Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Today was our planned final safari which took place at Mikumi National Park. It’s not the richest in animal life but it literally sits on the highway between Mbeya and Dar es Salaam.
When we go on safaris, Asher gets to ride up front with us because of the safe pace and better view.

We have no idea what they were all staring at.

This buffalo had a bad day.

This was the only watering hole in which we found hippos. They would only pop up a few inches out of the water a couple of seconds at a time…

…until we got ready to leave. Then big daddy came up.

For the final shot, I post a challenge. This was the ‘road’ out to one of the watering holes, but can you tell which direction it is heading in this photo?

The answer is completely straight ahead!

Up early tomorrow to finish out journey to our departure city… Dar es Salaam.

We got loaded up well this morning and pulled out of Mbeya by 11am. There were no problems on the road until this:

An overturned fuel truck completely blocking the road.
There was a small crew of guys chopping down trees to make a large enough detour to go around it.

And while we were waiting for our turn to go around the truck, this odd combination drove by. Look closely.

It is a truck… carrying a truck… that’s carrying a car. That’s just really odd to me.
So other than that and a little bit of construction to drive through, our journey today was way uneventful. As a matter of fact, I expected 7 hours to get here and we made it in 6!
We’ll sleep in a little tomorrow, take a leisurely safari and come back to the hotel for a nice dinner. Lookin like a good trip so far.

Lots and lots of stuff. We are truly American!  To be sure we’ll be able to drive the car to Dar with all of our stuff, we did a -Will it fit?- dry run of packing up the car.  All of it fit… after four different attempts.  The main purpose of these photos isn’t to show you what it looked like but for me to remember how I got it all in.  Here’s a list of what you see:

UofM large duffle bag
Large red garment bag
Large green duffle bag
Stroller
Infant car seat
Smaller gray carry-on
Small brown carry-on
Very large burgundy suitcase
Large Red suitcase
Two large purple Rubbermaid containers
Large gray plastic container

(Not pictured; still left to fit into the small spaces)
Toddler car seat
My laptop bookbag
Dana’s laptop shoulder bag
Asher’s backpack
Diaper bag
Dana’s purse
Camera bag
Traveling food
Jonathan
Dana
Asher

Floor to ceiling.

Closer look from the rear.

Closer look from the rear.

Left rear passenger door view.

The luggage hole for Asher’s car seat.

On Friday, I took a trip up to Ilembo in the Malila language area for the testing of Ruth and Jonah. Those who went were Pastor Mwahalende, Pastor Mwampamba (both Malila), a new Scripture Use colleague named Jo and me.  The trip started off well until we stop for a water-the-forest break, if you catch my drift.  When I was getting back in the car, I noticed the right rear tire was looking low but I thought it may have been because we were sitting on a hill.  So, we continued and I kept an eye on the tire.  Sure nuff the tire was going down so I looked for a good flat place to stop.  Twenty minutes later, we were back on the move.

We got to Ilembo at a good time, only two hours after we left Mbeya.  When I got out of the car, I heard, “hhhsssssssss…”.  I only wish it were a snake!  The SPARE was going flat!!!  We raced around the village trying to find a tire repairman.  We discovered there were only 2 in town and the first one we went to see wasn’t there.  On to the 2nd… PLEASE, let him be there!  He was so the SUV got backed into his shack while some Tanzanian friends carried my equipment to the church in which I’d play the audio.

We listened to Ruth first and they absolutely loved it.  They complimented the Malila speech of the speakers/actors in the recording.  They only had a few things to discuss with Mwahalende and Mwampamba about the actual translation itself.  A few times, those discussions took place using Malila so I just propped my head on my hand and waited for them to have their say.

We took a break before carrying on to Jonah so I took that time to check on the car.  They were remounting the tires, by hand, no machine, and preparing to fill them with air.  I was told it should be ready by the time Jonah is finished.

Jonah went just as well as Ruth.  No changes.  No suggestions.  They loved it.  So, we packed up the repaired car, said our goodbyes and headed back to Mbeya.  It only took 45 minutes to make it back down… hehehe…

While stopping in town after dropping everybody off, I heard the dreaded sound AGAIN!!  The right rear (the original spare was mounted) was hissing at me.  So, I got home as quick as possible and stuck the jack under the car to catch it before the tire went all the way down.  It sat like that until this morning when I needed to use it again.  Fortunately, original right rear seems to be thoroughly repaired.  Wait, let me go double-check….

On the way back from conference, we pass through a horrendous stretch of unpaved road between the Kenya border and Tanga, Tanzania.  To give you a glimpse of why this is the most dreaded part of the conference travel every year, I asked Dana to video a short piece so that we may show you.

This is a litle piece of video I shot while waiting for our turn to pass through some road construction in Iringa.

This is the place we stayed at on our first stop on the way to conference.  We liked it a lot with the exception of the short bed.  It was really difficult trying to sleep diagonally.  FYI, I’m 6’3″.  The room was Tsh. 50,000.

Daddy & Asher looking at trees and birds

In an earlier post, I told you how our car is getting demon-pounced, or so it seems.  So, has something broken this week?  No.  Last week?  No.  Hey, 2 in a row is an accomplishment.  Turning to the repairs to be done, I just ordered a new suspension system from Dallas, TX because the cost to get something that’s just okay here, can buy and ship me premium goods from there.  I went with Old Man Emu shocks all around and replacement rear coil springs for our 1994 Toyota Hilux Surf* from Toyota of Dallas for cost AND shipping totaling $740.00.  Big one-time costs are very challenging for faith-supported missionaries.  But, you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

I just hope the parts get here before it’s time to leave for our branch conference.  There’s a two-hour stretch of unpaved, atrociously rocky road just before the Kenya border.  Come on Old Man Emu!

*Just to let you know, the Surf is the Japanese-market 4Runner.

It has 249 pictures from our recent trip to Nairobi.