We left for our trip to Moshi, on Thursday August 19. The plan was to travel to the town of Itigi, a crossroads where we head north after crossing half of Tanzania. But only after 5 hrs of driving (the trip for the day would have been about 11 hrs), our engine started heating up. It wasn't safe to continue, so we pulled over. We had left before 6 am, and it was only 11 in the morning. We let the car cool down, added water to the radiator, that seemed to be leaking a bit, and kept going. We could hardly go 5 km, and the engine would heat up, so we'd pull over again.
Finally, we were able to make it to the town of Kaliua. We spotted a greasy court yard full of dumpy vehicles in front of a rice mill, and pulled over to talk to the mechanics. They all rushed to our vehicle, eager to fix the problem. They decided, that the best way to fix the leaking radiator was to remove it and solder it. After another local man soldered the leaks, it was replaced. Luke took it for a test drive, and it overheated again. So they proceeded to glue the leaks as best they could.
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| With the mechanic in Kaliua. |
At 4 pm, we left Kaliua, in hopes of making it to the bigger town of Tabora. But after only 20+ km, the car was overheating again. We pulled over. The sun was setting, and we were discouraged.
After letting the car cool a bit, we tried driving again. But this time we didn't get far before needing to stop again.
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| Sunset on our first day of travel. |
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| After a whole afternoon of waiting, still smiling! |
Luke decided to hop on the first vehicle that came by to get a ride to the nearest town for help, leaving me and the kids with the car. A local "daladala" / bus came by within seconds, I handed Luke his wallet and phone, as he flagged him down. He explained our predicament to them, and the driver offered to tow us. We were so grateful! We got hooked up, and were being towed in no time. We rounded the bend and there was the sign for the town of Urambo. We were less than 2 km away! He turned off the highway and cruised along the local roads of the town. We bounced along, trying to guess when his next turn would be. I think he forgot he was towing us, he didn't drive slow! The daladala plopped us at a mechanic shop in an alley close to the town center. The mechanic and his 10+ helpers rushed to our car, eager to fix the problem.
Luke explained what was happening, and what had been done at Kaliua. I rounded up the kids, and went in search of food. It was after 7 pm. We walked to the end of the block to find a local "mgahawa" /restaurant that served rice and beans. After a good meal, we placed the leftovers in a plastic container for Luke (and Aaron who was sleeping in the car). Then, the girls and I walked back a few blocks in search of a hotel to spend the night. We asked at 4 different hotels before finally finding room. It was only some 4 blocks away, so we trekked back to the car to grab the travel bag that contained toiletries and pjs.
The mechanic said he was done, and the car was ready to go. So Luke drove to a nearby hotel with the car (a different one, because ours didn't have parking) while the kids and I got settled into our rooms. We decided to book 3 whole rooms for our family of 7, seeing that they were only $3.50 per room, we didn't feel the need to squeeze into a small space. =) Luke joined us and we got ready for bed, he washed the plastic container that had held his meal and climbed under our mosquito nets exhausted. I tried to ignore the booming, party music coming from the "nicer" hotel down the street, and was grateful we weren't staying there.
Only about an hour later, William was up coughing incessantly. He was across the hall from us, so we decided to bring him to our room before he woke up his brothers. Or fall off the bed, that was about 3 ft high. He settled down, but I had to sleep at the foot of the large queen size bed, to give William enough room.
Then, in the middle of the night, (I couldn't tell you the time because I refuse to look at the clock, it just makes me upset that I'm not sleeping at such ungodly hours) we heard some noise in our room. Luke shown with the flashlight but saw nothing. Then we heard things falling, our deodorant, and some cups. Still couldn't see anything. I just tried to ignore it.
In the morning we found the lid to the plastic container (that had been cleaned, but had held rice and beans) chewed up. Itty bitty plastic bits were covering the one sofa chair in the room and some of our clothes. A huge, gaping hole stared back at us from the arm rest of said sofa chair. I was so glad we didn't have food. The rat had to be content with plastic, and he didn't manage to destroy anything else.
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| Evidence of the rat. |
We were up before 7 am and on the road again. As we left the town of Urambo, the car started heating up so we turned around. We stopped to eat some "chapati" /fried bread and tea before heading back to the mechanic in the alley. The mechanic was not an early riser, and so we waited for him to show up to his "shop". They continued to work on it. The kids and I explored the local market to try and make time go by quicker. At noon, we left. It still wasn't fixed.
