Doxa in Tanzania: No-Hurry Africa

Friday, September 1. Arusha, Tanzania.

Ever since I came back to Nairobi, I've been having some gas problem. Not
that I passed gas so frequently, but when I did, it gave out some
exceptionally deadly odor. I've known myself for 22 years, and I know what
my fart should smell like. But for the past few days it was different. Then
this morning, after I had breakfast, I had a semi-loose stool, and felt
really weak. I felt really dizzy as I sat on the john, but a little better
when I finished relieving myself. I took some vitamins, Immodium, and some
herbal medicine that I got from an acupuncturist back home, then I rested
for half an hour. I felt a lot better after that, and now I think I'm all
better. I have no idea what caused it though... Well, maybe it's because of
the over-a-month old garlic that I've been using in almost every meal. I
left some garlic in my apartment before I left for Masai Land. By now they
should be at least 6 weeks old. I should stop using those from now on and
see what happens. Now my gas smells quite normal.

A group of us from BCEA left for Tanzania today. I rode in Dr. Gary
Johnson's car. He is a lab technician at Clinic of Care in some rural area
east of Nairobi. Dr. Johnson was invited to attend the pastors conference we
had this week at BCEA. He's been working in Kenya for 27 years already, and
he is such a jovial old man. Dr. Howard Carlson and his wife were also in
our car. Dr. Carlson is also very old and playful like Dr. Johnson. Dr.
Carlson teaches at BCEA sometimes, but his main work is at Faith College in
Nairobi. I'm not sure exactly what his role is at the college, but his wife
was working on making the schedule for Faith College, so I assume he is also
in some kind of administrative position. It was quite interesting to see the
two men with white hair teasing each other and making jokes with one
another. I hope I can be as cheerful and energetic as these men when I'm at
their age. Dr. Johnson told me I'm welcome to visit his clinic sometime
during my stay in Kenya. I hope I'll get the opportunity to do that. I
really look up to them because I want to be like them, serving the Lord far
away from home at their age.

Some of us including myself are staying at the same hotel I stayed last time
I was here. It's called Hotel 77 (or Hotel Saba-saba, saba = seven in
Kiswahili). For dinner, we went to the hotel cafeteria, which probably was a
big mistake. We sat at our tables around 6:50pm, and soon after that ordered
our drinks and food. The sodas came after about 10 minutes, but by the time
the server brought the chai that Christine and I ordered, it was already
7:50pm. The food didn't come till half an hour after that. The food wasn't
quite enough, so we ordered a few more chapati, which came well after we
finished all our food on the table. So you can imagine how slow things work
here. While we waited we joked about how only after we order they start
cutting firewood, make charcoal, catch a chicken, slaughter it, harvest
vegetables and tea leaves from the farm, etc. So this is Africa.

A couple days ago, Tanzania started a nation-wide power rationing. One of
their power plants are undergoing rehabilitation or something like that, so
the whole country gets power from the lines only from 7pm to 7am everyday.
When we arrived, they were powering the lights with solar panels, but the
water heater was not working. Now it's already 12:30am, but water heater is
still not working... I guess they just turned it off or something. Oh well,
I'm used to cold showers anyway (I've been taking cold bucket showers for 5
weeks in Masai Land).

Hotel 77 is one of the biggest hotels in Arusha, and still the service is
quite terrible. We asked for an extra towel from the front desk when we
finished dinner (about 9:30pm, 2.5 hours after we sat at the table), and the
towel came past 11pm. So I guess this is what we call No-Hurry Africa.