We are safe in Tanzania! We traveled for 23 hours by bus to get here and it was somehow tolerable for me. That is weird to say because I was in the back of the bus sitting on a broken seat, we never stopped for food, we only stopped for the bathroom when the driver needed to stop, and the pot holes on the road looked more like craters on the moon which would constantly wake us up through the night from flying airborne out of our seats. At one point I was getting a little annoyed, but God filled me with His joy when he reminded me that I am in Africa.
We are staying right outside the town of Moshi, and it is a HUGE change from where we have been. All I need to say is that in town there are CAFES!!!!!! It is touristy; there are mzungus (white people)! We get a small taste of home, which is hard to explain to you in America if you actually saw the town. Home has become a new concept and the definition revolves mostly around food and grocery stores. If a town has a good grocery store, which Moshi does (a Nakumatt to be exact…very Americanized, like a Walmart, but not as cool), then you know you will not lose too much sanity during the month.
The Town of Moshi
Our cook this month is Ruth, and let me tell you that God has gifted her with skills in the kitchen. I have not had good food from a contact for at least five months, and all the weight that I put on in the beginning of the race is gone plus some (I lost 10-15 pounds since being in Malaysia…3 months ago…don’t worry mom I gained 10 pounds before I lost it), but Ruth may be putting some meat back on my bones! I still eat very little meat and if I do it is chicken…Ruth’s chicken is BOMB! You don’t have to chew it like a dog bone!
Guess which one is Ruth?
We have great living conditions as well. There are four bedrooms, Erica and I share a big bed, there are walls and tile floors in the bathroom to bathe on, the squatty is porcelain, we have running water between the hours of 5pm and 8am, there is a shower head, there is electricity, and there is a room with a table and chairs to eat and hang out at!
We even get alone time! We have a place to escape to down by a creek with freezing water that flows down from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. We climb out on rocks and read our Bibles until some kids come over and try to read it with us. We also have a view of the mountain around the corner from where we are living. We are living large this month!
We are partnering with a church and our pastor is great! So far we have planted about 30 trees in the red concrete dust they call soil (pastor also called the ash from burnt garbage “manure”, which we used to plant the trees), did some hospital visits, and visited many homes in the community to encourage, pray, and build relationships. We will be meeting a lot of people in their homes this month and will also be teaching and preaching various times a week in the church.
I think you get a small picture of what this month looks like for me.
