Explanation: self-explanatory :(
Thursday March 13th
I was so thankful that Godfrey did the morning devotion for me because then I did some more studying before I took my written test on Lessons 1-30 from 8:45-9:45am and I felt pretty good about it! I am glad that I checked it over a few times! I decided to wait until Friday morning to take my oral test so after tea at 10:30 I caught up in writing, packed for the night in Dar, and took a shower before we left about 1:30-2pm. I read and dozed off all the way to Dar es Salaam (2.5 hours away). We stopped at a bookshop because PH had a few orders of boxes of Bibles to pick up. Then they drove me all along the coast/harbor so I could see the Indian Ocean for the first time, the US Embassay, and some ships, oil, containers etc before we went to check in at the Catholic guest house. It was nice to see some of the city since all I had seen of Dar was the airport at night. We dropped our things off about 6 and went to have a soda and then at 7:30pm we ate some dinner! From 8:30-9:45 I worked on some writing and tried to take a short nap but it was Real toasty in my room. We left about 10pm and drove to the airport to wait for my parents outside of the baggage claim! My parents and also my dad’s good friend from college, Daryl (who lives in MN) finally came out about 11:15pm…with ALL of their luggage!! Then, it was a challenge to fit it all in the car-but of course, Luka made it happen! We drove the short 15 min drive back to the guest house and then I went back to my room by 12-12:15am and had two small pieces of DARK CHOCOLATE…oh my was it a heavenly taste!!! :) Then I went to sleep (in my sweat again, as Dar is hotter than Morogoro) as I would have to be up in only 5 hours…
Friday March 14th
We left at 5:40am and packed in the car for the 2.5 hour ride back to the school…Luka, me, my mom and my dad all squeezed in the middle seat. It went by fast as Luka and I chatted in kiiswahili a bit to practice for my oral speaking exam later in the morning! I was feeling so chipper and I do not know why…maybe the lack of sleep made me giddy…maybe I was excited that my parents/Daryl were there because I could show them how much kiiswahili I had learned-somehow that gave me confidence because the rest of the day I could somehow speak very well. We arrived at the Seminary about 9:10am and hung out with our luggage outside of the car waiting for Israel to come and get the key. I think I had extra confidence because I was the one that knew what to do and my parents were dependent on me! Anyway, PH had a large meeting to go to at 9 and he mentioned that it was a large church meeting so all the new pastors would be there and some evangelists! I was SOOO happy that my parents got to meet Pastor Isaya and also Pastor Malaki!!!! I couldn’t stop smiling… it just meant SO much to me to have my parents/Daryl see the exact place/meet the same people that I have been living with, traveling with, and worshiping with for the past 2 months! :)
Finally, I got them to their rooms and then we went to tea at 10am where they met most of the “students”- all the kiiswahili language learners like Lars and Kjesty, Roger and Julie, Jan, etc! After tea at 10:30 I walked them to the classroom we meet in every morning and showed them the beautiful study area with the study gazebos that were my classroom :) Then I stayed to take my Oral Test…I had to read about a paragraph story and understand it and then I went to find Chuma and Mama Josephine so they could ask me questions. Well, they asked me a few questions on the story and then they gave me some words that I had to make into sentences and give opposite meanings for and I had to know a couple Swahili proverbs that we learn in the lessons! It went really well and maybe they were “impressed” because they kept saying “Safi sana” (very nice) after I would answer!
They gave me my written test back and I almost fainted…a 98%. I made two of the tiniest errors on 4 pages! Gosh…needless to say I was incredibly shocked and stunned…and it didn’t hit me until I walked into (more like leaped into) the main classroom next door and it was noon-all the students were at lunch and all the teachers were hangin out in the classroom and I said “Nimemaliza!!!” (I have finished) and I said I got a 98 with a huge grin on my face and I will never forget the smiles that broke out across their faces and the congratulations they gave me…Ancy even gave me a hug!! Then I started getting emotional and as I left the classroom to walk back to go to lunch I was by myself and tears just started coming…Julie was just in front of me and I ended up catching up to her and I said- I don’t even know why I’m crying, I just never expected this…it means so much to me…probably more than other A’s that I’ve received over the years. And then what hit me was the reality of my finishing…I was done…I didn’t know time could fly by so fast… I went to pick up my family and we went to lunch and chatted. They rested/organized a bit for another hour or so and we were going to take the dala dala into town but we were already past the time I wanted to leave and I decided it would be best to try not to squeeze 4 more people into one of them so I called Godfrey’s taxi friend who has driven us before…I somehow asked him in Swahili to come pick us up @ the Seminary and then all the way into town- about 10-15 minutes to the Morogoro Hotel we chatted in kiiswahili! I talked and he talked and I literally got the entire conversation except maybe one or 2 sentences! We talked mostly politics- about Obama and why he didn’t like Bush (I’ve discovered this to be a commonality amongst most Tanzanians I’ve heard who talk politics…they do NOT like Bush and are definitely for Obama)!! Anyway, I also didn’t know how I lasted the entire car ride and understood/talked in the language…again- maybe I felt like I wanted to show my parents that I have learned something/done something while I was here! Haha
Well, we arrived at the Hotel and spent from 3:45-6pm there. I was able to read and lay in the sun/relax for a while-as well as finally swimming in the pool for 15 minutes (since I had a swimsuit now)!! My parents took a couple quick dips and that helped them to cool off because they have been roasting their first 24 hours in the country!! *Unfortunately, this past week has been the hottest temperatures that I have even seen since being here!! Looks like they didn’t bring cold but rather warmer weather! My mother is having an especially difficult time!! Oh- also, about 4 young Tanzanian women were swimming. They go to the University in town and so I also talked some Swahili with them also! They knew some English too so we used both languages!
I took a quick shower at 6pm and then we walked about ½-3/4 of a mile on a pretty deserted gravel road up to the Rock Gardens. We passed the camel out front @ the rich Arab’s house and we passed Vivian and Ralphs house that I had been to a few weeks ago! We finally made it about 6:45pm and met Jan and Sofia there…it was getting dark quickly so my parents and Daryl and I took a quick look at the Rock Gardens-which is really just a rock fall with water coming down it- pretty though. Well, then we decided not to stay for dinner because Daryl doesn’t eat meat and that’s really all they served and they didn’t have menus so we all go back out to the front to try to decide what to do. Well, we decided on Dragonieres but then we tried to decide how to get there and who was going to call a Taxi. Thankfully, just as we were speaking a taxi literally drove by us and turned around as Sofia caught him. By this time, Godfrey had joined us therefore we squeezed ALL 7 of us into a taxi ( a car made for 5 total people).
Dragoniere’s was a good choice and it was a good time though my mom and Daryl were very exhausted (understandable)! It was fun to have Sofia and Godfrey- my family and Daryl really enjoyed them! Godfrey was telling us some stories/jokes. His English keeps improving! I had a Hawaiian pizza again! By the time we took a taxi back (two different ones this time) it was already 9:30pm and we were getting up to leave at 5:30am for yet a Second morning in a row…WHEW!!!
Saturday March 15th
Woke up about 5:15am and met the rest of the crew outside in the dark. There would be 9 of us going in Grant’s car. My parents and I had the middle seat and then there are two bench seats facing each other in the back so Luka and Wes were on one side and then Kristin and Jessica were on the other. We got to Mikumi National Park about 7am but before we were even in the park, we saw SO many elephants/giraffe close to the Paved road! Then we drove around inside the park for another hour and a half- until about 9-9:30am and saw the main animals in the first hour!! It was a good quick trip and we were back into town by 11am! I had Grant drop us off in the center of town. We went to the bank so my parents could get some shillings and I showed them the supermarket I always went to (last time going there)…then we walked the few blocks to the market. It definitely is another world in there…and for the next hour and a half my mother and I went to almost every shop with the different cloth in it as she needed gifts for people and I was looking especially for my same Kanga with “Mungu ni mwema” on it as I had gotten the other made into a dress! Well, I had to read all of the kangas and some I could understand and some I couldn’t so I was trying to help my mother find the right colors and a decent saying so that she could use them as gifts. So we ended up buying like 7-8 different ones…or I mean I ended up buying as of course I did all of the bargaining and buying :) But, I was happy to! It was good practice! It sure was hot…but somehow God has made me less aware of the intense sun/heat (when in the sun) or just made me adapt somehow…and inside the market the rows are so skinny and there isn’t much airflow so my dad and Daryl were pretty warm following us around! They were good sports though! I promised them soda and ice cream lie ahead…
Around 1:30 we walked about ½-3/4 a mile through town over to Ricky’s ( I really made them work up an appetite)!! It’s been good to walk today and yesterday as we need to do some practice walking/exercise a little as we climb Kilimanjaro soon!!)
Ricky’s was great-I was glad to share with my family! Of course the same short Maasai man served us. I learned his name today (Laiser) as it would be the last time I see him-we chatted a bit and he was surprised that I was not coming back! Anyway, I had a pepsi float and some lasagna and my mom ate my salad and dad and Daryl had some mango ice cream! We took a taxi back to the Seminary so I had another chance to chat with the driver…found out that he has been driving a taxi for 20 years in Morogoro- wow. We returned about 3:45pm and I relaxed a bit before stopping over at Elizabeth’s house again to have her make yet some more adjustments on my clothes and then I went over to play Volleyball. It was just me, my dad, Lars, Godfrey, and a couple secondary school boys but it was still fun! After dinner it took me the rest of the night- quite a few hours to finish up my resume and essay and get it sent in. I am applying to be a Hunger Justice Leader for the non-profit org. Bread for the World (www.bread.org)! 75 people ages 18-35 from across the country will be chosen by April 1st for an all-expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. June 14-17 for training!!! It would be a wonderful opportunity/experience and I would learn so much that I could take back to my community! We’ll see what happens!!
**Sunday March 16th we went to a village: Lulenge It was great!!!
Monday March 17th I gave the morning devotion and said a good-bye/thank you to everyone that I wrote in Swahili…then Dad, Daryl and myself went to another village today: Kwambe. It was Excellent!!! Full cars both days: Sunday was all wazungu (white people) as Kristin, Jessica, and Wes joined us…. Monday was full as we had evangelists and pastors with us!!
To Inform You:
I just do not have time to write about the two village experiences yet: a first for my family!! I am unfortunately wearing out as Ive only been able to sleep 5.5-6 hours the past 4 nights…and tomorrow morning (7:30am) we leave for Zanzibar!! It is a beautiful island off the coast of Tanzania (10 miles). We will take a ferry there tomorrow late morning (Luka is coming with) and the next couple of days we’ll be visiting Stone Town, going on a Spice Tour, and laying on the beach and snorkeling in the warm Indian Ocean! Then on Thursday afternoon we’ll take a ferry back across and wait at the Guesthouse until 10pm again when this time my boyfriend Paul is flying in!!! Friday we will leave early in the morning to drive back to Morogoro to meet PH to head to a village for the day and then after we will go to Dragonieres for a late dinner before coming back to pack Friday night! Saturday morning (22nd) we will have our own personal driver bring us (8 hours) up to Arusha (northern Tanzania)!!!
At least Ive caught up a little and you know what’s going on the next few days…it will be tough to write much now, but I will try my best sometime after the next couple days!!!
For now, I wish you a very blessed week…the time is getting even shorter- not too long before I’m back in the States already!!!
with much joy,
Alana :)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Expectations
Explanation: Tuesday was not a very good day…and if you continue reading you will see what I learned from it!
Monday March 10th
I only went to class until noon today- took some pictures with some of the teachers and also of the different groups studying (for Harold)! I was very tired and lethargic so I didn’t get much done. I thought I was going to take my final test Tuesday so I did some studying and that’s about it.
Tuesday March 11th
Well, today we went to a village…but not a Maasai village :( It was a new preaching place for PH and absolutely in the middle of nowhere (like going to a Maasai village). Unfortunately the people had no idea we were coming because supposedly the evangelist has been suffering from epilepsy the past three days and couldn’t get the word out.
It was a very long day (almost 12 hours) and not too exciting…but I learned something because of it. We left about 9:10am and Moreto came with as well as Wes… I don’t know if I’ve written about him yet. He is a 19 –year old from Pennsylvania and is doing a 3 month internship with Grant. He arrived at the school just this past Friday so he is still pretty jet-lagged. Anyway, it was great to have him along as I was thankful for another fellow (white) American- and even my age!!!
We picked up Pastor Isaya on the way! I was happy to see him again! We drove on Primary Road for about 45 minutes and then turned off onto a Secondary Road that we have traveled on a couple times before to get to Maasai villages…well, then started the adventure of going the wrong directions…we ended up near a field so a worker pointed us in another direction, but that road took us to a Maasai boma so a man there rode with us and we tried a third direction…we drove past a school and stopped a little ways away so the man we picked up could go to the Primary school to find someone that would know where the area we were trying to go. A group of kids came to investigate the car- from about 100-200 feet away though, and many of them ran away when we opened the car door!! Then, I got out to get some air and shouted “Mambo” to the children and they all answered “POA!” It was cute! Mambo is slang for- How’s it going? How are your matters? and poa means cool! After a few minutes, a boy came with us- about 6th grade maybe-to direct us. The school children were all waving good-bye (maybe 20 or so of them) and some of them chased the car smiling and waving like crazy! I wish I would have been able to take a picture!!
We drive a little further (again…terribly awful road) and end up parking near a house. We are on a little higher elevation now so when we got out of the car we could see trees/fields all around us…and a few random thatched roofs. We walk a couple hundred feet and a man greets us and points PH in the direction of where he needs to drive to get to the area…and the little boy takes Moreto, Wes, and myself on a little walk…about 15 minutes later we show up at an area where there is a few houses and a couple shady trees and a couple mamas with their children. It’s already 11:40am and we just chat while waiting for PH to show up. Moreto helped me with an exercise I was supposed to do for class…I “interviewed” Pastor Isaya so I asked him many questions about his work as a Pastor as well as his family and daily routine. Once PH came we sat around for a little while longer, and then walked to the car a few hundred feet away to get some water. We went back to the big shady tree and some more people had shown up. Wes and myself sat on a bench and basically for the next hour and a half chatted about Africa, culture shock, our faith, what we did in High School, our states (Penn and MN/IA), where else we’ve traveled to in the States, as well as future plans. He plans on attending Liberty University in Virginia or North Carolina I believe…it’s a large Christian school on the East Coast.
It was nice to chat so we could pass the time faster. Then the service began…Wes, Moreto and myself had to share a low bench that was pretty uncomfortable… there were about 20 women and children sitting on a mat on one side of the tree and about 15 men/boy sitting on the other side. PH did about 8 baptisms during the service…and a couple random times when people showed up. I translated here and there for Wes (as I’m now the “expert”-haha). I also talked to Moreto a bit also-and found out about living in the Maasai boma when he was younger and where he went to school and how much he has left. After the service (about 4:30pm) a different evangelist auctioned off a couple papaya and then we stood around for a bit waiting for PH to finish writing some baptism cards. Wes, Moreto and I were really hungry as we hadn’t eaten since 7:30am. I couldn’t wait to eat and didn’t care if I’d have to eat rice with my hands…but when we get our hands washed and go inside this hut to sit down all that is there is a big pail of ugali. Ugali is basically cornmeal…it looks exactly like mashed potatoes…but the consistency is that of a sponge. So it’s like a big bowl of mashed potatoes (tasteless) and very stiff! There was also a bowl of some pieces of chicken (as in the morning they had to chase a chicken and as PH said: “ever heard your dinner skwaking before?”) with some kind of juice also. I took some ugali and poured some juice over it for flavor before eating with my right hand. They offered PH some water (not the most clean) and since he has an iron stomach he was able to drink it… I was just itching to get back to the car so I could have some of the water that was left in a bottle.
We finally left about 5:10pm but then we had an even greater adventure trying to get out of the place…we spent an hour on a trail (there wasn’t even a road) and going over bushes on both sides of the car…my pictures will explain better…but you know it can’t be good when one cannot open the car door…and it’s especially not good when one has shut the car door and there are branches coming in the window. One time, the evangelist got out to go look ahead for the best way to go…and then PH had to get out of the car. PH has never gotten out of the car before so I said, “this can’t be good.” Wes and I were just praying that we wouldn’t get a puncture with all of the well, who knows what we went over!!! We dropped off the evangelist and then we continued on bad secondary road for a while and supposedly we took a “shortcut” to Moreto’s village! I was actually really happy to see where my friend (and a teacher) lived! It was a very nice Maasai boma and the sun was just setting as we got there so I got a beautiful picture! We met his mother and his older brother who is a newly ordained Pastor! They walked us into the cattle/goat “pen” to see their Father’s grave. It is large and has a fence of tall sticks surrounding it. He died 2 years ago and PH said he was a very well-known man and even the President came for his funeral. **If you remember, I mentioned at one point that Moreto’s father has 52 children!!! This still amazes me…
Anyway then we sat down inside a small building and had some water before saying good-bye and continuing on our way again. We dropped off Pastor Isaya and finally we drove another hour home…so I arrived by 8:30pm! LONG DAY indeed!!
