Yesterday was back to the field again. The day started a little bit later and I was grateful for the extra sleep and ability to eat breakfast.
After about an hour and a half of driving, we reached our area for filming. As opposed to the previous day of traveling all around, yesterday was spent only in one village.
The first spot was the local church. We attended the service which was much shorter than the Pentecostal one I have been going to. I think I prefer the liturgy to the other types of sermons and worship.
Almost half of the service was dedicated to WFG. The pastor and community members shared a lot about how WFG had helped the community and the personal prayers that had been answered by the help. It was really touching, but I felt like a bit of an imposter because I haven’t been around long and am just along for the ride.
After the service was an interview of the pastor. I’m surprised with how patient the media team is; all of the interviews move so slowly with the set-up, the translation, and then having to redo everything like five times until everything is just right. We spend close to an hour for less than five minutes of usable content. It was only made worse by the fact the pastor wanted to talk about conversion when that is fairly prohibited in the WFG guidelines.
The final interview of the day was of this old man. He’s a vulnerable person/household that the church assists with all of the WASH activities. I never would have guessed it, but he was born in 1920, making him 106 years old. He still walks—with the help of a cane, of course—and is surprisingly lively. I think 106 is the oldest person I’ve ever met, but who knows with the old folk homes I’ve stumbled into.
After the interviews were done we were invited to lunch by the pastor. I was very thankful for the lunch, the previous day was brutal with no meals and I don’t know if I could have made it throughout yesterday without eating again. After the late lunch we left the field and headed back. It took another hour and a half to drive back into Shinyanga, and it wasn’t until 5:00pm that I got back to the hotel.
I decided to go for a run when we got back. I was feeling pretty tired, but more than anything I was slipping into a bad mood from the hot and long day. On my run it started to rain which was actually really nice. I thought it might make the roads rough and running difficult, but it was refreshing compared to the typical 90 degree blaring sun.
I think the weather gave me some extra energy that I typically don’t have. Normally when I go for a run I make it to 3 miles at a pretty slow pace and feel like I’m going to die, but yesterday I seemed to have an extra gear. I know it’s nothing impressive, but I was able to run for an hour and made it around 6 miles. I’m very proud of this and hopefully I can keep building on my progress!
The team decided to go out to dinner after everybody got some rest in.
After dinner, everybody accompanied the guests back to their hotel. We discovered that some karaoke was happening, so a few of us decided to partake. As I get ready for the day half asleep this morning, I’m not sure it was the best decision, but it was a lot of fun even if it meant going to sleep at 11pm. Today is back to the field, I’m not sure how long the day is supposed to be, but I expect that it won’t be quick.