Getting Acclimated

 Arusha is approximately 4500 feet above sea level, so even though it is located about 3 degrees south latitude, the temperature is pleasant. The forecast for every day that I am here is highs in the mid 80's and lows in the low to mid 60's and there isn't high humidity.  

I am meeting with George and Sayuni for dinner and planning in a few hours. Tomorrow we will travel to the Maasai village in Kimokouwa and do a couples session. Kimokouwa is about 50 miles north of Arusha and very close to the border wth Kenya. At this point I don't know how many couples will attend the session nor exactly what we will present, but will find that out this evening when I meet with George and Sayuni. 

Below are pictures of the front of the New Safari Hotel and my favorite hangout when I stay in Arusha, Africafe. It is located on the same block as the hotel and probably no more that 50 yards door to door. They have great coffee and food and this is where George and Sayuni and I will meet to discuss tomorrow's plans.

Back At Last!!

It has been thtree years and three months since I last left Tanzania. I never expected that the hiatus would last so long and I have honestly missed spending time in East Africa. I have been traveling to East Africa long enough that I am aware of changes in procedures over time. Ever since my first visit in 2014, before they would let you into the Kilimanjaro terminal you had to show that you had a yellow fever vacination. I actually have stapled my yellow international shot record to the back side of my passport so I didn't always have to go fishing for it. They checked your shot record outside the building. This evening when I arrived, they didn't ask for proof of a yellow fever vaccine but you had to show proof that you had had the COVID vaccinations. Interesting. I understand why they wanted to see proof of COVID vaccines, but yellow fever is a far deadlier disease and I am suprised that they jettisoned that procedure.

We flew in an enormous aircraft--there were a bizillion people on it and the vast majority were Europeans heading for Kilimanjaro to either trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro or visit safarfi parks. The parking lot was filled with safari vehicles waiting to pick up the guests and take them to varying safari parks across Tanzania--there are many, many fine safarai parks here. The Serengeti is located in Tanzania. The destination for my flight was Dar es Salaam and only about 10% of the passangers stayed on the aircraft. Some passangers would board from Kilimanjaro, but it wouldn't be that many. 

My driver whom I always use is Mr. Mwanga. He met me a the airport with a big smile and a hug. He was a friend of one of the World Vision leaders in Tanzania, Daniel, who first hired him for me and I have been using him ever since. He is a Muslim man who has three sons. A number of years ago he took me to his home to meet his wife and two of his three sons who were there, and took me to visit his sons school on another visit. He is a friendly person, but he doesn't speak much English and I don't speak Swahili, so it's tough to communicate somtimes. The picture below is of the visit I made to visit Mr. Mwanga's son 6 years ago.

The next two nights I will be staying at the New Safari Hotel. It is a hotel owned by the Lutheran Church, and George and Sayuni are friends with the bishop and they get a discount for my room. (Tanzania was a German colony called Tanganyika until the end of WWI and so the Lutheran church is the largest protestant church here.) But it was so great to arrive after 3 years and the employee at the desk recognized me and greeted me warmly, He said it had really been tough with COVID but this past year things are going better. I asked him if had been laid off, and he said he wasn't but everyone had to work one less day.  

In any case, I have arrived, will spend Saturday trying to deal with jetlag and reorient myself to the various workshops we will be doing.

Getting Close

 I have a list of things to do about as long as an arm in preparation for my flight to Tanzania. I have to pack more things than I normally would because I can't just run out to the drugstore to purchase something. My backpack is going to be like a mini-medicine cabinet. If I catch a cold or cut myself or something else, I can't just run over to CVS and pick up what I need. So I bring cold medicine, Advil, medicine for other things that I might get. I bring some sleeping pills for the long flights: one is 7 hours and the other is 8 hours and I can't sleep on airplanes for some reason. If I can time when I sleep, it can help me to adjust to the jetlag. I am schudled to arrive at Kilimanjaro Friday evening at 8:10 pm. That means if everything is on time I will arrive at my hotel in Arusha somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00 pm. I had George and Sayuni not schedule anything for Saturday so I can begin to adjust to Tanzanian time. 

They sent me the poster below to show how they are advertising our marriage workshop:

Zeroing In

 It's hard to believe that I will be leaving for Tanzania in three days! Since 2008 I have travelled to East Africa at least once a year and sometimes twice a year and that ended with the onset of COVID. My last trip occurred in August of 2019. So I am excited about going there again after a three year hiatus.

