Getting Stuck [Mwanza part IV]

On this side it looks fine.

But there was this huge ditch on the other side we didn't see coming up the hill.

We eventually dug under the vehicle, put the jack down below, lifted it up, filled in under the tire with stones, and backed up.

On the road back to Nairobi, we suddenly found ourselves stopped behind a whole line of cars. This is why.


We all tried to avoid getting splashed from the truck, but I got really muddy anyway.

The bus did make it through, but I was quite afraid it wouldn't, and would just fall over!
We finally escaped by driving out on the open field around the water.

Ha. Success. I've tried to do this post about 5 times over the past 10 days, and now it finally worked. Our faster internet finally came through, and it does make a difference. Ok, now the vacation is over. Now time to get back to school updates!

Mwanza [part III]

A ferry on Lake Victoria.
We went to visit an orphanage in the making. It was in quite a remote area, and had really good views of the lake.
We played volleyball on the beach.
Another really nice house right on the lake.

Mwanza [part II]

Mwanza has really been built up over the last few years.


Some of the houses we walked by were really interesting.
I must say that I was blown away by how nice some of the missionary houses were. It helps that it costs about 1/10th of what it does in the States...
I found my accommodations acceptable.

Mwanza [part I]

At the rate I'm going, I'm not going to finish blogging about this last break before we get to the next break, so I need to step it up.
Therefore, this post is about Mwanza, where I spent the majority of my trip. Dr. Rasmussen, my professor for contextualization first term, asked if I would be interested in going to visit Mwanza, Tanzania, with them. He had been a missionary there for about 13 years, teaching at the Lake Victoria Bible College, before he moved up to Nairobi to teach at NEGST. After staying one night in Nakuru, I took the overnight bus to Mwanza, itself quite an experience. We left Nakuru at 1 am, got to the border around 7 am, and got to Mwanza around 2 pm. At one point, we were stopped for a long time, about 30 minutes I think. I didn’t know why were stopped, but the engine was just running and nothing was happening. After a while, people started to get upset, and they all streamed out of the bus, and one guy was like, come on, we’re going to go protest. I was like what!, but I went to see what was happening. They went out and started yelling at a police officer, and then the driver was in the little station on the side of the road filling out paperwork, and then a few minutes later he finished and then we went on our way.
A village I saw out of my window. This is something I haven't seen much around Nairobi.
Another bus whose voyage appeared to be rather less fortunate than ours.We got a good view. It's a very hilly city.
It reminded me of being out at Warm Beach Camp, north of Seattle, looking over the Puget Sound.

Transcending Epistemology: Towards a Postmodern Theology

This is curtesty of my friend Søren Dalsgaard, from Denmark. I came across a paper he posted, and it is quite good. Enjoy!

http://scdalsgaard.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/postmodern-christian-theology/#comment-1292

Warning: it is a bit technical.

Staying in Nakuru

After camping in Naivasha, a group of us stayed at another student's place outside Nakuru. It was quite a nice place

Slaughtering and Roasting a Sheep, part I

Esayas slaughtered it and skinned it the Ethiopian traditional way, and explained the significance of all the various parts. Parts of the fat, like on the rump, are really good and used for special purposes. Sleep are slaughtered for special occasions, like a wedding or the story of the prodigal son.
It took hours to get it all ready and then to roast it, but it was quite good. We ate just about everything, except the lungs and the head. Some people even eat the head, they prepare it in some special way. They said the tongue was good, but we didn’t bother to cook it. I don’t know exactly what I ate, but I’m pretty sure I ate part of the heart, kidneys, intestine, and some of its four stomachs.
Edwin (pictured above) made a stew out the intestines, and it was really good, much softer than the rest of it, which can be kind of hard to chew.
Overall,it was quite an experience, and I thought a lot about all the biblical images concerning sheep, like Jesus being killing as a sheep, and how we are like sheep going astray. We had devotions Sunday morning, which was Palm Sunday, and Dennis pointed out how the sheep was brought into our camp with great triumph, and we were all excited, taking pictures with it, and then led it away and killed it. Just like how Jesus entered Jerusalem and then was killed a week later.