Kwa heri Tanzania!

Well our journey has ended and I am still trying to recover from the jet lag as I readjust to life back in the industrialized world. I'm finding it is more difficult than I expected to explain our experience to my friends and family, but maybe it will get easier as I continue to process everything. Here's a brief summary of our last few days in Zanzibar:

We arrived in Stone Town by ferry around 4 PM on Monday. It was a completely different world than we had been in for the 3 weeks prior. The city was full of people, and they all wanted to sell us something. We headed to our hotel for the first night, the Narrow Street Hotel, whose name was fitting. Monday night we enjoyed some amazing seafood sold by vendors along the beach. We met some pretty interesting characters before heading in for the night.

Tuesday we did some sight-seeing activities. First we headed to a historic Anglican church at the site of the old slave market. We were taken into a room where the slaves had been held. The 14 of us felt pretty cramped in this small room, so were were all a bit shocked to hear that they used to keep 75 slaves at a time in that space, chained together for days at a time with no food or water. I think it hit us all pretty hard to think about what had happened in the place we were sitting. We then saw inside the beautiful church, where nearly every aspect of the architecture had a story.

Later we headed to a spice farm for a spice tour. At the end we saw a guy climb about 30 feet up a palm tree. That was pretty amazing. He tossed down some coconuts for us to share. We were then given crowns woven from leaves as we were leaving. After lunch we headed to the east side of the island to the beach resort where we would spend our final night. If that place wasn't paradise I'm not sure what is. We spent the afternoon swimming in the ocean and collecting shells on the beach. For dinner we had a seafood buffet, and afterwards they made us a bonfire on the beach. Between the fire and the stars and the sound of the ocean, I really can't imagine a more perfect setting for our last night.

Wednesday morning we loaded up in two wooden sailboats and headed out on a snorkeling trip. It was amazing to see such beautiful fish in their natural habitat. It was so peaceful out there, just us and the ocean. I didn't want to get back in the boat because I knew once we headed back it'd be time to pack up and leave. We had a nice final lunch on the beach, and then packed up the bus for the start of a long journey home. We drove back to Stone Town, where we boarded the ferry back to Dar. It wasn't quite the nice boat ride we'd had on the way to Zanzibar. I think about half of the boat ended up seasick. Needless to say, most of us were glad to get our feet back on solid ground.

We met back up with Robert for dinner at the City Garden Restaurant in Dar where we had a nice last meal together before heading to the airport. It was an adventure up to the end, but luckily we all made it to the airport despite some minor near-incidents. Then came the hardest part of the day- saying goodbye to the four men who had led us through our entire journey: Bwana Fred, Pastor Hafermann, Luka, and Robert. I really didn't know how to thank them for everything they had done, and I'm not sure I ever will. I don't think I'll ever meet four guys with hearts as big as theirs, and I think we were all deeply impacted by the time we spent with them.

I really didn't believe that it was over until we were taking off down the runway. It was sad to say goodbye to Africa, but I tried to make it less sad by promising myself I'd be back. Between the bus, ferry, and plane rides, we spent more than 30 hours traveling to get home. It was a little weird to back in a place where we were surrounded by people of our own race and actually understand what people were saying. I'm sure it will take awhile for each of us to process what this experience has meant in our own lives, so rather than trying to explain that I'll leave you with some adjectives my classmates used to describe this journey: eye-opening, humbling, spiritual, heartbreaking, uplifting, inspiring, amazing, incredible, and indescribable.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Until next time, kwa heri Tanzania.

Peace.
Emily

It's easier to upload pics from home so here are a few of my favorites from the trip.

So when you climb up a mountain, apparently you also have to climb back down.

