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Published: July 22nd 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010:
Wow. And I mean wow. I have been to Tanzania once before, but that doesn't mean it ceases to amaze me. We have a saying in our group: "T.I.A." That stands for "This is Africa." That means: anything goes, anything is apt to change. It's certainly true.
You wake up, and you're under mosquito netting. "This is definitely not Oklahoma." To say the least. We arise, and get ready. Sharing one bathroom with 7 girls and being ready at 8 o'clock is not easy. 😊 In fact, Brad said it was a miracle.
8 o'clock is when our bus would leave, with or without us. No, I'm just kidding. Katherine counted heads to make sure we were all there.We have a huge bus, although when we all get inside of it, it seems anything but huge. Frederick is our trusty driver (or Sebastian, as Corey and Grant called him. We had several bus drivers and they became Sebastian I,II, and III, LOL). Truth: We did have some very close calls on the road. However, my nerves didn't suffer near as much as they did last year! 😊
There is no
way to accurately describe Tanzania. It's poverty stricken. To say the least. People are selling bananas, herding cows along the road, and a whole lot of them are sitting around, doing nothing. The words look extremely flat on paper (or screen). There is just no way to capture the smells, sights, or sounds, of TZ. It's dusty and smelly in Arusha, home to approximately 2 million people. And crowded!! There's not really a way to tell when one town stops and another picks up--they all kind of run together. The foliage around Usa River is really very pretty--green, and leafy, and bright.
We get to Usa River, make a turn that nearly takes our bumper off, and drive down what is--for lack of any other term--a road. Park, get out, walk down a path, go through a sagging gate, and we are in the yard of the Usa River Kanisa la Kristo--Church of Christ.
It's a three room building. The "big room" is the auditorium, with two rows of pews (no cushions!). One side has backs on the pews, one doesn't. A blackboard and podium are at the front. There are two miniscule storage rooms. We
sit on the pews, and, while we are folding Swahili tracts, Cy Stafford and Ralph Williams (a man visiting, who teaches at the Bear Valley School of Preaching in Colorado) go over our plan. We divide up into teams, receive a translator, a person who is familiar with the town, and an area to work in. The women of the Church serve us white bread and sweet, hot tea.
On our team was Mom, Katherine and I. Our translator was Paulina, from last year. We were so ecstatic to get her back. She is SOOO sweet!!! Also Bertha, who is from Usa River, went with us to show us around, and Caitlin Williams, Ralph's daughter. Thank goodness that Bertha went with us, because if she hadn't been there, I would have been hopelessly lost. And that is an understatement. The streets--or at least the side of town where we were on--do not go in any particular pattern. Having no vehicles, there is no need for wide streets, thus they are mostly alleys in between mud houses. There are no identifying structures whatsoever. We did start out on the main road, handing out myriad tracts. We told people about the
seminars, and I told Paulina to tell every kid we saw about children's Bible class. By the afternoon, I eventually got to saying, "Watoto Biblia Darasa--Kanisa la Kristo." Which is "Children's Bible Class--Church of Christ-." The kids laughed at me a lot! 😱 Hopefully they got the idea!
Well, we had a Bible study with a man on the front porch of his miniscule store. It only lasted about 20 minutes. At one point in it, there were 14 people clustered around us!!! We had another one with a lady named MamaCarey (sometimes women are called by "Mama---" whatever their kid's name is). That was inside a very "fancy" house. It really was for them, too. There were two couches and a tv, and tables and chairs, and a strip of linoleum. We were to come back and study with her the next day.
The majority of our group went and held studies in Usa River. However, Brad, Cody, Crystal, and Carey Samford (a missionary there), went up the Nsupu. Nsupu is a village located on Mt. Meru (Mt. Meru is the 3rd-tallest mountain in Africa). Wilfred, who was baptized day-before-yesterday, requested that they come,
in hopes of starting a new church there!
Around 1 o'clock, we returned to Kanisa la Kristo, for lunch. I was under orders that I WOULD eat the lunch they served me. So I did. 😱 They didn't have rice and beans! They had rice, and rice, and more rice, with a little bit of meat broth dribbled over it. There was also a part of a banana. I also had a (bottled!) orange Fanta to finish off the meal.
In the afternoon were the men's seminars. The men got the church, the women set up lawn chairs on one corner of the church yard, and the children had class on the other side. Paulina translated for us, and it went very well! We started off by playing, once again, bata, bata, kuku (duck, duck, chicken). It was a hit!! We sang songs in Swahili, and Paulina translated for us when we talked about Daniel and the Lion's Den. We gave the kids foam bracelets, and we stuck on them adhesive figures of Daniel and the Lion's Den, and they also colored masks (made out of paper plates). They got animal crackers for a snack. I
counted around 30 kids, however, Cy Stafford said he counted 58. I believe it! There were a lot of them! So, all-in-all, I would say it was a success.
That night we went to the Stafford's house for spaghetti! We finished up the night with a game of Phase 10.
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