As soon as I returned I tried on my tops/skirt that Elizabeth had made with all of my kitenge material... Jan and Julie and Sofia wanted to see. Then Jan was kind enough to give me one of her sodas so I had a sprite and then sofia let me buy one of her apples (I was still very hungry!) and we also shared some of her wine that she had bought over a month ago. About 9:15pm Julie came over to us and asked us what 39.6 degrees Celsius was in Fahreneheit… I said- well, it’s Really hot….(and I only knew this because I looked up info on Zanzibar island and it said that the tourists don’t like to swim if the Indian Ocean is more than 38 degrees C…yikes!) why?? She was pretty frantic and said that that’s the temperature her son (6) Josiah has and she was really worried. We went to talk to PH and he said to sponge him down to bring down the fever… because she found out it was at least 103 degrees F! Poor kid! Julie had Malaria a week ago, Roger (her husband) has had it Saturday-Tuesday and now Josiah has a bad case of it!!
I went back to my room at 9:30pm to do some writing/studying and then went to bed at a decent hour!
**My side reflection of the day:
On the way home I realized that I was frustrated with the day because now that I have experienced so much the past two months, I had gotten into a “routine” of what to expect-therefore, when we end up in this non-Maasai village I was really bummed because my expectations were not met. We did not get wonderful chai or maadazi…in fact we got nothing to eat or drink… and then when I was so hungry at the end of the day all I was looking forward to was rice and we got Ugali?!?? If this would have happened within the first 2 or so weeks I guarantee that I wouldn’t have had as bad of an attitude about the day as I did. I shouldn’t have complained at all and should have been grateful for the fact that they still did kill a chicken for us and that we even got fed. This just made me think about how much my expectations “rule” me…and also- how much do I expect out of God… should I expect anything at all or is life enough? Can I even have expectations of our God?!? I challenge you to ponder these questions as I do…
Wednesday March 12th
This morning Sister Paulette gave the morning devotion on Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (wakati wa kila kitu)- a time for everything… it is her last day today so it was nice to hear from her!! She is a very sweet and faithful woman and I have enjoyed her quiet/gentle spirit, except for the occasional burst of giggles! She also had a nice good-bye prepared for her last words (in Swahili of course)!!
I started feeling emotional as I was listening to the scripture and all I could keep thinking about was, there’s a time to say good-bye… and I know that mine is coming so soon…I am the next to go :( I only studied from 8-10am today…my brain was pretty tired, but I got through almost a full lesson, so basically I have learned a full 52/60 lessons. The rest I can finish studying myself in the coming weeks! After tea I came back to my room to rest and worked on getting some pictures and music to Harold’s flash drive. Lunch wasn’t too thrilling as we didn’t have much of anything…I basically had rice and watermelon. After lunch, I tried on the dress Elizabeth had made for me so Jan could see it and we could figure out where more adjustments need to be made- then Jan braided my hair for the volleyball game later and I came back to my room for the rest of the afternoon to finish some e-mailing and work on writing and organizing my room a bit!
After a quick tea break, Sister Paulette joined me to walk to Elizabeth’s house and we had a great time laughing as I tried on all the clothes again so she could see where to make adjustments!! Then at 5:10 we walked over to the volleyball court and only Lars was there. Godfrey showed up so we played 3 vs. 3 against 3 Secondary school guys. One of them, Eric, was super tall and so he was excellent at spiking! It wasn’t as fun as 2 weeks ago but it was good to get some exercise in. Then for another half hour Eric took some shots on me in the soccer goal!! I played soccer for years and years and goalkeeper for many of those years and I have missed playing. Eric was very kind and knew quite a bit of English. He kept saying, “are you hurt?” And I said, “goalkeepers are supposed to get hurt!” haha Anyway, at 6:30pm Sister Paulette and I waited for Godfrey to run and shower/change and then we took a taxi into town to the Acropol Hotel to meet Sofia and Jan. We were celebrating Sister Paulette’s last night! We arrived about 7:15pm and stayed until almost 10:15pm. The service was pretty slow…but I had some cheese bread and a chicken breast sandwich and we all had dessert: brownie with choc/vanilla ice cream! We chatted and Godfrey and I played a game of pool…of course he plays a lot, therefore he won! I was super tired and was supposed to do the morning devotion but Godfrey was a lifesaver and said he would do it for me! So I went to bed at 10:50pm…I knew I needed sleep badly as tomorrow (Thursday) I would take my test in the morning and leave for Dar es Salaam (on the Coast- about 2.5 hours away) to hang out for a few hours before my parents would arrive at 10:45-11pm!!
I hear it’s about 48 degrees @ home!! Enjoy the heat ;)
He is Enough,
Alana :)
Monday March 10th
I only went to class until noon today- took some pictures with some of the teachers and also of the different groups studying (for Harold)! I was very tired and lethargic so I didn’t get much done. I thought I was going to take my final test Tuesday so I did some studying and that’s about it.
Tuesday March 11th
Well, today we went to a village…but not a Maasai village :( It was a new preaching place for PH and absolutely in the middle of nowhere (like going to a Maasai village). Unfortunately the people had no idea we were coming because supposedly the evangelist has been suffering from epilepsy the past three days and couldn’t get the word out.
It was a very long day (almost 12 hours) and not too exciting…but I learned something because of it. We left about 9:10am and Moreto came with as well as Wes… I don’t know if I’ve written about him yet. He is a 19 –year old from Pennsylvania and is doing a 3 month internship with Grant. He arrived at the school just this past Friday so he is still pretty jet-lagged. Anyway, it was great to have him along as I was thankful for another fellow (white) American- and even my age!!!
We picked up Pastor Isaya on the way! I was happy to see him again! We drove on Primary Road for about 45 minutes and then turned off onto a Secondary Road that we have traveled on a couple times before to get to Maasai villages…well, then started the adventure of going the wrong directions…we ended up near a field so a worker pointed us in another direction, but that road took us to a Maasai boma so a man there rode with us and we tried a third direction…we drove past a school and stopped a little ways away so the man we picked up could go to the Primary school to find someone that would know where the area we were trying to go. A group of kids came to investigate the car- from about 100-200 feet away though, and many of them ran away when we opened the car door!! Then, I got out to get some air and shouted “Mambo” to the children and they all answered “POA!” It was cute! Mambo is slang for- How’s it going? How are your matters? and poa means cool! After a few minutes, a boy came with us- about 6th grade maybe-to direct us. The school children were all waving good-bye (maybe 20 or so of them) and some of them chased the car smiling and waving like crazy! I wish I would have been able to take a picture!!
We drive a little further (again…terribly awful road) and end up parking near a house. We are on a little higher elevation now so when we got out of the car we could see trees/fields all around us…and a few random thatched roofs. We walk a couple hundred feet and a man greets us and points PH in the direction of where he needs to drive to get to the area…and the little boy takes Moreto, Wes, and myself on a little walk…about 15 minutes later we show up at an area where there is a few houses and a couple shady trees and a couple mamas with their children. It’s already 11:40am and we just chat while waiting for PH to show up. Moreto helped me with an exercise I was supposed to do for class…I “interviewed” Pastor Isaya so I asked him many questions about his work as a Pastor as well as his family and daily routine. Once PH came we sat around for a little while longer, and then walked to the car a few hundred feet away to get some water. We went back to the big shady tree and some more people had shown up. Wes and myself sat on a bench and basically for the next hour and a half chatted about Africa, culture shock, our faith, what we did in High School, our states (Penn and MN/IA), where else we’ve traveled to in the States, as well as future plans. He plans on attending Liberty University in Virginia or North Carolina I believe…it’s a large Christian school on the East Coast.
It was nice to chat so we could pass the time faster. Then the service began…Wes, Moreto and myself had to share a low bench that was pretty uncomfortable… there were about 20 women and children sitting on a mat on one side of the tree and about 15 men/boy sitting on the other side. PH did about 8 baptisms during the service…and a couple random times when people showed up. I translated here and there for Wes (as I’m now the “expert”-haha). I also talked to Moreto a bit also-and found out about living in the Maasai boma when he was younger and where he went to school and how much he has left. After the service (about 4:30pm) a different evangelist auctioned off a couple papaya and then we stood around for a bit waiting for PH to finish writing some baptism cards. Wes, Moreto and I were really hungry as we hadn’t eaten since 7:30am. I couldn’t wait to eat and didn’t care if I’d have to eat rice with my hands…but when we get our hands washed and go inside this hut to sit down all that is there is a big pail of ugali. Ugali is basically cornmeal…it looks exactly like mashed potatoes…but the consistency is that of a sponge. So it’s like a big bowl of mashed potatoes (tasteless) and very stiff! There was also a bowl of some pieces of chicken (as in the morning they had to chase a chicken and as PH said: “ever heard your dinner skwaking before?”) with some kind of juice also. I took some ugali and poured some juice over it for flavor before eating with my right hand. They offered PH some water (not the most clean) and since he has an iron stomach he was able to drink it… I was just itching to get back to the car so I could have some of the water that was left in a bottle.
We finally left about 5:10pm but then we had an even greater adventure trying to get out of the place…we spent an hour on a trail (there wasn’t even a road) and going over bushes on both sides of the car…my pictures will explain better…but you know it can’t be good when one cannot open the car door…and it’s especially not good when one has shut the car door and there are branches coming in the window. One time, the evangelist got out to go look ahead for the best way to go…and then PH had to get out of the car. PH has never gotten out of the car before so I said, “this can’t be good.” Wes and I were just praying that we wouldn’t get a puncture with all of the well, who knows what we went over!!! We dropped off the evangelist and then we continued on bad secondary road for a while and supposedly we took a “shortcut” to Moreto’s village! I was actually really happy to see where my friend (and a teacher) lived! It was a very nice Maasai boma and the sun was just setting as we got there so I got a beautiful picture! We met his mother and his older brother who is a newly ordained Pastor! They walked us into the cattle/goat “pen” to see their Father’s grave. It is large and has a fence of tall sticks surrounding it. He died 2 years ago and PH said he was a very well-known man and even the President came for his funeral. **If you remember, I mentioned at one point that Moreto’s father has 52 children!!! This still amazes me…
Anyway then we sat down inside a small building and had some water before saying good-bye and continuing on our way again. We dropped off Pastor Isaya and finally we drove another hour home…so I arrived by 8:30pm! LONG DAY indeed!!
As soon as I returned I tried on my tops/skirt that Elizabeth had made with all of my kitenge material... Jan and Julie and Sofia wanted to see. Then Jan was kind enough to give me one of her sodas so I had a sprite and then sofia let me buy one of her apples (I was still very hungry!) and we also shared some of her wine that she had bought over a month ago. About 9:15pm Julie came over to us and asked us what 39.6 degrees Celsius was in Fahreneheit… I said- well, it’s Really hot….(and I only knew this because I looked up info on Zanzibar island and it said that the tourists don’t like to swim if the Indian Ocean is more than 38 degrees C…yikes!) why?? She was pretty frantic and said that that’s the temperature her son (6) Josiah has and she was really worried. We went to talk to PH and he said to sponge him down to bring down the fever… because she found out it was at least 103 degrees F! Poor kid! Julie had Malaria a week ago, Roger (her husband) has had it Saturday-Tuesday and now Josiah has a bad case of it!!
I went back to my room at 9:30pm to do some writing/studying and then went to bed at a decent hour!
**My side reflection of the day:
On the way home I realized that I was frustrated with the day because now that I have experienced so much the past two months, I had gotten into a “routine” of what to expect-therefore, when we end up in this non-Maasai village I was really bummed because my expectations were not met. We did not get wonderful chai or maadazi…in fact we got nothing to eat or drink… and then when I was so hungry at the end of the day all I was looking forward to was rice and we got Ugali?!?? If this would have happened within the first 2 or so weeks I guarantee that I wouldn’t have had as bad of an attitude about the day as I did. I shouldn’t have complained at all and should have been grateful for the fact that they still did kill a chicken for us and that we even got fed. This just made me think about how much my expectations “rule” me…and also- how much do I expect out of God… should I expect anything at all or is life enough? Can I even have expectations of our God?!? I challenge you to ponder these questions as I do…
Wednesday March 12th
This morning Sister Paulette gave the morning devotion on Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (wakati wa kila kitu)- a time for everything… it is her last day today so it was nice to hear from her!! She is a very sweet and faithful woman and I have enjoyed her quiet/gentle spirit, except for the occasional burst of giggles! She also had a nice good-bye prepared for her last words (in Swahili of course)!!
I started feeling emotional as I was listening to the scripture and all I could keep thinking about was, there’s a time to say good-bye… and I know that mine is coming so soon…I am the next to go :( I only studied from 8-10am today…my brain was pretty tired, but I got through almost a full lesson, so basically I have learned a full 52/60 lessons. The rest I can finish studying myself in the coming weeks! After tea I came back to my room to rest and worked on getting some pictures and music to Harold’s flash drive. Lunch wasn’t too thrilling as we didn’t have much of anything…I basically had rice and watermelon. After lunch, I tried on the dress Elizabeth had made for me so Jan could see it and we could figure out where more adjustments need to be made- then Jan braided my hair for the volleyball game later and I came back to my room for the rest of the afternoon to finish some e-mailing and work on writing and organizing my room a bit!
After a quick tea break, Sister Paulette joined me to walk to Elizabeth’s house and we had a great time laughing as I tried on all the clothes again so she could see where to make adjustments!! Then at 5:10 we walked over to the volleyball court and only Lars was there. Godfrey showed up so we played 3 vs. 3 against 3 Secondary school guys. One of them, Eric, was super tall and so he was excellent at spiking! It wasn’t as fun as 2 weeks ago but it was good to get some exercise in. Then for another half hour Eric took some shots on me in the soccer goal!! I played soccer for years and years and goalkeeper for many of those years and I have missed playing. Eric was very kind and knew quite a bit of English. He kept saying, “are you hurt?” And I said, “goalkeepers are supposed to get hurt!” haha Anyway, at 6:30pm Sister Paulette and I waited for Godfrey to run and shower/change and then we took a taxi into town to the Acropol Hotel to meet Sofia and Jan. We were celebrating Sister Paulette’s last night! We arrived about 7:15pm and stayed until almost 10:15pm. The service was pretty slow…but I had some cheese bread and a chicken breast sandwich and we all had dessert: brownie with choc/vanilla ice cream! We chatted and Godfrey and I played a game of pool…of course he plays a lot, therefore he won! I was super tired and was supposed to do the morning devotion but Godfrey was a lifesaver and said he would do it for me! So I went to bed at 10:50pm…I knew I needed sleep badly as tomorrow (Thursday) I would take my test in the morning and leave for Dar es Salaam (on the Coast- about 2.5 hours away) to hang out for a few hours before my parents would arrive at 10:45-11pm!!
I hear it’s about 48 degrees @ home!! Enjoy the heat ;)
He is Enough,
Alana :)
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Pizza and a Pool!
Explanation: Friday night @ Dragoniere’s and Sunday afternoon @ the Morogoro Hotel!
Friday March 7th
Well, today I didn’t wake up until 7am, so therefore after breakfast I took a shower (missing morning devo unfortunately)-but it had been a couple days :) Then Jan and Sister Paulette and I met PH about 9am and we took off! Jan braided my hair in the car before we picked up our first passenger: Luka, an evangelist. We picked up a couple more evangelists- including a very well-educated man named Paulo who is from this area but is going to school way down in Mbeya (Southwest Tanzania)- on the way and we only had to drive down Secondary Road for maybe 20 minutes, and the village was basically 200 feet off of that road!
We arrived about 10:30 and after a few minutes, we followed PH, Isaya (an evangelist), another evangelist, and Lukas (a young Evangelist who will start Form 5 & 6 @ the Secondary School here), across the road to a Maasai boma where we preceded to go into the literal boma (a circular enclosed area for the cattle when they are not grazing). Paulo and PH pointed to a piece of stick sticking up through the dirt as supposedly an important man died and was buried in this spot. *I apologize, but since it has been a couple of days I do not remember the details right now!
