Blogs from Mwanza, North, Tanzania, Africa - page 5

Why is it that it takes a foreign continent, country, language and way of life to remind you of how fascinating the simplest things can be? Yesterday, walking home from the market, I was beaming with pride because I had managed to ask for, in Swahili, and purchase, tea and jam! How many times a week have I gone into Sainsbury's and done the exact same thing without the slightest flicker of excitement? But this was amazing, what a sense of accomplishment, it is absolutely ridiculous! And that wasn't my only victory yesterday, I also managed to buy onions. I know, probably one of the least exciting things imaginable and here I am raving about it but here, for me, it was a highlight. These were things I always took for granted, knowing that if I ... read more

Jambo from Mwanza! Yes, after 11 hours of flying and another 5 spent sitting in airports trying to stay awake, I made it here alive and in one piece albeit a little terrified and a lot dusty after the long two days. The dusty is obvious given that most of the roads are unpaved and the terrified is from the last two landings. The flight from Nairobi made a stop off at Kilimanjaro before landing in Mwanza and both times it felt like the pilot had left the descent until the last possible minute and just made a nose-dive for the landing strip! It felt like we went from 18 000 feet to 0 in less than ten minutes. The first time, I thought it was just a mishap but after the second time I figured ... read more

I can actually only tell you about our services here in Sweya, but Jim took lots of pictures of their overnight trip to Nyakaliro and Lusalelo. We arrived at church a little after 10:00, the starting time, but didn't really get into the church and the service started until about 10:15. We began with only about 20 of us, but swelled up to 45 to 50 by 11:30. The service was very well ordered and conducive to worship throughout the whole time of 2 hours and about 20 minutes. We had one long sermon from one of the Bible Institute students on James 2 and 2 small sermons by the song leader on Psalm 51 and the pastor Paulo recapping Imbela's sermon to make sure everyone got the point. The music was great it was so ... read more

Today was the distribution of the soccer equipment, and it went very well. First, though, Pastor Jon & Rob zoomed off on the motorbike to complete the study on Acts. Don't miss their picture when the study was finished. Very impressive, Pastor Jon! Sorry, maybe tomorrow, I'll be able to include this picture The soccer crew, Ron Leach, Jeremy, Jordan and Nate, had to be t their first appointment at 10:00am. The rest of us were going into town to do some shopping and have lunch. So, 10 adults piled into the Landcruiser with 3 bags of soccer gear on top. Rob had played Weird Al Yankovic's "Another One Rides the Bus" last night to get us into the right frame of mind. The mayor met the soccer crew at the school to get ready for ... read more

Today is my last day in Mwanza. It's a little sad because I have really felt at home this past three weeks here. But I AM ready for my summer to begin...which it has! Classes are all finished, tests have all been taken, and papers have all been written. I therefore will finally embark upon my summer relaxing trip with a voyage through the Serengeti and around the northern circuit of Tanzania. I cannot tell you how excited I am. Anyway, yesterday I went into town with Caitlin, Ashley Y, and Pulchery. We did some last-minute gift-shopping and purchased some snack food for the Serengeti (all of mine is still intact except for the chocolate...but that was never even expected to make it back to campus). I got some really nice things and didn't bargain as ... read more