Dear Far Away Faithful Readers, We have just completed a 2 week training seminar and are ready to write grants and tackle some of the issues that the village survey pointed out as being of importance to their health and well-being. We have lots of work ahead of us. It was also a time to relax and renew acquaintances with 1/2 of our group. Everyone is still energized and ready to push their sleeves up and get to work. We also had a mini-vacation from chores as the training facility did the cooking, washed the dishes, did the laundry, emptied the [View Full Entry]

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It is hard to believe that our stay in Dodoma and Tanzania has come to an end. Our time here, almost a year and a half, has never dragged. I do not think there has been a moment when we have wished time to move on a little quicker. In fact, mostly it has felt like time was rolling along at an accelerated pace. Be that as it may, we have now come to the point of saying our good-byes and returning home. December has been a time of bringing the school term to a close with mid-year exams, a Christmas [View Full Entry]

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Sitting over lunch with her teaching assistants at the Early Years Centre, Gerry became curious about the food they were bringing to eat. There were some very typical Tanzanian foods that one sees a lot - rice with beans, pillau, mendazi, chapati, fruit… But Gerry’s attention was caught by the bread that Pendo, one of the members of her staff, brought to school - lovely, fresh, golden brown, white bread. Pendo told Gerry that she made her own bread. She baked it on her jiko, Swahili for stove. Jikos come in a number of forms. Pendo’s jiko is a deep pan [View Full Entry]

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Drive down to Arusha was uneventful...stayed with friends of Robert just outside city in the most amazing house ever, nice to have one last night of luxury before we start slumming it. We left Arusha early and reached Dodoma yesterday at around 6. Ate staple meal of rice and beans... before decamping to our christian hostel Yesterday we encountered our first problem with the car. Nothing major, just that the roof rack is slightly broken. As I write it should be being fixed. We are aiming to drive from here to Morogoro and from there into the Uluguru hills where there [View Full Entry]

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Given the October school break, Gerry and I decided it was time for a little travelling. Gerry, our daughter Karen and a friend visiting from Canada planned a trip to Zanzibar and Mikumi National Park. I decided this time to go on my own so I opted for something a little out of the ordinary. My plan was to ride the Central Line of the Tanzanian Railway west from Dodoma to Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika. After a couple of days in Kigoma I would board the MV Liemba and take passage to Mpulungu, Zambia, at the south end of the lake [View Full Entry]

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With a new sexagenarian in the family, it's definitely time for a blog entry and a few pics. So, Geraldine has turned 60!! Much like the Queen, Gerry enjoyed an official birthday and then held another celebration on the actual day. Last Sunday was the official birthday so we hosted a luncheon party for about 40 people. Our friends, Jill and Brian Polkinghorne, live just across the street from our compound in a nice big house that actually feels like a house so they agreed to allow the party to be held in their home. Richard and MJ will remember attending [View Full Entry]

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I have read on a number of occasions that agriculture is the foundation of the Tanzanian economy so I thought this month I would pursue that theme a little. As we have visited the north of the country as well as the eastern coastal region and live in the central part of Tanzania we have been able to observe from the road at least a sampling of Tanzanian agriculture. The regions to the north and east have fairly consistent rainfall and quite fertile soils, so they produce a great deal of the food that enters both the domestic and export markets. [View Full Entry]

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In the same way that people around the world associate mounties, mountains and hockey with Canada, I expect Mount Kilimanjaro, large animals and the Maasai often come to mind when people think of Tanzania. These are, of course, what tourism in this country is built on - elephants, giraffes and exotic safaris. Along with mining and agriculture, tourism in Tanzania is one of the three largest sectors of the economy and generates more foreign exchange than any other industry here. In recognition I expect of the importance and value of the environment and ecology of this country, Tanzania has [View Full Entry]

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Tanzania is among the poorest countries in the world. A few stats - the national budget is roughly one-ninth that of BC and 1/138 th that of Canada. Close to 40% of the population is considered to be malnourished. Foreign governments and agencies through grants and loans provide roughly 45% of the national budget. With so little ‘disposable income’ the Tanzanian government is in no position to finance a social safety net for its 40 million or so citizens of the type we enjoy in Canada. As a result, Tanzania is awash in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), faith based organiz [View Full Entry]

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Welcome to Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania since 1974. On Thursday morning, we left for the six hour bus drive to Dodoma to see the Budget reading session of Parliament (the Bunge). The scenery was pretty, with mountains and open plains and the occasional little village that happened to be in the same spot that they wanted to put the road. It was a long drive during which I managed to finish my book. Luckily, we arrived in Dodoma soon afterwards. I didn't realize that we were in Dodoma until we actually passed the Bunge La Tanzania. The tallest building in [View Full Entry]

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