Then a woman showed us into her house-which was more modern than most typical Maasai houses as there was a few different rooms…and even tiled bathroom floor (of course the toilets were holes in the ground (but it was plumbing nonetheless))!
We continued walking back across the road to the church where we sat for a while…well, the 3 of us women sat on a bench a few rows back from the men and we tried talking to a couple young boys-about 7 and 10-but they were being incredibly shy. The men were talking up front, and I’m not kidding-but about another 4 Evangelists showed up (all of them I have seen previously). A few more small children come in to hang out and many Mamas come to greet us. One Mama had a baby that was 2 months old and she was very kind and invited us to come follow her to her house! We got stopped halfway as another Mama and some more children came over and we took a couple of pictures. Jan got to hold the 2-month old, but a little child took my hand and we walked the rest of the way to this woman’s house ( typical one). We ducked to get in through the entrance and then 5 of us stayed in this little area near the door (for light). Jan, Sister Paulette and myself sat on chairs and there were about 4 children hanging out in the doorway. The two mamas were standing near us and asked us questions about America-like is it far away, and can we take a car here? They also wanted to know right away if we had watoto (children) and we’re of course just shocked with eyes wide open…we all answered bado (not yet). I don’t think they knew Paulette is a Sister! Anyway, then they asked us if we wanted maziwa (milk)-and I’m immediately reminded of the one village that had the sour cottage cheese consistency of milk and I say to Jan that I will not drink it. Jan says yes and they pour a mug of milk for Jan as she said she would try it. Well- it actually looked like milk so I agreed (reluctantly) to try it and I took the smallest sip possible. It was okay- the consistency was fine and it had a smoky flavor to it.
It was almost noon so we figured we should get back for the first sacrament! They followed us out of the house and I was able to chat with a couple children and take some pictures.
When we arrived back at the church all the men were finishing their chai so I thought we missed out- but I also knew that guests were always served…so sure enough, after about 15 minutes, some cups were rinsed and brought to us (along with bottles of water). We were joined by about 7 other children who were all sitting on the bench behind us and playing with empty plastic bottles.
Some of the Evangelists and PH went outside under a tree to start Baptism registration, and the others prepared for the service. The three of us slowly were joined by more and more women as they came. The children all moved to the other side of the church (there ended up being at least 40 children total at the service).
We listened to the choir sing a few songs before the service officially began about 1:40pm. The girls choir sang some songs, and then because there were so many Evangelists there was a men’s choir that also sang!!!! About 13 baptisms occurred, and I was able to take Sister Paulette up to the front to watch (and therefore get some good pictures also)! After the sermon and communion came the offering. The men’s choir sang a song, but many women came up and started singing as well- it was great! I have a wonderful video clip of this! After we ended the service outside there was some soap and candy to auction off…then the fun started…goodness I have never seen a group of kids so selfish when it came to a picture. They all of course wanted their pictures taken alone, and the children would push against their neighbor and point to themselves and say “ME! ME! Picha!) Jan and I had taken a few right away of just some Mamas and their children, but once the many other children had lost interest in their candy they ran over and wanted to see pictures and it wasn’t good enough to take a group picture as they wanted individual ones…well-I only did a few before I said- Inatosha (Enough)!
Finallly it was time to eat. We each had a bowl of rice and a couple pieces of potato, but no silverware-therefore it was back to using my right hand again!
I was chatting with some of the Evangelists after eating…and for the first time had to practically be dragged out of a village as everyone else was in the car and PH was backing up and honking the horn-then they pretended to leave without me!! haha So I ran over quickly and we left about 4:50pm!
We dropped off the 3 men and proceeded on to home. We returned about 6:15pm-just in time for dinner…but we were waiting for MeeHa and Sofia and Kjersty (Lars’ wife) to get back from town so we could go out to eat for MeeHa’s last night!!
Kjersty drove us to Dragoniere’s-a restaurant in town. Now, this place I have known about as Sofia has sad that it has good food and serves pizza on the weekends (they have a nice stone oven to make pizzas)! Other Americans have also recommended it…well I was so surprised when we turn into this gate and I see these red and green lights-and a nice grassy lawn…and a whole LOT of Wazungu (white people)! Kjersty was meeting a table of girls- most of them Norwegian-so it was just Sofia, Jan, myself, and MeeHa. We ordered some drinks and Jan and I got pizza-Sofia had fish-and MeeHa had what she called a “folded pizza.” It’s really a calzone, but she says it’s too hard to say so she calls it a “folded pizza” instead!! The pizza was excellent-I ordered Hawaiian! :) It was a great night of conversation, and I learned a lot more about MeeHa’s life and what she has done. She has been working with YWAM (Youth With a Mission: a non-profit org) for 25 years…I found out that she is 46!!!! I couldn’t believe it! She has worked with prostitutes and transvestites in New Zealand and she has worked in India (possibly somewhere in Europe…well-her husband of 12 years is from the Netherlands so she has lived there a short time)…and now she and her husband have been living in Nairobi, Kenya doing church-planting among Maasai villages there! It really is fascinating! She is just the cutest person and I will miss her deeply!!! It was just so crazy to see so many white people in the same place…Sofia said that she didn’t think that there were this many white people living in Morogoro! There was a table of young Europeans (Sofia’s and my age)- guys and girls- next to us…but we didn’t know where they were from. There were some other tables around us with middle-aged couples as well. Anyway, the pizza was Excellent and the atmosphere was great! I think I’ll take Paul and my family in a couple weeks :)
I was disappointed that they didn’t have the chocolate dessert tart so when we got back to the school finally-at about 10pm-Sofia gave each us a small bar of Milka (brand) milk chocolate along with a milk chocolate ladybug! She had received a large package with a lot of candy in it from Germany and I was SO thankful that she shared some! I ate it all when I got back to my room! I was trying to get some things ready for the mountain climb in the morning- as I was supposed to get up at 5:50am to leave but it was already 10:30pm and I was so tired.
Saturday March 8th
I woke up at 5:50am and I just felt my body telling me not to go all the way to the top…so I texted Godfrey and told them to go without me (it was just him, Mcharro (another teacher), Blaise (a language student from Congo), and another former teacher).
I slept for another 30-40 minutes before getting up and going to breakfast where everyone was surprised to see me since I had planning on climbing all day. Anyway, the group that was going only half-way left after breakfast about 7:50am. I went with Emily(13-Julie and Roger’s oldest daughter) and Lars and his son Simon, Harold, and three lady teachers: Ancy, Merena, and Agnes.
We started climbing about 8:15-8:20am. It was an absolutely beautiful day…and today was clear so I could see so much (compared to the first time I climbed when I could only see fog)! We took a break in some shade after about an hour and so Simon could eat some Pringles :) Poor Lars-he was carrying a backpack, as well as Simon on his shoulders more than half the time! The road as our path was slowy going uphill so it did get tougher- but then we got into some “rainforesty” area where we were finally among the banana trees again! We came to a point where we didn’t know exactly the best way to continue, but luckily a man who was cleaning a house decided he would come with us and show us the way to Morningside (the half-way point)!! We continued for a while until I see this great waterfall (this time we went a different way so I didn’t see this in January when I climbed). We were able to hike down to the top of it- which was just a lot of flat rocks, before the major part that went over the edge! It was so wonderful to hop onto the dry rocks and take pictures. About 5 young Tanzanian? Guys (maybe late teens, early 20’s) came on to the waterfall as well, and then Emily and I find ourselves standing with one of them for a picture. Then they all took turns standing with us… they just wanted a picture with the wazungu (white people)!
We continued walking, and we were about 20 minutes from Morningside but Harold was too tired to continue so he said he would wait for us! The rest of us made it to Morningside and the view was definitely wonderful…it was hard to believe that there was so much beyond the wall of fog I was only able to see the first time @ Morningside! We rested for a few minutes, and Emily and I split my last granola bar which was just enough to refuel my energy for the hike back down!! We picked up Harold and continued back down. Harold didn’t think it was going to be this difficult, therefore he didn’t even bring water!! It took us 3 hours up and a good 2 hours back down!
We spaced apart on the way down as me, Emily, Lars and Simon walked faster and made it down to meet our driver before everyone else. For the next 15 minutes we went over to the small duka (store) and Lars bought 4 sodas for us, and I bought a couple large waters for everyone…including for Harold and one for the 3 ladies. I also bought a small banana!
It was about 2:10pm when we started on the way back and on the way I had the driver let me and Emily off across the street from Rickys because we were meeting Jan and Sofia there! They had been shopping in town all morning and I was thankful they were still there as Emily and I were hungry! I had some “strawberry cake” and a couple scoops of Pistachio ice cream (VERY good), and we also split some Lasagna! We all took a taxi back at 3:30pm and the rest of the afternoon until dinner I looked up a couple different websites on Zanzibar (the island just off the coast of Tanzania)! I learned so much about it-which is good because we will be going in one week and I wanted to look up about the history and culture and also what to do!!! It’s an incredibly beautiful island with white sand beaches, and I can’t wait to sit on one- and also do some snorkeling in the WARM Indian Ocean!!! :)
After dinner I looked at some more websites for a bit and then chatted online for a very long conversation! I didn’t get to bed until real late so I decided that I would sleep in through breakfast and just go to Tea at 10am!
Sunday March 9th
Sure enough, I didn’t get to bed until about 1am so I slept until 9am before getting up to work-out and shower before tea at 10am. I went to tea and found out that Lars and Kjersty were taking their kids Leah and Simon to go swimming and Sofia and Jan as well. Well, I was planning on getting things done today, however there was no power (therefore no internet access), so Sofia encouraged me to come. I ran back to my room to grab my book and some study material and jumped in their car at 10:30!!
There are two outdoor pools in Morogoro- one is at The Oasis Hotel and one is at the Morogoro Hotel… the one we were going to (Morogoro Hotel) is nicer I guess! Gosh, when we entered the gate and parked and walked inside I was like, yeah-no kidding!! We paid $4 to swim and then we walked through the restaurant area (which had a super high ceiling) and looked out at the pool area. I don’t know why I was so surprised that there was a nice pool and many umbrellas with tables and chairs…and even about 7 different plastic lawn chairs that one could lay on to sun!! I guess I forgot about all the nice places I was able to stay at/see when I was a tourist in the North 4 years ago! Maybe now I just appreciate this “luxury” more??!
Anyway, there were about 4 other young Norwegian women (Kjersty’s friends) sunbathing already when we arrived. I didn’t bring a swimsuit to Tanzania and so I just wore shorts and a sports bra! It was so nice to be able to read a little and to do some sunbathing! It was nice and relaxing! A couple tall guys (looked American?) showed up and did some swimming as well.
We ordered lunch and I had a pineapple Fanta and rice with pork schnitzel!! It was great!! Some more people showed up around 1pm- and a group of white people (my age- maybe American?) were eating in the restaurant.
We stayed until about 3:20pm and then we drove over to Ricky’s Café and had some ice cream as Lars had Kjersty had promised the kids some. We finally returned about 4:30pm and I tried to figure out how to make a visible photo album so you can all see pictures (at least from January-as there are many)!! I have been writing ever since dinner…whew! I think I am caught up!! Now I have to study as I think that I am taking my final test tomorrow…but good thing they are only giving me a test on the first book (30 lessons)!
PH and Luka left yesterday at noon for a long (overnight) trip to a village 4 hours away or so... I’m anxious to hear how it went!!!
It’s been great to hear from some of you~ pole sana (sympathies) for the cold/snow that continues to pile up! Good News though…Spring is officially less than 2 weeks away!!!
I pray that you continue to grow and remain optimistic as I know that this time of year can be especially grey and dreary!!
resting in Him,
Alana :)
Friday March 7th
Well, today I didn’t wake up until 7am, so therefore after breakfast I took a shower (missing morning devo unfortunately)-but it had been a couple days :) Then Jan and Sister Paulette and I met PH about 9am and we took off! Jan braided my hair in the car before we picked up our first passenger: Luka, an evangelist. We picked up a couple more evangelists- including a very well-educated man named Paulo who is from this area but is going to school way down in Mbeya (Southwest Tanzania)- on the way and we only had to drive down Secondary Road for maybe 20 minutes, and the village was basically 200 feet off of that road!
We arrived about 10:30 and after a few minutes, we followed PH, Isaya (an evangelist), another evangelist, and Lukas (a young Evangelist who will start Form 5 & 6 @ the Secondary School here), across the road to a Maasai boma where we preceded to go into the literal boma (a circular enclosed area for the cattle when they are not grazing). Paulo and PH pointed to a piece of stick sticking up through the dirt as supposedly an important man died and was buried in this spot. *I apologize, but since it has been a couple of days I do not remember the details right now!
Then a woman showed us into her house-which was more modern than most typical Maasai houses as there was a few different rooms…and even tiled bathroom floor (of course the toilets were holes in the ground (but it was plumbing nonetheless))!
We continued walking back across the road to the church where we sat for a while…well, the 3 of us women sat on a bench a few rows back from the men and we tried talking to a couple young boys-about 7 and 10-but they were being incredibly shy. The men were talking up front, and I’m not kidding-but about another 4 Evangelists showed up (all of them I have seen previously). A few more small children come in to hang out and many Mamas come to greet us. One Mama had a baby that was 2 months old and she was very kind and invited us to come follow her to her house! We got stopped halfway as another Mama and some more children came over and we took a couple of pictures. Jan got to hold the 2-month old, but a little child took my hand and we walked the rest of the way to this woman’s house ( typical one). We ducked to get in through the entrance and then 5 of us stayed in this little area near the door (for light). Jan, Sister Paulette and myself sat on chairs and there were about 4 children hanging out in the doorway. The two mamas were standing near us and asked us questions about America-like is it far away, and can we take a car here? They also wanted to know right away if we had watoto (children) and we’re of course just shocked with eyes wide open…we all answered bado (not yet). I don’t think they knew Paulette is a Sister! Anyway, then they asked us if we wanted maziwa (milk)-and I’m immediately reminded of the one village that had the sour cottage cheese consistency of milk and I say to Jan that I will not drink it. Jan says yes and they pour a mug of milk for Jan as she said she would try it. Well- it actually looked like milk so I agreed (reluctantly) to try it and I took the smallest sip possible. It was okay- the consistency was fine and it had a smoky flavor to it.
It was almost noon so we figured we should get back for the first sacrament! They followed us out of the house and I was able to chat with a couple children and take some pictures.
When we arrived back at the church all the men were finishing their chai so I thought we missed out- but I also knew that guests were always served…so sure enough, after about 15 minutes, some cups were rinsed and brought to us (along with bottles of water). We were joined by about 7 other children who were all sitting on the bench behind us and playing with empty plastic bottles.
Some of the Evangelists and PH went outside under a tree to start Baptism registration, and the others prepared for the service. The three of us slowly were joined by more and more women as they came. The children all moved to the other side of the church (there ended up being at least 40 children total at the service).
We listened to the choir sing a few songs before the service officially began about 1:40pm. The girls choir sang some songs, and then because there were so many Evangelists there was a men’s choir that also sang!!!! About 13 baptisms occurred, and I was able to take Sister Paulette up to the front to watch (and therefore get some good pictures also)! After the sermon and communion came the offering. The men’s choir sang a song, but many women came up and started singing as well- it was great! I have a wonderful video clip of this! After we ended the service outside there was some soap and candy to auction off…then the fun started…goodness I have never seen a group of kids so selfish when it came to a picture. They all of course wanted their pictures taken alone, and the children would push against their neighbor and point to themselves and say “ME! ME! Picha!) Jan and I had taken a few right away of just some Mamas and their children, but once the many other children had lost interest in their candy they ran over and wanted to see pictures and it wasn’t good enough to take a group picture as they wanted individual ones…well-I only did a few before I said- Inatosha (Enough)!
Finallly it was time to eat. We each had a bowl of rice and a couple pieces of potato, but no silverware-therefore it was back to using my right hand again!
I was chatting with some of the Evangelists after eating…and for the first time had to practically be dragged out of a village as everyone else was in the car and PH was backing up and honking the horn-then they pretended to leave without me!! haha So I ran over quickly and we left about 4:50pm!
We dropped off the 3 men and proceeded on to home. We returned about 6:15pm-just in time for dinner…but we were waiting for MeeHa and Sofia and Kjersty (Lars’ wife) to get back from town so we could go out to eat for MeeHa’s last night!!
