The Point

I’ve taken a few days to get off the environmental horse I’ve been riding pretty hard…time to jump back on!

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Tanzania

Tanzanians usually live with their extended families in huts that are clustered together. A spirit of cooperation prevails as family members share work and resources.The majority of Tanzania’s population lives in rural areas. Many Tanzanians are small-scale farmers growing only enough food to feed their families.Unemployment is high—approximately 16 percent overall—and more than half of all households live in poverty. The poor spend three-quarters of their income on food, but their diets are of low nutritional value. One-fourth of all households are headed by women, but lack of education is a problem for the female population. Most girls of primary school age do not attend school, contributing to high illiteracy rates among Tanzanian women.Some Tanzanians want to have as many children as possible because they are highly valued. A large family means more hands to help on the farm and ensures that parents will be taken care of in their old age.In some communities, traditional male attire looks like women’s clothing. Thus, it can be difficult to distinguish between a boy and a girl when looking at a child’s photograph.What is it like to live there?Tanzania, the largest country in East Africa, is comprised of the mainland and the islands of Mafia, Pemba, and Zanzibar. Tanzania has dramatic natural features and interesting wildlife, but its people face many challenges, including poverty and malnutrition.

Country Statistics
Population
38.3 million
Land Mass
342,100 sq. miles
Life Expectancy
46 years
Infant Mortality Rate
76 / 1,000
Literacy Rate
69%
School Enrollment
73%
Access to Safe Water
62%
Average Annual Income (GNI per capita)
US$340

Lakes and rivers provide Tanzania with an abundance of inland water. At the north central boundary lies Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa. Lake Tanganyika, Africa’s deepest and longest freshwater lake, extends along the northwest border. Tanzania also is home to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain at 5,895 meters.Variations in altitude lead to great diversity in climate. The coastline is hot and humid. The central plateaus are warm and dry. The base of the mountains are lined with thick forests.Farming activities, in combination with animal breeding, forestry, fishing, and hunting, make up the primary sector of the economy. Unfortunately, much of the land is not fit for cultivation due to perennial drought. Giraffes, zebras, monkeys, lions, and elephants are among the more than 400 species of animals living in Tanzania. The Serengeti Wildlife Reserve, located in the northwest part of the country, is one of the best-known reserves in the world.

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“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

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I read several other blogs with some regularity and this week ran across the following post by Rob Ketterling.

I shared this illustration from TIME magazine in church this weekend and it still is blowing my mind. A trillion dollars is a lot of money and hard to fully understand and yet the new stimulus plan with interest and continued payments will actually be over 2 trillion dollars! So what is a trillion dollars? Here’s a good way to grasp how big it really is.
Using the time measurement of a second, how many days is one million seconds? Think about it, one million seconds, 60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to an hour 24 hours to a day. Give up? A million seconds is 11 and a half days. Now here’s where it gets interesting, how much time is it in years for a billion seconds? This one is easy if you’re a math nerd but for the rest of us, I’ll give you the answer. It’s 32 years worth of seconds! 32 years to live a billion seconds. Now for the biggie, how many years does it take to live a trillion seconds? I’m going to make you think for a second or two, or three…
It would take you being supernatural to live this one out because a trillion seconds would take you 32,000 years to live all of it! 32,000 years! And every year we fall trillions and trillions deeper in debt as a country…. I think we’re in huge trouble when you think about it and I’m not sure who’s going to pay for all this debt. I know we keep saying that our children and grandchildren will have to pay but the deficit is so huge, it may be our great, great, great grandchildren paying for this deficit. A trillion dollars seems a lot bigger than it did just a few hundred seconds ago!

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Rwanda

Rwanda’s population of close to 9 million is made up almost entirely of two people groups, the majority Hutus and the minority (but politically dominant) Tutsis. Despite many similarities, the two groups have a long history of bitter conflict.Over a three-month period in 1994, nearly 1 million Rwandans, most of them Tutsis, were killed in the largest genocide Africa has seen in modern times. Communities were torn apart as neighbor killed neighbor, leaving many orphaned children and separated families. This devastating event shocked the world and left an indelible mark on Rwandan society. Today, political and ethnic tensions continue to challenge peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts in communities throughout the nation.Rwanda, which is roughly the size of the state of Maryland, is the second smallest country in Africa and also the most densely populated. About 90 percent of its people are engaged in agriculture. Most are subsistence farmers who grow coffee, tea, bananas, and a variety of other crops. Unfortunately, the ongoing effects of the conflict have had a crippling effect on Rwanda’s economy. Nearly two-thirds of the population lives below the poverty line.Education is essential to Rwanda’s recovery and the future of its children. With only about two-thirds of the population able to read and write, the need for improved educational opportunities is great.

What is it like to live there?

Country Statistics
Population
9.0 million
Land Mass
9,633 sq. miles
Life Expectancy
49 years
Infant Mortality Rate
118 / 1,000
Literacy Rate
65%
School Enrollment
73%
Access to Safe Water
74%
Average Annual Income (GNI per capita)
US$230

Located in central Africa, Rwanda is a small, mountainous country. The climate is generally warm, though cooler in the mountain regions. Noted for its wildlife preserves, including the Kagera and Volcano National Parks, Rwanda has set aside proportionately more land for animal habitat than any other African nation. The ethnic war decimated Rwanda’s government, social, and economic infrastructures. More than 1 million people died, and many children were orphaned. Most of the population, particularly women, was left in severe poverty. As refugees continue to return, many fear that new conflicts will undermine any progress that has been made in stabilizing and rehabilitating Rwanda’s economy and its people. Reconciliation is key to rebuilding Rwanda and restoring peace and productivity. Where World Vision is working, living conditions are desperate. Families simply cannot meet their children’s basic needs, including nutritious food, safe shelter, education, health care, and trauma counseling. Working alongside families in the communities that both ethnicities now live, World Vision is helping Rwandans move beyond the recent atrocities to experience new life.

I like their coffee!

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I’m in California for a few days.

Hertz gave me a Toyota Prius, which is cool since I’m thinking of buying one, so far I’ve gotten nearly 55 MPG’s…nice.

Got a good deal on a one of my favorite movies on Blu Ray…The Prestige, guess there are some good things coming out of the Circuit City liquidation, at least for me.

I bought my wife tickets to an upcoming Coldplay concert for Valentines Day, I may be more excited that Elbow is opening for them…

Trying to decide where I will go for my one Missions trip this year, Tanzania, Paraguay, and Haiti are on the short list…due to my time limitations (leaving wife with two small boys) I’ll probably end up keeping it in this hemisphere.

I’m making some nice progress on a cool new idea…but if I told you more I’d hafta kill ya…stay tuned.

It’s funny how routine and simple spreading and analyzing complex financial statements can become if you do it enough.

I read A.W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy on the plane out west, man that guy is amazing!

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Things get busy sometimes don’t they…This month has been wildly wild in our house. Between the rapidly approaching arrival of another Moore and the related preparations, I’ve been running around doing lots while not accomplishing nearly enough.

This week I’m in California for work and looking forward to taking a few moments to refocus and get ready to re-enter the mayhem Saturday morning upon my return on the red eye from LAX.

Next week is the beginning of the last gasp of squeezing in some work, including a trip to Atlanta to see some great ministries and attend Catalyst One Day.

When I get REALLY busy, I tend to do a better job of carving out quality time with the family and making sure I exercise and spend some time in devotions…maybe I should stay overwhelmed all the time?

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“The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.”–Elbert Hubbard

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