The Journey of team #152

Journal by: Eric Noyes

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them? ~Buddha

Global Volunteers begins a new team service project with us who came together last night and this morning: Mimi and I from Detroit Michigan USA, Eitan from Toronto Ontario Canada, Ryan from Phoenix Arizona USA, and Carlos and Eugenio (“G” for short!) from Mexico City Mexico. True to a global service organization, we are very much an international team! Like all great efforts, ours started with Carlos’ and Eugenio’s luggage not traveling with them from Nairobi and not arriving until the next night, and Ryan being delayed by flight problems getting to Dar es Salaam. We all came together by breakfast and Edward, our Country Team Leader, started us off to get to know each other together with the mission and vision of the Global Volunteers.. By 9:00 AM we were loaded up and Mohamed began moving us out of Dar es Salaam on the long drive to Iringa. We chatted quite a bit as we began to learn more about each other and the upcoming opportunities to assist the community of Pommern during our stay. We ate an excellent buffet lunch at Chalinze, “checked the tires” near Morogoro, and transited Mikumi National Park. Driving through we saw impalas, baboons, a giraffe and one elephant. Park staff was in the process of burning off underbrush near the highway. This being the dry season, most of the grass was brown rather than green so it burned well.

We arrived in Iringa near 6:30 PM tired and a little dusty from the road, but happy to see the Iringa Mlandege Lutheran Center, our home for tonight. After unloading our bags we went to dinner at an excellent Indian restaurant and met Naiman Chavalla, the Iringa Diocese General Secretary. He warmly welcomed us to the Diocese and to Pommern and discussed some of the work we will do to assist the Pommern community during our stay. There is an ongoing project to improve the Secondary School dining hall and also the water project that is vastly improving water delivery to the community, school and dispensary, and adding much needed water storage. This water project has been the community’s number one priority and they are very excited to see it develop. We enjoyed meeting and talking with him as he shared many facts about the Diocese and the Pommern community and answered our questions. We will meet him again later in our service project. We returned to the Lutheran Center tired from the road, well fed, and looking forward to tomorrow to shop for provisions and to finally reach Pommern!