Kjersty drove us to Dragoniere’s-a restaurant in town. Now, this place I have known about as Sofia has sad that it has good food and serves pizza on the weekends (they have a nice stone oven to make pizzas)! Other Americans have also recommended it…well I was so surprised when we turn into this gate and I see these red and green lights-and a nice grassy lawn…and a whole LOT of Wazungu (white people)! Kjersty was meeting a table of girls- most of them Norwegian-so it was just Sofia, Jan, myself, and MeeHa. We ordered some drinks and Jan and I got pizza-Sofia had fish-and MeeHa had what she called a “folded pizza.” It’s really a calzone, but she says it’s too hard to say so she calls it a “folded pizza” instead!! The pizza was excellent-I ordered Hawaiian! :) It was a great night of conversation, and I learned a lot more about MeeHa’s life and what she has done. She has been working with YWAM (Youth With a Mission: a non-profit org) for 25 years…I found out that she is 46!!!! I couldn’t believe it! She has worked with prostitutes and transvestites in New Zealand and she has worked in India (possibly somewhere in Europe…well-her husband of 12 years is from the Netherlands so she has lived there a short time)…and now she and her husband have been living in Nairobi, Kenya doing church-planting among Maasai villages there! It really is fascinating! She is just the cutest person and I will miss her deeply!!! It was just so crazy to see so many white people in the same place…Sofia said that she didn’t think that there were this many white people living in Morogoro! There was a table of young Europeans (Sofia’s and my age)- guys and girls- next to us…but we didn’t know where they were from. There were some other tables around us with middle-aged couples as well. Anyway, the pizza was Excellent and the atmosphere was great! I think I’ll take Paul and my family in a couple weeks :)
I was disappointed that they didn’t have the chocolate dessert tart so when we got back to the school finally-at about 10pm-Sofia gave each us a small bar of Milka (brand) milk chocolate along with a milk chocolate ladybug! She had received a large package with a lot of candy in it from Germany and I was SO thankful that she shared some! I ate it all when I got back to my room! I was trying to get some things ready for the mountain climb in the morning- as I was supposed to get up at 5:50am to leave but it was already 10:30pm and I was so tired.
Saturday March 8th
I woke up at 5:50am and I just felt my body telling me not to go all the way to the top…so I texted Godfrey and told them to go without me (it was just him, Mcharro (another teacher), Blaise (a language student from Congo), and another former teacher).
I slept for another 30-40 minutes before getting up and going to breakfast where everyone was surprised to see me since I had planning on climbing all day. Anyway, the group that was going only half-way left after breakfast about 7:50am. I went with Emily(13-Julie and Roger’s oldest daughter) and Lars and his son Simon, Harold, and three lady teachers: Ancy, Merena, and Agnes.
We started climbing about 8:15-8:20am. It was an absolutely beautiful day…and today was clear so I could see so much (compared to the first time I climbed when I could only see fog)! We took a break in some shade after about an hour and so Simon could eat some Pringles :) Poor Lars-he was carrying a backpack, as well as Simon on his shoulders more than half the time! The road as our path was slowy going uphill so it did get tougher- but then we got into some “rainforesty” area where we were finally among the banana trees again! We came to a point where we didn’t know exactly the best way to continue, but luckily a man who was cleaning a house decided he would come with us and show us the way to Morningside (the half-way point)!! We continued for a while until I see this great waterfall (this time we went a different way so I didn’t see this in January when I climbed). We were able to hike down to the top of it- which was just a lot of flat rocks, before the major part that went over the edge! It was so wonderful to hop onto the dry rocks and take pictures. About 5 young Tanzanian? Guys (maybe late teens, early 20’s) came on to the waterfall as well, and then Emily and I find ourselves standing with one of them for a picture. Then they all took turns standing with us… they just wanted a picture with the wazungu (white people)!
We continued walking, and we were about 20 minutes from Morningside but Harold was too tired to continue so he said he would wait for us! The rest of us made it to Morningside and the view was definitely wonderful…it was hard to believe that there was so much beyond the wall of fog I was only able to see the first time @ Morningside! We rested for a few minutes, and Emily and I split my last granola bar which was just enough to refuel my energy for the hike back down!! We picked up Harold and continued back down. Harold didn’t think it was going to be this difficult, therefore he didn’t even bring water!! It took us 3 hours up and a good 2 hours back down!
We spaced apart on the way down as me, Emily, Lars and Simon walked faster and made it down to meet our driver before everyone else. For the next 15 minutes we went over to the small duka (store) and Lars bought 4 sodas for us, and I bought a couple large waters for everyone…including for Harold and one for the 3 ladies. I also bought a small banana!
It was about 2:10pm when we started on the way back and on the way I had the driver let me and Emily off across the street from Rickys because we were meeting Jan and Sofia there! They had been shopping in town all morning and I was thankful they were still there as Emily and I were hungry! I had some “strawberry cake” and a couple scoops of Pistachio ice cream (VERY good), and we also split some Lasagna! We all took a taxi back at 3:30pm and the rest of the afternoon until dinner I looked up a couple different websites on Zanzibar (the island just off the coast of Tanzania)! I learned so much about it-which is good because we will be going in one week and I wanted to look up about the history and culture and also what to do!!! It’s an incredibly beautiful island with white sand beaches, and I can’t wait to sit on one- and also do some snorkeling in the WARM Indian Ocean!!! :)
After dinner I looked at some more websites for a bit and then chatted online for a very long conversation! I didn’t get to bed until real late so I decided that I would sleep in through breakfast and just go to Tea at 10am!
Sunday March 9th
Sure enough, I didn’t get to bed until about 1am so I slept until 9am before getting up to work-out and shower before tea at 10am. I went to tea and found out that Lars and Kjersty were taking their kids Leah and Simon to go swimming and Sofia and Jan as well. Well, I was planning on getting things done today, however there was no power (therefore no internet access), so Sofia encouraged me to come. I ran back to my room to grab my book and some study material and jumped in their car at 10:30!!
There are two outdoor pools in Morogoro- one is at The Oasis Hotel and one is at the Morogoro Hotel… the one we were going to (Morogoro Hotel) is nicer I guess! Gosh, when we entered the gate and parked and walked inside I was like, yeah-no kidding!! We paid $4 to swim and then we walked through the restaurant area (which had a super high ceiling) and looked out at the pool area. I don’t know why I was so surprised that there was a nice pool and many umbrellas with tables and chairs…and even about 7 different plastic lawn chairs that one could lay on to sun!! I guess I forgot about all the nice places I was able to stay at/see when I was a tourist in the North 4 years ago! Maybe now I just appreciate this “luxury” more??!
Anyway, there were about 4 other young Norwegian women (Kjersty’s friends) sunbathing already when we arrived. I didn’t bring a swimsuit to Tanzania and so I just wore shorts and a sports bra! It was so nice to be able to read a little and to do some sunbathing! It was nice and relaxing! A couple tall guys (looked American?) showed up and did some swimming as well.
We ordered lunch and I had a pineapple Fanta and rice with pork schnitzel!! It was great!! Some more people showed up around 1pm- and a group of white people (my age- maybe American?) were eating in the restaurant.
We stayed until about 3:20pm and then we drove over to Ricky’s Café and had some ice cream as Lars had Kjersty had promised the kids some. We finally returned about 4:30pm and I tried to figure out how to make a visible photo album so you can all see pictures (at least from January-as there are many)!! I have been writing ever since dinner…whew! I think I am caught up!! Now I have to study as I think that I am taking my final test tomorrow…but good thing they are only giving me a test on the first book (30 lessons)!
PH and Luka left yesterday at noon for a long (overnight) trip to a village 4 hours away or so... I’m anxious to hear how it went!!!
It’s been great to hear from some of you~ pole sana (sympathies) for the cold/snow that continues to pile up! Good News though…Spring is officially less than 2 weeks away!!!
I pray that you continue to grow and remain optimistic as I know that this time of year can be especially grey and dreary!!
resting in Him,
Alana :)
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Colossians 1:13
says: “All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing…”
**NOTE: I thought I would specify the difference between a Pastor and Evangelist if you do not know. Really, they are incredibly similar…a Pastor has just gone through more schooling and can administer the sacrament of holy communion and also do baptisms!
Wednesday March 6th
After breakfast and morning devotion I had some time (45 minutes) again to work on some writing/check e-mail, however for some reason the connection was way too slow so I couldn’t get to Any website! PH and I took off about 9:15am and the only passenger we picked up today was an Evangelist-Luka (not PH’s right-hand man; he is still building)!
The place was very close today-and I even know the name of the village: Mikocheni! It is not far off of the Primary Road and I had been to this church before for just 15 minutes back in January when Luka and PH had stopped to inspect it because a wall had fallen down…now it is as good as new!!
We arrived about 10:25am and 2 of the Evangelists from the day before : Yohana and Simon were already sitting in chairs under a tree waiting for us. Also-another Evangelist whom I had met Feb 10th when we had a service at the Girls Secondary School. It was an easy morning for me as I studied my previous lessons (30-45) for about 2 hours and then read Scripture for an hour and a half and also prepared most of what I was going to say for tonight’s message @ the school. During this time, 2 more Evangelists came-they are older-and I have seen them a few times before also…they are kind and jolly middle-aged men :) I didn’t mind just sitting all morning/afternoon- the studying helped so much and it was good that I had time to write out something for my message. Also- Pastor Heri (who I also really like) showed up (on his bike) as well! PH, Pastor Heri, and Yohana took a break to go look at the cattle and then they disappeared in between the huts for a while. Before I knew it the time was already 2pm and Luka showed me where to sit (I sat by him up front-perpendicular to the Pastors and Evangelist).
The service began about 2:30pm and it was full! Another small girls choir of about 15 and walked from their village so we had 2 girls choirs and they were Great!! The visiting choir actually did some dancing and singing that is what I think of when I think of “Maasai.” Supposedly it’s more of a tradition in the northern part of Tanzania, but it was exciting to see them do it! Everyone LOVED it…people were laughing and had the biggest smiles on their faces (including me)…because a woman came over to PH and grabbed his hand and held it while she continued the traditional dance…(I did get some video of it)-but it’s a “bobbing” up and down while bending the knees (like the men do that I have described previously in other posts) but also the women (with the jewelry they wear) they very neatly shake their shoulders back and forth also…obviously the necklaces make noise- but I do not know if this is something that is supposed to be, how do you say- “flaunting” certain assets?!?! **Note-I did get a short video clip of the woman dancing for PH!! :)
There were a few baptisms-the sermon, communion, and the offering before we shook hands outside!
This time, it was about 4 young Maasai warrior men that came up to me to ask me my name again and my age- as well as if I was married! I was so proud that I finally recognized that question and I could answer their questions without having to find someone to help me…well, in this case-that wouldn’t be anyone as I would have had to just not answer them! Then they wanted me to take one picture of them- and they told me their ages- well, two of them: 24 and 26. I did not expect the 26-yr-old to be that “old!” But age is so hard to tell in really anyone because it seems as though the African-American skin keeps so nicely- and “young” looking I guess. Anyway, then a man came over and wanted me to see the girls choir by the side of the church and he took my camera and took a few pictures of me with them! Then, a Maasai elder came and grabbed my shoulder and motioned that it was time to eat so I went to join the other men.
The warriors were eating at a table behind me, but I ate with Yohana, PH and Pastor Heri, and the other Evangelists were nearby. Gosh- I was served another big bowl of food (with a spoon!) like yesterday! I ate almost all of it (more than PH I think-haha)…rice, some potatoes and just one piece of goat meat that I couldn’t rip apart with my teeth so I had to chew it forever in my mouth! That’s probably the best word to describe goat meat: chewy! :) I had a 12 oz bottle of water- and then they brought us mugs of boiled milk with sugar (not the disgusting sour yogurt looking/tasting stuff)-but exactly like a Vanilla Steamer at home! It was good! (but not as good as Paul’s mom’s)!
I was already stuffed-with food AND drink when a woman brought just me and PH a bottle of Pepsi…I really should have given mine to Pastor Heri but I thought, ok, as the guest maybe I should drink it and also I thought I could get it down…however after half of it my stomach was hurting badly and I just could not finish it (no problem as the Maasai guys would after I left)! While we were drinking our sodas, a few of the Maasai men turned around their chairs to face PH and so they were in sort of a half-circle around me- and the Evangelists came closer and I guess it was sort of a “meeting.” The 24-year-old who had talked to me earlier told me his name is Daniel and they asked about my soda- and I told them (in swahili) that my stomach would burst because I was so full! It’s actually an easy sentence and they laughed as they understood! I’m glad I could “justify…” at least, in their language!
We said good-bye and left about 5:20pm. I couldn’t believe how much I had eaten yesterday and today. I have never been fed so much food (and drink) in a village before!
Oh-and PH mentioned on the way home that their was some drama today as no one was their to receive the guests (which is a BIG no-no)… I was wondering as we didn’t even have the first Sacrament!! So I guess when we were eating PH was trying to figure out the mis-communication and how this congregation has been doing and PH told me that when the Head Elder finds out this news-that no one was around to receive/serve the guests he will be very upset and ashamed.
We made it back to the seminary at 6:30pm- in time for dinner, but today I was SO full I didn’t need anything…I just grabbed a piece of pineapple and a dinner roll (as the bread is SO good)!
I had to rush back to my room as I only had an hour to finish preparing and writing some notes for the service…then I went over to the church at 7:50pm as the Pastor likes to start about 8pm-although the students slowly show up until 8:20pm. I prayed with the Pastor and another student and then went back to sit in the front row.
I couldn’t believe it… they do a Wednesday night Communion service almost exactly the way Eucharist at Wartburg College on Wednesday nights is. All of the green hymnals were donated by the Lutheran Church in Waverly, Iowa! And they follow a communion liturgy that is the same as a typical Lutheran service. We sang a couple hymns and the different forms do some songs in their seats (with a simple drum and their voices)…it is SO beautiful. The echo is awesome, especially being in the church with them. By 8:25pm when I got up to speak for about 10-13 minutes the place was full…there had to be at least 150-200 students in there! (And one row of white people that had come just to listen to me…I didn’t even ask-Jan announced to everyone at breakfast and I didn’t think anyone would want to come- but Jan came, Harold, Sofia, Julie & Roger, Lars & Chelsea and her friend from Norway). It really meant a lot to me to have their support…especially because I’m always nervous in the first couple of minutes when I start to speak (no matter where or what kind of audience I have)!
Communion takes a while as everyone has to file out of their seat and kneel up front to receive the bread and tiny cup of wine-but of course there was wonderful music to accompany. It was time to sing the last hymn and I don’t know what happened, or if this happens a lot or what…but anyway, the Pastor (who has an Incredibly quiet voice that I myself could barely hear in the front row) started to sing the first couple words and no one joined in with him- a few people (and myself) are trying to sing quietly… well, he says-Let’s start together- and the Same thing happened. We get through one verse and he says, Let’s start again… and then he comes over to ask me if I will start-and I said- they are all much better singers than I am. I hear people whispering/fidgeting and shutting their books… and so the Pastor tries a 4th time and I think a few more people joined in, but we made it through one verse-maybe two and then all sorts of books close and it’s clear (by that sign) that the students have overruled the pastor.
It was 9:30pm and I was tired and needed to get back to my room…but Harold had waited for me so we talked for about 15 minutes about the service and especially how quiet and timid the Pastor was. He seemed pretty young-but I was frustrated because it seemed as if he had No confidence whatsoever… granted the service is in English-but when there are SO many students it just seems like it would be more beneficial to have a little more enthusiastic of a full-time pastor working with them to make church seem more enjoyable maybe. Also- instead of singing hymns all of the time, maybe they could sing a different song (like many of the ones I sing at camp)-with or without actions! Haha
Hmm… it was an interesting end to the night that made me think. I was just disappointed-for the students, and for the Pastor I guess…
I finally got to bed about 11-11:30pm.
