My time in Kigoma is now finished for this trip, but I will definitely be back, the Lord permitting. I arrived last Friday, and we had two meetings on Saturday then one each on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. All were great, with a very responsive congregation.
The ladies particularly took me into their hearts, and decided that I really needed some African clothes. So they gifted me not just one or two, but FIVE African style outfits, as well as a beautiful blanket. The only problem was fitting them all into my already full suitcase, which is now absolutely jam packed and probably at the very limit of my weight allowance for my flights.
Here I am rocking it in African Mama style:
The ministry was great, but I did have a few challenges. Health wise, on the first night I kept waking up with severe cramps in my legs. Praise God that didn’t continue beyond the first night!
The biggest disappointment was changing my Aussie dollars into Tanzanian shillings – the currency exchange ripped me off for $200! I gave them $650 to exchange, but when I got back to my room and checked the exchange rate I found that what they had given me was only equivalent to $447. Lesson learned – next time I will check the exchange rate before I go. That experience left a really bad taste in my mouth.
I also had problems with my computer, which was throwing a major hissy fit and refusing to open the stuff I wanted, and with my phone which locked itself and would not open, would not close, would not restart, would not do anything. Mr Google gave me the solution for the phone – press the volume and power buttons at the same time. And the computer has largely sorted itself out. Praise God! It wouldn’t be missions without a few challenges.
Just a few impressions of Kigoma:
The weather was pleasantly (and unexpectedly) cool, with some very heavy rain. They told me that the nearness to Lake Tanganyika keeps the temperature down.
Roads are either good or very bad. There seems to be little in between. The sealed roads seem to be well maintained, with very few potholes, but the unsealed roads are terrible. Driving habits are far more orderly than in Kenya and Uganda – drivers actually stop at traffic lights, and for the most part keep to their own lane and the right side of the street.
Whilst there are of course the roadside markets everywhere, I didn’t see many of the people walking along the road around the traffic selling stuff, as you do in Kenya and Uganda. But then I was mostly in urban areas, so maybe if we had been on the open road they would be there.
The pastors worked on Mzungu (white person) time, rather than African time, which was a huge relief to me. In fact they were actually early picking me up a couple of times. (I will write about African time in another post.) The people were warm and welcoming, and made me feel very much at home.
Tonight I am in Dar Es Salaam, and I will fly on to Mbeya tomorrow.