The next day, after the Busi ministry day, we said our very sad good byes and waited for the bus. The whole time the boys that lived by me had alluded me. I saw one and greeted, but he was shy and quiet and left very quickly. I think they were afraid to be rejected by me not remembering them. While waiting for the bus 4 of the six boys walked by and I collected them all. Soon almost the whole gang was together. God gave me that gift, I would adopt them all in a second if I could.
Also, this day was the big market day. Kinda like if the Mall of America traveled and setup shop in Forest Lake, everyone would go. So our bus was abnormally full of people. People were sitting on each other and the aisles were smashed completely full of people. People were standing on my feet and I was standing on someone’s feet. It’s indescribable if you’ve never been in this situation. It’s sweaty and hot and horribly painful. People put you in awkward positions so you aren’t standing straight and your back and legs hurt. Anyway, we thought it would calm down at the market, but it didn’t. Yeah, people got off, but more got on that were leaving the market. So, we decided we need to call a taxi to pick us in Pahi.
On our way to Pahi a fight broke out in the aisle with an older man choking a very drunk younger man. He had already met the drunk and interacted with him earlier. Now the whole bus is shouting and yelling at him, “Mwizi, mwizi! Shuka! Thief, thief! Get off the bus!” The man began punching the drunk in the face and head and they all began pushing him to the front. The conductor began fighting and hitting him as well and they were able to throw him off the bus in the middle of nowhere. They gave him some more punches and left him.
Later after telling Kijuu this story, he replied, “Did he die?” Ha! We laughed because that was an option!
So, we landed in Pahi and I was able to show Eric all around the Tanner Girls School campus, AIM’s pride and joy. Pastor Peter helped start a church there 15 years ago after doing TIMO, it turned into a school, compassion center, and clinic. Now there are hundreds of students hearing about Jesus everyday.
We caught our taxi and went to Babati. I love the 2.5 hour drive. It’s through the bush and villages and passes a couple beautiful mountains.
We slept in a very cheap guesthouse and woke the next day to head to Mwanza.
We have not been sleeping past 5am any days due to the loud noises everywhere and the mosques. They are so generous to yell through loud speakers every morning at five to remind everyone to wake up.
Then we had an uneventful, but really long 10 hour bus ride to Mwanza. That night we ate pizza in a Western restaurant, even though they didn’t have meat, it still tasted so good after eating local food and having dust in our mouth for a week.
Today we walked around Mwanza doing errands and getting souvenirs for our families. Now, we will work on our sermons and rest up. Tonight we meet up with Peter to plan out the week of ministry in Sumve.