** I used the Bible Verse in my title because this verse has especially taken on more meaning here… sometimes it feels as if we are stagnant in our own faith, or in the faith of our community, state, and country…let alone thinking about any other country in the world. I am so encouraged and hopefully you will share in that encouragement of knowing that the Gospel truly is alive and well and bearing fruit all over the world~ especially among the Maasai people in Eastern Africa!!
strength in Him,
Alana :)
Thursday March 6th
Roger gave the morning devotion on Daniel 4:34-37 and wanted us to think about how the fact that God is in Control plays out in our lives. Class went excellently today…something magical happened- somehow, I reached a new level of understanding/speaking today…and I think it all had to do with the fact that today my teacher had me close my book when we were doing the sheet of practice Exercises. This was my first time doing that and it was challenging, but at the same time it wasn’t. I don’t know where all of these words came from and I don’t know how my ears were so attentive-but today I realized that for the first 48 lessons I was trained to read/write the language and I can adequately do that. The long-course students have had to close their books from day one and I wish that the short-course students could have done that…I don’t know why all of a sudden the head teacher (Chuma) told the teachers that were teaching the short-course students (there’s only a couple of us left) to have us close our books now…I mean if I would have closed my book the first 48 lessons who knows where I could be linguistically now.
After the tea break at 10, Elizabeth (my first teacher) measured me for some tops she is making me. Then Godbless, (Jan’s teacher this week) had gotten back early also so he came to my gazebo to chat. He had asked me last week about my education but I didn’t know about him-only that he is at a University in town. It was great- as he talked in Swahili and I understood! :) He is a really great guy and it was fun to hear about other college students’ lives in this part of the world!
After lunch, Jan and I looked at our different kitenge material that we had bought and were deciding which ones would look good as a skirt or top. At 4:35pm Jan and I walked over to Elizabeth’s place as she is a tailor and LOVES to sew…Jan is also using her sewing machine and finished making her own bag today. I was planning on going to the Volleyball game from 5-6pm, but then I got so into seeing pictures of all these different skirts/tops she can make and so I spent the next hour getting measured/picking out designs and figuring out which kitenge’s to use for what!
It was already 6pm so Jan and I had to go to dinner! Dinner was exciting as Roger and Lars talked about the volleyball game and how some of the secondary school boys challenged the teachers/students to a game and we lost!! Also- Jan asked PH at dinner if she could come tomorrow and she wanted to know some other questions-how far is it, should she bring water, will we be in the sun…and also- if it was bumpy…then she was honest and said-well-I need to know if I should wear a sports bra or not! HaHa! Everyone just laughed and I said- it’s ALWAYS bumpy… and Julie said: TMI (too much information)! Somehow that got me to talking about going to the bathroom in villages and why I purposely do not drink water during the day at a village…and then other people talked about times they had to go to the bathroom SO bad (experiences here in Africa, and also back home in the states)!
The rest of the night has been filled with writing….and it’s almost 10pm here so I need to post this and get some sleep as the next two days will be BUSY before my day of rest on Sunday. Tomorrow I am going to a village again…although I did want to- Sister Paulette said she is going tomorrow (and I can’t let her go alone)-and plus company will be nice! Also, Jan decided to go now too- Yay!!! And Pastor Malaki will be with us again tomorrow- even more exciting!!! :) Saturday I am climbing the mountain again and we have to start even earlier as we are going the longer (less strenuous?)way this time!!
Take Care~ blessings for your weekend!
all the glory up,
Alana :)
**NOTE: I thought I would specify the difference between a Pastor and Evangelist if you do not know. Really, they are incredibly similar…a Pastor has just gone through more schooling and can administer the sacrament of holy communion and also do baptisms!
Wednesday March 6th
After breakfast and morning devotion I had some time (45 minutes) again to work on some writing/check e-mail, however for some reason the connection was way too slow so I couldn’t get to Any website! PH and I took off about 9:15am and the only passenger we picked up today was an Evangelist-Luka (not PH’s right-hand man; he is still building)!
The place was very close today-and I even know the name of the village: Mikocheni! It is not far off of the Primary Road and I had been to this church before for just 15 minutes back in January when Luka and PH had stopped to inspect it because a wall had fallen down…now it is as good as new!!
We arrived about 10:25am and 2 of the Evangelists from the day before : Yohana and Simon were already sitting in chairs under a tree waiting for us. Also-another Evangelist whom I had met Feb 10th when we had a service at the Girls Secondary School. It was an easy morning for me as I studied my previous lessons (30-45) for about 2 hours and then read Scripture for an hour and a half and also prepared most of what I was going to say for tonight’s message @ the school. During this time, 2 more Evangelists came-they are older-and I have seen them a few times before also…they are kind and jolly middle-aged men :) I didn’t mind just sitting all morning/afternoon- the studying helped so much and it was good that I had time to write out something for my message. Also- Pastor Heri (who I also really like) showed up (on his bike) as well! PH, Pastor Heri, and Yohana took a break to go look at the cattle and then they disappeared in between the huts for a while. Before I knew it the time was already 2pm and Luka showed me where to sit (I sat by him up front-perpendicular to the Pastors and Evangelist).
The service began about 2:30pm and it was full! Another small girls choir of about 15 and walked from their village so we had 2 girls choirs and they were Great!! The visiting choir actually did some dancing and singing that is what I think of when I think of “Maasai.” Supposedly it’s more of a tradition in the northern part of Tanzania, but it was exciting to see them do it! Everyone LOVED it…people were laughing and had the biggest smiles on their faces (including me)…because a woman came over to PH and grabbed his hand and held it while she continued the traditional dance…(I did get some video of it)-but it’s a “bobbing” up and down while bending the knees (like the men do that I have described previously in other posts) but also the women (with the jewelry they wear) they very neatly shake their shoulders back and forth also…obviously the necklaces make noise- but I do not know if this is something that is supposed to be, how do you say- “flaunting” certain assets?!?! **Note-I did get a short video clip of the woman dancing for PH!! :)
There were a few baptisms-the sermon, communion, and the offering before we shook hands outside!
This time, it was about 4 young Maasai warrior men that came up to me to ask me my name again and my age- as well as if I was married! I was so proud that I finally recognized that question and I could answer their questions without having to find someone to help me…well, in this case-that wouldn’t be anyone as I would have had to just not answer them! Then they wanted me to take one picture of them- and they told me their ages- well, two of them: 24 and 26. I did not expect the 26-yr-old to be that “old!” But age is so hard to tell in really anyone because it seems as though the African-American skin keeps so nicely- and “young” looking I guess. Anyway, then a man came over and wanted me to see the girls choir by the side of the church and he took my camera and took a few pictures of me with them! Then, a Maasai elder came and grabbed my shoulder and motioned that it was time to eat so I went to join the other men.
The warriors were eating at a table behind me, but I ate with Yohana, PH and Pastor Heri, and the other Evangelists were nearby. Gosh- I was served another big bowl of food (with a spoon!) like yesterday! I ate almost all of it (more than PH I think-haha)…rice, some potatoes and just one piece of goat meat that I couldn’t rip apart with my teeth so I had to chew it forever in my mouth! That’s probably the best word to describe goat meat: chewy! :) I had a 12 oz bottle of water- and then they brought us mugs of boiled milk with sugar (not the disgusting sour yogurt looking/tasting stuff)-but exactly like a Vanilla Steamer at home! It was good! (but not as good as Paul’s mom’s)!
I was already stuffed-with food AND drink when a woman brought just me and PH a bottle of Pepsi…I really should have given mine to Pastor Heri but I thought, ok, as the guest maybe I should drink it and also I thought I could get it down…however after half of it my stomach was hurting badly and I just could not finish it (no problem as the Maasai guys would after I left)! While we were drinking our sodas, a few of the Maasai men turned around their chairs to face PH and so they were in sort of a half-circle around me- and the Evangelists came closer and I guess it was sort of a “meeting.” The 24-year-old who had talked to me earlier told me his name is Daniel and they asked about my soda- and I told them (in swahili) that my stomach would burst because I was so full! It’s actually an easy sentence and they laughed as they understood! I’m glad I could “justify…” at least, in their language!
We said good-bye and left about 5:20pm. I couldn’t believe how much I had eaten yesterday and today. I have never been fed so much food (and drink) in a village before!
Oh-and PH mentioned on the way home that their was some drama today as no one was their to receive the guests (which is a BIG no-no)… I was wondering as we didn’t even have the first Sacrament!! So I guess when we were eating PH was trying to figure out the mis-communication and how this congregation has been doing and PH told me that when the Head Elder finds out this news-that no one was around to receive/serve the guests he will be very upset and ashamed.
We made it back to the seminary at 6:30pm- in time for dinner, but today I was SO full I didn’t need anything…I just grabbed a piece of pineapple and a dinner roll (as the bread is SO good)!
I had to rush back to my room as I only had an hour to finish preparing and writing some notes for the service…then I went over to the church at 7:50pm as the Pastor likes to start about 8pm-although the students slowly show up until 8:20pm. I prayed with the Pastor and another student and then went back to sit in the front row.
I couldn’t believe it… they do a Wednesday night Communion service almost exactly the way Eucharist at Wartburg College on Wednesday nights is. All of the green hymnals were donated by the Lutheran Church in Waverly, Iowa! And they follow a communion liturgy that is the same as a typical Lutheran service. We sang a couple hymns and the different forms do some songs in their seats (with a simple drum and their voices)…it is SO beautiful. The echo is awesome, especially being in the church with them. By 8:25pm when I got up to speak for about 10-13 minutes the place was full…there had to be at least 150-200 students in there! (And one row of white people that had come just to listen to me…I didn’t even ask-Jan announced to everyone at breakfast and I didn’t think anyone would want to come- but Jan came, Harold, Sofia, Julie & Roger, Lars & Chelsea and her friend from Norway). It really meant a lot to me to have their support…especially because I’m always nervous in the first couple of minutes when I start to speak (no matter where or what kind of audience I have)!
Communion takes a while as everyone has to file out of their seat and kneel up front to receive the bread and tiny cup of wine-but of course there was wonderful music to accompany. It was time to sing the last hymn and I don’t know what happened, or if this happens a lot or what…but anyway, the Pastor (who has an Incredibly quiet voice that I myself could barely hear in the front row) started to sing the first couple words and no one joined in with him- a few people (and myself) are trying to sing quietly… well, he says-Let’s start together- and the Same thing happened. We get through one verse and he says, Let’s start again… and then he comes over to ask me if I will start-and I said- they are all much better singers than I am. I hear people whispering/fidgeting and shutting their books… and so the Pastor tries a 4th time and I think a few more people joined in, but we made it through one verse-maybe two and then all sorts of books close and it’s clear (by that sign) that the students have overruled the pastor.
It was 9:30pm and I was tired and needed to get back to my room…but Harold had waited for me so we talked for about 15 minutes about the service and especially how quiet and timid the Pastor was. He seemed pretty young-but I was frustrated because it seemed as if he had No confidence whatsoever… granted the service is in English-but when there are SO many students it just seems like it would be more beneficial to have a little more enthusiastic of a full-time pastor working with them to make church seem more enjoyable maybe. Also- instead of singing hymns all of the time, maybe they could sing a different song (like many of the ones I sing at camp)-with or without actions! Haha
Hmm… it was an interesting end to the night that made me think. I was just disappointed-for the students, and for the Pastor I guess…
I finally got to bed about 11-11:30pm.
** I used the Bible Verse in my title because this verse has especially taken on more meaning here… sometimes it feels as if we are stagnant in our own faith, or in the faith of our community, state, and country…let alone thinking about any other country in the world. I am so encouraged and hopefully you will share in that encouragement of knowing that the Gospel truly is alive and well and bearing fruit all over the world~ especially among the Maasai people in Eastern Africa!!
strength in Him,
Alana :)
Thursday March 6th
Roger gave the morning devotion on Daniel 4:34-37 and wanted us to think about how the fact that God is in Control plays out in our lives. Class went excellently today…something magical happened- somehow, I reached a new level of understanding/speaking today…and I think it all had to do with the fact that today my teacher had me close my book when we were doing the sheet of practice Exercises. This was my first time doing that and it was challenging, but at the same time it wasn’t. I don’t know where all of these words came from and I don’t know how my ears were so attentive-but today I realized that for the first 48 lessons I was trained to read/write the language and I can adequately do that. The long-course students have had to close their books from day one and I wish that the short-course students could have done that…I don’t know why all of a sudden the head teacher (Chuma) told the teachers that were teaching the short-course students (there’s only a couple of us left) to have us close our books now…I mean if I would have closed my book the first 48 lessons who knows where I could be linguistically now.
After the tea break at 10, Elizabeth (my first teacher) measured me for some tops she is making me. Then Godbless, (Jan’s teacher this week) had gotten back early also so he came to my gazebo to chat. He had asked me last week about my education but I didn’t know about him-only that he is at a University in town. It was great- as he talked in Swahili and I understood! :) He is a really great guy and it was fun to hear about other college students’ lives in this part of the world!
After lunch, Jan and I looked at our different kitenge material that we had bought and were deciding which ones would look good as a skirt or top. At 4:35pm Jan and I walked over to Elizabeth’s place as she is a tailor and LOVES to sew…Jan is also using her sewing machine and finished making her own bag today. I was planning on going to the Volleyball game from 5-6pm, but then I got so into seeing pictures of all these different skirts/tops she can make and so I spent the next hour getting measured/picking out designs and figuring out which kitenge’s to use for what!
It was already 6pm so Jan and I had to go to dinner! Dinner was exciting as Roger and Lars talked about the volleyball game and how some of the secondary school boys challenged the teachers/students to a game and we lost!! Also- Jan asked PH at dinner if she could come tomorrow and she wanted to know some other questions-how far is it, should she bring water, will we be in the sun…and also- if it was bumpy…then she was honest and said-well-I need to know if I should wear a sports bra or not! HaHa! Everyone just laughed and I said- it’s ALWAYS bumpy… and Julie said: TMI (too much information)! Somehow that got me to talking about going to the bathroom in villages and why I purposely do not drink water during the day at a village…and then other people talked about times they had to go to the bathroom SO bad (experiences here in Africa, and also back home in the states)!
The rest of the night has been filled with writing….and it’s almost 10pm here so I need to post this and get some sleep as the next two days will be BUSY before my day of rest on Sunday. Tomorrow I am going to a village again…although I did want to- Sister Paulette said she is going tomorrow (and I can’t let her go alone)-and plus company will be nice! Also, Jan decided to go now too- Yay!!! And Pastor Malaki will be with us again tomorrow- even more exciting!!! :) Saturday I am climbing the mountain again and we have to start even earlier as we are going the longer (less strenuous?)way this time!!
Take Care~ blessings for your weekend!
all the glory up,
Alana :)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
...until the cows come home
Explanation: You know that saying that goes: “We’ll eat til the cows come home or we’ll stay until the cows come home…” (there’s variations) but I think it must have gotten its origin from the Maasai villages… keep reading! :)
Tuesday March 4th
Whew. What a day! I am SO exhausted after returning at just 7:45-8pm…probably because I’m dehydrated and I was out in the sun a little today…I didn’t think that little bit could give me such a headache and make me feel like plopping into bed right now!!
After a breakfast of peanut butter/banana toast and morning devotion I had about 35-40 minutes to chat online and work on uploading pictures…its good to have internet again!! :) PH and I took off about 8:50am (just the two of us, so I got to play Luka and sit shotgun! Luka is out building a church in a village this week)! After about 40 minutes we pick up Pastor Malaki!!! He has become one of my favorite people- and a good friend!! Then more people fill up the car and I don’t know anyone elses name/position until we arrive… which wasn’t for another 45 minutes or so as we took a Secondary Road for a while and then a Tertiary Road into the bush!!
We arrive about 10:45am and are greeted by even more (3) Evangelists…I have seen them all before- Yohana (John)- he is super tall; Simon; and one I do not know. We all get chairs right away and sit under a tree in the shade of course. So I sit and listen for a while/chat a little a bit…I find out we have another Pastor with us-Isaya- and 2 other Evangelists- Safisheli and one a bit older. They were all very nice and asked me the typical simple questions. Pastor Malaki also tried teaching me some greetings in kiiMaasai! Then the washing of the hands occurred, and tea with Maandazi followed shortly after.
I was glad I brought my Bible out with me to sit this time because I did a LOT of sitting today amongst many more men than usual…and I would have gotten a headache earlier from listening to so much Swahili!! :) Therefore I read a lot of Scripture today! But it was good, as I am preparing a little message for the Wednesday night Worship Service here @ the school. It’s in English, and Grant usually runs it so he asked me if I wouldn’t mind speaking as the students (Secondary) all like seeing someone different speak!!
The men talked all morning- before and after tea- and then it was about 12:35pm and I decided today I would have to venture out in the bush by myself because there was absolutely NO way possible I was holding it all day long- especially after only one mug of chai!! So, I just got up and casually walked away into the trees to find a good spot!!
