Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Kilombero Valley


Bible Readings in IfakaraIdilic View in Kidodi

Carl, the boy racer in his Ford in Kidodi

Well we've arrived at the last leg of our safari, phew. Kilombero valley, comprising the ecclesias of Ifakara, Kidaoni, Kidodi, Mang'ula, Kilosa and Kimamba. We are planning to spend about 10 days with each ecclesia.

In Ifakara, Fiona was still with us. We had initially difficulties as no one met us at the bus stand. We spent a day and a half looking for anyone (to no avail). Jonathon arrived back with us in the nick of time and combined with waking bro Michael Owen up (in UK - pole sana kaka) at 5am for a tel number we managed to meet the bre and sis for an excellent week together. We mainly had the day to ourselves which was welcome and came together at 6pm every evening to do the readings together. Bre Stafford, Kimimino, Pelegrin, Kirua, Carl and sis Fiona are represented in the picture.

Ifakara was really eventful. Fiona gained two admirers, one misc (at dinner) and one being a Immigration officer (called Victor) who thought she was cute. We had a good explore of Ifakara, took in the sights (market) and attempted to get a authentic tanzanian puffy sleaves dress made for us both (to no avail).

Just before leaving Ifakara I took Fiona back to Dar es Salaam to catch the plane home. Whilst there we spent the Sunday morning with the Sinza ecclesia. As normal Dar was stinking hot, humid and both the water and power had decided to stop on the Sunday afternoon at YWCA. Fiona feeling hot, generous and wealthy decided that the only solution was to move to another hotel. The criteria was AC, water, AC and more AC. What a lovely sister! We had quality chilly (brrr brrr) time at the Holiday Inn, including the first apple pie in over 10 months (room service) - what bliss. After Fiona flew back to Perth I went back to YWCA, its an old friend and very cheap after all.

So after Fiona's departure it was back to Ifakara and then on to Kidodi. We found the only guest house in this small village was also a bar/music area. Argggggh. Well our tolerance for 3am finishes is about 2-3 days. After 7 days we were feeling tired and cranky. We found out that our day of rest was combinned with a marathon musicfest. So I made an executive decision and we shifted for two nights to Kidatu where we found quiet rooms with AC and had a rest. A rest for Carl is bible marking, Joanthon is bible study (preferrably Daniel or Revelation) and me well it was inputting personal data collected from bre and sis.

During our time in Kidodi we were able to facilitate ecclesial elections, explain the rolls of the elders, have a business meeting and do some bible group work around the book of James.

So at the moment we are alternating between Mang'ula and Morogoro. We have only found one bro so far in Mang'ula and hope more will surface this weekend from their shamba's.

No comments: