Loaves and Fishes

It's around 8 o'clock and we're now arriving into Kilimanjaro airport. (I use the term airport very loosely). Apparently, one flight comes through here every day... We got to walk straight off the plane onto the platform. The airport is a series of two rooms. As soon as you walk through the door, a stench/wall of body odor hits your senses. There are so many people crammed into the first room trying to get their passports checked. Thankfully, some of the Jesus Film guys who came to meet us took care of that whole process. Unfortunately, we are missing 20 trunks. Nobody has said what we're going to do about that yet. My personal trunk arrived, but only out of sheer luck. I would have much rather had a trunk of medical supplies come in its place, but it wasn't really my decision. Looking around the airport, most of the ads on the walls are for cigarettes and alcohol. Not sure how that's going to come into play with the people in the surrounding area.

We were able to cram all but four of our team onto our bus, which was awesome because we had 20 trunks on the bus as well. We began our drive into Arusha which is 45 minutes or so away from the Kili Airport. We welcomed our first experience without air conditioning, which actually was good because the elevation caused the temperature to be very tolerable. Got lost on the way to the hotel. The sky really does look like Lion King, which is really cool. When you look out the windows of the bus, you can see the faint scenery of the mountain ranges. As our bus drove down the road, people would just stop and stare at us.

We finally got to our inn around 11pm. As out bus turned down the street/alley that it's located on, I admit that I began to feel a little nervous. There were groups of men gathered around all throughout the alley. They stared just as the others had done while we were driving. We pulled up to the Roika Inn. From the outside, it looked as if the room only had one room, but it turned out there was enough rooms to house our entire team. Amanda and I got the first room on the right. We had two twin beds with sheets and a woolen blanket. There are bars on the window.

we had a group meeting on the patio after we got somewhat settled. Pastor Fred prayed over our journey so far and over Edna (the inn owner) and Fred (her marketing manager). After we prayed, Fred welcomed us and said that thanks to our prayer, he was closer tot he Lord and that he wanted to speak with Pastor Fred at a later time to discuss his faith. Fred then told us that while we were here, we would be in the safest and most capable hands.

Sleep came to me in two hour intervals. I don't think Amanda slept more than two hours the entire night. I got up when the call to prayer went off at 5am. It lasted around 20 minutes. There's really no going to sleep after that.

Apparently the "safest and most capable hands" included a guard wrapped in a blanket sitting on the patio with a large machete in his hands. Feel safe yet?