Apparently climbing up a mountain is kind of hard. Climbing down may be even harder. But that's how we spent our day today. Our group divided into a couple of smaller groups depending on how far we wanted to hike. Seven of us decided it'd be cool to try to hike to the summit of the mountains we've been looking at for almost 3 weeks now (the Uluguru mountains). So Kim, Lindsey, Monica, and I, along with Anna (a kindergarten teacher at the Seminary), Robert, and Kadeghe (our Massai warrior and guide), started the long trek around 7:30 this morning. It was my first mountain climbing experience and I didn't really know what I was getting into. Not going to lie, I was tired 10 minutes into it, so it's probably good I didn't know it would be another 6 hours and 20 minutes to get to the top. The views were amazing, and stopping for breaks was nice, but the rest of the trip was challenging to say the least. We reached a point that Robert had been to before and said the last time he had gone, his son had made it to the top and back in an hour. That didn't turn out to be the case for us. Turns out that the level of difficulty increased from there. We thought some of the terrain had been rough before, but the earlier trip seemed easy compared to the end. The steepness and muddiness increased significantly, and relying on roots in the ground to pull yourself up with became a pretty much continuous occurrence. What made it worse was the constant thought that we had to be getting close only to find more and more steep climbs ahead of us. The thought of having to get back down what we were climbing up was also in the back of my mind, but I tried not to worry about it until I actually had to do it. Also for this last leg up, we were joined by two other guys who are guides for Mt. Kilimanjaro, so they knew their mountain climbing. They would come in handy later on. For them this was a pretty easy day, but most of us pretty much expended every ounce of energy we had and all of the strength in our legs to make it up. 

No worries though, we made it to the top, despite the comments and questions of whether or not we should really keep going. The peak is at an altitude of about 5,600 feet. Getting to there turned out to be cool only for the reason of being able to say we did it, because we couldn't actually see below us because we were surrounded like trees. There was a metal structure up there, and we assumed that it was there to signify the top of the peak. We had plenty of great views along the path though, and we wouldn't have been able to see much through the clouds anyway. 

When we finally realized that there wasn't going to be a helicopter coming to take us back down and that if we camped out up there our muscles would probably only hurt worse tomorrow, we decided we'd better get moving back down because it was already 2:00, and getting back before dark would probably be a good thing. So the 2nd half of the journey began. My worries about descending were pretty legitimate, because it really was harder than going up in my opinion. Not as much physically because my legs definitely hurt worse going up, but mentally it was tougher having to focus on every step and worrying about slipping the entire way down and actually slipping and falling on several occasions. A good part of the trip was spent sliding on my butt because that was easier and less scary than trying to walk down a mudslide. I'm not sure whether my pants are actually salvageable, but I was willing to sacrifice them not to fall off a cliff (Mom I'm sure you love hearing all this, but obviously I lived to tell about it and I don't have any broken bones). There was a point where we thought we lost Robert. He slid down a part of the path that wasn't actually the right path and was really tough to get down, and then evidently kept going while the rest of us helped each other get down it. This was the point where our new Kilimanjaro friends were nice to have along. In fact they probably saved us from some serious injuries, like the part where one of them was the only thing preventing Monica from straight up sliding down the slope. We think they might have really been our guardian angels for the day. 

As we continued, we really thought Robert might have gone over the edge, but to our relief he was ahead of us. We met back with him at the last point we had stopped at earlier. I still have no idea how he managed to get there on his own because we had to help each other get through several areas. We rested for a few minutes before continuing our journey downward. There were several parts that were flat out miserable, and having muddy shoes on muddy ground didn't help. We were getting near the end as the sun was setting, so that was a nice view to come down to, even though it's hard to look around and walk at the same time. There were quite a few slips and spills here and there, but around 6:30 our car looked better than it ever has before. Yes, we made it all the way up and back down in a total of 11 hours. Despite the challenging, sometimes treacherous conditions and the fears and doubts I had along the way, it was a great trip. I think those things are actually what made it as fulfilling as it was, and now looking back on it all, I'm so grateful for the whole experience. God must have been watching over us though because it really is a miracle that we got through it all with only scrapes, blisters, and sore muscles to complain about. 

