This is our new home!! Isn't it beautiful?? We have a gazebo and porch and some cool tables made out of rocks that aren't in this picture. We feel so blessed to have this as a place to call home.
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| So lush and green, right! |
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| The fence/gate/ security guard (if you look REALLY close, he is poking his head out the window) |
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| Our living room/kitchen/office |
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| Mt. Meru-- and an African woman. |
Yesterday we took a walking tour around town and went to the Arusha Declaration Museum where we learned about the history of Arusha and Tanzania. It was very interesting. We found it quite odd that they rode zebras as horses, saddle and everything. We then came back home and recooped from our long walk/jet lag and ventured into the city to buy school supplies, food, and soap. We finally have everyone here after 3 days of constant arrivals, we have 11 American students here!
This morning 3 of us went to Arusha Community Church which was exactly what I needed so I could be refueled today. It was a good size, about 90 people, a mixture of missionaries from around the world and local Tanzanians. The service lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, pretty short for an African service with only about 45 min of a speaker. It seems like a really cool church, they don't have a pastor that preaches every Sunday, instead it rotates and someone different speaks every week about a certain topic that has already been planned out by the church. After church was over, we met some great missionaries who are young and old, doing all sorts of different work. A man and his wife who lived in Kenya for 20 years are here for an agricultural development conference they are putting on for people to learn so they can go out and teach the people of the rural areas how to have better sustainability. They have at least 150 people in town for the program this week. We then met another lady who used to live in Arusha for a while and now comes back once a year and works in the bush starting schools in the Maasai villages. They were all so welcoming and told us how much they would like for us to come and see their program and see what they are doing so we could understand what they do better.
This afternoon we went down to one of the markets and bartered for fruit--oh my goodness they are so pushy, I don't miss that. We then ventured down to this man's fabric shop which was oh so frustrating. There were 7 of us in this TINY little shop, filled with fabrics. We ended up buying 11 pieces of fabrics, a mixture of 4 meters of African fabric, Kangas, and a batik or two. A kanga is what they use for everything--tying the babies on the back, skirt, headwrap, etc. He was wanting to charge us 12,000 Tanzanian shillings per kanga and 15,000 Tks for each big fabric. It is about 1,500 Tks per every USD. After about 20 minutes of frustration, we bartered it down to 95,000 for all 11 fabrics making them about 8000 a piece. When we got home, we asked one of the locals how badly we got ripped off and the result is... bottom price for a: kanga- 5000, big fabric:12-15, and maasai cloth: 14,000 so we really did come out pretty good. What we lost with the kanga we made up with the bigger cloths. We will eventually take them to get made into dresses or skirts by a lady from our church. Our entire day has been learning bit by bit to fill our bucket.
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because his thoughts are fixed on you. isaiah 26:3
The Lord keeps speaking to me about being uprooted, I have read it 3 rows in a night, in Matthew, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. He is pulling me up from where I am comfortable and replanting me in Him so I am more able to truly understands what it means to be in the world and not of the world. Please be in prayer for me as this is a constant struggle. Also, I am really working on patience and gentleness. I am so thankful for my roommate Megan, we were able to talk last night about our faith and I am so encouraged by her and we both know that the Lord has a plan in us being here and being here together and we strongly desire to seek after his plan.
We start school tomorrow, wow! I'll let you know how everything goes.
Sorry I just wrote a novel!!
Your 'novel' is most enjoyable. Delighted to hear Church was graciously renewing and refueling, regardless of the location, God is to be praised and worshipped. Would love to see pixs of the fabric. Have a great 'first day of school'.
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