Mini-safari

One of the perks of living in Musoma is that the Serengeti is only an hour and a half South of us. To celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary we went to a small low-profile tented camp outside the gate to relax, swim, and play for 3 days. One of those days was spent in the park. Here are some pics from our little vacation.
The Western gate of the Serengeti. These were just a preview of the many bones we saw inside the park. Apparently the predators have been busy.

A small homestead on the road to our lodging. Most people who live in this area are subsistence farmers.

Twiga

Any guesses for which animal's skull this is? (see answer after the last photo)

Heron with 2 crocs. We stopped in the shade of a tree next to this river for lunch in our truck and watched several birds tease about 8 crocs. Actually the birds and crocs seemed entirely uninterested in each other.

Lilac-breasted rollers. We've taken up bird watching a bit since entertainment is hard to come by in Musoma, and a good friend gave us a bird book. We were glad we brought the book on this venture into the Serengeti because even though we saw no big cats or elephants this day, we had a good time watching and identifying 18 new (to us) species of birds.

Warthog, impala, baboon

Alpha male baboon

Jack peeking through a beaded curtain at a very nice tented camp where we stopped for an afternoon siesta for the kids, who slept on the cozy chairs in spite of the hippos harrumphing loudly right next to us.

Tessa in the beads.

'Dusty and Jack show their chiefly positions of power.

Tessa sitting in a chair whose cover is entirely made of tiny glass seed beads. Incredible.

The four of us on our anniversary.

Answer: hippo

You Know You're a Missionary When...

-you have enough luggage under the beds to host the town's population of mice.
-you have at least three Action Packers (plastic storage lockers) which are covered in fabric and being used as furniture.
-you know how to scrap your meal plan and come up with something good and fast when the electricity goes out an hour before dinner.
-you cook with grams, cups, milliliters, Fahrenheit, and Celcius.
-you have a system for bathing, flushing, and washing dishes without running water for days.
-you've figured out things you never would have understood back home - electricity, computers, plumbing, and exterminating.
-you keep a flashlight next to the bed, and you use it frequently.
-you're satisfied having accomplished three out of seven errands when you go to town.
-your main reason for using child car seats is to keep kids from flying around while you bump and bounce over washed-out dirt roads full of pot holes.
-you bring Bibles in two languages to church, plus a dictionary, and still only catch 1/4 of the sermon even though you were paying attention.
-broccoli and lettuce seem exotic, while mangoes and papaya seem boring.
-you use cloth rags for cleaning instead of paper towels, and it's not because you're environmentally conscious.
-you write newsletters and take family photos every month.
-you laugh when you see a magazine photo making a mosquito net look charming or romantic.

You know you're in Tanzania when...

* Your kids don't have to go to a petting zoo to pet farm animals; they just go to the daily market.

* Your kids play a game they call "mosquito" while chasing each other with pointed fingers while buzzing about.


* You catch a chameleon in the back yard, and the locals are afraid of it.


* You never know when you electricity or water will not be working, and when the water comes back on, you never know what it will look like - or taste like! Don't worry - we wouldn't go near this stuff, except with a camera.

* You hear a voice calling "hodi" instead of a knock at the door.


* Bicycles pass your vehicle on the road because the road is so rough that your four wheels are in four separate pot holes.

* You have a shoe motto which is, "Crocs, Stocks, or Flops" (Crocs, Birkenstocks or flip flops), and your kids aren't really sure what socks are for.

* You see monkeys and mongooses while exercising.

* Your produce sometimes comes from your backyard: bananas, avocado, guava, passion fruit, lemons, oranges, papaya, pumpkin, lettuce, and peppers.

* You have a milkman bring milk every day from local cows, and your eggs are still warm and have chicken gunk on them.


* Locals transport items on their heads instead of in backpacks, purses, or computer cases. These items include water, wheeled luggage, soap, sugar cane, benches, milk, firewood, and well, you name it.

* Having a personal vehicle is rare.

* The word "football" means "soccer," and it's the only sport that matters.


* A good wedding present is a gift-wrapped goat.

* Your house's view of your garden and Lake Victoria is worth a vastly greater amount than your rent.

* The only seasons are wet and dry, Christmas is hot, there's no daylight savings, and the sunset time only varies by 20 minutes all year round.

* Your kid complains of a tummy ache, and you immediately suspect amoeba, worms, or giardia. Your child has a fever and you're pondering malaria.

* You're thankful for your safe arrival after any short or long car trip.

* You feel you're right where God wants you to be!

Accident Involvement

As I've written before, driving here is tricky - to say the least. When we get in the car, we pray beforehand, even for a short trip.

On Saturday while Dusty was in Dar Es Salaam, I was driving home from a birthday party in another town with the kids and two Australian friends (Nigel and Rose) and their two daughters. He is a paramedic, and she is an ER doctor.

As we were driving through Musoma we came upon a motorcycle accident that had happened a minute or two before. I asked our friends if they wanted me to pull over, and they did.

They immediately jumped out and ran over while I found the latex gloves in our car's medical kit and briefed the 4 kids on what was happening, instructing them to stay in the car and not to look. The crowd was forming, but I pushed through with the gloves and gave them to Rose and Nigel. The site that met my eyes was really horrifying - there were three men down with a lot of blood. I really thought two of them were dead because they were lifeless and so bloody. But Rose said, "this one has a pulse," and I could faintly see Nigel's guy breathing.