Tomorrow is our last day in Morogoro. I really can't believe how fast the last few weeks have gone. We'll be doing our last village visit tomorrow. Apparently it's going to be a long trip and a long day, but I'm actually looking forward to sitting for the entire day since I'm not sure how well the muscles and joints in my legs will be working. Monday morning we'll be heading to Zanzibar. We'll ride a ferry from Dar es Salaam and spend 2 days there. From what I hear the culture there is a little different than it is here. I think it's a bit more of a tourist area, so there should be lots to do. We're planning to do a spice tour, go snorkeling, and hopefully do some shopping. I'm not sure if we'll have internet access there so this could be my last chance to write, but at the very least I'll update when I get home. 

Hope everyone's May Term is winding down well! Abi you're almost there! :) 

See you all soon!

Peace,

Emily

Winding roads, choirs, and cement

Another week has flown by! I can't believe it's already Friday! The last few days have been busy as usual. Wednesday we went on another village visit. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive through the rainforest up around part of a mountain. The ride was bumpy but no mud or water this time :) We arrived around 12:30 and were greeted by the children's choir. After the usual tea and bread, they also served us goat before the church service. The service was unique because they were having a choir festival, so there were villagers and choirs there from about 5 different villages from the area (6 choirs total counting the Wartburg Choir). They are a lot of fun to watch and listen to, and they seemed pretty entertained by our performance as well. After the service we had a meal of rice, beans, and more goat. It was 6:30 before we left, so it was a bit of a late night with the long drive back. It gets dark here around 6:30 so it always feels much later in the evenings than it is, and I think we were all exhausted after a long day.

Yesterday was a service day. Our group divded into two groups to work at two different houses. I was in the group working at Luka's house. We were helping lay the foundation for a cow barn for his family's animals. First we mixed together cement, which involved carrying buckets of sand and gravel and stirring that with concrete and water, kind of like making dough. I guess this is the way you do it when you can't just drive up a big cement truck. Oh the things we take for granted. We then layed the cement out on the foundation that was already in place. In the process some people thought it would be fun to paint red mud on other people. Fortunately no one cemented themselves into the ground, although a chicken did run across the wet cement a few times. Luka's wife served us a really nice lunch of rice, beans, goat, chicken, cabbage, and fresh pineapple.

After lunch we came back to the Seminary and began a new task of constructing soccer nets for the goals here. Turns out this is actually a pretty big task. It's going to take another day of working on it, but I think we'll be able to leave them with a net in at least one of the goals, and hopefully the supplies and skills to build the second themselves.

Today's plan is to head to another village and leave some books and school supplies and have a church service. It should be a shorter visit than most have been, and it's not as far away so we should be back early in the afternoon. Tomorrow is mountain-climbing day, which I've been looking forward to, and Sunday will be our final village visit. These are our last 3 days in Morogoro before we head off to Zanizbar where we'll spend our last 2 days. Hope all is well back home. It won't be long now until we're back there.

Peace,
Emily

Thank goodness for Land Rovers, and people who can drive them

It's been a whirlwind of a few days, and unfortunately we have been disconnected from the internet so I haven't been able to share much, but I'll try to catch up. 

When I chose the title for this blog, I didn't realize how fitting it would be. The adventures have been in high abundance, so I'll try to summarize them as well as I can. 

Saturday was an interesting day. We visited the youth prison, which is a minimum security facility. There are no walls surrounding it to keep people from escaping, but we were told that no one has ever tried to do so. The prison's philosophy is to rehabilitate rather than punish those who end up there. The prisoners are supposed to be between the ages of 16 and 21, but Pastor Hafermann was telling us how there had been some boys there as young as 12. Most of them are there for stealing, and it is more than likely that they had been stealing things they could sell in order to earn enough money to eat for a day or two. This is probably part of the reason no one tries to escape - because at least while they are there they are guaranteed meals and a place to sleep, and they also are able to go to school and attend church. The guard who gave us our tour told us how there is a lot of respect among the prisoners, and the guys we encountered were all very friendly and respectful towards us as well. Overall I was really impressed by the system they had in place.

