November 26, 2007

• Back from Tanzania

  What a beautiful country Tanzania is. We saw the most beautiful trees and flowers, wild animals galore and met some of the nicest people ever. The trip was full of blessings.

  Dodoma was where we were actually doing the work. Then we ended up at the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

  Our first blessing was the weather.  We were told that up until the day before our arrival, the temperatures were in the 90′s with very high humidity. They wondered how we would deal with all the work we had to do in those conditions. But when we got there on Tuesday, there was a steady wind blowing and a cooling cloud cover for most of the day. This is how we found the worksite the first day. A lot of prep work was already done, but there was much to do. Teams were formed, blocks were moved, sand was sifted and the work began. We worked 10 hour days for 4 days and at the end of those days, here is what it looked like:

  

  You have to realize that this is only one section….it’s going to be a 3 story dorm when finished, so it’s longer than my camera could capture. Below is one of the dorms already being used….I think this is what ours will look like when finished. Of course, there are many other teams of people coming to work on the project.

  

  Another blessing was that there was a real bathroom for us to use during the day. The principal of the Bible college is also the pastor of the Church on the college grounds. His name is Pastor Ron. He and his wife, Annette, have 4 beautiful children and they were all so welcoming to us. They live just a few yards away from the worksite, so they opened their home to us. Annette taught us some swahili and we taught her kids some english. The 2 oldest children are in school and already learning, so they were able to help interpret for us when we needed to communicate with the 2 youngest.

  We left Dodoma very early Saturday morning and endured a 14 hour bus trip to our next destination. I think it was Arusha, but I’m not going to swear to it. We had 3 days of travelling from one safari lodge to another and the names of the towns now escape me. It doesn’t matter….it was all beautiful. We saw scenery I could have never imagined and all the wildlife I had imagined seeing. Another blessing.

   

  Looking into the Ngorongoro Crater

  A sunset along the way

     Elephants in the crater

  We saw all of the Big 5 (Elephants, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard) along with flamingos, hippos, thousands of gazelles, many herds of zebra, lots of giraffe and more. The roads were bumpy and the rides were wild! It was a lot of fun.

  This was definately a once in a lifetime trip. A total of about 40 hours on the airplanes and another 40 or more on the road travelling from one place to another (Not including all the safari driving). It was definately an experience! I was really blessed to have been able to experience all of that with my beautiful daughter, Holley. I’m so thankful that she wanted me to come with her and her group. They all made me feel very welcome. I guess the final blessing is that we all made it home in one piece.

  I have many more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/joiwinds. If you only want to see the animals, go to that tab.

  • 9:36 am
  • 2 Comments