Alabama Camel Riders: Lost Entries: Highlights from our Trip

June 19, 2010

Here’s another picture post with highlights from our amazing trip to Tanzania! Sorry I haven’t posted more since we’ve been home for 4 days, but I’ve been pretty sick with a stomach bug I caught from Lucy, who caught it from our friends who met us in Zanzibar for the last few days of the trip. On the upswing now, though. Expect more updates and pictures soon!

Above: Roaming in the airport during our layover.

Below: Ketchup all over her face! We were eating at this place called Marrybrown. It’s amazing to us that a place like this is in TZ! It’s a Malaysian chain. Quite tasty fast food.

Below: It took her a few days, but she got used to sleeping under the mosquito net.

Below: The friends we stayed with have these 2 huge amazing dogs. Lucy loved them!

She certainly gets that from her dad not me!

Below: We visited a lot of our friends while we were there. This was in my pal Amina’s shop. Lucy sat up on this bench for the longest time next to one of Amina’s co-workers. It was SO cute!

Below: For my birthday, my pal T got her friend to come do Henna on my hands! Henna is traditionally done in their culture for a celebration of some kind. I’d say celebrating 30 years is worth some henna! It was beautiful!

One of the biggest highlights of our trip was visiting this little boy - Abdul. We sponsor him through Compassion International. We’ve been his sponsor for over 2 years now. We’ve been writing him and getting letters and pictures from him. He is 6 years old and lives in a city north of where we were. We drove up one Friday and spent the whole day with him and his family and 2 of the workers at the Compassion project he attends. He is from a Mslm family, but attends the Christian Compassion project where he learns Bible stories and regular school stuff, too. He’s amazing. He really started warming up to us later in the day. Their project has only been open 3 years and they’ve had less than 10 visitors in those 3 years. So, you can imagine that when a car load of white people show up, it’s excitement! We were totally overwhelmed by all the kids and how they grabbed our hands and wanted to hug us. Precious! They have 250+ kiddos at this project and only 40 or so aren’t sponsored. If you really wanna make a difference in this world, reach out and pour your resources into someone else’s life. (compassion.com)

We were able to visit Abdul’s home and meet his mom, dad, and younger sister. They live in a 1 room mud walled place that’s only big enough for their 1 bed, a small sofa, and another chair. Oh, and the floor is dirt. (Lucy got SO dirty this day! But she loved it!) After we gave them the gifts and food we brought for them, they then had us stand up and they proceeded to give us gifts. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I’ll never forget it. Please PR for Abdul and his family. They are very young and only nominally Mslm. They need Jesus! Abdul gets to hear about J at school. PR that it will sink into his little heart and he will share it with his family!

In this picture, Abdul’s got shells and rocks and is showing Lucy how he’s playing a jacks-type game with them. Very cute!

Below: This was a common sight each night...

Below: Meg! LOVE HER! We started at HOPAC the same year.

Below: Lucy and Samuel being cute!

Lucy had her fair share of suitors this trip! She got to spend the first half of the trip with Samuel (Above). We joke that they are betrothed... (wait, are we joking?) He’s about a year older. And then with Tyler (below) the last part of the trip. He’s 6 months older. Might be safe to say he’s in the running, now, too. They all did really well playing together and it was amazing to see her around some other kids her age! Both these boys live in Africa. Um. We approve.

Below: Brad & our friend Solomon at Fordhani in Zanzibar. Look it up. It’s amazing! FRESH Seafood. Can’t beat it! I’d eat there every night if I could.

THE SCORPION! Ever been stung by one? I have. This very one to be exact. He was hiding in Brad’s bathing suit (yikes! could have been worse, huh?) when I grabbed it off the rack in the bathroom and POW! Got me on the palm of the hand. Whew! Way to start my 30th year, huh?

The icing on the cake for us was to see Suzi and then to see her boys on our last day. Wow. God is so good and so faithful. I love this lady so much. She’s honestly like a sister to me and I’m so thankful I know her. Nelson is 8 and Richard is 5. They are sweet boys. I love them! (Power had been off all day - forgive our sweaty appearances!)