After the prison we visited the Massai cattle market, which was another interesting experience. The first thing we walked past was the butchering area. There were lots of animals in various forms in terms of how much of them was intact. The pile of goat heads was probably the most gruesome sight. Don't worry, we had goat for lunch later in the day :) The cattle market resembled a state fair in some ways - all the livestock around, and lots of other vendors selling all kinds of Massai tools, clothing, shoes, and other stuff. Pastor Hafermann bought us a lovely bunch of coconuts that a guy was selling. As we were passing them around and sharing the milk, we soon found ourselves surrounded by Massai men. Apparently us Wazungu (white people) were quite the spectacle here, and they eyed us like they had some marriage proposals in mind. It was actually pretty amusing, but luckily Bwana Fred and Luka came to our rescue and led us around the rest of the market. As I mentioned, we had goat for lunch, along with chips mayai, which is a dish consisting of fried potatoes and eggs. It was a nice break from rice and beans. As we were leaving, it started pouring, and Lindsey and I ended up stranded under a tent with some vendors. Luckily Kadeghe was there to help us out. 

When we got back to the Seminary, Robert had the brilliant idea of trying to get some avocados down from a tree nearby. Laura, Kim, Lindsey and I went to check it out, and it turns out that this wasn't exactly a climbing tree. The lowest branch was a good 15 feet off the ground, But luckily Robert had some rope, which he proceeded to tie a rock around and loop up over the branch. This allowed Lindsey to tie her foot to one end so the rest of us could pull her up to the branch. She proceeded to use a long stick to knock down 6 avocados, pinata style. It was actually kind of scary but pretty sweet when she didn't fall. The whole event made for a good story anyway. 

Sunday we went to another village church service. (Happy Belated Mother's Day Mom and to all the mothers of the girls by the way - we wanted to write but that was the day the internet decided not to work at all) Anyway, 2/3 of the day was spent traveling, which was the most exciting part of this experience. At breakfast Pastor Hafermann told us that we had two back-up churches in case we couldn't get to the one he wanted to take us to, so we knew it might be an interesting trip. We left around 8:45, at which point Robert said it should be about a 2-hour ride. We were on a nice paved road for the first 45 minutes, at which point we turned off onto a dirt road that was pretty bumpy. About an hour later we stopped at a village to pick up another pastor. We thought our car was full when we left with 9 people, but there's always room for more. From there, we proceeded on to the next leg of the trip, during which the term "off-roading" took on an entirely new meaning. We drove through mud, water, weaved in and out of trees, and stopped for cattle crossings on several occasions. It was a miracle that we never got stuck in the mud or water we were driving through, but Robert and Luka were incredible drivers. We made it to the next village, at which point we dropped off some school supplies and books Chelsea and Anna had brought and picked up yet another passenger. Our journey continued, and at times we were apparently creating our own path because there certainly didn't appear to be one there for us to follow. Amazingly enough we found the village. I think they were shocked that we made it there, as were some of us. We had a nice service under a tree. It reminded me that a church is not a building, but a group of people coming together to praise their Lord. And we certainly had much to be grateful for on this day. 17 villagers were baptized, and after the service we presented a teacher there with some school supplies for the children. They then gave us all the cross necklaces they wore. We headed on our way after a meal of rice and potatoes, and God was again watching over us as we made it through our journey with no problems. 

Yesterday and today we visited Faraja, which means "to console." This is an organization in Morogoro that provides a number of services, mostly involving prevention and care for HIV/AIDS. It began as a  service that distributed condoms to sex workers. We learned how when a woman's husband dies, his family usually takes everything they had shared, leaving her and her children with nothing. Often times her only option is to become a sex worker in order to earn enough money to feed her children. It's sad, but this is the reality for so many women here. Today Faraja offers many other services, including education about HIV/AIDS, screenings, traditional herbal and modern treatments, and support for widows and vulnerable children. The work they do is incredible, but their resources are strained and they can only do so much. Most of their staff are volunteers, some of which have been doing this for 10-15 years. Without them, many people would have nowhere to turn for the care they need, and countless others would probably be infected had they not received the education Faraja provides. 

