Safari Nzuri – East Africa

We are on our way here in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania waiting for our flight to board for Nairobi, Kenya and then on to Kisumu.   Our time in Tanzania was most enjoyable.   Our friends here are wonderful hosts and keep us fed ready to do our work at the college and in the churches.   

We traveled to Kigoma on Tuesday, May 17 and checked into a hotel that was arranged for us.   We usually try to go to the Costal View hotel in Kigoma because it is relatively inexpensive by western hotel standards and has some of the best views of Lake Tanganyika from any point in Kigoma.   Unfortunately they were completely booked (which does not surprise me).   So we stayed at a the Mwitongo Garden hotel.   It was very nice and similarly priced.  

After checkin we went to visit with Margaret Mpango, her daughter Rose and her sister Elizabeth.   Margaret (AKA Mama Rose),  is the wife of the late Bishop Gerard Mpango.    Bishop Mpango was the first bishop we partnered with in DWT.   I passed away unexpectedly back in January.   We shared stories with them about Gerard and many of the things we did together.   I even admitted to Margaret that while she was away from Kasulu at one time, Gerard and I shared some beer together one evening.   He was really not supposed to drink beer because of some health concerns, but we broke the rule that evening and enjoyed our fellowship as to “bad” boys.   I miss Gerard, especially his laugh.   You could hear it across a crowded room with it’s high pitch woop.   I remember a time when he was visiting with us in Connecticut.   I brought him to a field nearby to show him how I fly radio controlled airplanes.   Sure enough, every time I tried to land my P-51 Mustang, it would roll over on it’s nose and Gerard would laugh uncontrollably. 

Later in the early evening, we went to visit with the now retired Bishop Sadock Makaya.   We had a good time with him and some guests from the local church.  We talked about all kinds of things including some of the world political situations and how the USA and other countries are responding.    We also talked about being saved by faith through grace (from Ephesians 2) and “faith without works is dead” from James.   The two ideas really are tied together.    Of course, I forgot to bring my guitar.   Sadock really wanted to sing together, so we did that following day.   Before we went to the airport for our afternoon flight to Dar es Salaam, we visit with Sadock again and had a good time singing worship songs together.    After that, we were off to the airport and made our flight to Dar.

Right now we are in Kisumu in Kenya.   I’ll skip the journey info between Dar and Kisumu.   I can say that all went well and right on schedule.   I will write later today about our initial time here in Kisumu.