s what was on my heart after these last few months, which most of you probably know have been very trying. Anyway, sorry, getting away from the point, I made this video, what ever you want to call it, for the devotion and just thought you guys might want to see it!

Flash back... -New Years Eve!

2009-02-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know it’s been ages since it was New Years, but just got these pics today… so anyway… The grandparents were still here at the time, so we ate together with them, and then later got together with all the other volunteers for some games and at last Oles amazing cake!!

All ready to eat!

Mom and Dad/Lene and Ole!
And again! Typical pic, Lene smiling to the camera, while Ole is being silly!!!

Cecilie

Kristines!

Book week!

2009-02-06T23:24:00.000-08:00

At Hopac there are many different fun activities. This last week there was book Week in Primary (Kindergarden-5).

Tuesday, they all made book marks.

Wednesday, they had lounce reading. They all brang pillows and and comfy clothes. So after noon they could change from their uniforms into their own clothes and then they just had some fun reading!

Thursday they exchanged books. This meant that all the kids who had some English books they didn't want anymore brang them and then they exchanged them for some someone else book. Kristine and Asbjørn couldn't really do that since we have very few English books.

Friday was the big day! Here they all had to dress up like a character from a book they liked and then there was prizes for the best costumes. Asbjørn won last year when he was a rat, but this year they just had fun!!

I'm sure none of you would've guessed Kristine was a princess!

The characters! Kristine was Sleeping Beauty, while Asbjørn was a New Settler who traveled along the Oregon trail (We were pretty desperate for an idea, so ended up being one of my old picture books about a family traveling along the Oregon Trail)!

Thankfulnes.....

2009-01-23T04:37:00.000-08:00

Last night we finally got power again after being without power 2 days and only having half the power working the 2 days before. Now as it says above this post is supposed to be about thankfulness, so let me get to my point. Yes, we were very thankful when the power came back yesterday, and these last few days has just really showed me especially how i really need to work on my attitude, I mean, you really had to chose to be thankful when you know everything in your freezer and your refrigerate is melting and soon you'll have to throw it all out, or when you wake up at 4 am, totally drenched in sweat and with water what so ever. Anyway, it showed me how hard it really is to be thankful all the time. But I also saw that when I made the decision to be thankful things went a lot smoother! Yeah, it just reminded me that we have a lot to be thankful for.... I see that every day living in Tanzania. I have a great house, go to an amazing school and are surrounded by people who care about me. Here are a few verses about thankfulness:

Philippians 4:6: Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Psalm 30:12: To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

1 Chronicles 16:34-35: O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.

Cookies and crazy boys!

2009-01-19T04:34:00.000-08:00

So I thought it'd been a while since i wrote last and since nothing in signifigance really has happend i just wanted to put on a few pics of how crazy the kids (including me, i know BIG surprise there!) can be!
Firstly as you might know I simply LOVE baking, and here I'm posing with my beautiful cinnamon cookies.

Oh yeah, the Larsens are back again after they all were in Denmark while Berit and Kristian were in Denmark to get surgeries. Berit and the kids are back while Kristian has one more surgery to go through. Please pray for them all.

Asbjørn and Jonatan were very happy to be together again and pulled off a princess-concert the very day they saw each other. Yes, it was extreemely funny and totally Asbjørn/Jonatan humor. gotta love their humor!!

A few last Christmas memories...

2008-12-26T10:07:00.000-08:00

As many of you probably know, I'm very forgetful and so here a few last things that I forgot to put on the others!This little guy decided he was gonna visit our porch one afternoon, it wasn't very welcome though 'cause grandpa threw him out hopefully the same in came in! Watch out, don't ever come unexpected to the Malmgaard house or might be next!!!

Also two of the teachers from Hopac sang some Christmas carols one evening, it was very good and we enjoyed it a lot. Even if it was a little hard to imagine all the snow they sang about!

And at last us making what we in danish would call 'konfekt' which is sweets made from almond paste in different forms with different things like chocolate or nuts on it...

Christmas Eve!

2008-12-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

Then it finally became Christmas eve! Lene and Grandma used a lot of the day on cooking, while Ole had to work the most of the day. We had decorated the tree on the 23rd, Lene, Cecilie and Kristine had found a very nice Tuja tree pretty cheap actually which was very nice! Michael a volunteer joined us for a very Delicious danish dinner. After that we were way too full to start eating the dessert so we walked around the Christmas tree first. now to those of you who are thinking huh, they did what? this is a danish Christmas tradition, we walk around the Christmas holding hands(it's a bit too hot to hold hands in Tanzania though) and sing Christmas carols. after that we had the dessert and Kristine got the almond hidden in it and therefore got the gift (also a danish tradition) for which she was very happy! then came the reading of the nativity story and then the present opening! all through the evening Kristine had been saying: "what are we gonna do now? Open the presents?!" and at last her wish was granted! it was a great evening despite the loss that most of us felt after all that's happened this last year.