Today we visited their home-based care center. It is located in one of the poorer areas of town, so it is close for the people who need the care to walk to. We saw where they do the HIV testing, and also were shown several of the herbal medicines they provide to patients. We were then split into smaller groups and went with the women to do home visits. I went with a group to visit a 20-year-old woman named Tatu. Her story is pretty heartbreaking. She was married to a 50-year-old man, which must have been 6 or 7 years ago because she has a six-year-old daughter. When she first got sick, he didn't want her to go to the hospital, and instead he took her to the witch doctor, who basically tries to cast out the evil spirits the cause people to be sick. Awhile later when she was still sick, he still wouldn't let her go to the hospital, so she went home to her parents and her mother took her to the hospital, where she learned she was HIV-positive. When her husband found out she had gone to get tested, he took everything they had and left her. She was also pregnant with her second child at the time, so she went back home to live with her family. Now she is still living with her father and her two children, the youngest of which is 8-months old. Her father isn't working, so they have no income. She is able to get the ARVs she needs from Faraja, but she is sick now with what Mama Mosha believes is malaria and can't get the medicine she needs, which really isn't all that expensive unless you have no money at all. When we heard all this I just wanted to be able to take her pain away and tell her it would be alright, but I know it probably won't be. 

This whole experience reminded me again of how unfair life can sometimes be. Tatu and I are about the same age, yet our lives couldn't be more different. I am blessed to have good health, a beautiful home, plenty to eat, and so many opportunities in my future, while she has none of these things. It's impossible to understand why God has given either of us the lives we have, but I'm guessing there is some reasoning behind His plans and I hope that someday I can make sense of it all. 

This evening we had the big basketball game with the high schoolers here at the Seminary. It was quite the spectacle, and there was a good crowd there to see us represent American basketball. I'm not sure we quite achieved that, but we did win the game to our surprise. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and Bwana Fred and Robert even pulled out some moves that helped us to the big W. Stay tuned, Thursday is the big volleyball match, so we'll see how we stack up in that. 

It's hard to believe we'll be leaving here in a week. Our time has gone so fast, but I have learned and experienced so many wonderful things. Tomorrow we'll be going on another village adventure, and Thursday and Friday we'll be working on some building projects. So far we're malaria-free! (knock on wood) I'll continue to write as the internet access permits! 

Peace, 

Emily

Bumpy roads, a chicken, and more great people

And so it continues. Yesterday we visited a Swahili village called Mikizi, whose church was built by Luka. It was about an hour-and-a-half drive; 45 minutes on paved roads and 45 minutes on unpaved roads. It was a bumpy ride, but Robert and Luka handled the off-roading like pros. There was only one flat tire, which happened before we got off the good road. Flat tires are a regular occurrence here by the way. On the way there we got to hear about Robert's work. He is from the U.S. and has been here for three years working through his church. He helps different villages with economic development and does whatever other work he can. His wife has also spent a lot of time here working as a nurse. Before their time here they lived and did similar work in Pakistan. It's pretty amazing how they have devoted so much of their lives to serving others in such a big way. 

We got to the village around 10:30 and were received with a warm welcome. We had about 2 1/2 hours before the church service started, so we passed the time playing hackysack and card games. We were also served tea and Tanzanian doughnuts, which are similar to American doughnuts without the hole in the middle. A little after one we moved into the church, which was made of brick and had nice big windows so there was a lot of air flowing, making it cooler inside than the last church was. The children's choir sang for awhile, then we gave another stellar performance of our own songs. The service was pretty much the same as the last one, but it seemed to move a little faster. Pastor Hafermann baptized nine of the villagers, ranging in age from newborn baby to elderly man. It was also interesting to see the difference in the gender roles between the two villages. The women in this village seemed to be much more vocal and active than they were at the last village. The whole service lasted about 2 1/2 hours again. Afterward they auctioned off the items given in the offering. Since I now know how to say numbers in Swahili I was able to get in on the bidding action. I bought a chicken and a bag of corn for 10,000 shillings (a little less than $8). I thought the chicken would make a good pet, but I think Lindsey would have killed it at some point. I ended up giving it to the Evangelist for the church, whose wife is studying to be a teacher at the Seminary where we're staying. 

Soon after the auction we were served a meal of rice, beans, and chicken (not the one bought). We got to eat in a house, so the fly situation was much better than at the last village. We were again invited to eat with the men, while the rest of the women and children remained outside. The kids were staying busy with all the coloring books, stickers, and bubbles we brought. We left shortly after the meal. The kids gave us a nice sendoff, and a few of them almost ended up coming with us, but I'm not sure we could have gotten them on the plane back to the U.S. Guess we'll just have to come back some other time to get one, and probably one that doesn't already have a good family like most of those children did. The hospitality here continues to amaze me.

Today we are going to the youth prison and the cattle market. Both should be interesting experiences. Tomorrow will be another village visit, and Monday and Tuesday we are visiting Faraja, an AIDS relief organization. The days continue to fly by but we still have so much to do and see. Mpaka mara ijayo (until next time)!

Peace. 

Emily

A portrait only God could paint

Africa continues to amaze. Every once in awhile I witness something so incredible that it's like God is trying to remind me just how great a mastermind He is. These last two days He has made that more clear than ever.

Yesterday morning we finished our Swahili classes, so we are now all fluent ;) So not really, but we did learn how to say animal names in preparation for our safari, along with dates and times. Just don't ask me to tell you my birthday in Swahili because it will take about five minutes. After class we had lunch here at the Seminary before heading off to Mikumi National Park. We arrived there around 3:30, checked into our bungalows where we would spend the night, and were off on part one of our safari. Surely enough one of the first things we saw was a male lion, laying pretty close to our path. Apparantly a lot of people go through the park for several hours and never see a lion, so for us to see one at all, let alone right away was a pretty big deal. As we were busy snapping pictures of him, a group of elephants came walking through the grass on the other side of us. I guess when most people think about Africa this was probably the scene they tend to picture.

We continued through the park until about 7:00. Along our way we saw lots of giraffes, wild buffalo, more elephants, impala, and hippos. We rode back to the camp area as the sun was setting. I've seen some pretty sweet sunsets in my day, but I think this one takes the cake. With the mountains in the background and the clouds peferctly placed, it was truly a masterpiece. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

Back at the camp site (not that we were in any way camping in a rustic sense), we were served a really nice meal with COLD beverages for the first time since we've been here. We ate outside at a table overlooking the savanna as the sun continued to set and the stars came out. It was a little too cloudy to do much stargazing, but the full moon was brighter than I had ever seen it. After dinner we were all pretty much spent, so we headed back to our bungalows. Lindsey, Kim, Christina and I shared one with three single beds and one huge bed that could have held all four of us. All electricity in the place is turned off at 10 PM, so our room was lit by candlelight for most of the evening. It had a nice Little House on the Praire feel.

