20 October 2015
Greetings from Tanzania!
We are back at Makumira Seminary as of Monday night, October the 12th, and have the same vehicle and the same house! We were hoping for both, but one never knows until you arrive.
On Friday afternoon, I made the comment to Tim that even though we were exhausted (jet lag took its toll), I felt we had completed most of the cleaning and unpacking, and we were about 95% settled in! He agreed. Lack of electricity has been a definite issue--making everything more of a challenge, but fortunately the university turns on their generator around 6 pm so we can fix dinner and take showers, then it's off again by 10 pm.
As I was just starting to fix dinner last Friday night, we heard a strange, loud noise that went on for quite a bit. Then our electricity went out (oh dear, now its the generator, I thought.). A bit later, our Tz. neighbor, Moshi, started yelling, "Moto, moto" ("hot, hot"-- in this case meaning "Fire, Fire"), so Tim went out to see what his problem was. It ends up that it was our problem----our house was on fire and our neighbor was trying to throw dirt up to our roof. He did not think anyone was home since we had no lights on and everyone else did.
There was smoke coming out of our roof from the attic area--the 2nd floor between the ceiling of the bedroom and the roof. Tim got our fire extinguisher and went up to the attic, having to balance himself on top of the wobbly rail at the top of the steps. Our full fire extinguisher wasn't enough so I ran over to another family and they brought over their two extinguishers. Meanwhile the men (the security guards had joined in now and some of the local workmen) were outside still digging and throwing dirt on the roof!
Moshi called the university's electrician. He came with his fire extinguisher.
Four hours and 4 fire extinguishers later the fire was securely out. The electrician wanted to know the cause before he left, and he wanted to reconnect our electricity and see if it was safe. The large (1 1/2 " diameter) electrical cable that runs outside for our neighborhood had been brought inside our house when the house was built and the cable ran across the center beam (This is what Tim saw in flames. ) Something must have eaten into the cable and the sparks burned along 5 ft. of the beam 2 inches deep---and the two surrounding 2x4's were also on fire when Tim first went up.
The other problem was that the hot embers from the beam were falling on the ceiling of the bedroom and had begun smouldering.
We don't have Fire Depts. in Tz. We were fortunate this did not happen at 2 a.m. when no one would have noticed, and we would have been sleeping in our house with iron grates in every window and the pad locked steel grates at our front and back doors heavily secured. There is no way we would have made it out alive.
When our neighbor, Moshi, left, he said, "Have a blessed night." We already had---and he and the others who came to our aid were a big part of the blessing.
Tim didn't sleep too well that night, but we've refilled our fire extinguisher, have figured out an escape route if ever needed, and focus on what it means to be "community," even in a country so far away.
If you don't have a fire extinguisher in your home, we seriously encourage you to get one. And if you do have one, check the expiration date. We live in a cement block house with a tin roof---we thought having a fire extinguisher was just a waste of money---fortunately, we were wrong----it made all the difference.
Even though Friday evening was a scary event, we truly felt God's protective presence---that the fire happened when we were awake and not asleep; that our neighbor spotted the fre; that we had a working fire extinguisher and that our other neighbor had 2 more extinguishers. Even if it had turned out differently, we know that God was with us. We pray the same knowledge and peace for you,
With our love for each of you,
Tim & Diane
