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November Emails
Hujambo, familia na marafiki!
(Hello, friends and family!)
We've now been in Tanzania 17 days & halfway through the 34 days of our trip that will actually be spent on African soil (i.e. minus the two spent in the air for travel). Thanks so much to those of you who have been praying for us and sending encouraging e-mails. We can't reply to everyone, but each message is a blessing and a reminder that we are missed and thought of back home. Please continue to pray for safety and guidance from the Lord regarding the work we are to do, our future here, and His timing and plan for our return next year.
Last week and this week Dave continued helping build the Christian primary school building at the site which will eventually include a secondary school and possibly other training programs. This school building will provide continued free education in a Christian atmosphere and at a higher level than public schools offer for the students currently attending the Christian kindergarten on the Bible school campus. Eventually, as money is available, more buildings will be added so these children can attend through high school and other children in the area will also have the same opportunity.
Last night three more wazungu
(white people) arrived. They are from Wyoming and will be drilling wells
throughout the region for the next 2 weeks. This is one of the most important
facets of this ministry as good water is just a basic necessity of life. Plenty
of water is available hundreds of feet below the ground, but a local contractor
would charge $20,000 to drill a well. Many people use dirty water, walk up to 20
miles each way to get a weeks supply of water at a time, or collect
rainwater and hope it will last until the next rainfall. The lead man of the
drilling team shipped a well-drilling machine from the U.S. to the Bible school
a few years ago and comes every year to drill as many new wells as he can
throughout the area. David is looking forward to being a member of the team that
will begin drilling tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I will be teaching
the Compassion International Saturday vacation Bible school class tomorrow. It
has been challenging to come up with a teaching that will be interesting enough
for the 12-year-olds but not too difficult for the 5-year-olds. I believe the
Lord has given me some good things to share (through a translator, of course),
and I'm excited to spend the morning with these beautiful children. Afterwards I
will have worship practice. Next week I will help with the medical clinics when
I'm not needed elsewhere, and Dave will continue helping the drilling team.
OK, I know this is getting
long, but a lot of you have asked for details on specific things, and I want to
try to give them. You all know I can write forever and won't be offended if you
scan, skip, or wait to read the rest later. J
We were honored last week to
take part in two celebratory events in the area. The first was the graduation of
this year's trade school students (fifty-two of them). They have learned
carpentry, sewing, or masonry and will now be able to get steady jobs that will
raise their quality of life and allow them to help support their families. We
were asked to create and print the graduation certificates for them, which
shouldn't have been a big deal since we were designing them ourselves and taking
a disk into town to have them printed. Alas, we are in Africa, so what should
have taken about 3 hours instead took a few days. Having worked in a print shop
in Florida, I was really surprised the lack of knowledge, resources, and
equipment at the print shops in Arusha not to mention the atrocious prices.
After trying to deal with them for the better part of a day, we decided to buy
the hardcover paper and ink ourselves and print them at the Bible school office.
It worked out beautifully in the end, and several people told me I could make a
lot of money designing and printing those kinds of things in Arusha since
(obviously) no one really knows what they're doing. J
Anyway, the graduation was nice, although very hot and dusty. We got to see some
of the sewing and carpentry students work and were very impressed. Afterwards,
everyone was treated to a fine meal. Dessert at such functions consists of a
whole, spit-roasted goat that is unveiled, cut up, and served first to the
guests of honor. While we would rather be treated as common people, our skin
color and country of origin sets us apart, so we were among the favored few who
were served the first, and fattiest, pieces of meat. It is a dark, greasy meat,
and the meat is hard to find through the fat. It is rude not to eat the fat,
though, as that is what sets goat apart as really special. It really doesn't
taste bad at all, and those of you who secretly (or otherwise) eat all the fat
off your prime rib would probably enjoy it thoroughly.
