9/14/09
Sorry it took me so long to get this going, but we had a long journey to Subawanga. James and I very much enjoyed our stop in London, we took in all the tourist sites in the small amount of time that we had to be there. It was only an 8 hour flight to London and a 12 hour flight to Dar es Salaam. We were picked up from the airport at 8 o’clock in the morning and spent the day in Dar. People drive crazy in Dar, I’m not sure they have any stop signs and if they do I think they are optional. It was amazing, because the traffic is rush hour traffic all the time and people just go and honk at you. Brother Jerome drove a very tired me and James around Dar, to get our bus ticket and make sure that our check cards would work in the ATM. I fell asleep every time we got in the car. The next day we got on a bus at 7 in the morning to go to MBeya. The bus was supposed to get in around 5 the same day, but since it had a lot of troubles we did not get in until 11 pm. So after the 16 hour bus ride we slept at MBeya. The bus was comfortable enough, we watched movies in Swahili, slept and read. We then traveled to Subawanga by car courtesy of Brother Joesph. It was a 5 hour drive on mostly bumpy dirt roads. We were finally home in Subawanga. We are living in the guest house of the Abbey right next to chemchemi secondary school. James and I are sharing a room, not much bigger then Mary Hall, but we do have our own bathroom with a heated shower. All the Monks have been so nice and welcoming to us, the language barrier is difficult, but a smile is a smile in any language. We toured the school, the church, and the hospital over the next two days and tried to recover from the jet lag. That Saturday we went to Mvimwa abbey. It was a 2 and a half hour drive over a unmaintained dirt road. However, it was a beautiful drive. The drive took us over many planes of dead grasses, since it is the dry season, that are nestled in between small mountains. The abbey itself is beautiful, it was constructed in conjunction with the landscape that it was built over. Huge rocks provide support for some of the structures, it is very cool. James, Joesph and I went to the top of the mountain behind the abbey to overlook the entire property of Mvimwa. On Sunday we then went to the primary school and saw the children. They were a blast, they asked us all kinds of questions, James told a story about Michael Jackson and we both sang Wagon Wheel for them. Then we played soccer and left to go back to Subawanga. Then we were left on our own to do whatever we wanted. Since then James and I have walked into the internet cafe, which is where I am right now, to contact our parents and tell them we are not dead and I have read a lot of books. On Wednesday night my sleep was rudely interrupted by my stomach, which then proceeded to empty its contents 7 times over the remaining 4 hours of sleep that got intermetently. I immediately thought I had food poisioning, that was wishful thinking. I went to the doctor and I was diagnosed with Malaria, only after I throw up one more time, just for good measure. I spent the next three days in bed with a temperature. I didn’t eat anything except for some bread every once in a while. I was not hungry and I still don’t have my appetite back. On Friday I felt better and ate at supper, just some rice. On Saturday morning we all got up early and went to Mvimwa to see the primary school graduation. This was very interesting, there were dances and speeches before the graduation, then finally a raffle drawing and then the actual calling of names and stuff. I went and was exhausted by the end of it. We then went to mass on Sunday and ate lunch with the Monks before leaving for Subawanga. It was cool, but we didn’t get to Subawanga until 7 o’clock Sunday night and I went straight to bed. James got up this morning and taught for his first day of school, I have not taught yet, since I was sick, I went to the internet so my family would not worry about me. I walked the couple of miles to Subawanga and back and felt fine.