In case you didn't know… We are in Tanzania!
After saying a farewell to the parents in Kijabe, we loaded up onto a bus and started the trek to Tanzania to meet up with the rest of the squad. True to World Race travel “days”, we started the journey on the 10th traveling from Kijabe to Nairobi, then after staying the night at our beloved Backpackers' Inn, we headed out the next day for Arusha.
Kenya to Tanzania = fasted boarder crossing EVER. Pay 100 USD (ouch) and you get a visa written into your passport with blue ink. No questions asked.
We stayed the night in Arusha and caught a bus bright and early to our final location in Morogoro. It was another hot and sweaty bus ride and the temperature progressively became more humid with each pothole in the road. Quite the climate change from cool mornings in Kijabe.
Yes, when you close your eyes it feels like you are back in India, but with eyes open, it looks more like Cambodia. Red dirt roads, green tropical trees, some rice fields and incredible skies. Mount Morogoro may not reach the heights of Kilimanjaro, but it juts out of the desert in start contrast to its surroundings. I love living at the base of a mountain again!
Alyssa, Steven and I are all together this month! The team we are with is doing a variety of ministry including, hospital, working at a school and door to door as well as preaching at Sunday services between the exuberant dancing and preaching with a sound system that rivals the decibel level of a punk rock concert.
One thing we have found we can count on in Africa are sound systems that push record volume limits. Even when we were in the middle of the Masai Mara, no electricity and one well, they still managed to round up a generator every Sunday to broadcast the church happenings across the town. A family may have nothing – no furniture, no kitchen, BUT more often than not, they have a nice set of speakers.
We are prepping for a Leader Retreat at the end of the month and enjoying the weather before heading up to chilly Latvia (38 degrees yesterday yikes!) We are going to be back at Backpackers Inn (our home base these past 3 months) for the retreat then fly out of Nairobi on the 29th. Hard to believe we are on the home stretch!
