February Wrap Up

The month of February has been a whirlwind. With the HandsOn I haven’t had much time to even think. The students at the Uni have been in finals/break for the semester. After getting them settled into their apartment, we started out helping with get around with public transportation and becoming aware of the area they live in. We even were able to shadow a couple here reaching out to Cousins downtown and meet some of them.
We took a weekend to travel out west and see village life. Out first stop was a safari at Mikumi National Park. We saw lots of awesome animals and had a great time riding around. Then we traveled out to a village 20 km from main road hitting branches to a small Maasi village. With their warm welcome we felt right at home in our pitched tents for the night. Finding a bathroom spot was a different story. Within the first few hours a goat was slaughtered for us to eat over the next meals. I chatted with the ladies cooking while this took place. Later in the night we held a church service were the girls sang songs and one of my teammates shared the salvation colors of the soccer ball we gave them. The next day we found out that a baby had been born the night before and it was custom to go and see the family. The culture of the Maasi is very gender oriented. The guys went and sat under a tree with all the men of the village with the father while us girls went to the house where the mother was resting. I got to see the baby and talk with some of the ladies in the village as they were preparing a meal for the gathering. The older women were sitting inside the home and I tired to talk with them in my broken Swahili. Soon after we finished our visit we had to hit the road and head to our next village.
Our next village was a little different. It was right of the main road back to Dar. We slept on the property of the pastor’s house/church. Shortly after we arrived we went to visit some ladies in the church. The first house was a lady who claims to be a cousin but isn’t a faithful. We shared with her our story and she accepted what we told her and said she would be at church the next day but she didn’t come. Our next home was a lady who is a faithful member but her husband does not. He wasn’t home but we encouraged her and prayed for him. At church the next day I volunteered to teach children’s Sunday school while my other teammates did the Teen’s class. I told the story of Joseph and brought up how what the brothers meant for bad God meant for good. The church service was refreshing due to not attending a Kiswahili service often in Dar. The church members were welcoming and glad we were there.
This past weekend we got to fly up to Uganda and raft the Nile. We had arranged to stay with a M family just a block down from the rafting company. We had a blast and even flipped out one time.
Prayer Request:
- Maasi village, Pastor and the church there
- The village of Mikese and the church there
- School starts back next week, relationships would continue to be built and they were refreshed from their break.
- My team to continue to meld.