Last Part of September

Seems like we are spinning our wheels and not getting much done these days. We go to write about what we did for the day in our journals and we both say, "We just put out fires". We can see the end of our mission coming up and we have so many things to do to get ready and we just don’t stay on track very well.

The first highlight of the month was a visit from Elder & Sister Worthen from Dar. They have been promising to come visit us since they came to the mission August of 2011. They administer the PEF for Tanzania (which was just introduced this year here in Tanzania) and needed to get us set up to help members here with that program. We took them around town and out to the Cultural Heritage Center.

They enjoyed that so much they went back again the next day.

Then Saturday evening we took them to our favorite cafe.

 The cook and waiter.

On Saturday in the middle of their visit we had been invited to the school graduation of one of our young women in the Branch. She is the one that pretty much runs the Young Women program in the Branch even though she is only 17 years old. 

We took her sister with us. It was quite an experience. It is a school run by the African Inland Church. The graduation was to start at 9:00 AM and as near as we could tell it would go all day long. We arrived about 10:15 AM. The preacher stood in front of the congregation and preached for a while 

then they had the outgoing student leaders come up and be released. Then the new leaders came up and were inducted into their positions.

Then they started the donation part of the ceremony.

Yes, that is what was happening during the donations.

We had to leave about 12:30 to get to our missionary preparation class so we didn’t get to see the actual students graduate.

On Sunday we enjoyed having Elder & Sister Worthen attend church with us.

We have been trying to find a time to visit Elder & Sister Scott in Mombasa. Seems like each time we plan a trip they have some unrest between the Muslim and Tanzanians there, so we cancel. But we decided if we don’t do it now we will not make it before we go home. So Monday morning we loaded onto a bus and headed across to Mombasa. We couldn’t find anyone who had traveled that road, but we found on the internet that is was a pretty rough dirt road most of the way. So we decided to take a bus rather than our truck. Besides, it only costs 18,000 Tsh (about $11.50) each for the bus and it would cost us at least $60.00 fuel one way if we drove.

The road is pretty good until the border. Then it is REALLY bad from there until we reached Voi, which is on the road from Nairobi to Mombasa. But we survived. The road goes through Tsavo West National Park but we didn’t see very many animals because it is the dry season and no water close to the road.

When we arrived in Mombasa it was a little after 5:00 PM and the Scotts didn’t want to come downtown at that hour so we loaded into a Tut-Tut to take us to an area where Scotts would pick us up.

They call these little taxis a Bejudge in Dar es Salaam. They are a 3 wheel scooter thing and they sound and feel like they might fall apart any time.

For some reason the video processor at blogger is not working.

So I am trying this embedding process.

The door was held shut with a rubber strap.

The view from the Scott’s flat is beautiful. And they have monkeys along the back wall of the yard and all kinds of animal entertainment.

Scotts had picked up some wheelchairs for repair at a school for the disabled way out in the bush. So we went with them to deliver the chairs back the first day we were there. Water is a precious item in most areas in Africa. And in this area it is very dry this year. So wherever there is water available you will find a lot of women loading containers and hauling them on their heads back to their homes.

Sister Scott even tried it.

We also visited a school on the way that has one room, only benches and a dirt floor.

The kids were really fascinated with Elder Rydalch’s camera. He would turn the view screen over so they could see themselves.

One of reasons we wanted to visit Mombasa is that they have an area there where people do much of the carving of items that we see all over Africa. The prices are really good and we wanted to pickup a few items. So that afternoon we went there. Several members of the church work there.

We had a good time visiting with them and picked up a whole suitcase full of carvings.

The next day we went down to the ferry area. Mombasa is a city sort of on an island. So there is a lot of traffic, both vehicle and on foot across the bay.

Then we went down into the old part of town and visited Fort Jesus. It was built around 1593.

From there we went to the beach. Sister R.’s favorite part of the trip.

We even rode a camel.

He tried to give Sister R. a kiss but she didn’t think that looked like fun.

We ate at a restaurant on the beach.

Another area we have wanted to visit is the area of the mission called the Chyulu area. It’s up the road toward Nairobi past Voi, where we came into the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, about the same distance from Voi as from Voi to Mombasa. So Thursday morning we loaded on a bus and headed there. Elder and Sister Schwab from Star Valley Wyoming serve there.

The church has been established there for over 20 years. They have 11 Branches and several really nice buildings that have been built by the church.

Water supply is a problem there so the church has garden spots next to the church buildings where the members can grow vegetables and fruit.

There is not one large city there but several small villages so the members are spread out over a very large area.

Elder Schwab likes to collect bugs and snakes. He puts the bugs in epoxy 

and skins the snakes. 

They even had a very poisonous snake inside their complex last year.

On Friday the Schwabs took us back to Voi where we caught the bus back to Arusha. Same long, bumpy, dusty ride as before.

Closed out the month trying to decide what to ship home and what to leave here.

First Part of September

We now have all the passports for our Temple trip. We sent the paperwork to the Mission President and received word that South Africa has it and is planning our trip. We are really looking forward to that trip. It will strengthen the Branch here so much!!

Things are really piling up now that we are approaching the end of our mission. We have so many things we want to get done and everything takes twice as long as we think it should. We received word that there will be a couple coming here to Arusha to replace us so that took a lot of pressure off.

We had one of our Sister Missionaries go home this half month.

Here is the group we call “The Girls”. She is the one on the right of Sister R. The other Sister Missionary is on the far right of Sister R. Then Monica, the Primary President, the Sister going home, Sister R., Tausi, the Sister waiting for her call and Neema our 17 year old leader of the Young Women.

 

Sister Phiri, the missionary going home, has really done well with the language. And we will miss her.

We took the 2 Sisters to the airport. Sisters have to travel together when they transfer. And these two had to fly because of a passport problem.

Then we decided to go on to Moshi for the day. We have wanted to visit the young man Elder R. baptized a year ago in August and just have never had the chance. The airport is about half way there, so we felt this was a good day to do it. He works as a guide for hikes up Mt. Kilimanjaro. We had a great day with him and his family.

This is an area where they are washing carrots in the river. 

He has one brother that is really interested in the church.

He came back to Arusha with us so he could visit his friends and attend church. We loaded him up with copies of the Book of Mormon and brochures on Sunday when he went back.

Our big event for this half month was the “Helping Hands” day. Each year here in Africa the church has picked a Saturday and they ask all the Wards or Branches to organize a service project. That day was August 18th. But we just had too much going on at that time so the Branch leaders planned it for Sept. 8th. They selected a Catholic hospital named St. Elizabeth to do the project at.

We were asked to clean up an area of the hospital that was not yet finished.

We did that and then went around to all the different wards and handed out gifts, (juice, soap and an orange).

Then we all went back to the church for a meal and social.

It was a great day.

The next big event was a visit from Elder & Sister Kellems. They are the Employment Specialists for the mission and a couple of neighboring countries.

They held workshops on Tuesday and Wednesday the 11th and 12th.

We had a great time with them! We showed them around town, 

ate out with them one evening at an Ethiopian restaurant

and just had a good time visiting and playing games in the evenings.

We had 2 new missionaries come this half month. They are both brand new in the mission.

We are looking forward to getting to know them.