A Joy Like None Other

I don't know where to begin, the past 3 days of my life have been so incredibly different than anything I have ever experienced. The flights were fine, and to my surprise went quicker than I imagined they would. For one of the flights I sat next to a Christian missionary headed to Kenya. She had been many times and so it was great to be able to quiz her on what to expect. The most interesting thing she said was that Swahili has no direct translation for the word "future". They will talk about 'later on' but they won't talk about future in a 'what do you want to be when you grow up' sort of way. She said one of the most uplifting experiences I'll have working in an orphanage will be to help the kids dream about the future.

After landing in Kilimanjaro I was relieved to see two people waiting for me with my name on a sign, Erik and Nelli. We took an hour or so van ride to the volunteer house, where I spent my first night. It was late and I was tired but there were a number of volunteers up, so I took the chance to get to know them and ask them all sorts of questions. The other volunteers are AWESOME. Most are from either Canada or England. I've met a few people from the New York and California area as well.

The first morning I enjoyed my first African meal. It consisted of Chappati (fried dough) and the usual toast, tea, and coffee. Shortly after, I was offered a choice to go to my home stay or on an adventure with about 13 of the other volunteers. Of course, I chose the adventure. However, I had no idea what was to lie ahead.

Where we were headed was Masaiiland, where the tribe of Masaii lives. It was about an hour (North?) from Arusha. The Masaii are what you would imagine if you were going to watch a National Geographics episode about tribal Africa. They live in mudhuts, farm animals for survival, and the chief had a huge belly along with 9 or 10 wives and countless children. The kids loved us. It was almost as though they were on vacation when they saw us. Always touching you and wanting to play. I learned quickly from them to embrace culture differences and find joy in others. I initially felt bad for them. The mud huts smelled awful, it was hot, and there were so many house flies EVERYWHERE you had to pretend to swim just to be able to keep them off of you. To my standards the living conditions were horrendous. Yet the Masaii had a joy for life like nothing I had ever seen before.

At night we sacrificed a goat. By sacrificed I mean we watched them kill a goat and cook it over a fire. The whole process was quite disturbing but I felt compelled to watch. I was feeling fine when they killed it and then skinned it. It was when they pulled out the organs and started feeding them to each other raw that I started to feel queezy. Then when the other guys in my group volunteered to taste the blood a chill of fear overcame me as I knew I had to follow. I'll spare you the details. After the meal, we witnessed the tribe dance around the fire. It wasn't a ritual or ceremony like you'd perhaps imagine, but more of a Friday night hang out and celebrate type of situation. I was very pleased to see 'the train' has found it's way over to tribal Africa. We danced and celebrated like we didn't have a care in the world. And we didn't.

My interaction with the Masaii taught me a lot of things. How blessed I am, but also how much I am missing out on the simple things in life. They don't have cell phones, because everyone they know lives in such close quarters. They don't have social classes, everyone is treated the same (other than the fat chief of course). We couldn't understand each other very well but when we were dancing around the fire I had the resounding feeling that God was smiling. That two very different breeds of his creation were laughing and hugging. That for only a night we truly cared about each other. It was once I realized this that I think I started to realize how much God loves not just Americans, but the whole world and everyone in the world.

I'm now with my host family. They are extremely caring and helpful. I'll have orientation tomorrow morning and will then begin my work at the orphanage. I'm right near the center of the city, and pretty happy with my situation. I am planning on moving to the volunteer house after 2 weeks or so. I want the experience with the host family, however I feel my best place of ministry will be with the other volunteers who are all roughly my age. I feel a push to spend a significant amount of time over there building relationships.

I hope you are all well back home! So far I'm safe and sound, but I'll admit I'm quite paranoid about becoming ill. Look for another update towards the end of this week or next weekend.

In him,
Andrew