Current Location: Arusha, Tanzania
Number of Mosquito bites to date since my entrance to Africa: 6
Health Status: Headache, muscle ache, fatigued, dehydrated
Morale: Extremely low
Debrief was amazing. I can’t remember if I explained debrief before but at the end of the month, every 2 months, we do a massive squad get together and enjoy some serious relaxation at a hostel. We do teaching, worship, and fellowship. It lets us love on each other and pour into one another with love since we spent 60 days straight loving on others in villages. It was truly amazing, my bestfriend rejoined our squad and she and I got to share a room! It was really amazing being with everyone and catching up, hearing about all the ministries the other teams got to go to! And I can’t lie, it was very nice having access to a television with CNN. Sad to have learned of the hurricane which effected some families here on our squad.
The bus ride from Nairobi to Tanzania was very smooth. Aside from the boarder wanting to over charge us because I’m white, everything was dandy. The second we crossed into Tanzania we were greeted by some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, it rivaled most of the mountains I have seen in Europe on previous travels before the Race. You know those photos you see when page turning through National Geographic? It looked like that. We were watching the Masi heard their sheep with towering mountains looming over them, it was surreal to really be looking at all of this. We are very close to Mt. Kilimanjaro. I have heard horror stories from friends about the bus rides from Nairobi to Tanzania and thankfully I was snuggled up with a blanket and my ipod the whole way enjoying every bit of the cold and rainy weather!
When we arrived at our bus stop where our contact was supposed to pick us up there appeared to be a very glaring error. Our contact thought we were supposed to come the FOLLOWING week. The other team for whatever reason was to be staying with us. Thank goodness they were able to accommodate us, kind of.
There is a grouping of houses in this little niche below a mountain. I’m not kidding when I say I feel like I’m in the jungle or the rainforest. Actually, we very well could be in a full fledged rain forest, I just haven’t the foggiest idea. I tried asking a local but they didn’t speak English. So if you readers happen to find some spare time to let me know where I’m located and if I’m in a rainforest, let me know!
The ministry doesn’t sound like we’ll be doing too much. That’s bad for me, because everything about this place resembles Moldova. Not the physical aspects of it but the quality of the accommodations, the not too busy ministry, the laundry situation.
Times like these get me extremely homesick. 3 of us girls are sharing a bed, a double bed. Yup. Emily and I are sharing a bed that is hard as wood, REALLY! Thank goodness we come prepared for these situations. We busted out our sleeping pads and our sleeping bags and the bug net and settled in. At some point during the night a kid started screaming bloody murder. This happened a few more times throughout the night. At 6:15am the house started blaring music. It reminded me of parties I used to go to in college because of how loud it was, shudder. It also rained for 12 straight hours on our tin roof. No, no not that theraputic type rain that soothes you. I’m talking rain that when you thought it couldn’t possibly rain any louder IT DID!
Our cars the previous day almost flipped trying to rev up the hill because the mud was so thick and sloshy.
Emily and I hiked back up to the pastors house because we aren’t staying with him. We are staying with people we don’t know, that aren’t part of our ministry. I don’t think I have met them yet. Anyways, we went to the pastors house to watch some tv or whatever it was that was on. I just chanted in my head “I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry”
I’m exhausted. My joints ache. I have a headache. And I’ve been on the verge of vomiting for the past 12 hours. Those are all the symptoms of malaria. I’m running a little toasty. I’m praying I’m just fatigued and dehydrated and not the earlier of those 2 statements. We won’t get drinking water until tomorrow, I have about 3 swigs left. This is going to get interesting.
The hike to church this morning really was through the jungle, through the thick mud, and trying to avoid the mini river that was running through our path. I sat through 3 long hours of an African service that I have no clue what they said. No translator.
I’m not sure our contact even speaks English but he must since our team leader managed to understand him.
22 days. This is a bad mindset to be in. Moldova was the hardest month of my life and to head into a month where everything looks, tastes, and smells like it as far as ministry goes and living situations…. it’s going to be hard.
Please pray for my morale. I’m so homesick for my husky, my awesome supportive family, my duvet and warm clothes, and the awesome church community I belong to at home. Oh yeah, did I mention I’m freezing? Africa has yet to be hot for us. We have been blessed very much with a cool race route thus far.
We will find out soon if we get to go to Zanzibar, a tropical island at the end of the month for some R&R that I desperately need. If we don’t, it’s going to be a very long, long, month with little to look forward to.
I’m sorry I’m being so whiney and this isn’t an upbeat positive blog. I knew the internet was going to be limited and I wanted to continue to be honest in my posts. I’m human, we all have bad days, we all get sick, it just happens that I’m a missionary and I experience them overseas. I want to give my readers an accurate depiction of what life REALLY is like out here. I loved reading and reading blogs galore before the Race. I wanted to really KNOW what I was getting myself into. Life isn’t always rainbows and unicorns, and rose tinted glasses. I want you readers to rejoice when I’m happy (Kenya) and pray with me when I’m homesick and stressed out (Tanzania).
Oh, and internet is limited this month. If I don’t update, know that there will be 10 updates to look forward to at the end of the month.
On the left side of the page are all my teammates. You can click their names and it will take you straight to their blog. The wonderful thing about this feature is that you can get 6 times the amount of updates from 6 different perspectives other than myself. God works through 6 other people alongside me so you should make your way over to their blog updates when I don’t post, you can just as easily see what I’m up to through them!
