Hello everyone! First off want to let everyone know I am alive and well in Sumbawanga, Tanzania. It has been awhile since I last updated my blog but internet in Africa has been challenging at best. So, we have finally arrived in our last ministry destination in Africa… it has seemed to fly by so fast.
Getting to Sumbawanga may have been the tallest challenge to date on this continent. We braved a 54 hour bus ride from Kampala, Uganda to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania via Nairobi, Kenya – an experience which in itself was wildly disorienting. Upon arriving in Dar at about 2:30am we slept on the parked bus as part of our squad departed for their contacts dotted around the east coast. About one hour of sleep there and then we boarded the next bus headed all the way west to a town called Mbeya in the corner of Tanzania bordering Zambia and The Congo. We stopped and slept a few hours at a hostel there and boarded another bus at 8am the next morning for a 7 hour wild ride up a small dirt road to reach Sumbawunga. We calculated 54 hours of actual moving bus time and over three days of almost nonstop travel. We were destroyed upon arrival, but still managed to meet half the congregation of the church, get a lesson in Kiswahili (the official language) and take a walking tour of the surprisingly rather large town. We’re beginning to get our bearings now and things are looking well for the month.
Sumbawanga is an interesting place. Surprisingly well established and semi sprawling metropolis by Africa standards – sitting between two large lakes at the end of a very long and bumpy dirt road. Upon arriving in the town and hitting asphalt roads again you begin to wonder if the last seven hours were just a dream. The city literally just doesn’t make since to be where it is. The land here is very arid and we were covered in layers of dust from the open windows on the epic bus ride. The soil is dry, but the tree tops are green and upon reviewing the land you just tread from the top of a hill the landscape takes on a layered effect of green and brown. They tell us the rainy season may start any day now though and theres no telling what the place will look like then.
Internet is really scarce here and it’s taken us two days and walking around the entire town to find an internet cafe with working internet. So, I’ll try to send updates as possible. I don’t know, but there seems to be an interesting vibe about the town that I haven’t felt yet in Africa. This should be a very different, but very good month. There seems to be some very serious spiritual heaviness in this place and we’ve been told witchcraft is very common here. Through this though the teams seem to be growing closer and stronger. Please continue praying for us – especially this month, it may prove an interesting one for sure!
