Today (Sunday) was our second village visit of our trip! We were headed to the village called Sanga Sanga for the day. Before we left, we were told that the roads would not be the best, but we didn’t know exactly what we were getting ourselves into. About ¼ mile into the mud road, we hit a puddle and got stuck. Everyone got out of the bus in order for it to have less weight. Once we were freed, some helpful individuals on the road advised us to take a different path. This route consisted of 1.5 hours of narrow dirt roads that were uneven and sometimes covered with water. Some of us questioned if what we were driving on was in fact an actual road. It seemed to resemble more of a path made by cattle. The road was very narrow and trees constantly scraped against the windows of the bus. We were amazed that our driver was able to navigate us through it all. Finally, we reached the village and were greeted by the people. They were eager to show us their well which was a nice hike into the woods. That is where all the people need to go to get clean water. It makes us appreciate the clean water we have readily available back home!

Next, the church service started and the “Wartburg Choir” performed all of the songs we had prepared! The crowd loved us, and a few of the churchgoers even videotaped us on their phones. It’s funny to see that the people at these villages take pictures of us just like we take pictures of them! After the service, we gathered in the center of the village. The Barabie tribe first performed a ritual dance for us in order to welcome us to their village. This dance consisted of an extreme amount of jumping and chanting. Apparently, the males aim to jump the highest in order to impress the single women! The Masaai men then performed their ritual dance for the group. This also consisted of chanting and movements around a circle. Dani was offered 24 cows for her hand in marriage. She is currently weighing her options.

We were served a meal of rice and goat meat before hitting the road to get back to the seminary. We wanted to be sure that we were not traveling at night, seeing how difficult the roads were to navigate. Finally, we arrived “home” to the seminary and are preparing for our trip to Mikumi National Park tomorrow. We hope to continue to update the blog while we are there. Thanks for reading!

Laura and Maddie