The second event occurred
Saturday when one of the workers in the Compassion International office got
married. Both the bride and groom's fathers work at the Bible school and are
fairly well known, so there was a large turnout. A lot of aspects are similar to
an American wedding since there is a strong European influence here. As in most
third-world countries, time really doesn't matter here, so while the invitations
said the wedding would begin at 10, the bride and groom showed up at about noon.
One other noticeable difference is that the bride, groom, best man, and matron
of honor all sit up front facing the audience during almost the entire service,
excluding the vows. Also the best man and matron of honor are always a married
couple. The idea is that this couple, who has been married for a while, will
teach the newly married couple the ropes of marriage, keep them accountable, and
help them work through marital problems as they arise. Several children may
partake in the wedding party by singing, dancing, throwing confetti, and
carrying the rings, but the only adults in the wedding party are usually just
this married couple. The reception is the part that is most noticeably African
in tradition. Everyone went up to the bride and groom's new house after the
wedding. People stood outside praying, blessing the house, and encouraging the
bride and groom for a while, and then the bride and groom invited the pastor
into their house. The three of them drank sodas together, and when they came
back out, the gift-giving began. People were announced by family or association
with either the bride or groom and individually brought their gifts to the bride
and groom in front of the house. Big gifts like furniture and roofing material
(the house was completely empty and not finished, although they began living in
it right away) were then taken into the house. The bride's parents and family
gave gifts like a cow, goats, chickens, furniture, and cooking utensils, and the
groom's parents brought the bed, other furniture, and materials to finish the
house. Friends brought money or typical wedding gifts (towels, plates, etc.) The
gift-giving took about an hour and a half and was followed by food very similar
to what we ate at the graduation (goat dessert and all). This is a good time to
mention that we have been asked to be the couple of honor for Rogathe (the
native who lived with my family in Montana to attend high school, for those who
might not remember) and her husband-to-be at their wedding in Arusha next
August. We are excited and humbled to have this opportunity and are hoping that
her fianci will be able to come visit while we're here so we can meet him first!
To those of you still with me here, I will send a couple more updates before we leave. We are not hopeful regarding being able to send any of our digital pictures from here since even sending e-mail without attachments can be quite difficult and time-consuming.
Grace and peace to you in our
Lord Jesus Christ!
Love,
Crystal (na Daudi)
Warning: This update is not for the tired, in-a-hurry, or casually interested. If you thought the last one was long, you might just want to delete this and wait for the highlights in next month’s newsletter. J
Hamjambo tena,
(Hello to you all again),
The last time I wrote was exactly halfway through our trip. As of right now, we have four days left. I haven’t taken as much time to try to e-mail or even to keep up my personal journaling of our activities, so I have some catching up to do. I guess there’s always the 30-hour trip back to the States!
Kwanza (first), I’ll update you on some of the activities I mentioned in my last mass e-mail. Dave and the guys finished up the school building that will house the first grade and a teachers’ office. This is the school’s first year, beginning with kindergarten, and the plan all along has been to build as this first class grows up so that eventually the school will go all the way through high school and perhaps beyond. It’s a Christian public school that is free to the students because they are sponsored, much like the Compassion International students are sponsored. Compassion International has reached capacity for the number of children its small office here can handle, but those of you who have expressed interest in sponsoring children right in the area where we’re working will be glad to know that this new Christian school program operated through International Evangelism Centre still needs sponsors. Like Compassion, the program provides for the basic needs and quality education. I will find out more details when I return as the people in charge are in Washington state.
Three of the four other Americans who came since we’ve been here have now returned. The first one, Jack, left last Saturday unexpectedly after experiencing extensive stomach problems. He had previously been healed of tumors and other intestinal complications and thought it wise (as did all of us) to return home early for some tests. We all prayed for him before he left, and he said by the time he returned home the problems had ceased, but he went in for testing this week just to be sure. No word on the results yet. He is a great guy and a wonderful resource for us in the states as he has been involved with this ministry since before it actually began operating more than 20 years ago. The two men who came with him remained here, but one of them, Troy, returned yesterday, as did the nurse, Vicki, who came a week after we arrived. The final “mzungu” left is Trusty, the main well-driller, who will return the day after we do. We’ve enjoyed getting to know all of these people who have hearts to serve the Lord and have blessed so many people here in this relatively unknown area of Africa.
