What does it mean to live "life" on our mission station in western Tanzania?
It means taking weekly trips to town for supplies. This trip is about 45 minutes on a dry day. It takes a minimum of 5 hours, usually more like 7-8 hours. It means shopping in several small shops and the open air market in order to complete my list. It means standing in line at the bank and carrying bags of fruits and veggies to the car. It means coordinating with local villagers who have asked for a ride. Where to pick them up and what time we will leave. It means making sure I have packed the appropriate bags and crates and containers to purchase what is on the list. It often means impromptu meetings with various who I come across.
This past month has had us canning spaghetti sauce, raising and giving away a litter of kittens, catching rain water, visiting with co-workers, printing Bible study booklets, training my new dog, and routine maintenance in the house and guest house.
Then there are the emergency trips to town. Last Tuesday they knocked at my door around 6 pm with a letter from our local health clinic. They needed help transporting a woman in labor to the regional hospital in Sumbawanga. They had exhausted their ability here in the village and the baby still hadn't been born. This time the young mother-to-be had been in labor for more than 24 hours. I got ready and drove across the river to the clinic, greeted the nurses, and helped them set up the back of my pickup with a mattress from the clinic. They were filling in the files that they would give to the bigger hospital explaining all that they had done. Meanwhile a couple nurses were preparing for a trip to town and the family was deciding which aunts/mother-in-laws/sister-in-laws would follow along. We made it to town almost 2 hours after the initial knock on my door. Thankfully the baby didn't come during the trip! We dropped her off and the relatives. The nurses made sure every thing was handed over and then we headed home. We made it home by 9 pm.
Most of the time I have no idea what becomes of the mother and child. This time I was fortunate to find out that she was able to deliver naturally not long after we dropped her off. Mom and son are both fine and have since returned home to the village.
The past couple months have been full of funerals. It seems that for a while there was at least 1 funeral each week if not 2. I live near three villages and between these villages many are related. That means when a funeral happens many attend during the three day process. It means much work in their fields is not getting done this year. Most of the funerals ahve been from elderly people or those who have been sick for a while with cancer or AIDS. There have been a couple unexpected funerals like 2 kids drowning in a pool of water and a mother dying in child-birth. Even church attendance has been sporadic because of all the funerals around.
So that is glimpse of life here in Mumba.
The 4th of every month we have a travelling market that comes to our village. People from several surrounding areas come for the day to buy supplies which include used clothes, farm utensils, fresh produce and meat, and other every day items.
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