A Land Cruiser from Down Under!

We now have a Project Vehicle! How thankful are we?

We are SO thankful! We have a Hard-top Land Cruiser! A rugged, durable vehicle, especially built for off-road driving! This has been something we have been looking to get since we arrived in Mwanza, and our prayers have been answered! Thanks to the very generous provision of funding from Emmanuel International Australia, we have been able to buy this well-cared for Land Cruiser in very good condition from a German couple leaving Mwanza last month. We want to say a huge thank you to the awesome Aussies who have made this possible! Thank you, Allison Chapple for all you did to make it happen!

Three Cheers for a Land Cruiser...!

This will make such a huge difference to the work we are able to do here. We want to be working with people in rural areas ... but it has been difficult making sure we had a vehicle in town for school pick-up which ranges from 2:15-4:30pm on different days. This has limited the distance Tim has been able to travel for projects and the time he has had in the village. And he won't miss waiting for daladalas and bouncing on pikipikis for getting from A to B! Also, especially with rainy season starting now, which makes the roads to villages so terrible, we really needed a tougher vehicle with higher clearance, able to take the beatings on the roads! So, yes! We are SO thankful!

We picked the vehicle up on Sunday morning and already we have put it to the test! Watch the clip below to see our drive to school yesterday... eeks!
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Driving to School from Rachel Monger on Vimeo.

On Monday morning, we had one of the most torrential rainstorms we have seen here. It was loud and powerful and the amount of water was unbelievable! It was gushing in torrents like a mighty river down our road and through our property. We managed to get out to drive the girls to school, but even the main roads were terrible, completely flooded with overflowing deep ditches with small wooden bridges floating down the middle of the road. Yet, daladalas, small cars and motorbikes persisted in trying to navigate the chaos. We didn't realise at the time, but where we drove through, there were four deaths that we know of, where motorbike riders and passengers were washed away in the torrents. There were more deaths across the city and many homes were damaged or lost. It is tragically sad, and puts our leaky ceiling and flooding basement into proper perspective. But locking into 4-wheel drive, our Land Cruiser took us safely along the eroded roads, through the torrents, pot holes and mud.

It is hard to effectively communicate how much having a good vehicle means here. It means a lot. In many ways. And we are so very grateful.

Thank you EI Australia Team!

  

Woman Reversing but Mamas Moving Forward



The road was getting increasingly worse. I was getting increasingly nervous. The road was getting narrower, bumpier, full of holes and boulders and then it was getting steeper. It was Tuesday last week and less than an hour earlier, I had picked up our good friend, Ester and we were looking for Mama Penina who was supposed to be near the Anglican church. But after waiting for 20 minutes and failed attempts at phoning her, there was still no sign of her. Ester hopped out of the vehicle to ask around in the small duka (shops) if anyone knew Mama Penina and where she lived. A man did. He hopped in the back to direct us. This is when things started getting interesting! He kept assuring me that yes, it was a road and Penina's house was "very close." I doubted both. When we rounded a tight corner with a steep bank up on one side and an eroded drop-off on the other, to see a hill of boulders going up in front of us, I stopped the car. "We will walk from here." Our guide had certainly never driven a car and seemed to think a Land Cruiser could climb anything his feet could. I just left the vehicle, forcing out all thought of how I was going to reverse out of the mess we were in later on!

Things went increasingly better then. Ester and I thanked our guide and  continued up the steep rocks on foot, passed through a narrow alley between some houses built into the rock, crossed gingerly over a makeshift "bridge" of two logs and arrived at Mama Penina's house. She warmly welcomed us in and we met two of her lovely daughters. The youngest, Maria, the lively and hilariously funny six-year old pictured below, has albinism, and this is the reason Ester and I were visiting. 


Maria with Mama Penina

Maria poses for the camera!

Penina is a lovely Christian lady, a local primary school teacher and a mother of a child with albinism. She knows all too well the pain that such a mama carries. The pain of seeing your own child rejected by family and local villagers. Attacked and in some cases, killed. The pain of being considered a curse and a "problem" simply for giving birth to such a child. The pain of rejection and abuse by husband, family and village. The pain of seeing your husband killed as he tries to defend your child. The pain of being unable to provide enough to survive. The pain of the fear of being hunted down and found. Penina and five other mamas who in different ways bear this pain started meeting together, trying to support themselves and each other. But it was difficult and Ester, who knows these women through the work she has done with Under the Same Sun, to help their children by placing them in safety with grants for an education, asked if I could help. I know I can't help, but I do know Someone who can!

So Ester, Penina and I talked about meeting together, all the mamas and I. Every other Saturday. Reading the Bible together; finding the One who knows, understands and cares. And doing a project together; making something beautiful together, and hopefully eventually making a profit!

At the end of our planning and praying (encouraged and excited), Ester and I made our way back down to the Land Cruiser. Then it all came flooding back ... we somehow had to get out of here! I walked beyond the vehicle to check the holes and bends and in particular the drop by the eroded side of the road. A crowd gathered and with many adults and children watching or attempting to guide me, I managed to reverse back the way we had come. I scraped through the bush at one point in my nervous attempt to avoid falling over the edge where the road was eroded. All pretty sweaty stuff! But then, with what must have been 20-point turn in 4-wheel drive, I got us turned back around and we were on our way!

Now it's getting late, so more on the Mamas group (we all met together for the first time on Saturday) will have to wait for another post!

One of the mamas in the group is Jane ... you may remember her story told a few months ago here.
http://themongers.blogspot.com/2014/08/mamas-pain-and-tree-planted.html