Received Tue June 26 2:12am.
Monday, June 25th, in Tanzania:
We left Amsterdam on schedule and flew all day to Kilimanjaro International Airport. It’s a bit disconcerting to land the plane with no visible signs of life; until you hit the ground, you don’t even see the runway lights. After a 40 minute layover at KIA and a chance to smell the African air, we had one last brief flight to Dar Es Salaam. We and all our luggage (!) arrived on time and safely. We were met at the airport by Tom and Beth Hanson, representatives of Bega Kwa Bega, and Rama, our bus driver, who whisked us off (momentarily leaving Betsy behind) to the fellowship of Pentecostal Churches of Tanzania Guest House. While it was 11 p.m. African time, it was 3 p.m. Central Time - so, we had various degrees of restful sleep.
Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful winter African day (sunny,70+ degrees and low humidity!) The Indian Ocean lay just below the Guest House. After a quick breakfast and a disastrous effort to clean the dishes (the plumbing exploded, giving Karen an unexpected second shower) we loaded the bus
and were on our way beginning an eight hour journey to Iringa. The journey was filled with the sights and sounds of Africa; roadside vendors, carts, overfilled buses, masses of people walking along the road, and many welcoming waves.
About half way to Iringa we traveled through Mikumi National Park and got our first site of baboons, gazelle and cape buffalo. We had a quick lunch break and continued to Iringa, arriving at 5 p.m. Saturday. We got settled into the MR Hotel, had dinner and attempted to get a better night's sleep with most of us succeeding.
Sunday morning, we attended a 3 hour worship service at Iringa Lutheran Cathedral, a church with 2,000 members and three packed services. We were warmly welcomed by the pastors and the congregation and asked to introduce ourselves and stay for tea following the service. It was exciting to see several students from the Tanzania Choir and our previous Bible Camps, including Elioth who sends special greetings to Cheryl Grasmoen and Bill and Sara Van Essendelft.
We also saw Pastor Mtanga, who says hello to Cheryl "Mother of Comfort" Grasmoen. Following worship, we were finally able to begin too acclimate Betsy, Martha and Teresa to Iringa. We ate lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, "Hasty Tasty, Too"
and then visited the market.
We’ll write again before we head out for five days at Lukani. Kwa Heri and Badai (goodbye and see you later.)
