Kiabakari Snippets: Home, Sweet Home!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Home, Sweet Home!

I'm back home in Kiabakari. Eventually, our plane departed at 3pm from Dar es Salaam and after uneventful flight which took some two hours (watching Mr. Bones movie all the way onboard), we landed safely at gravel airstrip called Musoma Airport, right in the middle of the Municipality. I always get stressed when approaching Musoma by air. There usually are quite strong crosswinds in evening, blowing from west, northwest, making for a bumpy descent. The runway is made of gravel, poorly maintained, so i always wonder how pilots keep plane straight, feeling how it shakes and wants to go sideways. It scares .... out of me, to be honest! This afternoon at least it was not so bad and - because I was busy taking pictures of Musoma and the Lake Victoria, I didn't pay to much attention to what was going on with the aircraft...

I was met by Novatus at the airport, though all taxi drivers wanted to grab me and pull to their cars, shouting one through another: 'Voy, Father, Mzee, take me, take me!' I barely had any luggage, so we were able to get on the way pretty quickly, passing through post office to check mail and then straight to Kiabakari.

I always feel tense coming back to Kiabakari after a long journey. Multitude of thoughts, expectations, worries and hopes. This time though it was better. I was just barely four weeks away, and always in touch with Sisters and the parish, so I knew pretty much everything what was going on in my absence.

Today is August 23rd. A holiday in Kiabakari. Every month - on the 6th and 23rd day of the month - there is a market day in Kiabakari, 'a day of obligation' for everyone in the radius of 10 miles or more! Thousands of people coming to buy, eat, wander around, see what is going on. It is a huge social event, a place to be for everyone, so everything else, including the parish, comes to standstill...

It was close to 6pm, when we reached Kiabakari, so there were just remnants of people hanging around or walking slowly back home in all directions...

Sisters were very happy to see me. We fall into each other arms, happy, smiling, joking. Thank God all are safe and sound. I'm very grateful to God for keeping them safe. My housekeeper also. Workers coming in, as I asked them, ready to start construction works tomorrow. So, big sigh, relief, gratitude, happiness... Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo!

Some pictures I took on the way to Kiabakari from Dar. Check Kilimanjaro Mountain looming over clouds on the horizon.