Tanzania continues March 3, 4, 5

March 3, 2025

We land at Kilimanjaro Airport in the dark, stars shining and walk the breezy path from the plane to the ‘terminal’. It is a wonder to be back. The umbrella trees lit by ground lights, create a soft, lovely beginning. Upon emerging from customs, all fatigue washes away when I see the radiant, familiar smiles of my friends Pastor Peter and his wife, Nashipai.  They greet me with the warmth of long separated friends and when Nashipai asks about Joe, I am undone. Gratitude overwhelms me. Being remembered is one of my favorite things. I love this family of God. I am so blessed already.

March 4, 2025

The morning comes with the clouds and the freshness of the early morning breeze. We spent the night in Arusha and embark for Ketumbeine early. Several of us become sick on the way, requiring wardrobe changes. I am among them. I spend the next 12 hours in unwilling collaboration with Montezuma and his revengeful migraine. It is obviously not my preferred beginning but does lend itself to open dialogue with my Savior which is always a preferred beginning.

March 5 

I wake up keeping water down and in and my spirit rallies! 

The team is up and out to the clinic early having been invited to witness the birth of a baby. Mama is valiant and she and her boy are delivered beautifully and healthy by all reports. 

Indeed:

“A baby is God’s opinion 

” A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on!”.         

Carl Sandburg

And now I agree as well. I am diminished but oh, so much better!

I spend the day back at the guest house recovering. There is a steady parade of sounds outside my window. The even footsteps of our circling security guard, the bleeting of the goats as they rummage about in the brush, the snorts of the donkeys who clean up, I suppose, after the goats. There are the hens who strut about with their short, quick steps and always intermixed, like a symphony conductor, is the constancy of the rooster crowing at the least provocation. I grew up thinking roosters greeted the dawn but, as it turns out, they are deplorably ignorant of time and spend the whole of their days greeting the dawn even after it is dusk. And then, in the late afternoon, there is the best sound of all as a little one’s voice rises above it all. She may be speaking  Swajili but I suspect she is too young for formal words. Though she is unseen by these eyes her chattering sweetness is the crowning glory of the parade.

I end the day feeling stronger. May He strengthen you in your inner being as well.

TanzaniAnne