Nyarero: David & Indy in banana country
I hope the delay in posting has not been too long! We did not have internet on our trip through Nyarero, Mogabili, and Shirati. Goshen College also experienced some server problems on Sunday. However, now we are back online!
Last week, after getting our car fully fixed in Musoma, we left for another week long safari to visit students in Mogabiri, Nyarero, and Shirati. In order to visit Nyarero, we first stopped at Mobabiri, where Alain and Matt are serving. This served as our base for two nights, in order to visit those in Nyarero and Mogabiri, two towns on the escarpment with stunning views over the Rift Valley.
David Horst and Indy Miller are both serving in Nyarero, and we left Mogabiri early on Wednesday morning to spend the day with them. That morning we received a tremendous thunder storm that brought torrents of rain and this made the short 30 minute journey from Mogabiri to Nyarero an adventure! Matt and Alain decided to join us for the day visit to Nyarero, and we were glad they did (for many reasons) but most importantly so they could help push us out of the ditch!! The Land Crusier slid off the road and landed in a deep washout next to the slippery, muddy road. This was no trouble for the “community” of 11 willing pushers who showed up in a flash, with hoes in hand to help dig us out. About 30 minutes later we were off and rolling again.
Indy is serving at the Nyerere DDH Clinic in Nyarero, where she has been helping the other nurses in a variety of tasks. One of the major components of her job is to help provide prenatal care to mothers who come to the clinic, in addition to administering vaccinations to the infants once they are delivered. She has even helped in the delivery of a baby! The clinic also provides important services including diagnosing and treating malaria, dysentery, and pneumonia. The clinic gets by with very little resources and Indy has been doing an incredible job both learning from and helping the 3 nurses who run the clinic (there is not a doctor). Indy’s house is a short walk down mainstreet from the clinic and she has greatly enjoyed living with Mama Elizabeth and her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter.
On the hilltop that overlooks the main road in Nyarero, David lives with the local pastor of the Mennonite Church, Pastor Simion Zabion, and his family. Pastor Simion works a 15 hectare field owned by the Mennonite Church, and David spends most days in the fields helping with the farming. David has learned to use oxen to prepare the field for planting, has helped plant beans and corn, and assisted Simion in building three new beehives to add to the 25 already erected. David is learning the daily routines of life on the farm and is working hard! We enjoyed a meal with Simion’s family before walking back down to “main-street.”
Nyarero is a town on the escarpment with bananas, coffee, and cool nights! A lovely place, very rural, and now fully imbedded in the minds and life stories of Indy and David. It was evident that they also left a bit of themselves in the town and will be long remembered.