It was a fairly short night, as we had to be back on the bus at 6:30 this morning to see the animals when they're most active early in the day. As we were walking from our room to have tea and coffee, we immediately saw some elephants in what was basically our backyard. A good start to the day and a sign of all we would see on our second trip around the park. I'm pretty sure I have a couple hundred pictures just from this outing. We saw more elephants, giraffes, water buffalo, wildebeest, zebras, hippos, a huge crocodile, impala, baboons, and lots of birds. I'm probably forgetting something, but to say the least it was incredible to see all these animals so close up in their natural habitat. I sat next to Anna, the future vet and someone who cares more about animals than anyone I know. Also I think Pastor Hafermann had an alternative exit strategy today as he was venturing pretty close to the water in search of the crocodiles. No worries though, everyone returned with all limbs and body parts attached. Around 10 we returned to the campsite and had a nice brunch. Most of us went back out for about another hour with hopes of finding a leopard or another lion. Even though we didn't, it was worth the trip to see the last set of elephants we saw. A mother and baby were literally 10 feet away from us, eating contently. We were closer than you could get at a zoo, and it was a great end to the safari experience.

We arrived back at the Seminary around 4:00. A few of us went to give some basketball nets we brought to the high school kids. The basketball courts and soccer field seem to be really popular among the students here, but none of the facilities have nets. We put the basketball nets up, and we're hoping to have time to make some for the soccer goals at some point. The kids also "challenged" us to a basketball game. People here seem to think that all Americans are crazy about basketball, so maybe they assume we're all good at playing? If so they might be in for a surprise. Guess our team better start channeling our basketball roots. Tuesday at 5 PM is when it's going down.

Tonight after supper we all got together to watch the movie "Amazing Grace," which is about the abolishment of the slave trade in Great Britain. Good group bonding time. Tomorrow we will be visiting a Swahili village, where we will join them for a church service. It should be different from our last village visit since it is a different tribe, so we should have another interesting experience. The weather has been great the last few days and will hopefully continue to be. They say time moves slowly in Tanzania but I feel like our days here are passing us by so quickly! But there are many more exciting things to come, and hopefully more photos posted soon!

Usiku mwema (Good night)!

Peace.
Emily

Where they welcome you like royalty

Mambo! Life is good in Tanzania. I can't believe we've been here six days already! The internet continues to give us problems, so I haven't been able to write as often as I would like, but I've been keeping a journal so I can update you on all we've done so far.

Saturday was a beautiful day. We had Swahili class in the morning, from 7:45-12:00, with a tea break in the middle. Most of us continue to struggle with learning the language, but fortunately our teachers are very patient with us. We learned how to say the names of different professions, and went a little more in depth with some of the grammar concepts. In the afternoon we went to a house to help dig a latrine for a family that had recently moved in. We took turns with the digging while the rest of the group entertained the kids living around the area with coloring books, stickers, and bubbles. I spent most of my non-digging time trying to learn some Swahili words from Maria, the woman who lives there. She probably thought I was crazy though since my memory for any word had about a 10-second duration. She would point to something she had already told me the word for and of course I couldn’t remember it, but I guess the human brain can only take in so much. We came back in time for dinner, after which Lindsey, Kim and I did some sunset-watching/stargazing. Our version of the Wartburg Choir had another rehearsal. We put on quite a show, thanks in large part to Katie, or music ed major, without whom we would probably be a lost cause. A small group of us spent the rest of the evening watching Twilight. I guess we don’t have to fully commit ourselves to African culture 24/7...

Sunday was a big day. We had our first visit to a Massai village. We left around 8:30 in the morning and drove about an hour-and-a-half to a village called Lalangi. The people there were extremely welcoming. They invited us to come sit in the shade, and then we were served bread and tea. It was an unusual experience eating as the guests when they themselves were not eating or drinking. We sat for awhile, and then went for a walk to see where a well was to built. It was a bit of a hike from where we were, and it was tough to imagine them having to walk that far just to get water, but a well is an extremely valuable resource for a village to have. Unfortunately they are expensive to build, and there are a lot of dishonest people who offer to build them but end up taking the money and building wells that aren’t actually functional.

Around 12, the church service began. My favorite part was the children’s choir. They were amazing, and our group of 13 paled in comparison when we sang our songs. But we did sing, and the villagers seemed to enjoy it. The service lasted about 2 ½ hours, and even though I didn’t understand a word of what was said, it was a great experience. After the service we were able to shake hands with everyone as we gathered outside. Items that were donated for the offering were auctioned off, and Lindsey bought a chicken, which she gave away to a family. We spent some time playing with all of the kids. They get really excited when we take their pictures and then they can see themselves on our cameras.