But, the bigger town of Tabora lay only some 70 km away and we prayed that God would allow us to arrive there and find the help we needed.
He answered our prayers, we arrived at Tabora around 3 pm. Our first stop was a much-needed meal. Then we tried to get our fancy smartphones to help us locate a good hotel to stay at. But the network wouldn't cooperate. We asked God to lead us to a comfortable guest house for our family, and a faithful mechanic to work on the car. We started by driving down some main roads in Tabora, scanning for decent hotels. Turning down from the main road we came upon the Moravian church. Realizing it was a big compound, we inquired about a possible guest house. Sure enough, they had the whole works, a guest house, a conference hall and lots more on their compound that spanned to the other side of the road. Thankfully they had room for us, and so we proceeded to unpack the car. The people were surprised that we'd be taking all our luggage, until we explained that our car had to go to a garage for repairs. At this they responded: "We have a mechanic that we use for our vehicles, he's very faithful and good. We'll call him for you." Praise the Lord!
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| The garden at the Moravian guest house. |
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| Luke studying at the quiet guest house. |
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| The kids, having a bit of screen time during our stay. |
The mechanic changed a head gasket on the car engine and had it all back together by 10 pm. He promised to give it a test drive in the morning, and let us know how it was doing. So we went to bed, thankful for the hard work that was done, and praying that it would truly be fixed.
In the morning the car overheated as usual. So the mechanic tackled the radiator, once more. Luke came back to the guest house and had time to prepare for his teaching sessions for the following week. We relaxed, and enjoyed having Esther with us, her last week before starting school in Kenya.
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| We ate at the local market. |
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| Our meals came with a side of okra, this boy loved it! |
Luke sent an email to praying friends in the US. They responded later that afternoon saying that they were praying for us. In the late afternoon, Luke went to see how the mechanic was getting along. They had been working hard all day, and were stumped. They decided to check the actual unit that tells us the car was overheating along with the thermostat. The thermostat was pulled out, and found to be faulty. The car drove without overheating. God answered the prayers of our friends!
Such a small thing! And why couldn't we just have found it days earlier and saved us the headache of all the run-around and delay?
Well, we wouldn't have seen God's hand at work in so many situations: the helpful men at the hardware store that gave us water for the radiator, and their phone numbers, just in case. The women who sold rice in Kaliua who were curious about the mission work in Kigoma and eagerly read the gospel tracks we left them. The bus driver who graciously towed us, even though his customers grumbled. The adventurous spirit of my kids, searching for food and lodging in an unknown town at night and laughing thru the whole ordeal, knowing that God would somehow fix it all, even though we couldn't quite see how. Being blessed by listening to my girls play guitar and sing in the courtyard of the guesthouse. Being reminded of how God can guide and answer prayer.
Or maybe it was just to humble us. Our family had made plans for a vacation, at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro prior to the church meetings. We had planned a 2-day, uneventful car trip to our destination. I (Gina) was proud of myself for having made all the necessary bookings and the preparations for a getaway. Luke has always taken such great care of our car and kept it running well for 13 years. He's good about checking it over before long trips, and we've hardly had mishaps because of it.
But God had other plans.
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| Sunrise on our fourth day of travel. |
We were up by 5 am and on our way again. I kept checking the temperature gauge, being skeptical that it really was as simple as a faulty thermostat. How we thanked God with every kilometer marker we passed, we were really on our way!
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| Breakfast by the side of the highway. |
In less than 12 hrs we were at the north of the country, in the city of Arusha. We decided to call it a day, and find a place to spend the night. Arusha is full of tourists, therefore there are lots of fancy stores and restaurants, unlike our town in western Tanzania. So we did what all tourists do; we went to the American Pizza Hut, a first for our family. After that, we had some gelato too. We were worlds away from our humble town, even though we hadn't bothered showering or washing the car for our city outing. Sorry mom!
