Long week

It's been a long week filled with visits galore. Sunday we went to a Swahili village up in the mountains. Monday we had our standard Swahili lessons. Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Maasai villages as well...pretty standard if I remember correctly. Things all start to run into each other when we don't really have anytime for a breather. So I apologize for the lack of details. My brain is in overload right now with everything that has happened this week.

After our village visit on Tuesday, Tim, Steve and I headed to the Hindu temple with some Indian friends of ours to celebrate Diwali. To quote Wikipedia, because I am not as eloquent of a writer...and I'm lazy...In Hinduism, Diwali is the homecoming of Lord Ram of Ayodhya, after a 14-year exile in the forest and his victory over the evil demon-king Ravan. In the legend, the people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Ram by lighting rows of lamps. It is the festival of lights. It is the biggest celebration of the year for Hindus, just like Christmas is in the US. Diwali is very family oriented so when we saw people there, they were with their families. We went into the temple and got to see the statues of different gods and things. It was quite the experience. One of the big parts of the celebration, now in modern day time, is fireworks. I have never seen so many firecracker, m-80s, bottle rockets, roman candles, mortars and spark volcanos in my life. The air was filled with the sweet smell of incense and gun powder. It was incredible, and hardly anyone got hurt...unlike at home. The smell of the incense reminded me of home a little bit, because I burn the same type that they do...Ah sweet nostalgia.

We found out this week that a Maasai man was shot to death after a confrontation with men that were burning his land. The burning of land around here is very common. People burn the land to create parameters and areas where they don't want the Maasai to take their cattle. Unfortunately, most of the time the places that are burned actually belong to the Maasai people. So when this Maasai man tried to stop these men from burning his land he was gunned down. In retaliation to the man being murdered, Maasai warriors from that particular village slaughtered five men that were involved in the shooting. The local police and government has become involved with the investigation, which is bad for the Maasai men, since the police force is corrupt around here. Many Maasai men have and will be beaten by the police. Another turn in the story is that they village that killed the 5 men had 400 cattle stolen from them by what authorities are saying are accomplices of gunman. The reason I tell you these things is because we are heading to the village next Friday. This should be a very intense visit, I am curious to see how it pans out.

Yesterday, Tim and I trekked with several pastors, Luka, and PH to go pickup a prophet. A real, honest to goodness prophet. This man sees visions of Jesus and has prophesied with great accuracy. He is a very respected man in Tanzania. After picking up the prophet, we drove to a Maasai village where he had said that if the leader of the village didn't quit dealing in black magic and stop drinking heavily, he would die before the long rains came. Needless to say he died. When he spoke yesterday he sounded like something straight out of the Old Testament. He never made any big announcements, but made logical prophecies about the future of the village and things. He spoke again about not dealing in black magic and that they needed one another to grow and love God. He asked for nothing from the village and took nothing.

I don't really know how I feel about prophets and the idea of black magic. I am conflicted about all of it. You talk to most Tanzanians or those who work for the church and they will tell you that when people are possessed by demon they are truly possessed by a demon. I don't know if I believe this or not. It is really hard for me to believe it, because I was not brought up to believe in such things. I don't know if I really believe in evil in general. I think that there is a lack of good and I think that many things that happen actually come from experience (which I could explain the experience thing to you if you want to know), but to say that someone is evil or that there is evil in the world...I am not sure. It is definitely something that I have been debating for a long time and have had several conversations at length with people about. What is evil? What makes something evil? Do I believe in a devil, an entity that makes us do things against our will...no I don't, and I won't until I can be convinced otherwise. Perhaps it is just one concept that I can't wrap my mind around...

I am going to go think about it some more.

I'll try to write again sooner than I did last time.

Peace,
PHW