Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Heri ya mwako mpya! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year gentle readers (ten points to anyone who gets the reference, well anyone besides Kelly, of course you know it...) New years eve was a HUGE celebration here. There is a big meeting hall on the base and some people had gone around the village earlier in the week and invited everyone to celebrate the new year with us. Somewhere around 200 people turned out! There was music and skits and some preaching, sort of like Christmas but on a MUCH larger scale.

Anyone who has spent any time working in a church youth group has probably run across this certain skit. In Brooklyn it was "the box" (don't touch the box , don't touch the box, someone touches the box, gets stuck to the box, tries to get free and ends up with both hands and feet "stuck" in and on the box and they can't get free until they pray) In Morogoro its called "usigusi" literally "Don't touch" and they did it with african drums playing along and it lasted literally 20 minutes. Even with the unnecessary length it was pretty awesome to watch. I have some video but I haven't figured out how to get it onto my computer yet. I'll try though!

So here's some more photos of New Years Day actually. A group of 15 of us piled into this minivan and went to a church about 40 minutes away. It was really good and I was even able to understand some of the songs in Swahili--none very complicated but still! One of our team preached and then we enjoyed a meal with them. It was a lot of fun. This is Anna, my new friend holding a bottle of Stoney my new favorite soda it's like ginger ale but kind of spicy.... yummm! The girl in yellow is my roommate Elietha. She doesn't speak much english so you should see us trying to communicate. She says something in Swahili, I have no idea what it is but I answer in English as best as I can figure out. we go back and forth and finally realise we have no idea what the other one is saying and crack up laughing. She's a good teacher though, a lot of what I have learned so far has come from her. Oh and one more, here is the road to town, a bit washed out from a good rain that we had but pretty breathtaking.... it's hot but it's beautiful!On a more serious note. I don't know how much coverage this is getting in the west but there is a pretty terrible situation in Kenya, Tanzania's northern neighbour, right now. There has been a dispute about the results of the recent presidential election and two of the tribes are fighting with somewhere between 100 and 300 people killed depending on which tribes account you listen to. You can find an article at NYTIMES.com that tells about the worst tragedy so far where up to 50 people were burned to death inside a church yesterday morning. Please pray that the tribes will accept the results and that peace will come to Kenya.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i will definately keep you and the people affected by the situation in my thoughts and prayers. i heard a bit about it on NPR.
i love you so much. so good to see pictures. it makes the whole thing seem more real. LOVE YOU!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ashley!
Great to hear from you! Looks amazing!
lots of love to you and all your community...
love,
alex and lisa

Anonymous said...

Hey ash, I'm really glad to hear to having a better time now, you are totally in my prayers girl!

Anonymous said...

Hey Ashley,
Happy New Year! It is so great to be able to hear about your adventures. We had a full house on New Year's. Only ones missing were you and Molly.:( Maybe next year... I just read about the events in Kenya. We will keep them in our prayers. From the looks of those bites that malaria medicine is definitely not to be missed. This blog was such a great idea because I not only get to hear from you but I feel like I'm getting to know a little bit about your friends. They love you Ashley and so do I.
Miss you MORE!
Mom

*ks* said...

i'll get my prayer girls on this asap!