The adventure began Friday morning. Sarah and I had been invited to accompany Nathan, a missionary of a Bible College, to a bush village of about 17,000 people for a church dedication. The village, called Nguruka is a four-hour drive from Kigoma. Nathan picked us up in his Land Rover and we headed to the Bible College to pick up the African Pastors accompanying us to Nguruka. There were ten of them. That’s thirteen people sitting check to check for over four hours! But, this is Africa, and thirteen adults in this type of vehicle is comfortable, heck it’s a luxury compared to the motorbike and bicycles that we see carrying three or four people, sitting wherever there is room.
The first thirty minutes of the drive was on pavement, the rest was on an off road, all wheel drive, take no prisoners dirt road and we drove the last three and a half hours with this setting, constantly slowing down for and swerving around massive craters in the road. We drove past small villages where the most advanced commodity was a small generator for bits and pieces of electricity. We drove through crowds of people, crowds of chicken, crowds of cows, goats, ducks, and much more. It was thoroughly amazing to see the countryside at fast pace like this, going from a fishing city like Kigoma through a country that had everything from old refugee camps to game reservation areas.
***Our bathroom- consisting of a bucket shower, toilet, the toilet paper we provided, and shower shoes...not ours. Our simple, and not so clean room.
We arrived in Nguruka without any major road problems (a rarity here) and went to our guesthouse- “motel”. The building was one of the nicest in the village with real walls and a roof, and even electricity (one light bulb in each room for a few hours in the evening). It was also one of two buildings in the town that had a private toilet, which means we didn’t have to go outside and share a “toilet” (a hole dug in the ground) and we even had a mattress. After spraying down the entire room with bug spray and putting our own bed sheets from home over theirs, we decided to take a walk and explore the village (Nathan was in a meeting until dinner). As usual, as we walked everyone stopped to blatantly stare at us. After over an hour walking in the hot sun, we stopped and bought a mango for about 10 cents, ate it under the tree it was likely picked from, and watched children play pool on a self-constructed billiard table (using marbles and sticks)
Meals in a bush village is an amazing experience. Dinner is had with everyone sitting together in one small room, eating around the light of one small candle. The food is rice, a stable, followed by some form of protein. Fish, chicken, or beef if you are wealthy, but beans are the most common. At our dinner we had fish, bananas, bread, and what looked like spinach. After dinner we enjoyed a soda and the great company of the pastors and their wives. Nighttime. We’re not going to lie, we were a bit afraid. Stories from friends told us about how rats would run over them at night, how they could hear them scurrying around the room poking there noses into their gear. It was evident from the small droppings that our room had the capability to host rodents, however we were fairly certain they were just mouse dropping (…whew! What a relief.) After getting into bed and tucking in our net to the sides we felt fairly confident that we would be safe, so we tried to fall asleep. Tried. Its hard to fall asleep when the entire village seems to be right outside your window (screen only). There are no lawns to separate us from the noise of people walking on the street, or glass windows & insulated walls to block the noise emitted from other houses. Thankfully, the village quieted down around midnight and we did get to sleep, all without incident from rats and bugs.In the morning we meet with the other Pastors for breakfast (which most commonly consists of chai and mandazi- or tea and sweet bread). The church dedication ceremony, the reason we had come to this village, was scheduled to take place at 10:30am. Western society is primarily dictated by time, African society is dictated by relationships, so starting at 10:30 for these pastors was just something on paper, it wasn’t concrete. 
When they were ready and had sated their relational diction they begin the parade procession to the church …at 1:30PM. The ceremony took place in a “new” church (under construction for over 10 years), which was barely half finished- It had a dirt floor, and lacked windows, a wall, and a roof. What it did have was people (around 300), support, and some incredibly honored guests. During the ceremony church choirs performed (choirs are a big deal in Tanzania), speakers spoke (and spoke, and spoke…), the congregation prayed, and everyone pledged money to help finish the church. The ceremony lasted five hours.
When they were ready and had sated their relational diction they begin the parade procession to the church …at 1:30PM. The ceremony took place in a “new” church (under construction for over 10 years), which was barely half finished- It had a dirt floor, and lacked windows, a wall, and a roof. What it did have was people (around 300), support, and some incredibly honored guests. During the ceremony church choirs performed (choirs are a big deal in Tanzania), speakers spoke (and spoke, and spoke…), the congregation prayed, and everyone pledged money to help finish the church. The ceremony lasted five hours. Afterward, Sarah gave a brief sermon to about 100 children and we were given the opportunity to use our group activity parachute we had brought from the US with them. The children loved the activity and we enjoyed the opportunity to minister to them. They are so fun to be with because they are curious, excited about everything, and open to anything. If there is one thing Sarah and I feel we are called to do here above all else is to get involved with these children, and this past weekend was a great preamble to our overall hopes and goals.
