changes.

Oh how my life has changed in the last two months… I went from driving every day, shopping at Wal-Mart, eating whatever I could scrounge up, Starbucks being five minutes away, and my mother just a phone call away to Idaho for two weeks to Africa. Instead of park.reverse.neutral.drive, one-stop shopping, five minutes for a coffee, mom being speed-dial number two, and microwaves, I find myself adjusting to a life some people have lived since the moment they were conceived. Well, ok, correction: here at Rivervalley, we have our food made for us, don’t do many dishes, and hardly have to fold our laundry! We are incredibly spoiled –blessed- to be treated so well by Tanzania’s with such willing hearts in the middle of God’s beautiful bush.

We have successfully (I use this word lightly) completed three weeks of language study and our brains are constantly full. I’ve discovered that, once I hear a word enough, I really do remember it. But, unlike the ‘hear it once, know it now’ –ers, I really do need to hear it probably at least five or ten times. And then there are the words that sound familiar, but for the life of me I cannot think what they mean!

Just for fun, here are a few words you may need to know if you ever step foot on Tanzania soil: 1. Choo- this means bathroom. Very basic, very important. 2. Habari (news) to which you reply nzuri (good). Greetings are huge in this country! 3. Asante (thank you) and karibu (welcome). Now, please everybody, now that you know five Kiswahili words, come visit me!! J

Last Saturday found me and my roomie up at five am for Safari. We had an early breakfast with all our safari buddies, and were on the road by six-thirty freezing our bums off in the very open safari vehicle. We arrived at Ruaha National Park after a bumpy ride down a long dirt road.

Once in the park, we felt quite disappointed by the lack of creatures. We came upon a river, stopped, got out, and witnessed one of our first animal sightings of the day: hippos! And an alligator. Through the day, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly in awe of the fact that I was on safari. People pay lots of the big ones to go on safari, and here I am serving Jesus in Africa and get to go anyway. God does delight in our pleasure, doesn’t he?

We saw at least 15-20 twigas (giraffes), countless four legged deer-type creatures (gazelles, impalas…), multiple herds of tembos (elephants), baboons, and one of my new favorites, zebras. They have the some of the cutest faces, and their stripes are quite a sight to see. Along our trek, we saw lots of my new favorite tree, the baobab (spelling?), that I mentioned in my last blog. They are a most gigantic and majestic tree with fat, gnarly trunks and green, leafy tops. I’ve heard a couple different legends about them, one of which is that the tree was quite leafy and got prideful about it, so God picked it up and stuck its leaves in the ground. In the winter when the leaves aren’t on it, its branches look like roots. O, and fun fact of the day: giraffes don’t have vocal chords!

On Friday of this week, we had our second town outing, and used a tad of our Kiswahili. The problem is, you get stage fright and tend to forget a lot of what you know when talking to the Tanzanians. In the next couple weeks, we’re going to start going to the village nearby to get some practice in, and soon we’ll start visiting churches in town. I think we’re all a bit nervous about the new adventure. If you think of it, we’d love it if you shot up a prayer or two to the big guy upstairs for us. J

During our town trip, I once again almost got ran over. Or at least it felt like it. Pedestrians aren’t exactly top priority around here. The rig flew past me as I was walking along the street, and I couldn’t help but think about the fact that had I stepped much closer, my toes would have gotten ran over. I guess living life on the edge is just sort of required around here! (Don’t be scared, mama. I’m safe with Jesus J)

I absolutely love the letter writing I’m getting to do now that I’m here. Licking the Tanzanian stamp and smooshing it onto the envelope brings me great pleasure, and sitting down to write the letter is so very much fun. In some ways, I almost wish I could go back to the days where letter writing was one of the only ways of communication. It says so much more when you have to get pen and paper, sit down, write the letter, address it, and then find your way to the post office to mail it. It’s like saying, ‘I care enough about you to take the time to send this to you.’ Or, as Hallmark puts it, ‘When you care enough to send the very best.’

I am so thankful for Facebook, email, and Skype though. They make the miles seem a whole lot less. Last weekend, I was quite blessed to be Skype called by my family and talk to a whole load of them. Even just how are you’s and I love you’s meant a ton. And to all my family that I didn’t get to talk to, I love you all! Mama and I were almost done talking when Skype credit ran out. How awesome though, to sit in the pleasantly warm night air under a million breath-taking stars, and talk with someone 9,000 miles away. Thank you Jesus!

I have quite enjoyed building relationships here. Some of our language study friends are leaving (too) soon, and it’s quite sad. But I am grateful for the time we’ve had to build even short relationships.

My apologies for my lack of updates, friends. I hope to get to my blog at least every couple of weeks. I wish you all well, and am thankful for you! J