We also had a few other Americans stop in after they finished a pastors’ conference in Arusha at the church of an American pastor who has been here so long he is practically considered local. Several people came for our Sunday-night service Nov. 9, and a few of them preached. Three brothers from Montana returned Tuesday and Wednesday to teach at the Bible school. They are from the town where I attended high school, so it was fun to talk with them. They also stayed with us in the house where we’ve been living for one month now.
Dave has been busy with working on the well-drilling team and doing fix-it jobs around the Bible school. He also was put in charge of an experimental project at the farm after Jack had to leave due to his illness. Dave has been working with the farmers to prepare the land, and on Saturday he will be planting eight rows of corn, four rows of beans, and four rows of peppers in a small test plot (30 meters long). We are interested to see if any crops will grow during the off-season. If so, the farmland could be used year-round to grow crops to sell at market or to feed the Bible school students and staff. The farm, which is more than 100 acres, is used solely to support the ministry.
I continued to help the nurse when she held clinics for the Sakila village area. She sees everything from aches and pains to incurable diseases and horrible accidents. I spent much of my time with her in the back building sorting food and clothing that she gave away, counting pills or other medicines, and finding medical supplies she needed from boxes full of them. I also helped pull a rotten tooth, clean wounds, and take out stitches, and I became well-known and much-loved as the person who handed out food and clothing after patients had been seen. Some common problems here are Cerebral palsy and Down’s syndrome, which no one seems to understand and everyone is still hoping to treat or cure; water and fire burns due to the way people cook and how embers from fires are often shared and carried from house to house; ringworms that have gone untreated for years; goiters, rotten teeth, respiratory diseases, and undiagnosed diabetes. Many pregnant mothers came in for baskets we prepared as sort of midwife kits. We also saw some broken bones and cuts, scrapes, and wounds from bad falls or accidents. One of the most heartbreaking things I saw were bent, deformed, or fragile bones caused by the high concentration of fluoride in the water here. There isn’t a filter that can eliminate fluoride (not that they could afford it anyway), and there’s no way to treat some of the problems that can occur because of it. We were told that in some areas of Tanzania and Kenya the fluoride is so high that eight out of ten people have deformed, thin bones or dwarfed bones structures. The fluoride also causes most people’s teeth to rot, turn brown, or at least have brown splotches. We see this in some areas of the U.S. still, but now people know to drink bottled water instead. People here are happy to have any water at all. It was sad enough to see people my age who are shorter than five feet and have bones that literally grew completely twisted, but to see the little children who already had bones beginning to twist or curve, and to know that the problem would only get worse, made me want to cry. In many cases surgeries are available, and I have yet to hear of a surgery that cost more than $70, but that may be more than families make in two or three months or more.
My other activities have included teaching the Compassion International children and the Bible school students. I enjoyed the children very much. After their corporate time of singing together, their choir (a group of about 20 of the 237 children) sang several special songs. They have learned a few in English and sang them for me as well. I taught on doing God’s will and used Jonah and David as illustrations of running away from God’s will or doing God’s will unhappily and with a wrong heart versus doing God’s will wholeheartedly and with joy, regardless of the cost or where it might take you. Then I played a few songs on my flute for them. I taught at the Bible school (about 122 adults are enrolled in this class) for three class periods. In the first one I introduced myself, shared my testimony, talked about how we were called to come to Africa, and also incorporated a message about doing the Lord’s will. Then the students wanted me to teach them some English, so I spent one and a half class periods teaching them to say some English phrases as that was all I really had time to do. I’ve been surprised at how many people want to learn English, and I know that English classes even out here in the village area would go over very well. The students also asked me to bring my flute to class, so I spent the last half of the final session I taught playing some hymns and encouraged them to sing along if they knew the songs. They knew all but one of them, and it was so beautiful to hear them singing some of my favorite hymns in Swahili while I played my flute. I ended by playing along as they sang a couple of my favorite Swahili songs from church. I’ve been playing with the worship band, and I always get a kick out of what a big hit any sort of different instrument can be. They are accustomed to drums (of course), guitars, keyboards, and even trumpets, but most people have never seen a flute and sometimes even use the word “trumpet” to describe it as they don’t know any other word for such an instrument.
