God is good

Recap of the last few days: Service, physical fitness challenge, cultural immersion

Friday: Painting in the secondary school dining hall
Saturday: Mountain hike
Sunday: Village visit, Luka's house, choir practice

Friday May 21
No bus ride today. Instead after our normal morning routine, we headed across the seminary grounds to the secondary school dining hall. We have frequently visited the school grounds for morning class devotions, choir practice and to visit the store for some cold sodas, so we knew where we were going. The dining hall itself isn't in too bad of shape, but there is a lot of water damage to the ceiling, some mold and just some general wear and tear from the years of use. We sanded, filled in holes and then set to work. The walls became blue and the cement around the top of the walls a cream color. We were going to paint the ceiling,but it is very weak in certain places, so that was vetoed. We stopped various times during the day for tea and lunch, but by the time we stopped around 2pm, it looked completely different and bright. It helped that we had several boys from the school helping us, even if it did mean more of a mess throughout the hall. It was fun to work together with them and all together as a group, even if we did get chased by angry wasps and large spiders. After an afternoon rest, we headed out on our last walk to the orphanage. I ended up being claimed by possibly my favorite talkative little boy, but I managed to acquire another little boy for awhile too, so I had my arms full. They didn't really want to share me though, so I eventually passed off the second one to some empty arms. It was sad to leave at the end of our time, but my little boy got down, waved and said "kwa heri" to me, and it was so adorable. He wouldn't let me put him down before I left, but he understood I had to leave.

Saturday May 22
We woke up to the sound of rain falling and thought "What a perfect day for a mountain hike." Hmmm... We ate breakfast, packed up our stuff and loaded the bus for our drive to the base of the mountain path. It started off with just a light sprinkling, but drizzled on and off for most of the hike up. The road itself started out fairly decent, but then we had to literally scale rocks and climb up, using our hands to pull ourselves up a steep, muddy path. It was quite the workout, and we were all soaked of course, because the path was a muddy stream. We were actually pretty high up and less than a few hours from the top when we ended up having to turn around. It was a pretty traumatic event that occured, but since we are supposed to be careful with what we post, you will have to ask me in private. We'll just say only one girl made it to the top, because she was helped up by one of our teacher's friends who lives up at the top. The rest of us turned around and came back down. We finally got down and got to rest, eat and have some sodas before loading the bus again. Then we stopped off at a police station for a bit, before finally making it back to the seminary. It was quite the exciting day.

Sunday May 23
Last village visit. Possibly one of the top visits we had on this trip, at least for me. We arrived and were greeted by some women singing and shaking our hands. Then we headed into the church for a little while for our customary "sitting period." A new group is at the seminary from Oklahoma/Arkansas, so we were telling them what we knew and what kinds of things to look out for and keep in mind. They're still wishing we were staying awhile longer to help them out more. After a bit, a small group of us went outside to play with the kids. There was a lot of hand slapping/hand games, and then we did things like the hokey pokey, ring-around-the-rosy, london bridge a copycat game. I got claimed by a little boy who refused to share my hands with anyone else, no matter how hard I tried to share, but he wanted to jump and dance with me by himself, so I went with it. Before tea we handed out some textbooks we had bought for the school children there. Tea went pretty well, and then we had another short wait before the 3ish hour service. There was another auction after the service, and we bought lots of the animals again, and a few other pieces of cloth I think . I mostly played with the kids and let them rub my skin and be fascinated with it haha. It's so cute. Lunch was the normal rice, goat, beans and potatoes, so nothing too different. I did get a piece of liver today though...so that was interesting. After leaving the village we headed to Luka's house for tea, snacks and to meet his family. Luka has been a huge help here. He is kind of the pastor's adopted son, so he goes with us everywhere as a driver, guide and assistant pastor at churches. He is going to seminary to be a pastor as well I believe. Anyway, we had lemongrass tea, potatoes, soda and tangerines, and got to sit and talk for awhile, so that was nice. Back at the seminary, I headed for the last time to the secondary school choir practice. I have only been a few times, but they sing sooooo well and are so nice, that I'm glad I went .We exchanged emails and just hung out for awhile be fore getting kicked out by a security guard. Oops!! Now I just have to pack and get ready for our ferry to Zanzibar tomorrow. I may not update again until I'm home. It's hard to say.

Next on the agenda:
Zanzibar- spice tour, snorkeling, swimming, beach resort, beach, shopping, vacation time

Thanks for reading my blog! =) I am so sad to leave this amazing, beautiful place, and I hope I can come back soon.... really soon. The people are amazing and I love the atmosphere. I think I may come back with some sort of medical degree as well.

All for now. Usiku mwema na lala salaama. Jen =)