Us 3 pretending to be presents before the real got there!

Our amazingly good traditional Christmas dinner, before everyone started eating!!

Grandma and Grandpa cooking, no wonder the food was so good, with them and mom it all turned out prefect!

Kristine in front of our Christmas, Tuja tree

Asbjørn looking cool, with a new shirt saying: "I don't need school, i already know everything!" totally Asbjørn humor, -you hit right spot Larsens!

Kristine very proud of her new princess gown, another gift that hit center!

Us three in a happy moment.....

The whole family!

Kristine with her gift for finding the almond!

Walking around the tree singing.....
Us three again

The tree again......

ready to eat!

Christmas -the second edition!

2008-12-25T09:40:00.000-08:00

Right before Christmas we were supposed to go to Lushoto (a nice cool place in the mountains) but the day we were supposed to leave Asbjørn woke up with a very high fever, so we decided not to make him sit in a car for 7 hours. instead we went Zanzibar the next day. Here's some pics from the spice tour and a few other things....

´Kristine and Cecilie got henna, don't worry, it goes off in a few weeks!

One of the days we also had a Christmas party for the tanzanian workers on our compound. It was a lot of fun to play the gift game and it was great to get to be the ones serving, making food and doing all the work for them instead of them doing it like it usually is....

Plas and Simon

Asbjørn, Cecilie and Michael having fun!

Michael and Mogens. Michael is a volunteer in a year while Mogens is here while Berit and Kristian is in Denmark.

Lene and Plas

opening the presents..

Christmas!

2008-12-25T08:16:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a really long time since i blogged last, sorry....

As i think everyone knows it's Christmas and with that comes a lot of exciting stuff! Oh, not snow, more time with the extended family family, cold, dark evenings with hot cocoa snuggled up by the fire, sigh.... but a lot of other things! This year the most exciting one was that our grandparents came! This being the first time we had visitors at Christmas we were of course very excited!

The first weekend after they came we went to a water fall and on safari because we had 4 days of. It was very nice and really beautiful! It was especially nice for Ole who got to have a few days off. Yay! they're here!

All of us!

We got to the top of that waterfall, I can't believe it! I think it looks worse than it really is!

We got actually go behind the waterfall, that was lots of fun! Here you see Ole, Cecilie and Asbjørn.

and just for the record we did see both lions and leopards but we only got video of them, i might try to put one on later...

After that we had a few week of school left. In the last week we had the annual Christmas productions. The Secondary one in the evening and the Primary one in the daytime. Kristine sang a solo and Cecilie did a dance with her dance group.Here comes a bit of that...

more to come.........

Crazy Hair day!

2008-12-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

Today Primary had crazy hair day! I was alot of fun for them, it made me wonder why just because you're in secondary you're too old! Kristines hair

Asbjørns hair

You know you're in Tanzania when........

2008-11-28T21:43:00.000-08:00

You know you're in Tanzania when the water starts coming through your roof, when the dirty water comes up into your kitchen sink through your drain. You know you're in Tanzania when you open your kitchen drawer and see a cockroach, then you take out your toaster and there's another cockroach in there! You know you're in Tanzania when it takes 90 minutes to get home from school just because it's raining. Don't you just really want to live in Tanzania? Really it isn't that bad! This is just on of those days where you really wonder what you're doing here! It's one of those days where you really just wonder what you're doing here, where you're totally ready to take a flight home. But I also think that these days are when we really just have to say :"okay God, I know you want us here, so please help us through!" One of those days where you just really have to give it all over to him and except for the fact that the most of the house is wet and the kitchen smells really bad, but we could be in a much worse position. We just have to look out the window to see that! Though our house got some water, it wasn't flooded. It didn't go up the knees like it does in some of the little houses on the road. This is one of those days where you have to remind yourself to be thankful for what you've got!

The African hair style!

2008-11-28T05:44:00.000-08:00

A little while ago Kristine got hair braided in African manner. It took about three hours with 2 Tanzanian ladies pulling her hair (I'm sure it's easy to hear how I REALLY want to get mine done!). After the suffering it looked really good though!

Our home part 2...

2008-11-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

As promised here are the last pics of our home......

The kitchen

Kristines side of the room she shares she with Asbjørn.

Asbjørns side....

Asbjørns desk

Yep, grandpa, that's the one you found for Asbjørn in Denmark!

Looking into the kitchen from our hallway

Lene and Oles bedroom

The 'Computer desk'!

This is where we usually eat in the screened-in porch

Our house from the outside

Part of the yard

The yard from another angle

The coconut tree in our yard.

