Byron and Lisa

June 11:  Chai, Chapates and Camping

Mostly rock, little road

We just returned today from a time of fellowship, excitement and rest. It started with packing the trailer and hooking it up to the Land Rover. Prosper, a Tanzanian believer who works with Bordens, did much of the packing and came along to be our cook. We then headed out on a three+ hour trip to Maasai Land, north of Arusha.  The paved road lasted for a bit over an hour and then the real adventure began. For a while the dirt road was  fairly nice, having been recently graded for the first time by the government. Then the rocky, rutted road became the norm. We stopped for lunch a ways off the "road" after traveling literally cross country. Then we hit the road again.  A bit later it got worse.  We joked that this form of travel would replace our need for a chiropractor since everything was moving!

Our arrival at the campsite was a pleasant surprise. Although a bit rustic, this was a beautiful, peaceful place located on a large, dried up riverbed surrounded by lush greenery. Setting up camp meant three tents, aluminum tables, a hand washing station, two fires, a portable shower and a portable pit toilet. Soon we drove down river to meet Peter and his family.  Peter is a Maasai pastor who has been a friend of the Bordens for many years.  He and Byron had plans to discuss and we all got to see the progress on Peter's new house.We had a wonderful supper that night, and then sat by the large fire and talked missions, followed by a good time of prayer.

The next morning following breakfast we travelled on that rocky road again to a Maasai village an hour away. There we drank chai and ate chapates at a local cafe while we waited for James, a longtime friend of the B's and a district commissioner who is working on a deep bore well project in that area with Byron.  From there we bounced over to check out a well pump that had sunk into the ground during a very heavy rain in the spring. Byron had hoped to retrieve it until we found that it had been literally swallowed up by the earth.

Dik Dik seen our our night safari.

                                                                          That night after a wonderful supper cooked by Prosper, we got into the Land Rover with our headlamps on our foreheads and our cook on the roof with a powerful spotlight and began a nighttime safari to see if we could spot some wildlife along the dry, sandy riverbank. After seeing many bush babies in the trees and several dik diks (the worlds smallest antelopes) we were thrilled to come upon 4 large giraffes.  We chased them for half a mile at speeds over 25 mph before we gave up trying to get a picture in the dark.

This morning we packed up and returned to Arusha, rested and full of exciting memories of the greatest camping adventure of our lives.

Maasai women carrying firewood