One of my favorite elements of this area has always been the children. They are almost always friendly, excited to see us, and even clingy. I am impressed by their creativity. Most of them have never had or even seen a real toy, but I have quickly learned that water bottles, plastic sacks, and leftover pieces of wood can become great toys in the hands of a child. Soccer is “the” sport here, and either water bottles or plastic sacks wrapped into a ball with twine easily double as soccer balls. We’ve also seen wooden scooters (down to the wheels and everything) and a used water jug attached to a wooden handle, axels, and wheels. It looked similar to those toys in America that kids push around like vacuums to make the little balls inside pop up and down.
I have visited the public primary school of the area and also the kindergarten on the Bible school campus several times. They usually know some words or phrases in English, and the older children like to sing songs in English for English-speaking visitors. The youngest children, even on the road by the house as we’re leaving or coming home, immediately shout “mzungu” or “wazungu” (white person/people) and run toward us. They are thrilled just to shake our hands or have us take a picture of them. At the most they might ask if we have any candy. The older they get, they may be more hesitant to run toward us but still want to shake our hands. Somewhere around 10 or 12 they begin saying “give me” (in English) followed by either “money” or whatever we might be carrying or wearing that they would like to have. The idea that all Americans are rich is prevalent, and whereas many people are happy to have a roof over their heads (although it may be made of leaves from banana trees) and a little bit of food (although I wouldn’t call it “enough”), many others believe their way of life is horrible and the American way of life is like a fairy tale. Young girls dream of growing up to marry an American man who will whisk them away to the blessed land, and young men dream of saving enough money and having enough skill to get to America and find a job. Most abandon these ideas in their 20s or 30s, but we still meet people in their 40s and 50s who want nothing more out of life than to get to America. I think the introduction of Internet and the increasing number of televisions has let people see what kind of material possessions there are in the world, which is why people who can barely afford to eat may yet own a cell phone. Even here the poorest people will find enough to buy some beer (banana beer or a mysterious blend they refer to as the “local brew”) at one of the little bars, which are strange to see in the middle of a field or surrounded by houses made of mud, sticks, and banana tree leaves. But there are many Christians in this area now, and even as greed and discontent increase, so does the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It’s true no matter where you are that true joy, happiness, and contentment come from knowing the truth, doing God’s will, and loving Him. Although even many Christians here still dream of going to America, they will cautiously add “if God wishes.”
Last Wednesday afternoon I attended a funeral for a
man who died of malaria. He had attended the Bible school here in Sakila and
then went to America to attend and later work for Youth with a Mission. Oddly
enough, I actually met the man in Montana once. He was doing some work for the
YWAM near Kalispel and took a day to come to Helena and meet up with Rogathe
while she was living with us there. He moved back to Tanzania to work for the
YWAM in Arusha and had a wife and two children. The funeral was held at his
house, and speakers were set up around his back yard so that the hundreds of
people gathered on every side of the house and even down the alleys around it
could hear. Very few people could actually see the people speaking or singing,
and although chairs were crammed into every place imaginable, many people were
standing. After walking through the procession to see the open casket (which I
was not expecting) and pay last respects, Rogathe and I found a place to stand
for about an hour before a couple of people left and offered us their seats for
the remaining hour and a half. Although I couldn’t understand most of what was
being said, I find the traditions and customs here so intriguing that I mostly
didn’t care. I don’t know how embalming takes place here, but although the
man’s body had been at the mortuary for 24 hours, his nostrils were stuffed
with something so that the smell would not come out, and a man stood nearby to
spray perfume every few seconds. (I can almost hear some of you groaning, but I
thought you might find it interesting.) After the majority of speaking and
singing was completed, the family, a choir, and a band walked in front of those
carrying the casket to the side of the house, where the body was buried. He was
just around 30 years old, and his children are very young. Malaria is a scary
disease that may seem to go away only to strike more fiercely later and very
quickly take a life, as it happened in this case. I was glad to be at a funeral
where at least I knew the family had the assurance of seeing their loved one
again and the knowledge that he served the Lord with all his heart all of his
adult life. Death is far too common among people who seem to be young and
healthy. Since we’ve been here there have been three funerals in the immediate
vicinity, two due to sicknesses and one to a car accident, and at least 40
people have died on the main road between here and Arusha (about 37 kilometers
away).
