WATOTO INVASION

The past couple days have been relatively uneventful. Yesterday, we went on a village visit where we dropped all of the books and school supplies off at their school. We were able to see the inside of the school, which was essentially some benches inside of a large brick skeleton of a building with most of the walls open for "windows". While without prior knowledge it would not have seemed like much, we now realize how nice it is after seeing some of the other villages' schools. They are hoping to get the construction of a second classroom underway soon.

The church service was the same as the past ones have been, so we are starting to recognize and memorize some of the hymns in Swahili which is kind of cool. Our favorite game is to try and catch Luka falling asleep at the altar and take a picture of him before he wakes up and gives us the evil eye. Usually, we win.

After the church service, several large watermelons were auctioned off. Quite a few of us bought them. We kept a few to eat ourselves and gave the rest away to people in the village. While Pastor Hafermann and Robert were checking out the future site of the well, which will hopefully break ground soon, we sat in the cars and read with the doors open. Children soon swarmed our cars and were climbing all over us. We soon felt like the animals we saw on safari. It was an invasion wa watoto (of children). Mara honked the horn and sent most of the kids flying.

Today, we climbed the mountain. We went in three different groups. One group left at 7:30 and just returned at about 7:30. They climbed all the way to the summit of Mt. Uluguru (approximately 15,000 ft). The other two groups climbed to different heights along the way to Morningside, a peak which isn't quite as high. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and packing. Tomorrow we have another village visit, and it is predicted to be another long day... we are quite used to these. One difference is that Luka's wife and daughter get to come tomorrow, which will be nice. So tomorrow is our last village visit and Monday morning, we leave for Zanzibar!

There is a possibility I will not get online tomorrow at all if we return from the village late. If we don't have internet in Zanzibar, this will be my last post. Asante na kwaheri!