Tanzania vacation part 2

Ok, now on to the mainland... We spent 4 hours in the airport in the capital, Dar es Salaam.... didn't exactly see the city!  From there to Kilimajaro airport.  As we landed, we had a spectacular view of Mt Kilimanjaro, which was the last time we saw it!  Turns out this is the cloudy season.  Would have been nice to have some pics of it, hopefully some animals will make up for it :)
We started out our safari in Lake Manyara National Park:

No Canadian Geese here!  This is an Egyptian Goose

The Rift Wall.  This is a branch of the Rift Valley, but here it's just one sided.

From here, we drove about an hour, climbing the Rift Wall pictured above, to reach the rim of Ngorogoro Crater.  The lake was at 4000' elevation, the rim of the crater is 7500', quite a little climb for the non-turbo diesel 4 cylinders in the safari rigs!

The first wildlife we saw wasn't even in the crater, it was on the road to the Lodge, which is on the rim

A cold, cloudy, rainy day as we descend 2000' into the crater

Only a few minutes into the Crater, we found a whole family of lions with their breakfast

The wildebeests, zebras and toyotas all seem to co-exist very peacefully

The Ngorogoro Crater is where old male elephants go to live out their days.  There are year-round marshes where they can eat soft grass even after starting to lose their teeth.

The Masai herders still bring their animals through the Crater like they have done for centuries.  See the lion running through the middle of their animals?

Our guide wasn't interested in waking up these male lions so we could get actions shots...

There are only a few rhinos left in the Crater, so it was amazing that we saw 2 within 5 minutes!

And finally, the view from the top of the Rift Wall on our way back to Arusha.

Did we enjoy the safari?  YES!! It's an incredible experience!  True, you can see all the same animals in zoos, but it was great to see them in nature, living just like they were created to live.  We can't wait till the whole continent of Africa is returned to it's original state!

Tanzania vacation part 1

Ok, now for some pictures:

Our first week was spent on the island of Zanzibar, in the Indian Ocean off of Tanzania's coast

The view from our room, first night

Beach-front rooms, Zanzibar

We did a "spice tour", Zanzibar has been supplying spices for centuries

Zanzibar wildlife

On a tour of rainforest

More Zanzibar wildlife

Boardwalk through mangrove swamps

Mangroves up close

Tim and Chris watching the moon rise

Shopping, Stone Town, Zanzibar

Chests for sale, Stone Town
(Maybe you have seen one like these in our house?)

View from the roof-top restaurant at our hotel in Stone Town, Zanzibar

We spent our last day on the beautiful beach at the north end of Zanzibar

Keep watching for the next post, the 2nd week, spent on the mainland going on safari!

Hospitality African style

In every story, there are stories hidden within the story.  These hidden stories are the pieces that make up the whole story, but they don't always stay hidden.  Isn't that the reason for things like "blogs", to uncover all those hidden stories?  Sometimes, they should have remained hidden, being of very little interest to anyone!  Hopefully you won't feel that way about this story.....

It begins with a family vacation, 2 parents, a daughter and her husband.  This family took an amazing vacation to East Africa, visiting world renowned sites in Tanzania, as well as a brief visit to Ethiopia.  Later on, we will tell the story of the whole vacation.  But, for now, there is a story of hospitality.  We could call it African Hospitality, but it's actually much more than that.  It should be called Christian Hospitality, because it's something rarely experienced outside of Jehovah’s organization.

So the scene is set, our family is visiting the English congregation in Arusha, TZ.  After the meeting is finished, we hope to join the group in field service.  As it turns out, only the WT conductor and another brother are going out, and the WT conductor (a local brother) insists that we all join him at his home to eat a small lunch, "whatever he can find" as he says.  So, of course, we Americans imagine sandwiches, something simple.  We are very happy to accept and hop in his van to go to his home.  On arrival, he puts all the brothers to work helping him heat water for coffee and tea, as well as heating food.  Once it's all on the table, we find that it's not something simple.... It's a traditional meal, which his wife had prepared for the family before going out of town.  Rather than conserving this food for himself and his son, as intended, our brother lovingly heated it all up to feed 8 people.  Was it offered grudgingly or with hesitation? Not at all, it was his idea and at his insistence!  We couldn't help but think of Lydia in Acts 16:15, who just made them come.  And of course, our brother didn't stop there, but insisted on dropping us off to meet some friends.  To him, allowing us to take public transport or a taxi was unthinkable!

The story may seem to be finished, but it's really just beginning.  Let's change the scene to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Our family had been planning to spend 36 hours in the city between flights, but has nothing confirmed due to airline changes.  Do we know anyone in the city?  Just 2 people, who Alisa knew 7 years before, but hasn't seen since then.  She was able to finally get in touch with them, just the day before we arrive in Ethiopia.  They said that they would see about arranging a tour guide/driver for us, what a relief!  Our plan is to meet them at some point during our short stay, and maybe have a meal together.  Well, to our surprise, they were waiting for us at the airport!  It's incredible to see friendly faces waiting at an airport halfway around the world, where we don't expect to know a single person!  What is more, they came to our hotel, made sure we were settled in, had dinner with us that night, and even insisted on paying for it!  At this moment, we started to get an idea of "Ethiopian hospitality"....  That idea was confirmed th next day.  The arrangements for a driver included a personal chauffeur, who happens to be a pioneer and commuter Bethelite, a tour of the branch, and lunch at the branch!  If you have ever visited a branch, for example in New York, you go with the expectation that you will be encouraged, right?  Of course, that's what we thought, but by the time lunch was over, we felt like all 85-90 Bethelites had been encouraged by our visit.  It seemed like they all came over to meet us, and were so happy to have random visitors from another country.  We felt like traveling overseers or some kind of celebrities!  But the hospitality didn't stop at Bethel.  Our driver not only showed us around town, but helped us find a place to stay for the night, after our arrangements fell through.  Then, he and his wife took us to dinner, along with the couple who had met us at the airport.  And, what a dinner!  Authentic Ethiopian food, along with a traditional music and dance show on stage.  Finally, our driver took us back home, and even picked us up at 6:30 am to go to the airport!  Far, far beyond what he was hired for, or even just common courtesy!

Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed the trip and all the hospitality, and will have fond memories from it for years.  But, it really made us think as well.... How hospitable are we?  Would we have expended ourselves and inconvenienced ourselves like our brothers and sisters did?  Hopefully, the answer is yes.  However, we can't help but acknowledge that our western idea of hospitality is often much more self-sparing than that.  Sure gives us something to work on!

As a footnote, if you are thinking "what about some pictures?", those will be coming soon in a separate post.  We thought it would be more interesting to break up the story, rather than deluge you with a novel!

Memorial 2014

Ok, I realize that a month between posts is a little excessive!  I know one or two of you reading this manage to post something on your blog once or twice a week... I'm not sure how you do it!

But, something that I couldn't miss posting, our Memorial and a little bit leading up to it.

First, the statistics:

Our congregation hosted a Memorial in a village about 30 miles south, Toussiana, attendance 56

Memorial at our own Kingdom Hall, attendance 114 (includes 40 with ASL)

The Jula congregation who shares our hall, attendance 175

So, in total, we had 170 in 2 separate locations, for a congregation of 39 publishers.  The interesting thing to add to that is how the dynamic works with Jula.  We heard several publishers say that they had invitees attend Jula rather than French, since it was first.  In fact, a little girl that we invited went early and attended Jula, as well as most of French.  This isn't really surprising, as both congregations cover the same territory, and 90+% of the population speak both languages, at least somewhat.  For the invitation work, the 2 congregations tried to focus on separate areas and not work the same territory (which worked most of the time), but we would tell anyone who struggled with French that there was also going to be the same event in Jula.  So, they really had their choice.

Anyways, that whole dynamic is slightly bizarre to us, coming from the American background of foreign language where you stick to your language group and don't preach very much to those in other languages.  But, it is different here.  Jula isn't a foreign language, it's been here for 1000 years.  Almost the whole population of Cote D'Ivoire, half the population of Burkina Faso, and half the population of Mali speak Jula (or a form of it) as a first or second language.  French is much more recent, but it's not really a foreign language either.  It seems safe to say that there is no one in West Africa who doesn't at least know a greeting and some basic words in French.  Mostly, the language is different based solely on the education a person receives.  While that has mostly meant that learning to speak, read, and write French meant you were educated, there is a shift the other direction now.  Some schools are teaching kids to read and write Jula as well, which can be seen by how we are receiving publications in Jula for our ministry.  While we haven't been here long enough yet to see how the growth is in the Jula congregations, it's very obvious that things are not nearly as clear-cut as we are used to!

Ok, enough school-book stuff.  Now, what actually happened???  Well, let's start the day before the Memorial.  There was a service meeting in the village of Toussiana, which we supported.  We had passed through this village before (see the previous blog post), but this time we did more than just stop and get gas and a Coke.  First, we head out from home just after 8 am, thinking that would be plenty of time to get there by 9.... Wrong!  Fortunately, this is Africa, and being 30 minutes late is rarely enough to cause a big problem!  We pulled up just before the group set out, so no problem.  I got to work with our service group overseer, Aaron, who said that most of the area we were working had already been covered so we were just reminding people about the Memorial.  As it turns out, it wasn't until our last door that we actually found someone who had already received an invitation.  Now, remember, when I say "village", I really mean a town of a few thousand people.  We were able to cover just one small corner of the town with the invitations.  Realistically, several hundred were distributed.  The day we were there, I was able to place 15.  It is all walking territory, but the houses are very spread out, so we would walk for 2-5 minutes, talk to someone, then walk for a few more minutes.  Aside from the joyful work we were doing, I must say the surroundings were very beautiful!  It's getting near to the rainy season, and the plants seemed to know it.  Everywhere we walked, green sprouts were popping up beside the road.  And, compared to the constant bustle and noise here in Bobo, it was so peaceful.  Between houses, the only noises to be heard were the birds and insects.  It was very tempting to find a chair under a mango tree and just sit and relax for a while!

But, speaking of nature, specifically insects: be grateful if your Kingdom Hall has glass windows and a ventilation system!!!  It just happened that there was a hatch of flying ants on Monday in Bobo... and our KH doesn't have glass or screens in the windows, just shutters.  Of course, the shutters have to be opened during meetings to allow airflow... which allowed the flying ants in!  They weren't just allowed in, they were attracted to the lights, especially at the stage.  The poor brother giving the talk had the worst of it.  They were constantly landing on him, crawling on his head and neck, even getting in his mouth once!  His concentration during all of this was quite amazing, and I'm proud to say that he maintained stellar audience contact despite the flying distractions all around him.  Oh, and have I mentioned the emblems?  Despite the brothers' best efforts, many a flying ant went for a swim in a good Bordeaux.  Without a doubt, I can say that my first Memorial in Africa was not one I will soon forget!

Hopefully, wherever you are at, you enjoyed celebrating the memorial in an equally memorable (maybe without bugs!) way.  The one thing that I came away with this year is how much more work there is to do!  Seeing how the best efforts of our congregation to cover just a small portion of our territory resulted in about 130 people joining us for Memorial shows how much potential there still is.  And we only distributed about 6000 invitations... In a territory of 90,000-100,000 people!  What would the response be if we could actually reach all the people in our territory???  It's such a good thing that Jehovah has patiently allowed time for us to try to find out!