Speaking
of driving, the dirt roads are a mess of rocks and large juts and ditches. They
wind and curve, and riding on them is quite jarring to the body. Dirt roads seem
safer than the highways, though, because one has to drive more slowly on the
dirt roads to narrowly avoid hitting women carrying buckets of water or baskets
of fruit on top of their heads, children on their way to or from school, donkeys
packing jugs of water, or goats or an occasional cow being led home or to
market. And I do mean very narrowly miss them, especially the donkeys or other
animals. Cars drive down the left
side of the road here, and most of the time there aren’t speed limits or nice
solid or broken yellow lines down the highway to let you know when it’s safe
to pass. The highways are wide enough for three cars, so people pass at will.
They aren’t wide enough for four cars, so when two people pass try to pass at
the same time, either the cars on the outside move off the road a little or
there’s a bad accident. Last week we drove by the site of a horrible bus
accident just a couple of hours after it happened. A small bus was trying to
pass in the fog and collided with an oncoming large bus. The small bus was
completely totaled; there were seats from it lying on the ground and protruding
out of the windows; the front end was smashed back to about the second row of
seats. Everyone on the small bus died as did some on the large bus, and many
were seriously injured. The last time I heard, about 35 people had died.
We
have had opportunities to take a couple of safaris since I last wrote. Although
most Americans think of a safari as something that takes at least three days and
includes walking or boating through thick jungles, “safari” in Swahili means
“a journey” or “a trip,” so going to town for groceries can be a safari.
But I’m talking about going out into jungle-like areas specifically to see
African plants, birds, animals, and tribal people. The first, two Sundays ago,
was to the Sakila forest just a couple of miles away. We took a walking tour
with a local guide, and at the edge of the forest we also had to be accompanied
by a forest ranger. One part of the forest (the plantation forest) has been
planted for timber and preservation purposes through a government program, and
the natural forest is off-limits in many areas due to poaching. Guides are quite
adamant that one should not desire to meet up with an elephant or buffalo, even
for the sake of a photograph or two, as they are very dangerous animals, so such
walking tours are given in the daytime when such creatures can best be avoided.
We did see two species of monkeys, though, and enjoyed watching them swing
between trees and try to hide from us. We also saw several interesting bushes
and trees bearing fruits that, of course, can be very good for cooking or
medicinal purposes or can almost
kill
a person with a single touch. A migratory tribe called the Safa is allowed live
in the forest area for limited amounts of time every year as long as they build
temporary (i.e. mud/wood/banana leaf) houses. They are in the forest now, so we
encountered several of them. They dress modernly and were friendly, and their
way of life is quite interesting.
