This month we have been in Dar Es Salaam, which is on the
east coast of Africa. After our 33 hour bus ride, we were happy to ‘be’
anywhere- but that happiness was compounded for me when our taxi took us
through a little village of sandy streets, passing many palm trees and railroad
tracks to a church that would be our home for the month. The air, the sand, the
fact that the beach was a short drive and that we are within walking distance
of the airport and can see planes take off from our room all made me feel like
I was in some random part of my hometown Melbourne, Florida. Church members
kept asking us about where we were from and what it was like there. My team is
made up 3 northerners and then Alex (hailing from the great state of Alabama)
and me from Florida. The members get quite the gauntlet of answers, from ‘it’s
13 degrees right now where I live’ to when I proudly tell them that I come from
a place that is as hot and humid as it is here. (Difference: no AC here. Boo.)
Other similarities:
- –
Alex and Emily saw a guy in our village wearing
a Tallahassee Parks and Rec t-shirt. I about peed my pants when I heard this
and told them that if they ever saw him again to pay him good money for it. - –
On our first day off, we searched out a beach
and found Coco Beach… which in name and description looked much like Cocoa
Beach, Florida where my friend ran a marathon last year. - –
I walk around barefoot much of the time. - –
Walking down the main street of our Jamaican
looking village, I heard ‘O Come Let Us Adore Him’ blaring into the street from
this shop. Since it is a ‘ber’ month (No-vem-BER), I’ve been really sad to
pretty much miss out on Christmas music and anything that would resemble a
season change… so hearing a random Christmas song cheered me up. (Picture of our neighborhood…)
Some differences:
- –
Skirts, skirts, skirts. We have to wear skirts
much of the time. - –
Men and women relationships are different. Even
in church, men and women sit on separate sides of the room, much like a junior
high school dance. - –
It is common for men to walk down the street
together holding hands in friendship.
We are blessed, blessed, blessed by the family and church
that we live with. This family is by far my favorite contact yet, and this is
coming from the girl that didn’t even want to come to Tanzania but would have
preferred to stay in Uganda.
Other quick things… sadly my team is now short 2 members.
Both Matt and Kim decided to go home from Kampala a few weeks ago. I support
their decisions to go, but it means that team Haven is now down to 5 people. Though
this is sad, we are becoming an even tighter knit group and I am thriving in
this environment. (Once again, this is coming from the girl that thought she
was going to die when they announced team changes in Dublin. Perhaps I just do
not like change in general?)
In the last week or two, each of us has had a varying degree
of malaria at some point. Mine was the lightest case and the doctor did not
even recommend that I take any medication for it. We are all completely better
now. We still get tired and hot from just daily life… but sickness is gone and
for that we praise Jesus.
(It looks like Dell’s Freeze should be just around the corner.)
