The Hills Near Meru

ah, the joy of visiting the bush. again this weekend i went to the bush so meet new people. one of my fellow students, samson, invited japheth and i to visit his family, and we took him up on his invitation. he lives a little west of arusha where it's so green and lush, with rolling hills that magnificent. the air is so clean, the sky is so blue, the hills are alive with the sound of ...talking. it's marvelous to have that quietness - no cars, no tractors, not tv's, no machines of any type, just the sound of talking and laughing (friendship building). it's just marvelous!

ok, so we hoped on the bus about 10 am and headed for arusha. after a brief stop in arusha, we took a dali dali into the bush. (did i mention that the dali dali's are modified minivans which can hold up to 23 people? - that's been the most people i've experienced in one van so far. just imagine 25 people in a minivan? if that doesn't make you wonder, nothing will.) we arrived at our stop, piled out of the dali dali, and started our walk to samson's house in the bush. they said it's about 4 km, which i'm still learning how to calculate distance from miles to km. about 3/4 mile into our walk, one of samsom's neighbors came with his little 4 wheel drive vehicle. samsom and he talked for a minute, and the next thing i knew i was getting in his car and he was going to give me a ride to samsom's house. the car was full of various building supplies so there was only room for me and the driver, which meant that samsom and japheth would be walking the rest of the way. so the driver and i struggle to say a few things in swahili. not sure how far we drove before we arrived at samsom's house, but the driver just dropped me off then left. Samsom's mom greeting me with a huge smile and a warm handshake. samsom's grandfather also greeted me with a kind 'hello'. samsom's mom, juliette, invited me into their home and sat down with me in the livingroom. another person, edward, was there visiting with them. he spoke english and mentioned the me that he had met me before. the second day i was in tanzania i spent some time at conference in the Arusha YWAM base. he mentioned that i had visited him in his room because his wife was ill. then i remembered exactly what he was talking about. jemma had invited me to go and pray for a friend of hers, a staff from the base, who was not feeling well. and so edward and i talked for awhile about different YWAM things. (it's so bizarre that i was out in the bush, in a stranger's home, and met someone i know.) after about 35 minutes the guys arrived and all was well.

after i had been in the house for awhile, i overheard juliette ask edward if i was one of samsom's friends whom she was expecting. he mentioned that i was. the reality is that she had no clue who i was, yet she graciously invited me into her home. it had to be very strange for her to see this mzungu being dropped off at her house by her neighbor who didn't know who i was either. her reactions never indicated that she didn't know who i was or that i wasn't welcome in her home. she simply took me in and made me feel very comfortable. (there's a lesson to be learned in that.)

then, of course, in comes the food: macande. since we had been traveling so far we needed to eat. and somehow people always have food prepared for their guests. this is another amazing skill. the good was good, and they even blessed us with sodas. we as americans don't have a clue what it means to give sacrificially.

after the meal and conversing for over an hour we went for a walk in the bush. just walking and talking and seeing and being. those four 'ingredients' are what seem to make people so delightfully welcoming. the countryside is magnificent with lush land. the crops are growing steadily and the people all wave and say 'hello' to samsom and his friends. we also walked to the church, where samson's dad is the pastor. so the ladies of the church had prepared food for some meeting of the elders, and we happened to be there at just the right time to eat. so we all got another plate full of food, this time we had rice and beans. (and again i need to mention that a 'plate full of food' equals a plate heaping full of food.) we returned home by way of the bush via a small foot path. upon arrival we were greeting by the women beginning preparations for dinner. they mentioned that the wood was not good today, so the fire was having some troubles. that was fine with me, since we had just finished 2 full meals. we visited for several hours while waiting for dinner. it was nearly 10 when we ate chicken and chapate's (which is like fried tortillas). people here go nuts over chapate's; nothing like tortillas oozing with grease to satify a hunger! after dinner we all headed off to bed.

as a random thought completely unrelated to this story, i'm currently enjoying a coca-cola from a glass bottle and it makes me smile. once every couple of weeks i will buy a coke and savor it, oh soooo much!

so back to the story - in the morning we were greeted with hot water from the fire for our baths. oh so nice to have hot water. after we all were bathed, fed and prepared for church we made out trek up the hill to attend services. samson's father had asked me to prepared a 5 minutes talk for the church service. after last week's ordain with having to deliver then entire message, coming up with some for 5 minutes was not trouble at all! i used a verse from isaiah 12.2 which speaks of God becoming our salvation, our strength and our song. i mentioned how things in tanzania are very different but i'm learning to like them.

because we were running short on time, we left the service early and made our way back to the house, where we had more bread and chai. their chai was made from cow milk and it was incredible. having milk in any type is a delicacy for me. after our light lunch we took off on foot to the bus stop. the 'we' i'm talking about is several of samson's sisters and brother. tradition is: when you arrive or are departing, someone will carry your luggage. so samson's siblings all carried our backpacks down the mountain. it was nearly all downhill so the walk was really nice. samson's little sister, dorcas, held my hand during the walk. she's about the sweetest the sweetest 9 year old that i know. so we go to the bus stop, caught the first bus and were off back to arusha. we made a little stop in arusha for some ice cream and then caught the next bus for boma ng'ombe.