Out of Town
As you read this, the three of us are on a bus headed to Dar es Salaam to pick up our vehicle. Another couple with SIL is leaving Tanzania and sold us their car for a great price. While we’re there, we’ll get Asher a check-up at the international clinic, go shopping, and, no doubt, sweat a bit as we leave our cool mountains of Mbeya for the hot, humid coast.
The bus ride is 16 gruelling hours. I’m taking a book, word search, and maybe headphones but I have a feeling I won’t be doing anything but tending to Asher. Hopefully he’ll just get rocked to sleep and do that most of the trip. The way back should be easier since we can stop when we want to and we’ll comfortably be by ourselves in our vehicle.
We’ll be staying in a church’s guest house. We stayed at this place when we were leaving for America last December. It’s pretty far out of the way (although close to the airport) but we love it because there are restrooms in the rooms themselves (which eliminates you having to go out battling mosquitoes) and the beds are great. It used to be run by the Swiss and we believe they imported these beds from Switzerland. It’s hard to find a nice mattress in all of Tanzania.
You’re on your own for food though so I’ll pack some to take with us. There are many restaurants in Dar and we’ll probably go out at least once but the ride to anywhere is so far we’ll probably just stick to the guest house or go to other SILers homes in Dar (if we’re invited to any).
So that’s the long and short of it. But wait? I didn’t mention the dogs, did I? They are being taken care of by a multitude of people there at the compound while we’re gone. Mama Imanueli will still come by every day and the landlord will make sure they’re taken care of outside of that time. As I write this (a few days before leaving) we’re planning to ask a few SIL people here if someone would stay at our house those days we’re gone but even if that doesn’t happen they’ll be well taken care of - and it’ll be a trial run for when all of us SIL people go to conference in July.
I’ll try to blog while we’re there. It’ll definitely be a few different days from my usual ones here at home with Asher. I’m sort of excited about a change of scenary but I’ll be just as excited to get back home on Wednesday!!