Anyway, I barely did a thing other than calming the kids, asking how I could help, and doing a bit of crowd control. Nigel and his guy got into a dala dala (14 passenger public van), Rose's guy went into a passing car, and she couldn't find the 3rd guy (who later ended up in an ambulance). They smelled alcohol on the breath of the victims.

Meanwhile the crowd was getting angry at her since she wouldn't let them put one of the men in our car. Although I had offered, there were other options, and it wouldn't have worked well with so many kids in the car. So Rose suggested we get out of there before the crowd got too worked up. Someone actually told her, "if you won't let them in your car, what use are you?" Appalling. She was helping to save their lives!

We went to the hospital where Rose and Nigel turned the victims over to the hospital docs, and then we went home. I talked to a Tanzanian friend about it today who had heard of the accident. She said she heard that wazungu (white people) had helped the victims, and that everyone was thankful. I was relieved as I had been worried about driving our recognizable car if people were mad about the transportation of the victims.

It has taken me some time to process what I saw there, and it's given me all the more inspiration to keep praying for our safety and to be thankful for how the Lord has provided for us. And I'm thankful to have had doctors in our car who were able to help those men.

Costume Day at the Hill House

The other day the kids pulled out the costumes they got from my mom for Christmas and ran around the house.
Jack got a new Thomas outfit, but we already had one from a good friend, so now we have two live trains in the house, and no fighting!

Superman also came to visit, but he forgot his trousers. It lightened his load so he could fly faster.

Jack is very serious about being an engineer and listening to sir Topam Hat's instructions on his walkie talkie.

The princess royale with accessories.

Visiting a Tea Farm in Kenya

While we were in Kenya, Tessa and I had a mother-daughter date to walk to and visit the Kiambethu Tea Farm.
Before we left we split a strawberry milkshake, which Tessa had been craving. It was not what she or I would call quality, but it was special anyway.

Here is Tessa walking the path through the tea fields.

In the background you can see the Kenyans plucking the new bright green tea leaves, which are the only leaves used to make tea.

Many tea pluckers live in employee housing. The employee houses here recently got new roofs.

Simply beautiful views as we walked

The house was built by the current owner's grandfather in the 1920s. It is now also a B&B with beautiful gardens. They also raise British Jersey cows here and sell the milk. It's a good combination - tea with milk!

Another visitor to the tea farm was this funny little "zebra rat."

The view from the Ngong Hills from front porch of the house, although it's a bit too cloudy here to see the hills. Yes, these are the hills of which you have heard in "Out of Africa."

Rules of the Road

a bus piled typically high and named "California Special Annointed"

During our recent road trip to Kenya I was inspired to share with you some of our road conditions out here, many of which never cease to amaze me. For instance it seems there are no firm rules of driving here, but mere flexible guidelines instead such as:

* Drive on the left side, but driving on the middle is a fine idea and driving on the right is also acceptable every now and then.
* Drive the speed limit, which may or may not be posted, but by all means exceed at any opportunity!
* Two lanes are standard, but feel free to make that into four if it suits you. Bumpy dirt shoulders are fabulous substitutes when the real lanes are in even worse condition.

Did you know Ferrari has buses? With "Allah be praised" written on them?

* Might makes right, therefore a bus speeding toward us in our lane will often force us to get off the road even though the bus has ample room on its side of the road.

* Use your right blinker to tell a vehicle behind you not to pass you because there is oncoming traffic or to indicate you will turn right. Don't turn on your lights till it is seriously dark.

A very common traffic jam

* Motorcycle riders should wear helmets, but let's face it, who can find or afford one? Most don't wear them, but we've spotted some wearing helmets backwards and at least two wearing equestrian helmets though we've never seen a horse in Tanzania!

* Look both ways before crossing the road. Really, this is the least known rule of the road, and sadly is the cause of many fatal accidents.

The road in the middle of our town on a calm day, taxi on the left, daladala in the middle named "Give me the report."

* Daladalas (public service minivans) have specific places to pull over to pick up and drop off passengers, but hey - why not stop almost in the middle of the road in town or on the highway?

* Daladalas may carry only 14 passengers, but our friends recently counted 32 people getting off of one! Hanging out of the door and windows works just fine.

The 4km road from town to our house has taken a new pock-marked face with recent rains.

Road Conditions:
* We have tons of potholes and speed bumps and even potholes IN speed bumps.
* Speed bumps on the highway are almost never marked and therefore catch us frequently by surprise while we drive at high speeds, the children are napping and our car is loaded with fragile recently purchased items.
* We share for road space with animals, bicyclists, pedestrians, motorbikes, and most frightening - unattended children.
* Recent badly-designed repairs to roads, made in concrete and rocks, were quickly washed away in fast moving rains.

Local drive-thru Walmart

* There are always so many things/people/vehicles/animals in front of and beside the car that I rarely have a moment to glance in the rear-view mirror unless I'm passing another vehicle. Using the rear-view mirror in the States felt like a luxury.

Women carrying loads of grass on their heads. Notice how closely the pedestrians are walking to where our car and the oncoming car will be. We are driving about 100km/hr.

Although I write some of this tongue-in-cheek, driving here is very difficult and confusing, and frequently dangerous, and we are therefore very thankful that the Lord has kept us safe so far. We do always appreciate your prayers for our transportation - be it on a trip or just daily driving in our own town.