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| Enjoying a special night out. |
We slept well and woke up to a frigid Arusha, sitting at 4600 ft above sea level. There was no hurry to get to Moshi quite yet. We didn't want to drop in on our hosts, Steve and Anne Street, too early. So we pretended to be tourists again. Once again, our amazing smartphones were not cooperating, or perhaps it was the poor network. (Or maybe the users just aren't very adept. ha!) We headed in the direction of Moshi, knowing that there were some hot springs that looked like fun to visit. After a certain distance, I knew we'd gone too far and must have missed the turn. Luke had been scanning for signs the whole time, always asking me to remind him of the name of the hot springs (Kikuletwa). I figured, it wasn't THAT renown of a place to have even a sign board; we had to ask the locals. We pulled over and Luke asked a friendly, local butcher. He proved to be very friendly. It took him some 7 minutes to give specific details and on how to locate the right road, and that his brother was also a butcher in that town, and it'd be best to stop and talk to him too. He gave us names of all these important relations and how exactly they were related, and that he'd lived in these parts all his life, and many in his family are also butchers. Luke got back in the car, we turned around and headed back a couple kilometers, laughing at how much extra information he was given.
At the next main turn, we stopped to ask directions again, just to make sure. This time Luke decided to ask a couple of ladies who were selling tomatoes. One eagerly explained to him how to access these hot springs, proudly exclaiming that she was from that village and she'd be happy to show us the way, but only if he'd buy the tomatoes. No reason to return home without selling your produce first. Well, we didn't have need of so many tomatoes, so we declined her offer.
As we turned down a dirt road, we bumped along and followed the road out of town. It became even bumpier as we went along and it looked less and less like a main road. I started to doubt my idea of trying to track these hot springs, something I'd seen on someone's Facebook page some 9 years before. I hadn't quite given all those facts to Luke yet, he thought I really knew about this place, but I didn't. By the looks of it, we were headed to a hot springs, that only the local people knew and we'd find a crowded pool, where old men like to soak their tired bones and women washed clothes while children scampered about.
Then we came to the train tracks. We stopped to ask some motorcyclists directions, and they offered to show us if we'd pay. We declined, and kept going. We crossed the train tracks and were abruptly stopped by an elderly man. He was wearing a burgundy suit, with a matching hat, and a paper flower on the pocket. He proudly held a laminated card that hung from a lanyard and announced in a very loud, and broken English that he was our official guide. He assured us that he would guide us safely to where we wanted to go. He then opened the back door, and unapologetically let himself in, saying he wouldn't mind sitting in the back with the children.
We were quite taken aback, we could hardly respond, not knowing whether to laugh or ask him to please get out of our car. But he didn't look like the type you could argue with. So we followed his lead and went on. How he loved to talk. He told us many facts about the hot springs, and the tribe that he was from. The children just sat dazed by it all, I don't think they could imagine someone being able to talk more than them! As we made our way to these unknown hot springs, I was cautiously optimistic that they would be great; seeing that a man stopped tourists just to show the way in hopes of making a few shillings was a sign of a treasure. Or of a very bored man.
In less than 10 minutes we were crossing a dry river bed and making our way towards an oasis. As we rounded the corner and came to the far side of the oasis, we saw a long line of safari vehicles. There were curios shops, and even restaurants. I noticed the restaurants right away and was relieved, we had pursued this excursion and driven away from civilization without any proper thought to the next meal. God was taking care of our needs.
We thanked our guide, and assured him that we could find our way back, he needn't wait for us. A group of boys came running up, offering us baobab seeds to buy, saying they were a tasty snack. They made you pucker, but were a bit addicting too.
Once we got a look at the water through the thick wall of vegetation, we were amazed. It was crystal clear and an enchanting blue color. The kids didn't waste time getting into their suits and jumping in. We rented a couple tubes, when we heard of the depth (a hole that feeds the spring runs 5 km deep!) and eagerly joined the other swimmers. The water was surprisingly refreshing, not warm. A rope swing hung on a huge tree, and many kids and adults showed off their skills. Some young men kept trying to out-do each other and attempted higher and higher jumps, with flips and dives into the water. We swam upstream toward the source and peered into a black hole that gaped open under us. Little fish nibbled on our feet and legs, and big catfish burrowed into the sand. It was paradise in the middle of a dessert. We spent all afternoon soaking in God's creation, and relaxing in a picturesque pool, enjoying each other's company.
And that is how we ended our 5-day trip across Tanzania, that should have only taken 2 days. We would have missed such a treasure in our hurriedness. God knew best.
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| Emily, getting in. |
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| Crystal clear pool. |
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| Michael likes to come prepared! |
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| Aaron and Esther. |
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| William and Esther. |
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| Emily on the rope swing. |
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| Swimming up stream to the source. |
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| Aaron, ready to get in a second time. |
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| It's time to go. |
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| Good-bye hot springs. |