Our second safari was on Monday to Ngorongoro National Park. The park is adjacent to the Serengeti, which we had a great view of at our highest elevation, and the major point of interest is a volcanic crater that is home to almost every African animal one could desire to see. A large number of people of the Masai tribe live in the area and are allowed to herd their cattle anywhere they like, so we saw some of them among the zebras and water buffalo. They don’t have houses in the crater itself but do live within the national park. These are the tribal people who always wear red and are mostly widely recognized in the Western world. The animals we saw included monkeys, baboons, warthogs, water buffalo, elephants, zebras, hyeneas, gazelle, impala, other types of buffalo, ostriches, hippos, cranes, wildabeast, foxes, an eagle, flamingos, and, best of all, a leopard and four lions. We were most of all on the lookout for large cats since they hide well and are the hardest to spot, and toward the end of our trip we saw them. First we saw two young lions that someone in another vehicle spotted and pointed out to us. (Otherwise, we never would have seen them as they blended in so well with the grasses.) A truck starting in front of us startled them, so we got some good pictures as they jumped off to run away but took one curious look back at us first. Later we saw two lions checking out some zebras and wildabeast and thoroughly enjoyed what appeared to be the beginnings of a hunt. We also saw a leopard that seemed ready to pounce on one of several zebras gathered nearby, but the cat was unwilling to put forth too much effort, and these felines are very patient. We didn’t have such a patient driver, and since we left at 4:00 a.m. and hoped to be back home before dark, we didn’t have time to see if the cats got their prey that afternoon. We saw amazing animals and beautiful plant life and on our lunch break had half a loaf of bread stolen from the car by a monkey as his angry relatives nearly tried to attack us for our food, so it was certainly a full day.
Apart from greedy monkeys and long, hot, sweaty, dirty trips across roads so rough one’s body hurts the next morning just from sitting all day long, I will most of all miss my “sister,” Rogathe, the beautiful children, and the new friends we’ve made. In addition to reuniting with Rogathe, we’ve managed to cross cultural and communication barriers enough to form bonds with some of the workers, teachers, and villagers here. It’s quite a motivation to learn Swahili fluently, something I plan to do inside of the next two years or my name isn’t Ngakisali! (That’s actually my new Meru name. Meru is the tribal family of the Mount Meru area, which we’re not far from, and naturally the tribe has its own language, as do all of the regions of Tanzania, in addition to Swahili. Sometimes I catch people speaking Meru just to throw me off or because they want to say things I won’t be able to understand, so I’ve made a point to learn some Meru phrases, which for some reason always sends people into fits of laughter. Sometimes people here [this happens everywhere] have trouble with my name because of the short “i” sound in the middle and the “l” at the end, so my name ends up being pronounced as their word for “Christ” [“Kristo” here]. I have a hard time telling people that I was not named after the Lord and a harder time getting them to pronounce it correctly. The cook at the Bible school decided I needed an African name since my husband has one, and for whatever reason he chose Ngakisali. So I earned myself a Meru name, which is actually a pretty common one since the firstborn of every family is Kisali if it is a boy or Ngakisali if it is a girl. Women also are called Ngakisali after they marry someone named Kisali, so it seems like every other person has this Meru name in addition to their Swahili name. People seem to think I need to continue to use this name when I return to America, but I’ve tried to explain that pronouncing some of the words in these languages could cause injuries I don’t want to be responsible for.) Among our new friends is Brighton, Rogathe’s fiancé, who did come to visit after much pleading and after learning that we are the ones Rogathe has chosen as her “wadhamini” (basically best man and matron of honor, although the word actually means “guarantees,” as I just learned from my dictionary). We enjoyed meeting him and were able to communicate as he speaks some English, I speak some Swahili, and Rogathe speaks both. He and Rogathe accompanied us on our Ngorongoro safari, which made the day that much more fun for us. Brighton works with the three businesses he and his parents own in Shinyanga, Tanzania and is also an on-fire evangelist and preacher in any spare time he can find. He and Rogathe met while he was a student at the International Evangelism Center Bible school here in Sakila three years ago.
