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 :)
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