Good afternoon! It's a warm, breezy afternoon here in Ivuna. The breeze blows through the our living room window and rustle of the corn leaves right outside remind me of summer in America. It's hard to believe that you Pennsylvania-ites and other "northerners" are experiencing the bitter cold temperatures of winter. I'm perfectly content to be right where I am! Right outside our front door the pressure canner jiggles merrily on the braizer- my second canner load of beans for the day. If you would've happened to drop by our house this morning, you would have found me bustling around doing all kinds of "house-wifey" things. What kinds of things, you ask? Things like canning beans, cleaning both our pantry and the main pantry over at Tim's compound, sweeping our house, making lunch, scrubbing laundry, as well as drinking cappuccino as I spent some time with God. Now Rachel and I are thinking we need to soon run to the bomba to get several buckets of water. Not necessarily any earth shaking things, but normal life nonetheless, and stuff I really enjoy doing at times!
This update has been long in coming, and for that I apologize. It seems that when you're so involved in living, its hard to take time to sit down and write about life as it passes by. :) A month has passed since I last wrote, and I'm not even quite sure what to highlight on now. As you may remember, I struggled with malaria for two weeks, beginning my recovery just in time to help pack up and head to town for our retreat time. We left after church on Sunday the 4th of January. It was an emotional morning, especially for Tim and Sheryl as it was their last Sunday in Ivuna for the next year or so. I was feeling pretty exhausted and ended up going inside and sleeping most of the morning, which ended up giving me more energy for the Land Rover ride to town that afternoon.
We spent Sunday night-Wednesday night as a retreat for our Ivuna team. Here are a few excerpts from my journal:
"We're thoroughly enjoying our Ivuna team time here this week, especially knowing that it will change so drastically before the week is up. There's something so incredibly comforting about our 'normal' Ivuna crew. We've been together for months. We've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly and somehow you end up loving each other fiercely through it all." "Being so sick has worn me out. Not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Back in Ivuna, I didn't know how I was ever going to be able to continue on with the work cuz I had not interest, heart, or vision for it. I absolutely HATE pushing myself through life because I have to. This time away is exactly what I needed. Time to heal. physically. emotionally. spiritually. "to find rest in the arms of my God who won't let go. Thank you, Jesus." “Last night, Teresa and I sat up late and talked as the rain came on. Of dreams for the future and where we most see ourselves in a few years. Times like this I can't imagine what I'm going to do without this girl...” “{Monday}, Tim, Sheryl, Beka, Zack, Warren, and I loaded up the Rover and headed to Mbeya. We first did a bunch of errand running uptown and then Warren dropped the rest of us off at Sedo Market and took the poor, rattly Land Rover to get fixed. We got lunch at a little hole in the wall, and boy did they serve us a feast! Rice and ugali, beef, beans, greens, and avocado, but I couldn't eat. I ate a little bit of the meat for the benefit of protein, but my stomach felt like it was turned inside out. Then we went shopping. My store list was a mile long and I was still too weak and tired to do much heavy lifting at all, so I was thankful for the stronger people in our group who could assist with that. Meanwhile, the Land Rover was taking longer then expected to be fixed, so Melvin rescued us with his little truck. We piled all of our stuff and five of us on the back and obviously made a funny sight- judging by some of the looks and grins we received. We went back up to Melvins to pick up a few items we needed there, and then headed back down to Ifisi where our retreat was stationed. It was definitely memory making- even all huddled under that big blue tarp when it began to rain. Most of all, I was thankful to get all stuff and us safely back” {wednesday}. “Ngozi Crater Lake. That was on the agenda for the day. I desperately wanted to join them cuz I didn't want to be stuck alone at Ifisi all day! The others said it wasn't too hard, so I decided to give it a try. We dropped Sheryl, Winston, and Amy off at Kauffman's and headed down to the area. We sang most of the way down, enjoying each others company and the beautiful drive. We ate breakfast, and then set out. The first 1/3 of the way was quite steep up, up, up. It wasn't long before I was quite worn out and realizing that this was probably the dumbest thing I could have done while still in recovery from malaria! But, I was determined to make it to the top, so with lots of resting and pushing, pushing myself- I managed to make it! I felt really bad when the others had to wait on me tho. :( It was worth it tho- the beautiful lake in the old volcano crater. The creation of God is an amazing thing, and I thoroughly enjoy getting new glimpses into His creativity. The others decided to hike down into the crater to the lake. I rested at the top and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine until all of a sudden the sun went behind the clouds and a cool drizzle began. Beka, Jeshua, and I slipped and slid down the wet mountainside, and the others followed shortly there after.” end journal excerpts
