Tanzania

For the past week we were in Tanzania. It was so pretty! For the first
few days we were in Mwanza getting to know a missionary team there and
learning more about mission work.
 The first day was really laid back. We went to Lake Victoria and
played with the missionary kids and had orientation. Then we split off
and the nursing students went on a tour through a hospital while
everyone else split into smaller groups and ate dinner with the
different families. 5 of us went to the Guile’s home. It was really
cool to see how a family works as a missionary. They have four of the
cutest kids, 3 of them are old enough to go to the British
international school there while the mom stays home with their
youngest and the father along with the other male missionaries go out
and meet with different church leaders and work with the churches
they’ve planted.
 The second day we went to a museum where we learned about the Sakuma
tribes. We walked through models of their homes and got to see
different tools they used. One thing that really stood out to me were
these branches placed to look like a mini teepee (It’s really hard to
explain). They are about 3 feet tall and they are placed in the yards
of witchdoctors because they use them during traditional rituals to
call back ancestral spirits. At the end of the tour they performed a
traditional ceremony for us. It started out with just the women
dancing and then both men and women were along with others playing the
drums. It looked like a dance team because they were all in rows and
moved together. At the end of the performance one man opened up a box
that they were around and pulled out 3 pythons for them to dance
around. Then to end the show he picked one up and bit the pythons
head! That night we went downtown and ate at an Indian restaurant on
the lake.
 Sunday we all split off with different missionaries and saw different
church plants. The one I went to was a small church about 2 and ½
hours away. When we got there (at about 11) the preacher was finishing
up the lesson and then they had us all introduce ourselves. During the
service the wind came up and it got really cold since the windows and
door are just holes, so randomly as I’m sitting there it gets darker
and I look back and two men just carried up a tin door from nowhere
and leaned it against the doorway. Then it started raining and ½ the
church had a leaky roof so we all squished up to one side. At about 2
the service ended but then they went into a discussion that lasted
about an hour. Everything was in a different language so I have no
idea really when was going on. The missionary got up every now and
then and put his input in but afterwards he told us their goal in
Mwanza is to bring the Bible to people and then let them interpret
what they read into their own culture with what’s available and
accessible to them. He said they don’t give them answers right away
because they want them to solve their own problems and go through the
mind process, at times they will give them advice but he said they try
really hard not for force what a western church looks like on them. At
3 we ate lunch there which was bugala (their name for nsime), rice,
chicken and chicken awfuls (intestines). After church we thanked
everyone and headed back into town for dinner.
Monday we left our hotel on safari jeeps for the Serengeti!! Whatever
car you picked was your car/guide for the next 3 days. We drove around
looking at animals until 6 the first night and then went out the
second day from 6:30am until 7:30 pm. During those days we saw so many
different animals, some I don’t even know the name of but here’s a
list of what I remember: zebras, giraffes, baboons, warthogs, water
buffalo, wildebeest, impalas, topes, hippos, ostriches, lions, hyenas,
cheetahs, a leopard, and tons of colorful birds. My favorite moments
were when we saw the babies, I feel like we saw babies of almost every
animal!! I also loved the lions. We drove up to about 8 female lions
laying under a tree along with 2 adolescent male lions, they had a
little scruff going on around their heads but not a full mane yet.
Then the leopard was in a tree so all you could see was a spotted
trunk when you looked through binoculars but I also saw him move his
back paw that was hanging down back up. We also got to see the
wildebeest migration, we had to stop once to let about 100 cross the
road it reminded me of the lion king when simba’s father dies during
the wildebeest stampede.
The 3rd day  we packed up and left our lodge at 730 so we
could do a little driving around before we had to be out of the park
at noon. During that drive we saved the BEST for last!!! There was a
male lion with a full mane lying next to a female lion about 2 yards
from the road we drove past!! They didn’t seem to mind at all that we
were right by them, she was sleeping and he just stared at us.
After we left the park we drove to the smallest airport you’ve ever
seen, they are so small that 1st they forgot about our flight to
Kenya, second they let us take liquids through security (all they said
was “take a sip”, I guess if you take a drink and it doesn’t kill you
then its safe), then our tickets where hand written. But after all
that we made it to Kenya where we are now!