It has been very refreshing and exciting for us to see the intense hunger and excitement Christians have for the Lord here. The Bible school students arise before 4:00 a.m. for prayer each day and can often be seen studying or reading their Bibles past 10:00 p.m. Intermittently throughout the day they will break out in song between or even during classes or meals or whatever, and (in my opinion) you just haven’t heard singing until you’ve heard a group of Africans in a little village filling up a big valley with the sound of their praises to their King. Something interesting you may not know is that in churches here (and in many other parts of the world), tithes and offerings do not just come in monetary forms. Our first Sunday here, someone tied up their offering, a young cow, to a tree just outside the church. We got to hear that offering calling out to us during most of the service. Last Sunday it was a goat tied up to the tree as an offering. Rather than having a bucket passed around, people bring their gifts to the front of the church at the appointed time. There are baskets for money, and other common offerings are large bags (50 pounds or more) of rice or beans, sacks of other food, or live chickens. Those of you who are accustomed to passing around a little offering tray or bucket in church really ought to try putting in a 5-lb. bag of sugar or a box of rice sometime.
Speaking of food, many of you have heard that I haven’t been feeling well for most of this trip. I was great the first week, but the following three weeks had less-than-pleasant moments. I didn’t have any trouble with my health the last time I came, but the American who had to go home early had been here three times before without any problems, so you never know. My stomach was unsettled and unwilling to cooperate with anything I ate for the better part of three weeks, and just when it began to get better I caught a cold that had me up half of every night for a week with coughing and a sore throat. I’m feeling great all around today and fully expect my body to be completely healthy and adjusted just in time to pack to leave. I haven’t let it hinder my activity too much, but with the various adjustments I’ve lost about 10 pounds while Dave has lost 15. His sister has already informed us that she plans to fatten us up on Thanksgiving, and we are very much looking forward to that!
Several
of you have asked about where we are living, so I will try to tell you about it
quickly (yeah, right). It is the house of Rogathe’s brother, his American
wife, and their three daughters (one of whom just arrived a few
weeks
ago;
congratulations!) They now run the ministry’s stateside operations from
Washington and spend about six weeks of every year here in this house. It’s a
very nice house, especially by African standards, and it has been great to have
the place mostly to ourselves. (One man’s full-time job is the upkeep of this
house, which includes staying here at night, and a worker at the Bible school
also sleeps here during the week and then goes home to his family on weekends.)
The nicer houses here are built with cinderblock covered with concrete, so all
the walls and floors are basically painted cement. (The not-so-nice houses are
built with sticks, mud, and banana leaves.) This house has a beautiful garden,
and the front porch looks over the Bible school and out to Mount Kilimanjaro.
Since an American has lived in the house, we have a toaster, a regular oven and
stove, and some other good kitchen utensils and appliances. They do have a
washer and dryer, but the washer has to be filled with water from a hose and
drained into a sink. So it basically just washes; it doesn’t spin or rinse.
I’m not complaining, though, because it’s better by far than washing by
hand. We usually have bread (or toast) and small, sweet bananas for breakfast
(or sometimes crackers and other fruit if we feel like it), rice with a sauce
that has kidney beans for lunch, and rice with a potato and beef stew for
supper, and supper is followed by “dessert,” which is watermelon, pineapple,
cucumbers, and carrots (all very fresh, of course). We get a little tired of the
same stuff, so sometimes we cook something for ourselves at the house where we
live. (We brought some foods and have been very thankful that Rogathe’s
brother invited us to use some of the American food they have stocked in the
pantry.) The house has a hot-water heater, a telephone, a little fridge, and
even a TV, so we’re really not roughing it as much as you might have thought.
We bought a fan to compensate for the lack of air conditioning while sleeping
and hardly notice the difference. We see large insects and little salamanders
often, but we are used to that from having lived in Florida. The electricity
goes out for several hours at a time maybe once a week or so.
Before I wrap things up, I want to thank those of you who have prayed for us and encouraged us in so many ways. Without you, this trip would never have been possible. We thank the Lord for you and look forward to seeing how and when He brings us back here as His plans for us unfold in the coming weeks and months.
Mungu bariki (God bless),
Daudi na Ngakisali
Neema na iwe pamoja na wote wampendao Bwana Yesu Kristo katika hali ya kutokuharibika. Waefeso 6:24 (Ephesians 6:24)
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