This was followed up by a six hour church service the following morning. As if sitting for hours (literally, about 11 hours) in sweltering heat, wasn’t a big enough culture shock, our translator for the ceremony was literally sitting on Sarah’s chair. Personal space, as we learned from the car ride, is irrelevant in a culture that focuses on family and community. Although the personal relationship before timeliness, the community before comfort, the less-than-luxurious sleeping & bathroom situation, the being white and therefore constantly being the center of attention, and the bumpy-to-say-the least road conditions were all culture shocks to our US perspective, these are not the things that stunned us the most. . Perhaps the most distinct contradiction between our two societies is best described in our situation with a young girl from a choir who was suffering from a sickness that left her unconscious through the night and had black boils all along her swollen legs. In the US we would immediately seek medical treatment, relying on medicine and science to cure her. However, what good is that in an area where the closest hospital is over five hours away and impossible to afford? Instead many Africans believe in spiritually and witchcraft to heal physical aliments. In this particular situation, as Christians, they turned to God for help. They prayed all night and the girl lived. While the Africans were praying, us westerns were contacting doctors to get a diagnosis. The two most plausible were renal failure and anthrax. The former would require an immediate hospital visit (which was not possible at the time) while the latter necessitated heavy antibiotics (luckily in Tanzania you don’t need prescriptions to get medicine and we were able to find some at dawa duka, or “pharamacy” the next morning).
It comes down to two basic principles, logic or spirituality. On one extreme you have western society that is virtually all about logic, on the other extreme you have this African culture that shucks logic in favor of more spiritual answers to mysterious questions. Westerners are regarded as a proud society that has all the right answers, we’re entirely sure of ourselves and are unafraid of the great beyond, and we’ve lost that spiritual flame. African’s have a huge spiritual flame, so large that it blots out any other type of answers. Sarah and I were of witness to this, we witnessed this young girl go from death’s door to jumping up and down on church service Sunday after receiving prayers from the congregation. Maybe it was adrenaline, endorphins rushing her system, or the antibiotics we gave her- logically this is the best choice. But in a society that can’t afford clean water, much less access to a hospital, the best medical road they have is in their unbelievable spirituality. It was humbling and revealing, and it made Sarah and I wish there was a way for a middle ground between our two different cultures, both having plenty to offer for the advancement of humanity.
All that was left was the ride home. It was starting to get late but luckily we were able to get through the police block just in time and headed home. Usually they close the highway at night because of bandits and other dangers you may find alone in the bush. Only the last 2 hours or so were actually in the dark, but nonetheless, the forest and candle-lit villages looked much more eerie than in the day light two days prior. Also, since it had rained over the weekend the giant road craters had filled with water, requiring even slower and more cautious driving. We were grateful when we arrived home safely to our warm shower and clean bed.
Our trip was just three days long, but the lessons learned were a lifetime in the making.
**We enjoyed playing with the kids any free time we had. Here Sarah is teaching them Tic-tac-toe.
It comes down to two basic principles, logic or spirituality. On one extreme you have western society that is virtually all about logic, on the other extreme you have this African culture that shucks logic in favor of more spiritual answers to mysterious questions. Westerners are regarded as a proud society that has all the right answers, we’re entirely sure of ourselves and are unafraid of the great beyond, and we’ve lost that spiritual flame. African’s have a huge spiritual flame, so large that it blots out any other type of answers. Sarah and I were of witness to this, we witnessed this young girl go from death’s door to jumping up and down on church service Sunday after receiving prayers from the congregation. Maybe it was adrenaline, endorphins rushing her system, or the antibiotics we gave her- logically this is the best choice. But in a society that can’t afford clean water, much less access to a hospital, the best medical road they have is in their unbelievable spirituality. It was humbling and revealing, and it made Sarah and I wish there was a way for a middle ground between our two different cultures, both having plenty to offer for the advancement of humanity.
All that was left was the ride home. It was starting to get late but luckily we were able to get through the police block just in time and headed home. Usually they close the highway at night because of bandits and other dangers you may find alone in the bush. Only the last 2 hours or so were actually in the dark, but nonetheless, the forest and candle-lit villages looked much more eerie than in the day light two days prior. Also, since it had rained over the weekend the giant road craters had filled with water, requiring even slower and more cautious driving. We were grateful when we arrived home safely to our warm shower and clean bed.
Our trip was just three days long, but the lessons learned were a lifetime in the making.
thank you both sharing your womderful journey with the rest of us! keep the posts coming, it's so wonderful to hear of your experiences. Really puts everything into persepective.
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