The banana tree in our yard...

Beautiful Tanzania!

2008-11-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

Tanzania really is beautiful when you first get out of the city! Doesn't the picabove prove my point?!

Our home.

2008-11-13T04:53:00.000-08:00

Here is some pictures from our home here in Tanzania. There's not much say about it, so enjoy........

View from the kitchen into where we sometimes eat.

Part of my (Cecilie's) room

Our nice screened in porch, we usually eat out here (at a bigger table though!)

I think this picture speaks for it self, the whole family is hanging over the piano which i located right when you get into the living room

A part of the livingroom

Now I realise there isn't any pics Lene and Oles bedroom, the kitchen or Kristine and Asbjørns bedroom, but I promise to put some on here when I get them taken.

International Day!

2008-11-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

This friday we had international day. This is allways a really cool/fun day, in fact I (Cecilie) usually say it's the best day of the year! Now you might be sitting, thinking, what in the world is international day? Well, let me explain........

Everyone dresses up in their national cloths. Now this is usually a problem to alot of countries since they have no traditional dress! Alot of people, like the danes, just where their flag everywhere they can! Then everyone meets in the basketball court and we have the parade of nations. Well, what is the aparade of nations?? just wait a sec and I'll explain! For the parade of nations everyone goes around in the gym while thier national anthem is played. This is probably my favourite part. While I'm walking around smiling, holding my flag with everyone clapping (Denmark is the beginning so people haven't gotten tired in their hands yet!) I'm just so proud to be Danish!

Afterwards everyone walks around to the different stands that the countries have and learn about the country, but most importantly, eat the food that is traditional is their specific country!

Then we end the day with lots different performenses and the we get to go home early!

Missionary conference and a lesson

2008-10-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

This week we've been to a missionary conference in Iringa, it was great to just have a week off from our busy lives and just be with lots of other Danish missionaries and volunteers. Ole and Lene went to a lot of Bible lessons and meetings, while Cecilie, Asbjørn and Kristine had devotions each day and lots of fun activities, including swimming in the river, creative stuff such as making paper and wooden cars and soccer.
Driving to Iringa, we brought 3 new volunteers. As we drove through Mikumi National Park, it was cool to see how excited they were of seeing all the animals like elephants, giraffes and gazelles. Me (Cecilie), Asbjørn and Kristine were personally getting bored of 'just' seeing giraffes and gazelles, but seeing how they thought it was really cool to see and seeing how many pictures they took of each animal reminded me of how Gods creation really is cool, and that I should be amazed each time I see some of it, and I found that if you just take your time all nature can be truly amazing (even if you don't really want to understand how it all works!!). So it wasn't long before I joined in to get the best shots of the "boring but exciting" animals!

The shadow of a tree in Morogoro.....

Lilian, one of the new volunteers, with Kristine, Johanna and Elisabeth.

Beautiful Tanzania

I think the next few pictures talks for themselfs!

Mid-Term Break

2008-10-12T04:23:00.000-07:00

Last week we had mid-term break. Is was great to just chill at home, and have no school work at all for the whole week! Ole only had Monday to Wednesday off, so that's when we went on trips. Monday morning we went to an Island out of the coast of Dar called Mbuja. Ole, Lene, Asbjørn and Kristine went snorkling, since this is a great place to go snorkling. Tuesday we went to Bagamoyo, here we were the only people at the resort we stayed at, so we enjoyed just having the pool all for ourselfs and Cecilie got to read practicaly the whole day! Wednesday we went to see a crocodile farm before we went home, where Cecilie and Asbjørn made dinner together with two other danish kids. The rest off the break we just hang out at home, and relaxed! It was a great and/but quite break.

Back Home!

2008-10-04T05:07:00.000-07:00

Back home, that's a phrase that's been used for alot of different places over the summer. Alot of times I've wondered what home really was, was it in Denmark where I was born and I have all my family? And if, where in Denmark? In Århus where I went to school? At my grandparents house? and if, which one? Or was it in Tanzania? and what about when we lived in Providence, wasn't that our home? As I'm sitting here giving it some thought, I guess all of thoose places are my home, and that really my home is where the people I love are. My home is where I live right now, let it be in Rhode Island, Denmark or Tanzania. My Home is where I feel safe, and where I can be totally myself. After livíng lots of different places, and now living here in Tanzania, I think that's really important to remember.

Now being "back home" in Tanzania we're really enjoying just being home. and of course the wonder ful weather and beaches doesn't make it any worse to be home!

- Cecilie

At the beach........

Asbjørn and Jonatan cutting onions, they're wearing the masks so they won't get tears in their eyes!

Asbjørn and Kristine

The whole family in Denmark at Cecilies confirmation