My Trip to Africa

On July 8, 2009, a mission team departed from California, USA to Tanzania, Africa, where they would teach people about God's love and help rebuild the little town of Morogoro. Do you know what the best part was? I was part of that group. I was able to fly clear across the world to change other peoples lives. Hearing my story will be easy, but completely understanding of what I saw and experienced will be something that I will only know.
As many long trips go, we started at an airport, where we would soon embark on the greatest journey. From there, we flew over North America, over the Arctic Circle, down Russia and into a country, known as Dubai. Dubai was one of those countries where you want to get in and get out as soon as possible. I don't say that because it's dangerous. Well, yeah, there was a heavy case of Swine Flu, but the heat and humidty was very much unbarable. We did stay at a local hotel that night, but we headed out early the next day to catch our flight to Africa. The flight to Dubai was about 15 hours while the flight to Tanzania was about 5 hours, so it was a very long day for all of us.
We eventually landed in the city of Dar es Salaam, near the east coast of Africa. Again, Swine Flu was heavy, but fortunately, we made it out alive. From the Airport, we were driven to our hotel, which was suppose to be a three hour ride, but because there was a traffic accident every couple miles, it took us nearly 5 hours to reach our hotel. The roads are fairly different from here in the US. Like England, the people drove in the left lane rather than the right. However, drivers would always tend to cross into the right lane in order to pass a slow moving vehicle. If a car flashed its left blinker then it means it's okay to pass. If a car in front of us flashes its right blinker, it means that we cannot pass. If a car behind us flashes its lights at us, it means that the driver wants to pass and it's up to us to decide if he can or not. In America, that is highly illegal, especially when a driver crosses over double barred lines. But we were in Africa, so I guess we had to expect the impossible. We finally reached our hotel, which was called the Usambara Safari Lodge, at around 9:00pm, which was 11:00am in California.
The next day, which was yesterday for America, was the beginning of our trip. We headed out to the local school, which was only a five minute walk from our hotel, and gave the little kids a carnival day. We brought out games, face paint, and all the things little kids would love. They definitely had a good time.
On Sunday, we attended the local church that was led by a very holy man, known as Pastor Alex. In America, a typical Christian church has worship with a band or choir and people usually read the lyrics off of a projector screen. Well, in Africa, worship was done in singing and dancing. There was a lot of dancing. Little kids and adults would get up from their seats and begin to dance, choreographed of course, in front of the church. The words were in Swahili, but I sang along anyway in the best way that I could.
Monday through Friday, the group held Vacation Bible School at the same school that we had the carnival at. After school let out, certain grades would stay after and attend the VBS. It was exhausting, but it was so much fun getting to know all the kids. They just fell in love with us and we fell in love with them. I tell you the truth, each kid loved Michael Jackson. He was more popular in Africa than he was here in America. All the kids would sing, We are the World, and attempt to dance just like Michael Jackson. He was perhaps more popular than Barack Obama.
Every day after VBS, our group would split up into groups of threes to visit a students home to tell them about our faith. One house that I visited was fairly nice, but the others were extremely poor. The first house we went to was about a 45 minute walk from where we were at. The house had no electricity and no windows. Tiny ants were trailing along the sofas, while chickens simply walked straight into the house. The second house we visited was much worse. Yes, the house was small and rundown, but we dealt with a much more serious problem than that. The man's son had a disease that was unknown to them and us as well. Basically, the son's skin on his ankle was tearing away and deteorating. At first I was thinking something like Leprosy and then I tried to look it up and found out that it could have been Ecthyma. That would make sense because Ecthyma occurs with lack of nutrition, which seemed to be a high risk of many of the people there. I talked to him about God and prayed with him, but it was very hard to do so because it ws a tough and tense situation. At the other house my group and I attended, the woman's son, who's name was also Eric, was in the hospital with Maleria. It was tough to deal with all these intense situations, because I've never dealt with them in America. It was certainly an eye-opener. For me, it was very depressing to see these kids be so happy and playful when they have to go home to a place that is unhealthy, unsafe, and poverish. I suppose that I have to give some pitty on them, but how can I feel bad for people who are happy with their lives? Those kids don't know any other way of living. It certainly has made me appreciate everything that I got here at my home, not just material things, but humanity as well.
Saturday was a day that I will never forget. It was the day I went on an actual safari. Words cannot even describe the beauty and wonder of the African wild. There were no barriers between us and the animals. Besides seen Giraffe's, Baboons, Zebras, and Elephants, my favorite part was seeing my favorite animal of all time, the Lion. I will never forget the feeling of seeing a Lion upclose. It was astonshing, but very scary as well. Our jeep was about 15 to 20 feet away from the lion, but there were other Lions surrounding us on each side. The Lion that we were watching was eating a Cape Buffalo. When I saw that predator tearing away at that Buffalo, it was the most beautiful sight, because that was nature at its best. If I ever see a Lion at the zoo, I will never look at it the same way again.
For the last Sunday, some of us went to Pastor Alex's church again, but it was somewhat depressing. The church was sad that we were leaving the next day, but they were also losing their music leader. Later that day, we all met the Secretary General of the Ruling Party of Tanzania. He owns the hotel in which we stayed at and he bought everyone a carved wooden cross for doing what we were doing. He also paid for a couple gifts for me that I got for my family, so that was really cool. It was definitely a good way to end that day.
The next day, we headed to the airport for our departure to Dubai. Again, we spent the night in Dubai and headed back to America early the next day. It was such a long flight and bumpy one at that. I am seriously terrified of flying. To increase my phobia, our plane had a very tough time landing at the San Francisco airport. Our plane was attempting to land, but we were slightly off course because of fog, so we flew back up to make a full U-turn. We attempted to land again, but another plane was landing and another was about to take off, so we were again slightly off course, but we finally got right and landed safely. Flying is something that I won't ever do too often, but I'd definitely go back to Africa in a heartbeat. Going to Africa was something I'll never forget. I'll really miss the people and all the great experiences that I had there. There's always at least one thing that went wrong for someone such as mosquito bites, food sickness, stolen property and bad food. The food in Africa wasn't great at all. We just couldn't question what we were eating because sometimes we just didn't want to find out. Everyone owned a chicken, so guess what was for dinner each night. My one bad experience was my bad luck with watches. I never got bit by a mosquito or had anything stolen, but time was certainly not on my side for this trip. First, my wrist watch froze as we were going to Africa. Then, my cell phone clock was off by a few hours, along with the date and world clock. I borrowed a watch from a friend and I either lost it or it got pick pocketed. For most of the trip, I had no idea what time it was. My internal clock usually got me up on time in the morning. However, those were just minor downfalls. Worse things could have happened, but we were blessed that nothing did happen. Again, this trip was absolutely amazing and I am so blessed that I was able to go on it. I cannot wait to go again next year.