You wake up at 7 am in your tent, the only thing shielding you from malaria-infested mosquitoes and giant cockroaches on your floor. You’re already sweating and goats, crowing roosters, blaring radios, and loud voices outside wake you up.
Say good morning to your roommate… or in my case, a creepy chalk drawing on my door.
Brush your teeth with bottled water and wash your face over the squatty… this is our toilet, shower, sink, and that spigot is the only source of running water in a house of seven women — it gets crowded in here pretty quickly.
After breakfast, walk through the village on your way to ministry. Get even with all of the locals yelling, “Hello! Sista! Mzungu! Mzungu!!” [“mzungu” means “white person”] by sneaking paparazzi shots of the locals bathing. Payback is a sweet, sweet thing.
Walk around the huts and tell people about Jesus. Pull children on your lap and take more pictures as they play in the dirt.
[Looks like somebody forgot something important…]
Pray with grandmothers and their grandchildren under sprawling trees.
Sit with “the mamas” as they do laundry and cook lunch for their babies.
Go home and eat rice and beans for lunch… every. single. day.
In the afternoon, play with the kids who live around your house.
If you don’t go outside to play with them, they will yell for you outside your window. “Cawry! Cawry! Where are you? What are you doing?? Come out! Cawry!!”
More paparazzi shots. Why not?
A day in the life of Tanzania is long and hot and sweaty and wonderful and sweet and unlike any day in the United States. You love your time here… you miss family and home and driving a car instead of piling into dala dalas, but you know that this time is fleeting and special. You go to bed hot and tired and itchy with bug bites, but happy to be where you are for this moment.
We have been busy this week evangelizing and telling people about Jesus. I have personally had the privilege of leading five people to Jesus this week — and that’s just me personally, not everyone on my team. We have been playing with kids and praying over the sick and the hurting and trying to encourage one another through hard times of homesickness and physical sickness. Africa is beautiful — it is beautiful here. The people, the landscape, the faith… Tanzania is gorgeous. Wish you were here.
Support Update: My final deadline is coming up on March 1st and [taking into account my monthly supporter’s continued support] I only need about $800 to be fully funded. I have been so blessed by the amount of emotional, financial, and prayer support that many of you have shared with me. If any of you feel led to support this trip financially, please click on the link on the lefthand side. Thank you so much for praying about this. The World Race would never happen without you.
