Monday 8/10/2009

Monday was going to be a bit more of a low key day for us. We went to Tanga, which is about a 3 hour car ride from Irente and is on the coast. We were picked up at 7am by Kiondo. Pastor Joyce had her entire family with her and Alfred also came. We first stopped at a Port in Tanga. Pastor Joyce knew the manager, so we were given a great tour and saw and learned about things that were imported and exported. We saw a ferry boat that transports people back and forth from Zanzibar, which is a small island off the coast of Tanzania. It is a big tourist spot and many people go there to vacation.
Kiondo and Alfred just trying out the ship...

After our tour of the Port, we ate a snack at a restaurant we stopped at, and then went to the Amboni Caves. These are huge caves that are millions of years old and we were even told by our guide that there is a way to get to Kenya through the caves, but you have to have an oxygen mask with you. He then told us that there is a story of two people who attempted this and were never seen again.

Lovely.

There's a story you don't want to hear when you are inside the caves. It was amazing to see these and impossible to comprehend how God could create such a thing.

So, some of us thought the caves were really cool and were just completely fascinated by them and loved the entire experience.

Others of us may still be having flashback of crawling through dark, tight spaces and bats flying overhead.

Some of us were happier than others to, literally, see the light at the end of the tunnel as we exited.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I fall under the having flashbacks of crawling through dark, tight spaces and flying bats overhead category, which didn't make for a lot of great photos.

Either way though, the caves are amazing.

After this it was time to go to the beach. This was a highlight for all of us. We were SO excited to get to be in the Indian Ocean. By this time it was later afternoon, so we went to a beach club, where we had some picnic tables to put our things on and went and got in the ocean. We collected shells and stones from the ocean, the Spencer's went swimming, and we just had time to sit around and relax.

After this we got ready to leave and by now it was about 5ish. We had to stop at the Port again to say goodbye to Pastor Joyce's friend who manages the port. They are very formal in Tanzania, so stopping by to tell her goodbye again was the respectful thing to do. Pastor Joyce also asked what we wanted to have for dinner and we said pasta would be wonderful. So, we stopped at the market to pick up the pasta and a few other things that were needed. It was around 6 when we left Tanga.

It was a long ride home, but it was beautiful. I actually ended up in the front seat on this trip and when I looked out the window the stars looked so close it looked like you could almost touch them. They don't have other lights in Tanzania that are lit up in the sky at night, no buildings, not a lot of planes, etc, so it is so easy to spot the stars. It was so beautiful. We had been advised before we left not to drive on the roads at night. It isn't the safest thing. That is mainly because there are no street lights, and you could run into an animal. And it isn't like here where you might hit a skunk, or a squirrell, or maybe a dear in the worst case scenario. It means you might hit a zebra, or a lion or a gazelle or a wildebeast (even though we didn't just see these wondering around). Any person who walks on the road at night seriously takes their life into their hands. It was kind of interesting, but I can definitely see why it is suggested not to do it. And as an aside, it is kind of amazing that you just get used to the site of cars/trucks coming directly at you and one of you moves at the last minute :)

While two of us sat in the front looking at stars, the rest of the team occupied themselves and probably Pastor Joyce and Alfred by playing the alphabet game. The. Entire. Way. Home. Evidently they could not think of any word for the letter "Z" because from the front seat, every few minutes you would hear them shout "Zanzibar" completely in sync.

We got home to Tumaini and were really hungry. We really had not eaten all day. This is the point where we may or may not have had a melt down as a group. We had actually talked about this as a group. We discussed that we may get to a point of having a meltdown at each other because we would be traveling together for 17 days. It's a lot of togetherness :) We actually did great as a group, and our small melt down came after a long day of traveling and not eating much all day. We're Lutheran's. We get hungry. We went way to many hours between feedings :)

One down...

Two down...

Dinner was not ready when we go back to Tumaini, becauce, remember, we had the pasta with us. So, we never ate that night until around 9:45. It was just a part of the trip. The meltdowns happen and ours was very mild. The next day we apologized up and down to our hosts for the fact that we were less than pleasant after our day. They decided that they would not pick us up until 10am the next day. I guess they thought we needed the rest...or maybe they needed a break :) We all learned from the day. The next day, it was back to Irente and we were excited about visiting the institutions at Irente over the course of the next few days.

PS...the pasta had sauce on it and was sprinkled with cheese. Well worth the wait for me personally :)