Patty and I are at Kilimanjaro Airport awaiting a flight to Nairobi which takes off in about an hour and a half. Since they have a pretty strong wifi signal here, I thought I would take a moment and write my last blog while in Africa.
I led devotions at WVT headquarters this morning. After some inspiring singing, before I began to preach, I mentioned to the staff that Patty and I had heavy hearts because of what had happened in Boston. A lot of emotion whelmed up inside of me all of a sudden as I said this. Most people were unaware of the bombing. After my sermon, James, our host, got up and gave a wonderful prayer for UCC Medfield, for all of those who had been wounded and for the families of those who had died. It was heartfelt and I greatly appreciated his prayer.
We set out immediately after devotions for the Kosinga ADP north of Arusha. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the ADP building there. It was the first time that we had a chance to see the countryside and it was beautiful. I would call the land we saw savannah. Closer to Arusha we passed coffee trees and further out it was almost all corn. We also saw many cattle herds.
This area is home to the Masai tribe and herding cattle and goats is there main "business" and wealth. Geofrey, the WVT staff person who accompanied us said that they have now begun to raise corn. We visited a Masai village which was an amazing experience. They are like no other tribe that I have seen so far in Africa. They dress differently and wear their traditional shukas, brightly woven material--mostly red some of which are plaid. There villages are very different than anything that I have observed, as well. This village had over 2000 people and the animals--cows and goats--are kept in the center of the village. They have fences made of tree limbs about 5 feet high interwoven with vines of thorns. It looks pretty formidible. All of the women wear white, black, and silver earings in such a way that their ear lobe have large holes in them. Actually, the chief, had holes in his ear lobes as well.
The chief wanted us to stay and was prepared to slaughter a goat for a feast, but fortunately our WVT staff (Geofrey, Joyce, the ADP manager, and another ADP staff person whose name I never got) persuaded him not to do that because we didn't have enough time to stay. He had 47 children and 147 grandchildren and estimated that he had 10 wives. There also were flies everywhere. The two young children that were with the group constantly had files crawling on their faces and they seemed pretty immune to them. I really can't adequately describe the experience and will be processing it for a while.
The last thing we did was visit a pastors conference in the ADP area. WVT paid for this week long conference and I would estimate there were 60 to 70 pastors, and a significant number of women in the group. I suspected that I would be asked to speak, and sure enough I delivered a half hour sermon. There are so many pastors here that have little to know training and they are so appreciative when a trained pastor can share with them.
Now on to Nairobi and home!
I led devotions at WVT headquarters this morning. After some inspiring singing, before I began to preach, I mentioned to the staff that Patty and I had heavy hearts because of what had happened in Boston. A lot of emotion whelmed up inside of me all of a sudden as I said this. Most people were unaware of the bombing. After my sermon, James, our host, got up and gave a wonderful prayer for UCC Medfield, for all of those who had been wounded and for the families of those who had died. It was heartfelt and I greatly appreciated his prayer.
We set out immediately after devotions for the Kosinga ADP north of Arusha. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the ADP building there. It was the first time that we had a chance to see the countryside and it was beautiful. I would call the land we saw savannah. Closer to Arusha we passed coffee trees and further out it was almost all corn. We also saw many cattle herds.
This area is home to the Masai tribe and herding cattle and goats is there main "business" and wealth. Geofrey, the WVT staff person who accompanied us said that they have now begun to raise corn. We visited a Masai village which was an amazing experience. They are like no other tribe that I have seen so far in Africa. They dress differently and wear their traditional shukas, brightly woven material--mostly red some of which are plaid. There villages are very different than anything that I have observed, as well. This village had over 2000 people and the animals--cows and goats--are kept in the center of the village. They have fences made of tree limbs about 5 feet high interwoven with vines of thorns. It looks pretty formidible. All of the women wear white, black, and silver earings in such a way that their ear lobe have large holes in them. Actually, the chief, had holes in his ear lobes as well.
The chief wanted us to stay and was prepared to slaughter a goat for a feast, but fortunately our WVT staff (Geofrey, Joyce, the ADP manager, and another ADP staff person whose name I never got) persuaded him not to do that because we didn't have enough time to stay. He had 47 children and 147 grandchildren and estimated that he had 10 wives. There also were flies everywhere. The two young children that were with the group constantly had files crawling on their faces and they seemed pretty immune to them. I really can't adequately describe the experience and will be processing it for a while.
The last thing we did was visit a pastors conference in the ADP area. WVT paid for this week long conference and I would estimate there were 60 to 70 pastors, and a significant number of women in the group. I suspected that I would be asked to speak, and sure enough I delivered a half hour sermon. There are so many pastors here that have little to know training and they are so appreciative when a trained pastor can share with them.
Now on to Nairobi and home!
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