Dodgeball on the Tanzanian Highway

 Driving in Tanzania certainly leaves a lot to be desired and it’s a national lottery when you travel on these roads, bus drivers drives as if they own the road with no amount of care really for other road users and yesterday I saw another example of that as we were on our way to a pray meeting, and since I have been here I have heard of quiet a few fatalities on the road and with no ambulance service to take people to hospital that is not surprising. Every time you go out on the road you not only have to watch out for reckless drivers but also for people who walk on both sides of the road and off course stray dogs and cows who cross the road as if they own it. Fortunately for me I have only 2 more road trips to take, 1 into Mwanza on Monday and another 1 on either Sunday or Monday next week on my way to Nairobi.

Yesterday we had a Aim Prayer meeting which took place in the town of Kitonki which is about 1hr drive away from Bulima, it was a good get together and it was great to catch up with other Aim missionaries in Tanzania, unfortunately my fellow South African missionary could not make it to the meeting as she was waiting for another missionary to return from one of the islands.

My work at the library is just about finished and all I now have to do is to ensure that the student librarians are up to speed and can take over my responsibilities without the fear of making a mistake and a changed attitude as running a library take dedication. Since the 22 January over 7500 book were imported on to the system, another 150 – 200 new books and about 500 duplicate books are still in storage and it will be up to the student librarians to import these books on to the system. On Wednesday I will lead the praise and worship service and this will also be my goodbye to the school as from Thursday and Friday students will be writing exams so there will be no classes. I am hoping to use this week to reinforce the responsibilities that each student librarian has in ensuring that the library are run as effectively as possible, I will basically only have 3 days to do this as I won’t be at the college on Monday leaving only Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday to train the students.

This week we heard that 1 of the teachers sons who are studying in Nairobi got hurt in a fall where he was staying and he was hospitalised, staff members each made a personal contribution to the staff member and this enabled him to travel to Nairobi to be with his son, fortunately the news we got was that he did not require surgery and this was an answer to prayer after all the miscommunication we received from Nairobi, AIM Nairobi office also made some funds available to pay his cost which could amount to about $1500 ( I am not sure if this was from the College account or from the AIM account itself)

On Friday we will be having a staff get together to say goodbye to me and another USA volunteer and on Saturday I will be having supper with my neighbours whose sons are returning home for the school holidays. I have been offered a ride into Nairobi on Friday but this will mean that my travelling cost will be more and also staying in Nairobi will work out more, just for spending 2 days in Nairobi I have to pay almost R400 to stay at Mayfield guesthouse, the cost of the ticket to get to Nairobi is another R150 give or take. As I run down my time here in Bulima please remember me in your prayers and also the students who are writing exams on the 25 and 26 March