The meal was served around 3:00. In the Massai culture it is custom for the men to eat first and the women second, but we were given special status and invited to eat first. The meal consisted of rice, goat, and a mix of peppers and tomatoes. I was able to serve myself, which wasn’t the case for everyone, and some of the girls were given pieces of meat they weren’t thrilled to have (intestines, stomach, etc). In the interest of truly taking in the whole experience, I tried the goat meat, both a “normal” piece in our minds, and the intestine. Yep. This vegetarian tasted goat intestine. Not something I would eat more than a bite of, but it actually wasn’t as bad as one might expect. And some of the girls weren’t keen on eating a plate of it. So all-in-all the meal was an interesting and memorable experience.

After the meal, the Massai men agreed to sing and dance for us, which isn’t something they do very often but they made another special exception to their normal customs on our behalf. There was some chanting, jumping, and dancing, and it’s something you have to see to actually appreciate. Kim was invited in on the action, and got to show everyone some dance moves. I'm not sure who was more amused, us or the Massai women. She must have impressed them enough because the men jumped up and down for her, which they do during celebrations or as a sort of mating call. It was a great end to the day in the village.

I don't think the magnitude of the days events really sunk in for me until later that evening as we were reflecting on the experience. Pastor Hafermann raised the question as to how would our own churches and communities respond if a group of foreigners who don't even speak our language showed up and asked to take part in our services. I think we all agreed that our response probably wouldn't include offering them the best seats in our a churches, or serving them a meal that is better than what we normally eat ourselves. I would like to think that someday I could be as selfless and as gracious towards complete strangers as these people were towards me, but I think I have a long ways to go before I get there. I think that's part of why we're here though - to learn these types of things about ourselves and take what we learn back home and grow in our own faith as we move forward from this experience.

Yesterday and today we have pretty much the same schedule. Swahili classes from 8-12 with a break for tea at 10. We have a break until 2:30 when we go back to class until 4:00. We have tea again at 4, and then head over to the orphanage. The Swahili continues to be challenging, but we really have learned more than we realize. We still amuse ourselves with the words we invent as we try to say the right words, and often times say something that is completely different from what we had intended ("give birth" rather than "sit" or "little frog" instead of "food" for instance...not naming any names). But the teachers continue to be very patient with us. We'll finish our classes tomorrow morning, but I'm hoping to continue studying the language and trying to learn more since we still have two weeks to spend here and communicating with people is a nice ability to have sometimes.

I really enjoyed the time at the orphanage yesterday and am looking forward to going back today. I mostly spent time with the younger children who were 1 or 2. The liked having stickers on them, and when that got old they thought it was funny to put the stickers on me. It's one of those experiences of having completely mixed feelings - happy to be able to spend the time there but also feeling like I should be able to do more for them.

Our weather has been a little less humid the last couple of days. We've had some rain but nothing that has interfered with any of our plans. There was a thunderstorm last night that was nice to fall asleep to. All the girls seem to be doing well. For thirteen girls spending as much time together as we do we have all been getting along really well. We've been taking our malaria meds religiously every morning, and hopefully they're working because the mosquitos have been feasting on us, or at least on me. Although Swahili classes have been good, I think we're all excited for the things that lie ahead on this trip. Tomorrow afternoon we're heading to Mikumi Game Park where we'll spend the night and go on a safari on Thursday, something I know I've been looking forward to and I'm sure the others have as well.

There's a chance the internet access could improve so I could write more often, but if not I'll do the best I can. Hope all is well back home! Love and miss you all!

Peace.

Here are a couple of pictures - one from the Massai village and one of our view from the Seminary. Not a bad sight to wake up to every morning!