Then we sat a little longer until PH tells me that we are going on a little walk to a nearby primary school where there is a government meeting behind held (which is why no one was showing up for the service and it was almost 1pm already)! So all 8-9 of us take a walk through the bush and eventually come to a little clearing where I see the school and a very tall tree and many people sitting in chairs underneath it…also the two cars were hard not to spot (Government vehicles)! It was probably only like a 15 minute walk but when we arrive we of course have to go around to the different groups and shake hands with everybody!! There were some Maasai, and some Government officials, and also a handful of people who are taking community development classes through a University in Morogoro that were at the meeting to listen. I felt pretty proud of myself as this was probably one of my first settings where I heard so many different greetings and had to know how to answer the different ones…I also greeted some people first. Anyway-it was a real test for me!!! I think I faired well, as people seemed surprised… especially those few that just say “Jambo” because I am a mzungu (white person-automatically associated with tourist)…but when I answer “Sijambo” instead of replying back with jambo, they know that I know some Swahili! I think I have mentioned this before but I have really grown to just despise hearing that word now… PLEASE I beg you- even if you come to Tanzania as a tourist…just learn a couple basic greetings-they really are so easy and it makes life so much more fun and the people really enjoy hearing even just one or two words of Swahili!!! :)
For about 20 minutes or so we stand in a half-circle around a man (a Government personnel?) and listen as he speaks about maendeleo (development). However, of course I get stopped for a few minutes as a few men asked my name and where I was from…which I can understand and express very smoothly…but after that I really have to pray that my brain works- but sometimes people just speak so fast and my poor brain does not have the time to register the sentence(s) and pick it apart…as that is what one has to do with Swahili as there can be a subject/tense/object/verb all smashed together in one word!! I’m getting better at explaining that I am here for 3 months to study Swahili and that I will return to America to finish school in May. One man told me he wants to teach me kiiMaasai but not now- and so I said, but it is a lugha ngumu (difficult language) so siku ningine (another day), which we both know won’t happen! Haha
Then we walked back, only to sit some more…but on the way Pastor Malaki and the cute older Evangelist wearing yellow took my bag and my bible…gosh they are just so kind- it’s not like my bag was even heavy! I sit and read some more Scripture, greet some more people- as about 7 Maasai warriors show up…PH even registered 3 young warriors today and that was something big. I wish I could explain to you the faces of these young men (probably 18-22)...one especially- he hung around all morning just quiet- and PH gave him a small kiiSwahili workbook as many in this village were not literate…and then later PH said to me- “that’s what I thought he was hanging around for-he wants to be baptized!” About 2:30, as the Pastors were getting ready to begin the service, a young man on a bike stopped and called to me in English- “Hello-how are you?” I answered in Swahili and then he kept going with questions…which I knew most of the sentence but again, he was speaking so fast I had to ask him to repeat and he was asking the typical questions in a different way than I am/have been used to…anyway- we talked for about 15-20 minutes so my Swahili repertoire was certainly stretched!! Then the service began finally at about 3pm! It was pretty small but people crowded in- about 85 I think (including many children)! I sat in the back on a bench beside a couple big mamas. Today, the two Maasai pastors (Malaki and Isaya) as well as the other Evangelists and a couple warriors all formed a mens choir (which I LOVE of course) so they were able to sing (and “grunt”) and there was also a small (but mighty) children’s choir!!
3 baptisms, a sermon, communion, the offering, the send out song/shaking hands and the service is officially completed. They did have to auction off a few kitenges though!
Then it was time for the akwardness…where I just stand there and let the children look and touch my skin and my hair. Gosh, today the women were really obsessed with my hair as many of them were touching it and feeling it even during the service- especially my bangs, as they love to push them away from my face, only to have some of them fall again!
Well, I decided after a few minutes that I would go see if it was time for food…but it wasn’t so I went back inside the church, which was empty except for a couple little girls who were playing the traditional drum (in this case, in this village it was like a plastic empty gasoline container or something). I asked the girls if they liked playing the drum and then before I know it I’m surrounded by about 10-15 boys and girls again. Sometimes I can understand their questions- and then that leads to more discussion topics! Using the time is always safe- so I recognize that question, and they love to look at my watch of course. Also, they ask if I like the sun and I explain that it is nice here because at home right now in my country there is much snow and ice and cold! Sometimes they ask if home is mbele (far) and I say- yes, very!! Oh, today (between some kids saying give me! about my watch and bracelets one boy who was probably 15 asked me how much it is to fly on a place here…I simply said, a lot!!
Finally, it was about 5:15pm and time to eat…so I get to be quite the honorary man today as there were so may people eating! I got to drink another mug of chai and actually had the best and most food Ive eaten in a village so far!!! We were each served a big bowl with lots of rice, a couple potatoes, a little (brown) beans, and I had just 2 smaller pieces of goat meat (not even any bone so this was definitely doable)! I ate almost all of it before I was really stuffed (I’ve never been that full after eating in a village before…maybe because we had some time also). Anyway- sometimes I do not know whether or not I should try to eat all of it or not…because, here’s the thing: as their guest, it’s important to show them that I respect them by eating as much as I can (and PH mentioned that he’s glad I am a good eater as I do not “shame” him in the villages)…but also, when the guests/men (warriors) are done eating, I see them give the plates to the children and I see the children just go wild over a plate…and so then I think, gosh, I shouldn’t eat as much.
Also, during this time- 5:30pm-is when we see a whole herd of cows come back from grazing and are standing about 100-200 feet away and then on the other side a whole line of cows just keeps coming and coming…and this is when PH says-“well, we definitely stayed until the cows came home today!!!” This is what I meant by my title!!
Before we left Pastor Malaki and PH went to look at the cows (SO many) and Pastor Isaya stayed with me and some young boys came over because I was taking a picture of the pastors among all of the cows…so of course they wanted their picture taken! (It’s good that I am waiting until the end to bring out the camera because gosh do they go crazy!) I got a couple cute pictures though as these boys were all smiling and laughing and very excited! Good thing I had Pastor Isaya with me to help control them as they don’t really understand the meaning of “Wait!” They all just want to see the picture so badly… haha We finally left about 6pm and dropped everyone off and I was back at “home” about 7:45pm! I started writing immediately, because if I would have waited I would have put it off and I am going to yet another village tomorrow so I will have more to write!!
**Something that has been on my heart and mind during my time here (which PH and I have discussed) is the fact that denominations more often than not divide Christians instead of uniting them…I mean isn’t that the whole purpose of the CHURCH?!?!? I guess one should ask, What is the Church?!?!? Is it a building we go to once (maybe twice) a week?!? No. The church is every single one of us…it is all believers/followers of Jesus Christ…
…this makes me think of the rltshp. between Catholics and Lutherans here in Tanzania…supposedly they get along pretty well…and PH said this past Sunday a few Catholic women even came to communion! But the Pentecostals seem to think that they are the “correct way” to Jesus…in fact- in the village we went to today some Pentecostals had built a church in a different part of the village and they have “taken” much of the congregation from where we worshipped today and are telling them (even if they’ve been baptized by PH) that they are not “saved.”
Something PH said last Sunday is what I’ve heard before, but it resonates so much clearer now… He said, maybe instead of telling other denominations what is “wrong” or preaching do’s and don’ts among them we should be teaching about Jesus Christ…
And that’s what is wrong with denominations all over the world today… I believe that they can be good- because people are different and having denominations helps someone to find where they “fit-“ or what helps them to pursue their relationship with Jesus…but sometimes the purposes and intentions of denominations get to be more focused on their doctrine then on Jesus Christ…who, if we look at the early church-formed Christianity…shouldn’t this be the most important thing that unites us all?!?!?
And Especially with Eucharist…for this is supposed to be a symbol for ALL Christians to UNIFY them together to remember that Jesus’s body and blood were shed for ALL...that means ALL, every single believer/follower of Jesus Christ. If we exclude people, how is that showing the world that Christianity, that Jesus Christ is different…that he is NOT of this world?!?!
Ok~ that’s my spiel for the day!
Praying that you are strengthened and encouraged wherever you are at today by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!
For His glory,
Alana :)
Tuesday March 4th
Whew. What a day! I am SO exhausted after returning at just 7:45-8pm…probably because I’m dehydrated and I was out in the sun a little today…I didn’t think that little bit could give me such a headache and make me feel like plopping into bed right now!!
After a breakfast of peanut butter/banana toast and morning devotion I had about 35-40 minutes to chat online and work on uploading pictures…its good to have internet again!! :) PH and I took off about 8:50am (just the two of us, so I got to play Luka and sit shotgun! Luka is out building a church in a village this week)! After about 40 minutes we pick up Pastor Malaki!!! He has become one of my favorite people- and a good friend!! Then more people fill up the car and I don’t know anyone elses name/position until we arrive… which wasn’t for another 45 minutes or so as we took a Secondary Road for a while and then a Tertiary Road into the bush!!
We arrive about 10:45am and are greeted by even more (3) Evangelists…I have seen them all before- Yohana (John)- he is super tall; Simon; and one I do not know. We all get chairs right away and sit under a tree in the shade of course. So I sit and listen for a while/chat a little a bit…I find out we have another Pastor with us-Isaya- and 2 other Evangelists- Safisheli and one a bit older. They were all very nice and asked me the typical simple questions. Pastor Malaki also tried teaching me some greetings in kiiMaasai! Then the washing of the hands occurred, and tea with Maandazi followed shortly after.
I was glad I brought my Bible out with me to sit this time because I did a LOT of sitting today amongst many more men than usual…and I would have gotten a headache earlier from listening to so much Swahili!! :) Therefore I read a lot of Scripture today! But it was good, as I am preparing a little message for the Wednesday night Worship Service here @ the school. It’s in English, and Grant usually runs it so he asked me if I wouldn’t mind speaking as the students (Secondary) all like seeing someone different speak!!
The men talked all morning- before and after tea- and then it was about 12:35pm and I decided today I would have to venture out in the bush by myself because there was absolutely NO way possible I was holding it all day long- especially after only one mug of chai!! So, I just got up and casually walked away into the trees to find a good spot!!
Then we sat a little longer until PH tells me that we are going on a little walk to a nearby primary school where there is a government meeting behind held (which is why no one was showing up for the service and it was almost 1pm already)! So all 8-9 of us take a walk through the bush and eventually come to a little clearing where I see the school and a very tall tree and many people sitting in chairs underneath it…also the two cars were hard not to spot (Government vehicles)! It was probably only like a 15 minute walk but when we arrive we of course have to go around to the different groups and shake hands with everybody!! There were some Maasai, and some Government officials, and also a handful of people who are taking community development classes through a University in Morogoro that were at the meeting to listen. I felt pretty proud of myself as this was probably one of my first settings where I heard so many different greetings and had to know how to answer the different ones…I also greeted some people first. Anyway-it was a real test for me!!! I think I faired well, as people seemed surprised… especially those few that just say “Jambo” because I am a mzungu (white person-automatically associated with tourist)…but when I answer “Sijambo” instead of replying back with jambo, they know that I know some Swahili! I think I have mentioned this before but I have really grown to just despise hearing that word now… PLEASE I beg you- even if you come to Tanzania as a tourist…just learn a couple basic greetings-they really are so easy and it makes life so much more fun and the people really enjoy hearing even just one or two words of Swahili!!! :)
For about 20 minutes or so we stand in a half-circle around a man (a Government personnel?) and listen as he speaks about maendeleo (development). However, of course I get stopped for a few minutes as a few men asked my name and where I was from…which I can understand and express very smoothly…but after that I really have to pray that my brain works- but sometimes people just speak so fast and my poor brain does not have the time to register the sentence(s) and pick it apart…as that is what one has to do with Swahili as there can be a subject/tense/object/verb all smashed together in one word!! I’m getting better at explaining that I am here for 3 months to study Swahili and that I will return to America to finish school in May. One man told me he wants to teach me kiiMaasai but not now- and so I said, but it is a lugha ngumu (difficult language) so siku ningine (another day), which we both know won’t happen! Haha
Then we walked back, only to sit some more…but on the way Pastor Malaki and the cute older Evangelist wearing yellow took my bag and my bible…gosh they are just so kind- it’s not like my bag was even heavy! I sit and read some more Scripture, greet some more people- as about 7 Maasai warriors show up…PH even registered 3 young warriors today and that was something big. I wish I could explain to you the faces of these young men (probably 18-22)...one especially- he hung around all morning just quiet- and PH gave him a small kiiSwahili workbook as many in this village were not literate…and then later PH said to me- “that’s what I thought he was hanging around for-he wants to be baptized!” About 2:30, as the Pastors were getting ready to begin the service, a young man on a bike stopped and called to me in English- “Hello-how are you?” I answered in Swahili and then he kept going with questions…which I knew most of the sentence but again, he was speaking so fast I had to ask him to repeat and he was asking the typical questions in a different way than I am/have been used to…anyway- we talked for about 15-20 minutes so my Swahili repertoire was certainly stretched!! Then the service began finally at about 3pm! It was pretty small but people crowded in- about 85 I think (including many children)! I sat in the back on a bench beside a couple big mamas. Today, the two Maasai pastors (Malaki and Isaya) as well as the other Evangelists and a couple warriors all formed a mens choir (which I LOVE of course) so they were able to sing (and “grunt”) and there was also a small (but mighty) children’s choir!!
3 baptisms, a sermon, communion, the offering, the send out song/shaking hands and the service is officially completed. They did have to auction off a few kitenges though!
Then it was time for the akwardness…where I just stand there and let the children look and touch my skin and my hair. Gosh, today the women were really obsessed with my hair as many of them were touching it and feeling it even during the service- especially my bangs, as they love to push them away from my face, only to have some of them fall again!
Well, I decided after a few minutes that I would go see if it was time for food…but it wasn’t so I went back inside the church, which was empty except for a couple little girls who were playing the traditional drum (in this case, in this village it was like a plastic empty gasoline container or something). I asked the girls if they liked playing the drum and then before I know it I’m surrounded by about 10-15 boys and girls again. Sometimes I can understand their questions- and then that leads to more discussion topics! Using the time is always safe- so I recognize that question, and they love to look at my watch of course. Also, they ask if I like the sun and I explain that it is nice here because at home right now in my country there is much snow and ice and cold! Sometimes they ask if home is mbele (far) and I say- yes, very!! Oh, today (between some kids saying give me! about my watch and bracelets one boy who was probably 15 asked me how much it is to fly on a place here…I simply said, a lot!!
Finally, it was about 5:15pm and time to eat…so I get to be quite the honorary man today as there were so may people eating! I got to drink another mug of chai and actually had the best and most food Ive eaten in a village so far!!! We were each served a big bowl with lots of rice, a couple potatoes, a little (brown) beans, and I had just 2 smaller pieces of goat meat (not even any bone so this was definitely doable)! I ate almost all of it before I was really stuffed (I’ve never been that full after eating in a village before…maybe because we had some time also). Anyway- sometimes I do not know whether or not I should try to eat all of it or not…because, here’s the thing: as their guest, it’s important to show them that I respect them by eating as much as I can (and PH mentioned that he’s glad I am a good eater as I do not “shame” him in the villages)…but also, when the guests/men (warriors) are done eating, I see them give the plates to the children and I see the children just go wild over a plate…and so then I think, gosh, I shouldn’t eat as much.
Also, during this time- 5:30pm-is when we see a whole herd of cows come back from grazing and are standing about 100-200 feet away and then on the other side a whole line of cows just keeps coming and coming…and this is when PH says-“well, we definitely stayed until the cows came home today!!!” This is what I meant by my title!!
Before we left Pastor Malaki and PH went to look at the cows (SO many) and Pastor Isaya stayed with me and some young boys came over because I was taking a picture of the pastors among all of the cows…so of course they wanted their picture taken! (It’s good that I am waiting until the end to bring out the camera because gosh do they go crazy!) I got a couple cute pictures though as these boys were all smiling and laughing and very excited! Good thing I had Pastor Isaya with me to help control them as they don’t really understand the meaning of “Wait!” They all just want to see the picture so badly… haha We finally left about 6pm and dropped everyone off and I was back at “home” about 7:45pm! I started writing immediately, because if I would have waited I would have put it off and I am going to yet another village tomorrow so I will have more to write!!
