So, whoever said it was a good idea to hike the mountain in chakos has done a lot more hiking than the rest of us. Two of our Swahili teachers, Kadeghe and Omega, took the the three Minnesotan girls, Josh, and I up the mountain to a stop called Morningside. When we started Cadeghe and I were in the front and moving pretty quickly while the others were taking it at their own pace in the back. I was just staying with him and teaching him about American culture and simultaneously learning all about Tanzanian culture from dating and marriage practices to family set-ups, etc. The beginning of the mountain where we started was quite steep and it left us fearful about the remainder of the mountain so Josh and Omega headed back for Morogoro to hang out for the day. The rest of us had to pull the reigns on Kadeghe as he has a tendancy to run up the mountain rather than hike it. Audrey said the hike should take four hours to go up, but it only took us two to two and a half hours, and we were pooped.
It was absolutely beautiful. My favorite part about the mountains here is that they aren't surrounded by foot hills so the mountains themselves are much more dramatic looking than the Rockies or the Appalachians where all of the small hills almost take away from the size of the larger ones. On the way, we stopped at a small waterfall on the way up and were able to refresh ourselves with a little cool water. Then we made it to the top at which point I think we all had blisters starting on our feet from our chako sandals. But after a lunch of bread and peanut butter and fresh mangos, we were ready for the hike back down. The whole way up it had been very cloudy, but just as we reached the top, the sun came out and it was relentless. The way down was fine and the blisters mostly stopped, at least on my feet. My shoulders fried in the sun and today I found a few small blisters on my shoulders. OOooopps!! Kadeghe thinks it's funny so he keeps touching them to see if it hurts...and it does, a lot!! But I'm trying hard not to complain because it's my own fault. My face isn't burnt though, just sunkissed. By the time we got to the bottom, we couldn't wait to find a taxi to take us back to LJS. I plan to go again, but next time I'm definitely wearing hiking boots and a different shirt.
Yesterday, we went to another village for a service. Before the service, PH met with all of the villagers who wanted to be baptized and one of the villagers was very scared and intimidated by it and decided not to be baptized that day. About five minutes into the service, people started screaming, benches started flying, and children were being tossed out of the way, and we five Americans just sat staring at eachother trying to figure out what was going on. We thought it was a snake or someone having a heart attack, but it actually this same woman being controlled by an evil spirit. Four women carried her out as she was still screaming wildly and the service went on as usual. The women who took her out prayed over her and eventually the screaming stopped. During the baptisms, this woman decided that she wanted to be baptised after all and she was healed.
This sort of thing is apparently common here as many of them come in contact with Arab medicine men who, instead of healing them, actually give them these evil spirits, and then they think they are controlled by them. I personally have a really hard time with the spirit thing. Even talking about it makes me feel like there are things crawling on me. The only thing I can do to make it stop is to meditate on God and repeatidly say Jesus I love you, Jesus I worship you, Jesus I praise you. But on a different note, the first rains of the long rainy season are here. It has rained the last two days and it was well needed as many of the crops were drying up. (The picture is of PH. He reminds me a lot of my own grandpa in a lot of ways: very down to earth, sharp as a tac, witty and a great sense of humor...even kind of looks like grandpa, minus the facial hair. I've enjoyed him greatly and he has a great heart and a great understanding of who God is and the way that God would love these people.)
Today is another day of Swahili and reading. I've really enjoyed my down time here because it has been far too long since I have had the time to read for pleasure, rather than some big biochem text book. My next book is "The Shack" and so far, so good (thanks for the book Jeanne!!). I have a hard time putting it down.
Well back to class.
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