12:11 pm - I haven’t journaled in a while. I’ve been so busy since returning to Kigoma. The house was pretty messy. Even though Nicola had been staying here, after she left it was empty for a couple of months. Then Gabriel stayed for about a month, but he’s not the type to clean very thoroughly. Anyhow, the combination of the dirty house, dirty sheets, dirty clothes, dirty fridge, dirty plates and cups and utensils, and lastly - but most disturbing for me - rooms full of the children's clothes and schoolwork but NO children and a bedroom with Carrie’s clothes and our big bed but NO Carrie, was depressing to say the least. Needless to say, I’ve been praying a lot more, simply to overcome the nagging desire to just leave now and get back to my family. I know God has a purpose for me here right now, and I even know what some of those things are. I can neither ignore nor deny these things, and so I press on, with much prayer. I arrived on a Friday and was greeted at the airport by my good friend Mwenge and another friend who works with him named John. They work for a local christian ministry called “Joy in the Harvest”. Mwenge has been a good friend and a tremendous help to us here. He knows a lot of people and knows how to facilitate getting things done (which is very difficult in this culture and political environment). Anyhow, he’s been administrating things for us while we were gone - paying our watchmen, taxes, checking in on the house, helping me with banking and airplane tickets etc. He does it for no compensation, just as a friend. I have to say that because it’s not very common here. People usually have an underlying motive of receiving a mutual benefit. Anyhow, it was a blessing to have him pick me up. He and John grabbed all my luggage (which was numerous and heavy) and loaded them into their vehicle and then took me straight to town and treated me to lunch. After that they took me on a tour of town to show me some things that have changed and where some mutual friends had moved to, and then they brought me home. Once here they immediately began to look at our vehicle, which had been sitting for several months unstarted and untouched (because I forgot to leave the keys with Mwenge). As the suspected, both batteries were dead. They took them out for me and took them to their office to try and charge them, but they were beyond resurrection. So they took me to town to the ATM and then to buy two new batteries (which are ridiculously expensive here - $120 each for really cheap Chinese ones) and then back to my house to install them. Unfortunately the way the batteries are set up I needed one with posts arranged in the opposite position of the other so that the pre-configured factory cables would fit just right. So, by the end of the day, as darkness was approaching, we couldn’t get them hooked up. I had to tell John to stop and go home and asked if he could help me the next day, Saturday. Saturday morning I overslept. I was awakened by honking. I got up and went out front to find that John was already here, and had already brought the necessary wires to rig up a solution for the batteries. He just needed me to come out with the keys to test it. He did a very good job considering what he had to work with and the solution worked. So I finally had a vehicle to drive. He and Mwenge have been such a blessing to me. I was really excited later that day when I dug out of my luggage the gifts I had brought for them. I gave John (who is the driver and mechanic for Joy in the Harvest) a Gerber Multi-Tool with a pouch. I showed him all of the tools and functions and he thanked me in a very humble, African way, but showed no real excitement. A few minutes later I noticed him from afar showing off his gift to the other workers at the compound. So I know he likes it. A couple of days later I was at the airport with him and Mwenge (another story for another time) and I bought everyone a soda. I watched John very skillfully use his bottle as a means of removing the caps from everyone else's bottles. Then he used his teeth to open his! I asked him if he had his new tool with him and he did. So I showed him where the botle opener was and how to use it! So now every time he or anyone around has a soda, he pulls out his Gerber tool and opens the soda bottle for them. I bought a camera for Mwenge. Originally he asked if I could get one for him in the States and he would pay me back for it, but after all that he’s done for us when we were unexpectedly delayed for so many months, I decided to just give it to him as a gift. He’s been using it every day. Now I need to get a small case for him so the camera doesn’t get ruined by the dirt and dust here.
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