**Something that has been on my heart and mind during my time here (which PH and I have discussed) is the fact that denominations more often than not divide Christians instead of uniting them…I mean isn’t that the whole purpose of the CHURCH?!?!? I guess one should ask, What is the Church?!?!? Is it a building we go to once (maybe twice) a week?!? No. The church is every single one of us…it is all believers/followers of Jesus Christ…
…this makes me think of the rltshp. between Catholics and Lutherans here in Tanzania…supposedly they get along pretty well…and PH said this past Sunday a few Catholic women even came to communion! But the Pentecostals seem to think that they are the “correct way” to Jesus…in fact- in the village we went to today some Pentecostals had built a church in a different part of the village and they have “taken” much of the congregation from where we worshipped today and are telling them (even if they’ve been baptized by PH) that they are not “saved.”
Something PH said last Sunday is what I’ve heard before, but it resonates so much clearer now… He said, maybe instead of telling other denominations what is “wrong” or preaching do’s and don’ts among them we should be teaching about Jesus Christ…
And that’s what is wrong with denominations all over the world today… I believe that they can be good- because people are different and having denominations helps someone to find where they “fit-“ or what helps them to pursue their relationship with Jesus…but sometimes the purposes and intentions of denominations get to be more focused on their doctrine then on Jesus Christ…who, if we look at the early church-formed Christianity…shouldn’t this be the most important thing that unites us all?!?!?
And Especially with Eucharist…for this is supposed to be a symbol for ALL Christians to UNIFY them together to remember that Jesus’s body and blood were shed for ALL...that means ALL, every single believer/follower of Jesus Christ. If we exclude people, how is that showing the world that Christianity, that Jesus Christ is different…that he is NOT of this world?!?!
Ok~ that’s my spiel for the day!
Praying that you are strengthened and encouraged wherever you are at today by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!
For His glory,
Alana :)
Monday, March 3, 2008
Nyumba ya watoto yatima
Translation: Orphanage
**NOTE: Sunday and Monday's entry is the post before this one!!!
Monday March 3rd
Well, I was looking forward to a new week and I got about 8 hours of sleep- but I found myself getting ornery as I got a new teacher this week: Merina. When she speaks English she has the hardest accent to understand and that is with the English she knows. Anyway, so I was a little discouraged at lunchtime and feeling SO tired again.
During my break I did a little writing and studying and then met Grant at 2:45pm to go to the Orphanage. It was about a 25-30 minute walk and it was absolutely beautiful the whole way!! As the school here is tucked into so many tall trees I can barely see the mountains peeking out…it was wonderful to explore what is 30 minutes behind, or “in back of” the seminary!! It was very humid today as it rained last night and sprinkled this afternoon, but we walked through like a small rainforest with lots of palm/banana trees- and then emerged at the railroad tracks which we followed East then for a little while and since we were up a little higher and in more of a clearing I had some houses and small corn fields with the mountains on my right side, and to my left more palm trees and some scattered women working their rice fields! We kept walking, exchanging greetings to the people outside of their houses/walking by. We walked through another area and I have never seen so many tall/skinny palm trees- it was a beautiful view! Then we walked up a slight hill where there was a large school (primary school up to Form 6) that was built by the Sisters’. The view of the mountains behind was wonderful and Grant told me to take a picture as a view like this in America one would pay money for (perhaps at a resort/lodge)!! Haha Then, we walked through a tunnel of cool-looking trees (plumeria) and I even got to smell a flower…it was lovely- just like the Plumeria lotion Bath & Body Works sells back home!!! :)
We arrived about 3:20pm and the children 3+ (to about 6 maybe) were outside on the playground or in an entry-way like area. Three came running over to us right away and as I bent down two practically leaped onto my lap!! We just sat with them for 15 minutes or so…they went to get a couple biscuit cookies for a snack and then one time 3 tried to sit on my lap. I took one little one out of a play pen- and her bottom was wet with urine…one just gets used to damp butts, and therefore damp laps (mine)! :)
It reminded me of the time I was working with the non-profit org. Latreia this past summer in Minneapolis. We had brought a small youth group from Nebraska to a center for inner city kids to come during the day- like a ½ day camp where kids are able to eat a meal/play games/sing, etc… one time when there was all sorts of about 1-3rd grade kids in a room and I think we were singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Well, one little 3rd grade boy just completely peed his pants…I mean, I looked over and it was running down his legs into a puddle on the floor…so I took the child to a helper so he could get cleaned up and I went to get many paper towels to wipe it all up…but in the meantime, another child slipped and fell in the puddle of course… haha- oh it was an experience!!!
Anyway, then a Tanzanian woman who comes a lot (she spoke some English and attends a University here) showed me the two rooms of babies. One room had about 10 cribs in it and that was for babies 0-1 year. There was a set of triplets (the mother died), and a set of twins. Then the next room over,there were about 10 more babies aged 1-2 and they were ornery. I went back to the room with the tiniest ones and the woman who could speak English was taking pictures with her cell phone, so I decided to ask her if it was possible for me to take even one. She gave me very short answer in Swahili, but it was an unfamiliar word that I understood to be no. well, then another mama told me it was okay and so I got my picture taken a couple different times with two little babies in the same crib. They liked me as they smiled and laughed when I looked at them!
It was a wonderful time! None of the children- the 3-6 year olds or the babies was afraid of the mzungu (white person)! Probably because Grant comes at least a couple times of week for an hour to “play” with the children- more like sit with them and let them crawl all over you! After I spent some time with the babies I went back out with Grant, and a young girl decided to hop on my back, and my neck!! Then at about 4:15pm we brought them to a room for their video time and we said good-bye to some of the Sisters (as the Catholics run the orphanage)!
On the way back there was more people on the road…some still slashing grass in the fields by hand with a small blade (I will never complain about using an electrical weed-eater ever again!!!!)…some biking, or walking back from town…mamas cooking over the fire outside their homes, a young girl that said “take my picha (picture),” and my favorite site: a man climbing a coconut tree :) The clouds were much lower now, covering the top of the mountain, but of course it is always a sight to behold! I told Grant, I could never get used to this...I just love it too much!! We returned about 4:45pm and had some peanuts leftover from tea time, and I went back to my room to change out of my khakis and hiking boots- I was pretty sweaty from the walk! Jan came over to announce the internet still wasn’t working (its been a full day now) and Lars and Harold climbed half of the tower to look at the box… I did some writing and went to dinner for Pizza! It’s actually pretty good here- once I take off some onions and mushrooms the rest is ok- cheese, pineapple, some tomato and maybe “sausage” (hot dog). Godfrey stopped by my room as well to return the book he borrowed for the bus to and from Dar es Salaam this past weekend. I asked Pastor Hafermann about where he was going for his Tues, Wed, and Fri services this week and if I would know any of the evangelists/pastors…and he said all three…hmmm- I may take him up on all three…but if I want to make it up the mountain again on Saturday I don’t know how tired that will make me!! haha But this week we are going down the other primary paved road…the direction where all of the people I “know” are!! :) That gets me more excited!! However, that means I need to be more focused and work quickly this week- I may not write as detailed of an entry for the village visits, as most of you probably know the drill by now!! :)
Alright, time to wash the few clothes that can’t be washed by Eliudi and hopefully get up early to do a little exercise finally!!
Kwa furaha moyoni,
(with joy in my heart)
Alana :)
**NOTE: Sunday and Monday's entry is the post before this one!!!
Monday March 3rd
Well, I was looking forward to a new week and I got about 8 hours of sleep- but I found myself getting ornery as I got a new teacher this week: Merina. When she speaks English she has the hardest accent to understand and that is with the English she knows. Anyway, so I was a little discouraged at lunchtime and feeling SO tired again.
During my break I did a little writing and studying and then met Grant at 2:45pm to go to the Orphanage. It was about a 25-30 minute walk and it was absolutely beautiful the whole way!! As the school here is tucked into so many tall trees I can barely see the mountains peeking out…it was wonderful to explore what is 30 minutes behind, or “in back of” the seminary!! It was very humid today as it rained last night and sprinkled this afternoon, but we walked through like a small rainforest with lots of palm/banana trees- and then emerged at the railroad tracks which we followed East then for a little while and since we were up a little higher and in more of a clearing I had some houses and small corn fields with the mountains on my right side, and to my left more palm trees and some scattered women working their rice fields! We kept walking, exchanging greetings to the people outside of their houses/walking by. We walked through another area and I have never seen so many tall/skinny palm trees- it was a beautiful view! Then we walked up a slight hill where there was a large school (primary school up to Form 6) that was built by the Sisters’. The view of the mountains behind was wonderful and Grant told me to take a picture as a view like this in America one would pay money for (perhaps at a resort/lodge)!! Haha Then, we walked through a tunnel of cool-looking trees (plumeria) and I even got to smell a flower…it was lovely- just like the Plumeria lotion Bath & Body Works sells back home!!! :)
We arrived about 3:20pm and the children 3+ (to about 6 maybe) were outside on the playground or in an entry-way like area. Three came running over to us right away and as I bent down two practically leaped onto my lap!! We just sat with them for 15 minutes or so…they went to get a couple biscuit cookies for a snack and then one time 3 tried to sit on my lap. I took one little one out of a play pen- and her bottom was wet with urine…one just gets used to damp butts, and therefore damp laps (mine)! :)
It reminded me of the time I was working with the non-profit org. Latreia this past summer in Minneapolis. We had brought a small youth group from Nebraska to a center for inner city kids to come during the day- like a ½ day camp where kids are able to eat a meal/play games/sing, etc… one time when there was all sorts of about 1-3rd grade kids in a room and I think we were singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. Well, one little 3rd grade boy just completely peed his pants…I mean, I looked over and it was running down his legs into a puddle on the floor…so I took the child to a helper so he could get cleaned up and I went to get many paper towels to wipe it all up…but in the meantime, another child slipped and fell in the puddle of course… haha- oh it was an experience!!!
Anyway, then a Tanzanian woman who comes a lot (she spoke some English and attends a University here) showed me the two rooms of babies. One room had about 10 cribs in it and that was for babies 0-1 year. There was a set of triplets (the mother died), and a set of twins. Then the next room over,there were about 10 more babies aged 1-2 and they were ornery. I went back to the room with the tiniest ones and the woman who could speak English was taking pictures with her cell phone, so I decided to ask her if it was possible for me to take even one. She gave me very short answer in Swahili, but it was an unfamiliar word that I understood to be no. well, then another mama told me it was okay and so I got my picture taken a couple different times with two little babies in the same crib. They liked me as they smiled and laughed when I looked at them!
It was a wonderful time! None of the children- the 3-6 year olds or the babies was afraid of the mzungu (white person)! Probably because Grant comes at least a couple times of week for an hour to “play” with the children- more like sit with them and let them crawl all over you! After I spent some time with the babies I went back out with Grant, and a young girl decided to hop on my back, and my neck!! Then at about 4:15pm we brought them to a room for their video time and we said good-bye to some of the Sisters (as the Catholics run the orphanage)!
On the way back there was more people on the road…some still slashing grass in the fields by hand with a small blade (I will never complain about using an electrical weed-eater ever again!!!!)…some biking, or walking back from town…mamas cooking over the fire outside their homes, a young girl that said “take my picha (picture),” and my favorite site: a man climbing a coconut tree :) The clouds were much lower now, covering the top of the mountain, but of course it is always a sight to behold! I told Grant, I could never get used to this...I just love it too much!! We returned about 4:45pm and had some peanuts leftover from tea time, and I went back to my room to change out of my khakis and hiking boots- I was pretty sweaty from the walk! Jan came over to announce the internet still wasn’t working (its been a full day now) and Lars and Harold climbed half of the tower to look at the box… I did some writing and went to dinner for Pizza! It’s actually pretty good here- once I take off some onions and mushrooms the rest is ok- cheese, pineapple, some tomato and maybe “sausage” (hot dog). Godfrey stopped by my room as well to return the book he borrowed for the bus to and from Dar es Salaam this past weekend. I asked Pastor Hafermann about where he was going for his Tues, Wed, and Fri services this week and if I would know any of the evangelists/pastors…and he said all three…hmmm- I may take him up on all three…but if I want to make it up the mountain again on Saturday I don’t know how tired that will make me!! haha But this week we are going down the other primary paved road…the direction where all of the people I “know” are!! :) That gets me more excited!! However, that means I need to be more focused and work quickly this week- I may not write as detailed of an entry for the village visits, as most of you probably know the drill by now!! :)
Alright, time to wash the few clothes that can’t be washed by Eliudi and hopefully get up early to do a little exercise finally!!
Kwa furaha moyoni,
(with joy in my heart)
Alana :)
"Mungu ni Mwema"
Translation: God is good.
(I finally found a kanga with a saying that I could understand and really liked and a color that was excellent)!!
Saturday March 1st
Breakfast was excellent this morning because the mamas made pancakes!! They are just like the ones we eat at home (without syrup)!! To solve the no syrup problem I just put peanut butter on them of course (therefore I decided I would forgo my (almost) burnt peanut butter toast that I have every other morning)…along with some banana pieces!!!! Oh my! This was a new experience for me as I just started eating bananas a month ago! Bananas + peanut butter = Excellent! Now, throw in some chocolate chips and it would have been superb! :)
I chatted online and tidied up my room a bit from 8-9am and then I met Jan and Sofia and Roger at 9 and we waited a half an hour for the bus to come pick us up to bring us to town…but of course, waiting by the laundry area has its pluses as Eliudi was working and always comes to chat. I love Roger’s enthusiasm and determination for learning the language- he just keeps asking Eliudi questions about his job and how many hours he works/when he gets up in the morning…all to practice speaking!!
We got into town about 10am and for the next 2 hours we stayed in the market…we stopped at MANY kitenge/kanga shops to look at the material…I still haven’t seen it all because there is SOOO Much beautiful fabric…it’s so hard to decide! We stayed a little longer in some shops than others as Jan drew some examples of bags and was trying to communicate with some tailors to see if they could possibly make them. It helps that most shop-owners know some English too, so in case one’s Swahili fails…communication can still continue! It is hard to shop with others sometimes as I wanted to stop in almost every fabric place, because I’m trying to find a kanga that has writing on it that I understand! I can read most of them, which makes me happy…but its hard to find one with a meaningful phrase and a good color! Most of the phrases are spiritual, for example, one kanga I liked said something about I put my hope/trust in Jesus for every matter…
I was also looking for a neat pattern/good color of a kitenge so I could give one of my teachers at the Language school the material on Monday as she is a tailor and can make me a top!!
Well, I was more successful than I planned on so I was excited! I found something for a top and I also found a beautiful kanga that is black/blue/white and says “Mungu ni Mwema,” or simply: God is Good! I love it! Once we were finished looking around the market we walked around some of the main stores and went to the supermarket as well as a small “bookstore” to get some pens and small notebooks…then we continued walking a couple more blocks to Ricky’s!!! We spent the afternoon (about 2 hours) just eating and chatting and relaxing. I had a pepsi float with some ice cream again- and also some chocolate cake…and this time I had the lasagna-which was wonderful!!! Two Saturdays in a row now of soda/ice cream/chocolate cake… that’s enough splurging for me!! We took a taxi back to the school about 3pm. Sofia had wanted to go swimming at the Oasis hotel in town, but we all decided we were too tired (and I didn’t really feel like swimming anyway).
I got back and grabbed my computer to work on writing/uploading pictures and went over to a different block to grab a chair and sit in the nice, warm sun for 35 minutes until tea at 4pm…well- Emily (the Tate’s almost 13 year old daughter) walked by and decided to sit down and chat so therefore I got nothing done…but it was good as Emily is more lonely now since Megan (who was 14) left a week ago! Emily is more mature than her age lets on to and it was fun to chat about life- and I was actually able to ask her many questions about life back home growing up being home-schooled and having a father as a Baptist preacher. Her parents have many many rules and Emily says she understands why they have rules but sometimes its hard when she looks at other friends and feels left out. I also asked her about her feelings when her parents told her one year ago that they were moving to Africa…how she left her relatives/other friends, etc. She is a wonderful writer and she even showed me some of the friendship poems that she and her best friend from Ohio had written back and forth to each other over the past year. It’s hard to believe that a 12 and a 13 year old girl wrote these poems as they are so meaningful and from the heart… it humbled me to remembering that even young people can be passionate about their faith in Jesus to have what I would say is more of a mature spiritual thinking.”
After tea I worked on some writing before dinner at 6pm and I also worked on some more after dinner. I was SO exhausted by 9pm that I was going to go to bed at 9:30pm and get up early to do some exercise…but Jan came over and we ended up chatting for about 20 minutes- she’s great to talk to but I felt bad because I was just so tired… so of course it’s 10:30-11pm before I get to sleep finally!
