A Story of a Girl and the Mud that Smelled of Poop

We have a lot to update you on. I think my approach will be in a series of "shorter" posts. We'll see how it goes.

My first story is about a girl (originally from SC, but a resident of IN) who is visiting Arusha, Tanzania with her husband who is finishing his last rotation of med school at the Arusha Lutheran Medical Center. Many who know this girl, know that she has a bit of a clumsy streak. She's never been very coordinated (hence, the lack of athleticism). One day, while she was in Arusha, she decided she would walk into town all on her own. She had walked to the hospital all on her own, but not yet into town. She had grandeur plans to visit the tourism board to learn about which safari companies to avoid (there are many), then to sit in a coffee shop for a while enjoying a book and an Iced Zanzibar Macchiato, then to go to the market to buy groceries for dinner.

She got ready in the morning, taking her time as it was pretty rainy. Once the rain had ceased, she decided to head out. As she approached the gate of her house, she thought, "I bet Il Boru road is going to be quite muddy since it's been raining all morning. Maybe I shouldn't be wearing my rainbows (flip flops). Hmm...I'll be fine. I don't feel like changing my shoes right now." She headed through the gate and down the infamous Il Boru road. She passed the duka (shack/shop) across the street and greeted its owner Frida and Frida's daughter Mauri. She carefully walked down the muddy road. Many people greeted her in her first few minutes of walking since she stood out as a Mzungu. She turned the corner and the road was even muddier. "I must walk slowly," she thought to herself. "But, I hear a motorcycle coming up behind me. I better move over quickly since pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way." As she tried to hurriedly step to the side of the road, she felt her foot begin to slip. "Uh-oh!" she thought, as she tried to regain her balance. Just as the motorcycle drove by, the girl fell belly first into the muddy ditch. The motorcycle stopped to make sure she was ok, which she was. More humiliated than anything else. At least she hadn't made it very far from her house. Covered in mud from neck to feet, she got up, laughed at herself, and walked back to her house...passing all the people she had just said hi to along the way. Needless to say, her original plans did not come to pass that day. Here are pictures of her muddy clothes after she had washed off. (She now wished that she somehow got a picture of herself covered in mud, but at the time, she was more focused on getting the mud that had a faint smell of feces off.)

The white shirt was thrown away. But, amazingly, Venosa (our house help) got ALL the mud out of the
yellow pants! Thank you Venosa!!!

After I got all the mud off me, I realized that my arm got scraped up a little. No worries Mom Evans, I took an antibiotic just in case there really was poop in the mud, and I used A LOT of that neosporin you gave us!