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.