I woke up this morning with blood on my hands and a vague
memory of waking up around 6 AM, realizing how many mosquitoes were in my tent
with me, and going WILD BOY on them until the very last of them was naught but
a bloody smear on my palm.
Other things that I woke up with would be a wet, sweaty
sheet laying underneath me (I have GOT to get a fan to carry around with me…it
is WAY too hot for this guy who is used to keeping the thermostat at 67 degrees
and using 2 fans.)
The reality is that if I want to try to hold my American
standards up against my current situation, I could “complain” for hours and
probably blow your mind a little bit with what life is like. My alternative would be to forget about
my American standard for a while and share with you how AWESOME it is to be in
the heart of AFRICA!! This is it
guys. I’m in Africa. I’m IN Africa. I’m in AFRICA!
This place is like no place that I have ever been. People here are kinder than they are
anywhere else that I have been in this world (my list isn’t exhaustive but I
feel like I’ve covered some ground), and the spiritual climate here is soooo
peaceful (at least compared with India where we just came from).
I feel like I have a million things to update you with so
this will probably end up being a couple blog posts or it will end up being
one, excruciatingly long post.
Between our month in India and our current month in
Tanzania, we had about 5 days in Nairobi, Kenya with our whole squad to debrief
our first four months, worship together, and get refueled. That time blew my mind in a lot of
ways. We had some staff that came
out from the USA to be with us and, as squad leaders, Rachel and I got to spend
a good amount of time with them getting wisdom and love poured into us.
However, it was also a huge week of pouring out. I loved everything about that week but
by the end of it, Rachel and I were absolutely worn out. I’m not really going to go too much
further into debrief than just to say that it was AWESOME and it ABSOLUTELY
WORE ME OUT.
At the end of debrief, our leadership told Rachel and I to
take a few days to get some rest and refuel before heading off to be with the
teams. We left Nairobi on a bus
headed to Dar es Salaam (see my last couple blog posts about this bus ride)
along with a couple of the teams and then we stayed in Dar while the teams
headed on to Morogoro, Tanzania.
Rachel and I were able to find a good hotel with A/C and comfy beds that
was within 5 minutes of the beach and didn’t cost us too much personally on top
of our WR $5-8 per day.
We got to spend a couple of days just chilling out on the
beach, worshipping on the beach, and spending some alone time with Jesus on the
beach/in our rooms. It was perfect
and exactly what we needed before heading up to where we are now which is
Morogoro, Tanzania! More on
Morogoro soon….
My spot on the beach.
From the dock I was diving off of with a couple African dudes I met. There’s a chance that I’ll have video of this up at some point…just a small chance though.
Beautiful little girl that Rachel and I played with for a while.
My diving dock at low tide. When the tide came up, the water was all the way up to the top of it! It was crazy.
