Ushirika Wa Neema (community of grace)

After a good breakfast at AMEG Lodge, we made our way into the busy town of Moshi to exchange money and the group enjoyed their first full-on experience with street vendors. "Hapana asante" (no thank you) is an important phrase to learn right away.  

The street sellers in Moshi are a friendly bunch and I always enjoy goofing around with them. I took the inventory of woven bracelets and safari hats from one young salesman and tried to hit up some other wazungu (white people) on his behalf but I was not successful either!

Our first visit today was at the Ushirika Wa Neema Deaconess Centre (Community of Grace). Everyone appreciated learning about the life of the Lutheran Sisters as Rev. Urio shared the history of the center with us. The sisters have carved out a beautiful campus in the middle of a busy village on the edge of Moshi Town. There are lushious gardens, cows, chickens, ducks, rabbits, turkeys, pigs and trees bursting with fresh fruits. The Deaconess Center is a forty-acre Garden of Eden from which life saving ministry emanates throughout the entire region.

The sisters butcher their own cows and make their own communion bread.  They run elite boarding schools and clean toilets.  They have committed their lives to service in the name of Christ. To be in the presence of the sisters is to be humbled.  To know them as friends is to be blessed beyond measure. When you visit there the Sisters promise they will keep you in their prayers after you leave. That alone makes the marathon journey to Tanzania worth all of the effort.

Next, we moved up the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro to the village of Kalali where we visited the Neema Orphanage Center and the Helen McNulty Training Center. Even though school is on summer break, a group of students from the Helen Memorial School traveled all the way back to campus in their school uniforms to be there to greet us with songs of welcome. 

The students were so excited to show us around their school, We all went up to spend time with the children at the orphanage. It was clear how much the students love the orphan children and they know the name of every child, including the babies!

Sister Agnes and the students presented our group with some lovely gifts and as always, I had trouble getting my group back in the van to head back down the mountain. Several tears were flowing as everyone hugged goodbye.

A delightful, though very late, lunch was enjoyed out on the huge deck at Kaliwa Lodge which hangs over a lush river gorge in the shadow of the mountain.  Someone said the only thing missing is a brontosaurus or two wading in the river way below. 

The mountain remains shy and has yet to make an appearance but no one is feeling cheated by this mystical place!

Our evening concluded with a late dinner at my favorite restaurant in the world, El   Rancho. The place with a Mexican name that serves Indian and Italian food back in the woods. Everyone agrees that if we had to leave for home first thing in the morning, the trip would have been worth it. 

We have been here for one day.