Saturday morning we traveled from Meru to Maua. We checked into the Maua Basin Hotel and settled in. Our rooms are tiny - tiny compared to college dorm rooms! Ther are 2 double beds, 1 straight back chair and a small table and a small night stand. There is only room to step into the room, walk between the beds and slide in to the bathroom at the foot of one of the beds. The bathroom is a challenge. I am still trying to figure out how to use it. You can sit on the toilet ( if the toilet seat isn't broken and split like ours was at first) brush your teeth at the sink and take a shower all at the same time. It's very efficient. (Did I say that nicely?) Most important to remember, take the toilet paper out of the bathroom, along with anything else you don't want to get wet, when you take a shower. I will conquer the use of this foreign bathroom before we leave here! Or else I will come home really, really dirty!

Our luggage has to slide under the beds because there is no where else to put it. I decided that since I only need half the bed when I sleep the other half can be used for storage. It's an interesting arrangement but it works.

The team had to empty the 15 duffle bags we brought with us filled with donations and supplies to sort everything - donations, VBS supplies, tools and food items for us. I am so proud of the many donations that we have to present to the people of Maua. We had many generous people give in different ways to share the love of Christ with people they have never met and will probably never meet.

For lunch we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and had misc. snacks and water to go with it. A new best friend - my water bottles. We can not drink the water here. I keep one water bottle with water and another water bottle is used to add flavor packets to the water. We ate supper at the hotel. The food is okay. I guess compared to peanut and jelly sandwiches supper was pretty good.

Walking through the town was overwhelming. All of the things I have read about poverty in magazines and seen on the television came alive right before my eyes. It was market day and there were people everywhere. So many children were running loose unsupervised wanting our attention. These precious children were dirty beyond imagination and obviously had very little in the way of possessions but yet many seemed so happy. They loved to have their picture taken, many wanted to "high five" and they would follow us where ever we would go.

There were many shopping opportunities around us, however it was very different. The open air market was filthy. People were scattered all over the area with their goods or produce spread out on blankets to sell. We saw people taking their cows and goats to market - I assumed to sell. The stores along the streets again were dirty. Most had no electricity so they were open only during day light hours. People didn't go into most stores. They were set up where you would go to the counter and tell the person what you wanted and they brought it to you. There were a few stores that we could walk it to and seemed to have tourists as their target customers.

It was interested to see some of the smaller stores were actually set up inside a large trash dumpster. A bunch of the dumpsters were shipped over here and people were taught how they could be used. This is repurposing at its best!

Many people tried to prepare me for what we would experience here. It was helpful but only scratched the surface of what I am truly experiencing.

Blessings!
Rosemary