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An African Odyssey, Part 1 I expected it to be hot and I wasn’t disappointed. Although it was 11 o’clock at night it was 75 degrees and humid. The airport was small and we easily made our way through customs and immigration. Our hosts were waiting. We were greeted with smiles, hugs and gifts. My host family gave me a lei and yellow roses. After a prayer of thanks for safe travels we were off to our hosts’ homes for a night of rest. My African odyssey began back in January when I traveled to Fortune Lake Bible Camp for the first of two orientation meetings. At that meeting I met Bob and Dolores Langseth, Hud Johnson, and Joyce Barna. We watched a video about the library construction that had occurred on previous trips and Hud talked about his experiences. At this meeting I caught the excitement to go to Tanzania and contribute my skills. I had been working at home remodeling and restoring my house, but I had felt God was calling me to reach out beyond myself and use my skills for others. I also desired another international vacation, a true break from work. The two desires crystallized into one call at Fortune Lake. My host family for my time in Dar es Salaam was Pastor Emmanuel Mtigile, his wife Grace, daughter Upendo (age15), sons Toumani (age10) and Emmani (age 7), two visiting relatives Lydia (age 16), and Japhet (age 22). As the pastor would later explain, Upendo means Love, Toumani means faith, and Emmani means hope. His children were faith, hope, and love but the greatest of these is love. With the house girl Selina, and myself the three-bedroom house was full. The whole house was up when Mama Grace, Pastor Emmanuel and I arrived from the airport. I would meet all of them tomorrow; right now it was time for bed. My bedroom (which I shared with the pastor) had an adjoining bathroom with a European style toilet (similar to ours), but both the shower and sink were broken. Air temperature water was available from a faucet in the wall. As the week went on it became obvious to me that my host family was giving me the best they had. Pastor Emmanuel spoke good English (he had spent two years studying in the USA). Japhet spoke passable English and had many questions for me about America. Japhet was attending summer school six days a week and typically left the house at 8 AM and came home about 6 PM. Upendo could speak passable English, but due to shyness on her part and a cultural stigma that says young women should not talk to unknown older men, we did not communicate until the third weekend of my stay. The young children Toumani and Emmani knew a few words of English, (they are taught English as a second language in primary school, Swahili is their first language) but mostly we conversed with hand signals and gestures. Mama Grace and Selina spoke no English. On Wednesday morning I woke up to the Muslim call to Morning Prayer at 5 AM. There are many mosques in the area. The Muslim pray 5 times a day and the call to prayer is broadcast over loudspeakers at each mosque. With a mosque only few blocks away the 5 AM call was hard to miss. On one exceptionally clear and quiet Saturday morning I could hear the call to Morning Prayer from 5 different mosques. The East Indian Crows, common in the Mtigile’s neighborhood, started cackling an hour later.
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