The week started with what I’ll call a “safari on a budget”.
On a normal safari, you ride in a 4-wheel drive Jeep with a roof that opens and
you feel the wind in your hair as you see a panoramic view of the savanna. On a
“budget safari” however, you have 3 flat tiers while crammed in a dala dala
(public transport) sitting in a seat where the tinted window will not
open. We were fortunate to be able
to see lions, elephants, a crocodile out of the water, hippos, and hundreds of
gazelles, zebras and wildebeests. Many of the animals in the 
Serengeti have already migrated to Kenya. The
highlight of the trip for me was the tribal dance, with a mix of traditional
dance and some new routines complete with a huge python. Stuffing the snake’s
head down his pants is a move meant to attract an audience; it sure attracted
the attention of the men on my team. Overall, it was a fun break from ministry
and not a complete waste of my savings.
visited the home of a Muslim woman and shared my testimony with a man who said
he was Roman Catholic but stopped going to church. We finally discovered that
he would not attend church for fear of being kicked out when the pastor
discovered he was not married to the woman he lived with. He finally consented to
sending his “wife” to church and if she liked it he would join her after a
month or two. It’s better than nothing.
On Thursday I missed ministry and went back to the hospital.
This time I was the patient. The doctor found several small aberrations, or
scratches, on the upper part of my left eye. After walking to 3 different
pharmacies (or “duka la dawa” in Kiswahili), I was able to get the eye drops and ointment that I need.
Two days later, my eye is already feeling much better. I’m so thankful to Pastor Paul and his
wife, who is a nurse at the hospital, for taking good care of me.
On Friday, I volunteered to go with two others to a village
about an hours dala dala (public transport) ride away. We visited a sister church to the one
we are working with in Mwanza. The church building consisted of sticks that
held-up old plastic bags for walls and dried grass for the roof. An old desk
served as the altar at the front and scrap lumber, pieced together, formed the
pews. After introductions and prayer, we headed out to evangelize. The smaller village had a noticeably
slower pace than the part of Mwanza we live in.
