Team Tanzania in the mountains

We have spent the past two days in the Pare Mountain district, close to the Kenya/Tanzania border. In fact, from where we are staying, which is Pastor Mshana's house on top of one of the mountains, we can see Kenya. We arrived early this Sunday, and were then able to worship at the church that was a short hike from where we're staying. We also taught about 25 children there later that day. At night, we enjoyed the company of our hosts while drinking fresh ginger tea, that is the most magnificent thing I've ever tasted. Even the walk to the outhouse that night was wonderful, as we could see what seemed to be the entire galaxy in the night sky, along with the lights of the houses scattered about the surrounding mountains, all while smelling the sweet perfuming scent of the bushes lining the path, that only flower at night. The next morning, we woke up to the rooster crowing. I forgot where I was for a moment until I walked outside to see the splendor that surrounded me. One of our hosts doesn't speak much English, but she got my attention by yelling "hey!". When I turned around she had hot milk tea that she was offering me and she brought me out a chair and said "sit down" after which she giggled because I think that's one of the only English phrases she knows. So there we sat, drinking tea on top of a mountain, with a glorious view. Later on, we hiked to one of the public schools where we taught about 15 children during their religion class. The district we are in has a strong Islamic foothold, so this school has a good mixture of Muslim and Christian students. There may have only been 15 children in that classroom but many of the other students were very curious about what the American visitors were doing, so they peered in the windows the whole time. We also gave each of the children we taught two cross necklaces each so that they could keep one and give the other to a friend. Later that night, we enjoyed the Lord's Supper with Pastor Mshana and his family.

We are all feeling very blessed to be here and are looking forward to our continued teaching opportunities here in Tanzania.

Lydia Albrecht