Sunday morning at about 8:00 Dahlia and I left the hotel and
took a city bus to the central bus station where we met Kita. He helped us find the right bus to take to
get to Mpemba, a town about 100km outside of Mbeya. That is where the truck that goes to Lupembe
(about a 30 minute walk from our house) leaves from. While on the bus we met a man named Kibona
who is a teacher at Ileje Day, which is where Sarah, another World Teach teacher
is working. When we arrived in Mpemba
Kibona helped us call our truck driver to find out what time he was planning on
leaving. The driver had originally told
us 11 but he told Kibona that he was running late and would be at Mpemba around
1. So Dahlia and I found a place to sit
and get a soda; it was 11:00. Two and a
half hours went by and there was still no sign of the truck so we were starting
to get a little nervous. Dahlia tried to
call our driver and I got talking to some men who were witting at the soda
shop. It turned out that they are pastors
from Mpemba. Just then I got a text from
a friend who told us that the truck that we were waiting for was broken down in
Tunduma (an hour away from Mpemba) and would not make it to Mpemba until about
6pm. Dahlia and I quickly formulated a
new plan. We would take a bus to
Isongole, where Sarah and David live, which is about half way from Mpemba to
Kafule, and then spend the night there. The
pastors helped us find the right bus (a very crowded bus… keep that in mind)
and we got on. A few minutes later we
got a call from Kita who said that he just heard about our truck but that he
knows another driver (going to a town about an hour away from Kafule on foot)
who agreed to wait for us in Isongole! That’s
right, a bus of about 50 people was waiting for the two of us, just because
Kita asked him to!
On the way to Isongole our bus broke down… three times. Each time we got it started again, Little
Miss Sunshine style, with people pushing from behind and jumping in one by one
when the bus started. Despite the fact
that I kept thinking that we had reached the busses maximum capacity we kept
stopping to let on more people. Eventually
we reached the pointing where we actually could not fit anyone else (already
the people seated by the windows had to lean out) but we took on one more
person. The conductor (the man who
collects the money), unable to fit back on the bus, waited for the bus to start
and then began running next to the bus. He
leaped onto the side while we were going and climbed up to the roof where he
rode for the next few stops until someone finally got out.
We reached Isongole and found not only that the bus Kita had
called was there waiting for us but that Asha, Stela, and Grace, three of the
teachers from our school, were on the bus and had saved us seats. On the way to Ndembo we had to get up some
pretty steep hills. The bus could not
make it with all of the people on so each time we got out and walked. At about 8:00 pm we made it to Ndembo where
we planned to hire motorcycles to take us home.
But when we got off the bus we saw the hospital car from Isoko and the
driver offered to take us home for free! Four busses, a car, and a little over
12 hours later, Dahlia and I reached our house, tired and hungry, but amazed at
God’s protection throughout the day. Between
meeting Kibona on the first bus, the meeting the pastors in Mpemba, having the
bus wait in Isongole, the teachers being there and saving us seats, getting to
stretch our legs when we walked up the hills, and the hospital car being in
Ndembo it would be near impossible to doubt that there is Someone watching over
me. I continue to feel blessed in so
many ways!
