Khadijah

how can i accurately describe this beautiful, young women. she.s a bold teenager living in himo, tanzania. she attends class at an all-girls secondary school. i think she may be around 14 years old. she studying to be a doctor. she speaks english quite well. she claims to be catholic. so now that you have an idea of who she is, let me go on to tell you a story of how khadijah has impacted my life.

if you remember from my earlier post of when i was in himo, the conditions are very dry. this is the town where we walked to the river for our daily baths, our regime of water for cleaning and cooking, and where i met some interesting people (see post about helena and friends). the land is very flat around himo so we could walk further from the base in less time compared to marangu where the land has steep slopes. guess that is all the setting of my story...

so one day i was walking around town when i heard some people coming up from behind me. they kept saying, 'ma'am... ma'am...' but i didn.t realize they were talking to me, which is completely stupid now that i think about it because they all speak swahili and not english. so anyway, i stopped and let these two teenage girls run up to me and begin talking. khadijah was one of the girls and i cannot think of the other girl’s name. they had many questions regarding why i was walking around himo alone, if i was a teacher, where i was from, etc. so we walked over to the rocks overlooking the river (incidentally the same place where I met helena) and talked for a long time – surely more than an hour. we talked about so many things and my head is now filled with all their questions.

during our coversation khadijah asked me, 'why are you a Christian?' when a teenage girl asks that question, there is something more going on in her mind. khadijah's friend is a muslim and comes from a muslim family. so i expressed to them that i choose to follow Christ because i know He cares deeply for me and daily shows me ways how He cares. then i gave some examples which had happened the previous day and that morning. it was one of the first times in tanzania that i was able to communicate in english the reason why i believe.

then I walked the girls to the house of the unknown named girl and i walked back to the house where we were staying. a day or so later i saw those two girls again and they invited me to a meal at the house where the unnamed girl lives. (man i wish i could remember her name - i know i have it written down somewhere.)

so the next day i went and ate a wonderful meal prepared by the girls. they had so many different foods. and the house was super nice - like a normal house with a hallway and bedrooms. they also had great furniture and a dish - so they could watch music videos on tv. a friend, miriam, who was also a dts student went with me to the feast. miriam spoke some english so she could understand most of the conversation. the girls also included miriam in some swahili conversations. it was fun to watch the music videos, enjoy the great food and be in a nice house for a short visit.

throughout my time with the girls, i learned that khadijah's friend's parents worked for the government, hence the nice house with a dish. so when i was allowed into their house, it was a very high honor and privilege. who knew? not me at the time! this is another part of it: when i was in their house, i prayed for their muslim hearts to turn from their idolatry and come to worship the Living God, Jesus Christ. i can only wonder what kind of spiritual questions that family has going on in their home, because i know the God invited me into that family's home in order to stir up something unknown to me at the time.

after dinner we all decided to go with khadijah's friend to get some supplies from the market. khadijah's extended family had a both in the market so we waited outside the both while she collected all that she needed. we all drank a coke while we waited. it was great. there was a boy - a young teenage boy at the market who always sought me out and would intentionally ask me if i wanted to buy a plastic bag from him. the market was 2 days a week, and he found me every time i went there, which i think may have been 3 times during my 2 week stay. his eyes held a mysterious glance and i loved to see him - try to get my attention in order for him to ask me to buy a sack for 100 shillings.

ok, so back to the original story, we left the market and walked back to khadijah's friend's house to drop off the supplies. the we continued to walk to the place where miriam and i were staying. by this time it was getting a bit dark, but people seem to walk in the dark all the time. we said our 'usiku mwema's' (good night's) then khadijah and her friend continued on their way to khadijah's house.

miriam and i got back about the time dinner was ready for the group but we were not hungry so we both stood around and talked while the other dts student ate their fish and rice (samaki na wali).

soon after i had someone come to me and say that i had guests. so i went around the corner of the building and khadijah was standing there with another lady. the lady started speaking very stern swahili with me and i did not know what she was saying. i had to ask khadijah to please translate for me because i did not know what she was saying. khadijah told me that this was her mom and she was very upset that i had kept khadijah out so late. she told me that her mom had beat her because she had returned home late and i was not a good person. with that i apologized profusely in swahili - since i had learned that quite quickly. with that her mom told me that i was not see khadijah again. and that was the end of the conversation.