A long, bumpy road I will never forget...

Yesterday, I went with Grace, my friend from the story below, to take pictures of her daughter, Nancy's, school. Well, the journey begin bright and early that morning!!!
I met Grace and her son, Ben, at 8am at the USA River Market stop and we jumped on a big bus to head out to Moshi. As I was riding with Grace we were talking about her childern, life, God, what foods we like, etc. It was so nice! I enjoyed every minute of the ride!
We came to Moshi about and hour later to pile onto another bus to Rumboo village, where the school was. Ok, to say it was a LONG, BUMPY road would not even give it justice. The bus was packed with people standing up in the aisle and we were the last row that had 5 people jammed together. We were quite cuzy back there! I was flying off my seat most of the time, my knees kept digging into the metal part of the seat infront of me, and the dust was ALL over the place(think of how thick fog can be where you can't see a thing infront of you, multiply that by 100 and change the color to red and thats what we drove through) In fact, my gum started to taste like dirt, and yet, I was having a great time, thinking to myself "now, this is an adventure!!!" Sweet Grace gave me a conga(a piece of material all the women wear here as skirts) to cover my hair and face! She also kept saying "Polle DaDa", which means "sorry sister"...but, I was like "no problem, this is so great!!"
As we kept driving, the bus was flying!! I mean, I was praying the whole time as I was looking out the window at the edge of the ditch of dirt beside us. I was also looking at the faces of the people we were passing, the clouds, the blue sky, and the mango and banana trees. I saw two very small childern carrying a large bucket of water together, another one carrying their sister on their back, a goat that had its two front legs up on a tree standing up eating, which was so hysterical, and I saw many, many people covered in dust that it almost looked like their skin was a reddish/gray color.
Two hours later, we got to a market of Rumboo village, where we were dropped off and told to get a taxi to the school...sooooo, that is what we did, but it was not your typical taxi, it was a large truck with bars up above to hold onto. It was awesome! I climbed in, held onto the bars above me, along with like 30 people all crammed in, and tried desperately to keep my balance while standing up. I didn't fall, which was such good news because the ride to the school was bumpy and crowded, but so FUN!! I liked that ride the best!
We got to the school and I was FILTHY! I looked down at my clothes that had changed colors from the dust, my feet were dark brown, the creases of my arms, by my elbow, were lined with dark, sweaty dust that had compacted there, and sweet Grace had to take her hands and clean my face off because it was sooooooooooo dirty!!!! Again, I was laughing at all of this and thinking that it already was an adventure I would never forget!
The school was so nice! I was greeted with many "Welcomes" and "How are you?" It was lovely with large brick buildings and wild flowers all along the paths of the school. It was graduation day for the 4th year students and it was a BIG celebration!
I walked down the path with Grace and Ben to 5 large tents packed with family, friends, and all the students at the school. I was the ONLY white person there, among hundreds, and I don't think I've ever felt so many eyes on me as I did walking through that crowd in my life!!!!! We were late, so we had to walk through everyone to get to our seats!! I might have stood out just a bit!!! I did get lots of smiles, so that was nice! I just followed Grace and took lots of pictures. We were at this celebration for 4 hours and then we ate lunch. I was SO hungry! A nun, who are the teachers at the school, came to give me a plate of food, which was so nice. I thought the nun had forgotten to give me a fork so i got up and went searching for one, until finally I looked around and saw everyone eating with their fingers, oops! So, I sat back down and I joined in! I don't know if I've ever eaten that much food with my fingers!!! I loved it!!!
We headed home at 5:30pm and didn't get back to Cradle of Love till 8:30...it was a LONG DAY and SO WONDERFUL!! I had the best time ever and loved being with Grace and Ben, meeting Nancy, who is precious, and loving this adventure God blessed me with!!!
It was a 12 hour journery packed with new things and I felt VERY BLESSED to have made it to the village and back...
I will never forget that long and bumpy road...hugs and kisses, Hallie