**Oh-I almost forgot: I was able to pick up my clothes after breakfast…we found Eliudi so I could take all of them down off the line!! It was definitely worth the $1 I paid to have him do it as it saved me LARGE amounts of time and energy!! :)
Happy March!! (think there will be snow/ice still on the ground in one month from now)???!?
God is good,
Alana :)
Sunday March 2nd
After breakfast, I had about 45 minutes of free time before we were supposed to leave so Jan did 2 braids in my hair and then I picked up my room- organized my bathroom and my desk area as Jan wanted to use my room for the day (because she only has one small room and wanted a little more space I guess)... About 8:45 we gathered at PH’s car and Olivia and her parents (North Carolina) ended up coming with us as well. (Olivia is the 24-yr-old Harvard grad/pole-vaulter that is scarily similar to me…I climbed the mountain with her in January~just a reminder)! Also, Grant (the American Methodist missionary that has been living here for 8 years and who came with us last week) joined us again and he drove separately with 2 young men who are in the Leadership training progam here I believe!
Today we did NOT go to a Maasai village so I was pretty bummed…but it was still an alright day. We did not drive far at all as it was about 20 minutes on primary road, then another 35 or 40 on secondary road. The area we went to today is of “regular townspeople” and is mostly Islamic…however there was a church built and dedicated in April of 2005 and there is an Evangelist in this area. We arrived at the church at 10am and stood around outside for a while…Olivia found a baby to hold as soon as possible of course! Then, about 10:45-11am we were brought to some shade by a couple nearby houses and served tea (not Maasai chai of course), but it was good-almost too sweet! We also had what looked like dinner rolls- the bread was very thick and it was very good to dip in my tea!! I discussed (with Grant) some of my plans for the next week and a half- of things I still have to do before my parents arrive and then some plans for when they do arrive… so tomorrow I am going with Grant to the nearby orphanage finally!!! I will finally get to love on some little children :)
Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty much like a typical service that we do in the Maasai villages…there was a choir (even dressed alike) that had walked 1-2 hours to come to the service- and also a small children’s choir of about 10. I’m getting ahead of myself though. After tea, we had to wait around about another 45 minutes as PH had to register a family and one other person for baptism today. As guests, we were all given small wooden chairs to sit on up front perpendicular to the altar. During the beginning of the service the choirs sang an awful lot but I enjoyed the children’s choir as this one little boy on the end near us was SO good. He had such beautiful big eyes and one would never guess the powerful voice that came from his mouth. I should have taken a video but I was too enthralled watching him. He was so good at the hand motions/ steps they also did!!
The service was about 2 hours (11:40-1:45pm) including communion/offering and there were about 100 people in attendance at worship. However, there was SOO much to auction off after the service so therefore the next hour-until 3pm was spent outside the church in a semi-circle with a couple different evangelist’s/church members auctioning off a goat, 4-5 chickens, kitenge’s/kangas, soap, bottles of soda, bags of fresh beans, stalks of corn, stalks of green bananas, Lots of sugarcane… Olivia’s parents bought the goat for the church to have an Easter feast ($43!) and PH of course bought a lot and gave it all away…including chickens, kitenge’s, and a couple bottles of soda for the two boys that stuck to his side for quite a while (including the adorable boy that loved to sing)! I asked him his name and found out that in English it translates to Job (like the book of the Bible)…but in Swahili it’s like Abuyu or something- I’ll have to check on that. It was a really long auction and I was thankful when it was over and we were able to go back in the church and had food waiting for us. As the guests, we were the only ones that got to have spoons. We could serve ourselves, which I was also thankful for as I did not feel like eating goat meat today so I had some rice and some greens that looked like spinach but it wasn’t…supposedly it’s pumpkin leaves- I think that’s what PH said!!
I was able to get a picture of Job holding a chicken and some beans in his hands…and I also took a picture of a woman with her baby on her back- she wanted to see herself in the picture!
We took of about 3:40pm…but Grant left first in his Land Rover, and seriously about 20 people packed in his car so he could drive them all down the road a ways closer to their houses…it was mostly all children- and I remember watching one man pick up a little girl and put her in feet first like he was loading her onto a conveyor belt or something!! Haha
We got back to the school about 4:15pm, in time for tea break so I had some popcorn and then PH, Sofia and myself left to go into town to visit Amina at the hospital again. We stayed about 15 minutes and chatted in her room. I bought a bracelet from her and it was perfect because I was looking for a beaded one of the Tanzanian flag colors and I was glad to pay her and help her out as the money she gets from selling these bracelets is how she gets food… or when she calls PH and tells him she is out of money for food…so PH gave her some money, prayed for her and we chatted about how the swelling on her legs has gone down because she painted her toe-nails a new color recently! Haha The ARV (anti-retroviral) medicine she is on to keep her alive as she has full-blown AIDS makes her legs swell terribly and she showed us…from her knees down- gosh, even her ankles are so swollen. But she is able to laugh and hey- if painting her toenails a different color every other day brings her some joy than I am glad! I did find out today that she had a young boy who was 2 ½ yrs old and he died about a year ago… guess what she had named him?? Hafermann. (as in Pastor Hafermann)!
We drove back to the school and got back right before dinner at 6. It had rained during dinner a little bit, and when we left the dining room we could tell it was going to do something…well- it was the most beautiful rainbow I have EVER seen that was right above the school…I have never seen a full rainbow so close and THAT vibrant before where you could literally see ALL of the colors- even the violet which is often so hard to spot. I took some pictures, esp. because a faint double rainbow also appeared- but because it was so close I could only get half of the rainbow in my camera lens! So that half of the sky was a darker blue/grey color and then if I looked in the opposite direction it was a bright yellow/orange. Harold, Jan, and myself just stood in awe for a few minutes! Then I came back inside to start writing…and unfortunately there is no internet connection because it had stormed a little bit.
Hopefully I’ll get this posted tonight-but it may not be until tomorrow!!
**Note: the reason Jan wanted to “hang out in my room” on Sunday was so she could surprise me by cleaning my bathroom…well, I came back early for once so she only got the floor done- but that is the hardest part to keep clean…it’s literally impossible when the dirt is red and the shower curtain isn’t long enough so some water splashes up whenever showering… haha-but at least it will maybe be clean when my parents get here in a little over a week!
With love,
Alana :)
(I finally found a kanga with a saying that I could understand and really liked and a color that was excellent)!!
Saturday March 1st
Breakfast was excellent this morning because the mamas made pancakes!! They are just like the ones we eat at home (without syrup)!! To solve the no syrup problem I just put peanut butter on them of course (therefore I decided I would forgo my (almost) burnt peanut butter toast that I have every other morning)…along with some banana pieces!!!! Oh my! This was a new experience for me as I just started eating bananas a month ago! Bananas + peanut butter = Excellent! Now, throw in some chocolate chips and it would have been superb! :)
I chatted online and tidied up my room a bit from 8-9am and then I met Jan and Sofia and Roger at 9 and we waited a half an hour for the bus to come pick us up to bring us to town…but of course, waiting by the laundry area has its pluses as Eliudi was working and always comes to chat. I love Roger’s enthusiasm and determination for learning the language- he just keeps asking Eliudi questions about his job and how many hours he works/when he gets up in the morning…all to practice speaking!!
We got into town about 10am and for the next 2 hours we stayed in the market…we stopped at MANY kitenge/kanga shops to look at the material…I still haven’t seen it all because there is SOOO Much beautiful fabric…it’s so hard to decide! We stayed a little longer in some shops than others as Jan drew some examples of bags and was trying to communicate with some tailors to see if they could possibly make them. It helps that most shop-owners know some English too, so in case one’s Swahili fails…communication can still continue! It is hard to shop with others sometimes as I wanted to stop in almost every fabric place, because I’m trying to find a kanga that has writing on it that I understand! I can read most of them, which makes me happy…but its hard to find one with a meaningful phrase and a good color! Most of the phrases are spiritual, for example, one kanga I liked said something about I put my hope/trust in Jesus for every matter…
I was also looking for a neat pattern/good color of a kitenge so I could give one of my teachers at the Language school the material on Monday as she is a tailor and can make me a top!!
Well, I was more successful than I planned on so I was excited! I found something for a top and I also found a beautiful kanga that is black/blue/white and says “Mungu ni Mwema,” or simply: God is Good! I love it! Once we were finished looking around the market we walked around some of the main stores and went to the supermarket as well as a small “bookstore” to get some pens and small notebooks…then we continued walking a couple more blocks to Ricky’s!!! We spent the afternoon (about 2 hours) just eating and chatting and relaxing. I had a pepsi float with some ice cream again- and also some chocolate cake…and this time I had the lasagna-which was wonderful!!! Two Saturdays in a row now of soda/ice cream/chocolate cake… that’s enough splurging for me!! We took a taxi back to the school about 3pm. Sofia had wanted to go swimming at the Oasis hotel in town, but we all decided we were too tired (and I didn’t really feel like swimming anyway).
I got back and grabbed my computer to work on writing/uploading pictures and went over to a different block to grab a chair and sit in the nice, warm sun for 35 minutes until tea at 4pm…well- Emily (the Tate’s almost 13 year old daughter) walked by and decided to sit down and chat so therefore I got nothing done…but it was good as Emily is more lonely now since Megan (who was 14) left a week ago! Emily is more mature than her age lets on to and it was fun to chat about life- and I was actually able to ask her many questions about life back home growing up being home-schooled and having a father as a Baptist preacher. Her parents have many many rules and Emily says she understands why they have rules but sometimes its hard when she looks at other friends and feels left out. I also asked her about her feelings when her parents told her one year ago that they were moving to Africa…how she left her relatives/other friends, etc. She is a wonderful writer and she even showed me some of the friendship poems that she and her best friend from Ohio had written back and forth to each other over the past year. It’s hard to believe that a 12 and a 13 year old girl wrote these poems as they are so meaningful and from the heart… it humbled me to remembering that even young people can be passionate about their faith in Jesus to have what I would say is more of a mature spiritual thinking.”
After tea I worked on some writing before dinner at 6pm and I also worked on some more after dinner. I was SO exhausted by 9pm that I was going to go to bed at 9:30pm and get up early to do some exercise…but Jan came over and we ended up chatting for about 20 minutes- she’s great to talk to but I felt bad because I was just so tired… so of course it’s 10:30-11pm before I get to sleep finally!
**Oh-I almost forgot: I was able to pick up my clothes after breakfast…we found Eliudi so I could take all of them down off the line!! It was definitely worth the $1 I paid to have him do it as it saved me LARGE amounts of time and energy!! :)
Happy March!! (think there will be snow/ice still on the ground in one month from now)???!?
God is good,
Alana :)
Sunday March 2nd
After breakfast, I had about 45 minutes of free time before we were supposed to leave so Jan did 2 braids in my hair and then I picked up my room- organized my bathroom and my desk area as Jan wanted to use my room for the day (because she only has one small room and wanted a little more space I guess)... About 8:45 we gathered at PH’s car and Olivia and her parents (North Carolina) ended up coming with us as well. (Olivia is the 24-yr-old Harvard grad/pole-vaulter that is scarily similar to me…I climbed the mountain with her in January~just a reminder)! Also, Grant (the American Methodist missionary that has been living here for 8 years and who came with us last week) joined us again and he drove separately with 2 young men who are in the Leadership training progam here I believe!
Today we did NOT go to a Maasai village so I was pretty bummed…but it was still an alright day. We did not drive far at all as it was about 20 minutes on primary road, then another 35 or 40 on secondary road. The area we went to today is of “regular townspeople” and is mostly Islamic…however there was a church built and dedicated in April of 2005 and there is an Evangelist in this area. We arrived at the church at 10am and stood around outside for a while…Olivia found a baby to hold as soon as possible of course! Then, about 10:45-11am we were brought to some shade by a couple nearby houses and served tea (not Maasai chai of course), but it was good-almost too sweet! We also had what looked like dinner rolls- the bread was very thick and it was very good to dip in my tea!! I discussed (with Grant) some of my plans for the next week and a half- of things I still have to do before my parents arrive and then some plans for when they do arrive… so tomorrow I am going with Grant to the nearby orphanage finally!!! I will finally get to love on some little children :)
Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty much like a typical service that we do in the Maasai villages…there was a choir (even dressed alike) that had walked 1-2 hours to come to the service- and also a small children’s choir of about 10. I’m getting ahead of myself though. After tea, we had to wait around about another 45 minutes as PH had to register a family and one other person for baptism today. As guests, we were all given small wooden chairs to sit on up front perpendicular to the altar. During the beginning of the service the choirs sang an awful lot but I enjoyed the children’s choir as this one little boy on the end near us was SO good. He had such beautiful big eyes and one would never guess the powerful voice that came from his mouth. I should have taken a video but I was too enthralled watching him. He was so good at the hand motions/ steps they also did!!
The service was about 2 hours (11:40-1:45pm) including communion/offering and there were about 100 people in attendance at worship. However, there was SOO much to auction off after the service so therefore the next hour-until 3pm was spent outside the church in a semi-circle with a couple different evangelist’s/church members auctioning off a goat, 4-5 chickens, kitenge’s/kangas, soap, bottles of soda, bags of fresh beans, stalks of corn, stalks of green bananas, Lots of sugarcane… Olivia’s parents bought the goat for the church to have an Easter feast ($43!) and PH of course bought a lot and gave it all away…including chickens, kitenge’s, and a couple bottles of soda for the two boys that stuck to his side for quite a while (including the adorable boy that loved to sing)! I asked him his name and found out that in English it translates to Job (like the book of the Bible)…but in Swahili it’s like Abuyu or something- I’ll have to check on that. It was a really long auction and I was thankful when it was over and we were able to go back in the church and had food waiting for us. As the guests, we were the only ones that got to have spoons. We could serve ourselves, which I was also thankful for as I did not feel like eating goat meat today so I had some rice and some greens that looked like spinach but it wasn’t…supposedly it’s pumpkin leaves- I think that’s what PH said!!
I was able to get a picture of Job holding a chicken and some beans in his hands…and I also took a picture of a woman with her baby on her back- she wanted to see herself in the picture!
We took of about 3:40pm…but Grant left first in his Land Rover, and seriously about 20 people packed in his car so he could drive them all down the road a ways closer to their houses…it was mostly all children- and I remember watching one man pick up a little girl and put her in feet first like he was loading her onto a conveyor belt or something!! Haha
We got back to the school about 4:15pm, in time for tea break so I had some popcorn and then PH, Sofia and myself left to go into town to visit Amina at the hospital again. We stayed about 15 minutes and chatted in her room. I bought a bracelet from her and it was perfect because I was looking for a beaded one of the Tanzanian flag colors and I was glad to pay her and help her out as the money she gets from selling these bracelets is how she gets food… or when she calls PH and tells him she is out of money for food…so PH gave her some money, prayed for her and we chatted about how the swelling on her legs has gone down because she painted her toe-nails a new color recently! Haha The ARV (anti-retroviral) medicine she is on to keep her alive as she has full-blown AIDS makes her legs swell terribly and she showed us…from her knees down- gosh, even her ankles are so swollen. But she is able to laugh and hey- if painting her toenails a different color every other day brings her some joy than I am glad! I did find out today that she had a young boy who was 2 ½ yrs old and he died about a year ago… guess what she had named him?? Hafermann. (as in Pastor Hafermann)!
We drove back to the school and got back right before dinner at 6. It had rained during dinner a little bit, and when we left the dining room we could tell it was going to do something…well- it was the most beautiful rainbow I have EVER seen that was right above the school…I have never seen a full rainbow so close and THAT vibrant before where you could literally see ALL of the colors- even the violet which is often so hard to spot. I took some pictures, esp. because a faint double rainbow also appeared- but because it was so close I could only get half of the rainbow in my camera lens! So that half of the sky was a darker blue/grey color and then if I looked in the opposite direction it was a bright yellow/orange. Harold, Jan, and myself just stood in awe for a few minutes! Then I came back inside to start writing…and unfortunately there is no internet connection because it had stormed a little bit.
Hopefully I’ll get this posted tonight-but it may not be until tomorrow!!
**Note: the reason Jan wanted to “hang out in my room” on Sunday was so she could surprise me by cleaning my bathroom…well, I came back early for once so she only got the floor done- but that is the hardest part to keep clean…it’s literally impossible when the dirt is red and the shower curtain isn’t long enough so some water splashes up whenever showering… haha-but at least it will maybe be clean when my parents get here in a little over a week!
With love,
Alana :)
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