Choose your own adventure!

Hey there friends! What adventures we’ve had since our last post…I know I say this often, but life here really is an adventure. My tag line for most things I do has been “choose your own adventure.” You know…the books you read as a kid where you had to decide what happens next then turn to page 34 or 76. Such good times. Any who, I use this philosophy with cooking, visiting, traveling, etc… It works out well since most things don’t quite go as planned. In the wise words of my dear friend C.S. Lewis- make plans and hold on to them loosely.

So…the story begins last Tuesday at our team day when we found out Emily’s resident permit would finally be ready on Friday! Hooray! We couldn’t let Emily go to Dar all by her lonesome, so one of our team members-we will call her M- and I took the liberty of escorting Em to Dar on Thursday so we could head straight to the government offices on Friday morning. So…Thursday morning comes and Em and I are ready and waiting for the first bus at 6:10…we are a little antsy because we have to make a bus out of Tanga at 8am. Our village bus does not arrive until 6:45. We are laughing at this point and making slight adjustments to our plan if need be. We are put putting along when M calls and asks where we are. She’s in town and ready to go at the bus stand. This particular bus line leaves on time (the only one in East Africa), so we are trying to get to town on time and M is stalling at the bus stand. Suddenly it starts to rain and we are thinking…hmmm, maybe this rain will help stall the bus too. Needless to say all of our stalling was wearing on the workers’ patience and they decided to leave with M on the bus. We told her we’d jump in a taxi and chase down the bus…which is exactly what we did. It was like a scene from a movie…and though we were eager to catch the bus we didn’t want to die in a car crash either. Our trusty taxi driver got us behind the bus and they pulled over on the side of the road and we hopped on, wet and exhausted already from the first leg of our adventure. Good times.

Thankfully, we made it to Dar and even got to see a movie and do some Christmas shopping at a mall on Thursday…a real treat! Friday we went to the office eager to get the stamp in Em’s passport, but sadly we were told to come back on Tuesday…Tuesday?? This was only Friday. What were we going to do in Dar for 4 days? Hmm…when meandering around downtown Em had the genius idea to ferry over to Zanzibar for a mini holiday. Why else would her permit get postponed other than to provide a little island excursion? We thought about this for a while and weighed the pros and cons of going back to Tanga, staying in Dar, or going to an exotic island for a few days. The island won, and on Saturday morning we were off to Zanzibar. The funny thing about our trip was that the entire island was out of power and running on generators. We stayed at the beach and even though our power was rationed, it was an amazing time of rest and renewal. Em and I went on a spice tour and it was amazing! It was also a good time to practice language and meet new people. All in all, it was a perfect little girl’s getaway!

We returned to Dar on Monday and on Tuesday morning Emily got her resident permit! Praise Jesus! We found out some info on her work permit and she has to return to Dar next week for that, but we are hopeful it will all be taken care of and completed so she can continue her work with no anxiety or stress. We are very thankful that things have worked out as they have, as you have to be very patient with these processes. We are learning to be grateful in all circumstances and to make the most of each day. We are now back in Tanga and will return to the village today. Even though it has only been 6 days, we feel like we’ve been gone forever. It will be good to get back and reconnect with our friends and neighbors. We are excited to share our joys of the Christmas holiday season with them. Pray we take advantage of every opportunity to share the real meaning of Christmas! We will celebrate with our church on Christmas day then on the 27th head into town for our team Christmas. Though it is difficult being far away from home during the holidays, we know we are right where God wants us, and there is great comfort in that! Thanks for your continued support and prayers! Keep them coming! We pray you have a blessed Christmas!

Love,Sarah (& Em too)!