Wednesday night, Zack's family arrived. They are here for nearly 2 months to help fill in for Tim and Sheryl as they go on furlough. It was great to be able to learn to know 5 of his younger siblings and parents in a relaxed retreat setting before heading home to our village. Friday morning, more visitors arrived- this time a bit more specifically for me! Three girls whom I spent time with at Hillcrest Home in Arkansas came to spend a few weeks in Tanzania as part of their 2 ½ month East Africa trip. Deb Lapp, Beth Smucker, and Lora Stoltzfus were warmly welcomed and immediately loaded up in the Land Rover with all the other young folks to go hike Mbeya Peak. I reluctantly made the decision to NOT go along as I was feeling pretty exhausted by that point. Right after everyone left, I crawled back into my bed (one in a huge dorm room that had 12 beds!) and slept for hours. It was an amazing day, but I was incredibly ready to see everyone come back and to have some action happening again.
Saturday and Sunday our retreat expanded to include all the Mbeya missionaries. We had the biggest group of wazungu Tanzania has ever seen for our mission. It was such a blessing to interact with everyone- lots of singing, volley ball, late night “earth-shattering” discussions, a Sunday morning church service in ENGLISH, and Dutch Blitz. (always Dutch Blitz!) It was a lovely week, all culminated in a heart wrenching end when Monday morning arrived and with it, the Zeiset family and Teresa's FastJet flight... or so we thought. After all the sad goodbyes were over, and tears were shed, I picked back up with normal life as bravely as possible. As we sat around making our plans for the day, we received word that the FastJet flight was unable to land due to the cloud cover and insufficient equipment to land the plane. (tiny new airports in Africa sometimes lack in important things!) To make a long story short, they ended up returning to Mbeya, and re-booked their flights for Friday. It was not exactly what we wanted to do...see each other again after all the painful goodbyes were over, but so it was.
Tuesday we returned to Ivuna...13 wazungu and our MOUNTAINS of luggage. Zack brought the Land Rover with his parents, four sisters, and all the luggage it could handle while Warren and Ben brought a lorry with the rest of the luggage. Deb, Beka, Rachel, and I boarded the bus for our trip home. It was a bumpy ride as the bus driver flew along. I flew entirely off my seat more times then I counted. The bus got quite dramatically stuck once and I looked at it skewed so recklessly across the muddy, goop-y road and in the ditch and wondered if it would ever get out. Well, with lots of man power, it did. :)
It's been a week now, and we're back in our village routine. Back among the winding village paths, the crops growing tall and lush around us. Back to going to the clinic every morning and tending to our patients and their needs. There's lots of house work to do, neighbors to greet, and info to tell the Lapp family as they've been settling into their new house and role here in the village. They are doing very well at jumping in here and we have greatly appreciated all the spice they add to our Ivuna team. We've enjoyed yummy meals with the treats they brought from the States, singing out under the falling shadows of evening, greeting the chief, and other village activities that we've introduced them to. I have a feeling their 7 weeks here are going to go very fast.
Sorry, I don't have much clinic news this time- between being sick and going to town I've spent very little time in the clinic. Also, with farming season in full swing, the people are spending a lot of time in their fields and our patient count has dropped dramatically. I've been taking the opportunity to spend more time in Swahili study, and since Deb is here, we've been enjoying lots of good talks and times together. It's so much fun to introduce my life here to such a dear friend. Later this week, we anticipate the arrival of Beth and Lora in the village, as well as 2 other visitors who have been visiting at the mission in Mbeya.
God bless each one.
Kim- 'a life of love is only possible by getting in touch with the One who truly loves us. The closer I get to God's heart, the more I want to love others. I long to love because I have been so deeply loved.”
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