George and Sayuni sent me the itinerary for my trip:

If you look on the far right of the schedule you will see the dates of the events. In Africa they put the day followed by the month followed by the year instead of month, day, and year as we do. The trip from Arusha to Dodoma takes about five hours by car. Dodoma is the capital city and is in the center of Tanzania. I first visited Dodoma in 2019 where we did a marriage workshop. The one thing I will do that is not on the schedule is some couples counseling in Arusha later in the day on 11/5/2022 after we return from Dodoma. On Sunday I will worship at George and Sayuni's church and on Monday I will start my trek back to Boston. I would greatly apprciate your prayers for this trip, for safe travels, and an effective ministry!

Preparations for Tanzania

 It has been about seven years since I have had an entry on my blog. But I thought I would bring it back to life in preparation for my trip to Tanzania next week. I am heading out on Thursday evening, October 27th and returning early afternoon on Tuesday, November 8th. I fly from Boston to Amsterdam where I have a several hour layover and then head out for Kilimanjaro airport, Tanzania, and arrive in the evening of October 28th. They are seven hours ahead of EDT. 

I have probably been to Tanzania about eight times, but I have never been able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro in broad daylight because it is always socked in with clouds. One time at dusk I was heading to the airport and I was able to make it out in the distance, but it was fairly dark and hard to see. Maybe on this trip I will see it in broad daylight. There have been a few occasions that after taking off, Mt. Kilimanjaro has been visible above the clouds. Here is a picture I took from the aircraft as I was leaving Tanzania in 2016 .

I plan to discuss more of the trip before I head out and I hope to keep it up to date while I am in Tanzania.

Gorillas in the Mist

Before heading up to Gulu, Beth and I are taking a little vacation to visit part of Uganda that I have never been to. Beth has wanted to do a gorilla trek since she found out about them a number of years ago, so we decided to go on one. In the southwestern corner of Uganda at the borders of Rwanda, the Congo, and Uganda are mountains where the only living mountain gorillas live. Naturalists estimate that there are only 700 of them remaining in the wild, about 400 in Uganda and the rest in Rwanda and the Congo. They live in families from approximately 8 to 20. Over the course of years, naturalists have habituated the gorillas to human beings. They are naturally afraid of humans, but because of the habituation process they view us as neutral animals.

The way the gorilla trek works is that trackers go into the woods around 7:00 am (gorillas make "nests" of leaves on the ground and sleep from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am) at the place they saw them the previous day.They then try to find where they have moved and when they find them they radio to the head guides their current locations. Those going on the trek are at a central meeting point gather at 8:00 am where we are briefed about mountain gorillas, the trek, and the do's and don'ts of the trek. Then we are divided into groups no larger than eight--there were only twelve this morning so we were two groups of six. (The maximum number of people allowed trek each day is forty.) We then head out tracking different gorilla groups.

The first person is an armed guard then the head guide, followed by the trekkers and porters (people to carry your back pack, etc.) and the last person is an armed guard. Both guards have a machete to cut vines and branches as you proceed. There are mountain elephants and leopards in the forest so the guards are there to protect us should one appear. They would shoot some warning shots to scare them away and only in the most rare circumstances would they actually shoot the animal. I haven't heard of that actually happening.

We ascended the mountain which must have been at a 45 degree angle. We started at around 6000 feet and I don't know how high we went, but we might have ascended 1000 feet or so. It was very slippery because it is the rainy season and it rains almost every day. You can go 1/2 hour and find gorillas or three hours and find them. We were fortunate and found the group we were looking for in 30 to 45 minutes. They were were all feeding on berries in this very tall tree on the slope of the mountain. This group had about 10--two silverbacks and two babies. After about an hour (the length of time permitted to observe them) they came down from the tree and started feeding on the ground. We carefully approached where they were eating and came within 10-20 feet of them. Below is a picture of the silverback leading the group and I took this picture with my iPhone at a distance of 10-15 feet. It was pretty cool!

The whole area is amazingly beautiful. The view from our lodge is spectacular.

Day 40: We Made It!

I liked Levison's summary in today's devotion.
1. We learn that the Spirit's anchor is Jesus.
2. We learn...that what the Spirit says is rooted in Scripture.
3. "The work of the Spirit is not just something brand new. It is something old made new for us. The Spirit...brings ancient Scripture to life."
4. We learn "[t]hat the Spirit--the bride of Christ, as well--is hospitable, generous, expansive beyond belief. The Spirit and the bride don't limit their invitation to the genteel, the sophisticated the self-reliant. They invite anyone who will listen, people with parched throats, people without the right coins in their pockets. It's a dangerous invitation."

What a great way to end.

I hope that those of you who persevered through the 40 Days with the Holy Spirit have not only gained a better knowledge about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, but that you have experienced the Holy Spirit in perhaps a new way. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit works powerfully not only in our own lives, but in the life of UCC Medfield!