My first time in Tanzania-story finally continued

We arrived, after about 24 hours in transit at the International airport near Mount Kilamanjaro and Arusha in Northeast Tanzania. Unfortunately it was dark so I could not see the landscape but I remember my first thoughts as we stepped into the cement building of the receiving area-this is not America. It was just a plain building with no plush chairs or nice carpet as seen in other airports I'd been in.

We were met by Pastor Richard's brother, Pastor Jerry, who escorted us on the shuttle bus to our hotel in Arusha. It was about a half hour drive and as much as I wanted to see outside, all I could see were a few occassional lights. The hotel was a busy place and quite nice. It had double glass elevators overlooking a nice pool. Our particular room had two twin beds a TV, dresser, a decent bathroom-pretty much everything one would expect in Africa plus more(mosquito nets hanging above the beds). Both Ginny and I collapsed into our beds for a night of rest. Unfortunately, I, in my excitement to see Africa did not get much sleep, but it still felt good to lay down.

The next morning I was awake early and looking out the window on to the beautiful courtyard below full of flowers and strange plants. We returned to the airport on a very crowded and smelly shuttle bus for our flight to Mwanza. I was glued to the window. Seeing the people and culture of Africa seemed like a dream. The land was dustier than I expected, the people darker, the language more foreign-it was very surreal.

I claimed a window seat on the plane. Both of the two women I was traveling with had been to Tanzania twice before and understood my desire to see all that I could. I remember as our rather small plane was loading, the very white pilot( I later discovered he was British) telling us that he much prefers flying the big planes but that he couldn't anymore as he had lost his medical card. There was no copilot. I spent the whole two hour flight to our first stop, trying to figure out how to fly that airplane in case he keeled over. Our first stop was in Shinyanga where we dropped off and picked up passengers and refueled. As we came in I realized that the runway was gravel. This scared the dickens out of me. In just a few short hours, even my overly adventurous spirit had been tried several times. It was there that the pilot laughed when I asked him more. "You must be Americans!", he laughed. When I asked why he said because Americans are always naive. The medical card was a joke. I remember thinking I didn't care if he thought I was naive, that I was just thrilled he wasn't going to die while flying me somewhere.

Another quick short flight, in a too small plane, and we arrived at our destination of Mwanza. There was something about the place as we landed. I could see as we flew in, the landscape changed from dusty brown to green. I saw the blue of Lake Victoria as we approached. It felt so wonderful to be there. Very shortly after we arrived, we were greeted enthusiastically by several men and their wives. The women bowed to us at which time I got peeks at the babes they wore in slings on their backs. It was mainly for the children that I was there and I just loved seeing them.

We were delivered by "taxi", really just a hired driver as there are few cars there, to our hotel. On the way I was surprised at how fast he drove. There were people on the streets that would run to get out of the way and we saw a small accident between a car and a small motorcycle. It didn't look like there were injuries. It amazed me how close these cars get to each other and the people with so few problems.

Our first hotel in Mwanza had us on the second floor where we each had our own room. My room overlooked the open courtyard area of several families where I was able to watch them go about their daily lives. Mwanza is nestled down among the hills on the south shore of Lake Victoria. I was able to see houses packed together on the bluffs. There were people walking everywhere. Several times per day, beginning at 5AM, the Muslim call to prayer is issued over large loud speakers to be heard throughout the city. I remember that I just used those times to pray to my God-the one, true God. I prayed for His protection over us and that He would give us a great harvest of souls for His kingdom over the next two weeks. He amswered both of those requests.