Blogs from Mbeya, West, Tanzania, Africa
The Ups and Downs of African Travel (Nick)
Published: December 16th 2011Africa » Tanzania » West » Mbeya
December 16th 2011
October 1st to October 3rd: Feeling like I was on the mend, we left Cape Maclear at around 5:30 am. We boarded the back of a jam-packed pickup truck for the bumpy 1.5 hour ride to Monkey Bay. From Monkey Bay we boarded a big bus to Salima. The ride was about 4 hours and while I had a pretty good seat with only a couple people crammed in the aisle, Dariece sat up front where she literally had a woman sitting on her lap for lack of space! When people boarded the bus they put their luggage on her lap to get on, and then proceeded to pass their children to her to be relayed to the appropriate parent or gaurdian near the back of the bus. She was also in charge of packing up ... read more
September 7th 2011
Like all border crossings in Africa, a feeling of apprehension and vulnerability takes over. You remain polite and smile, filling in the paperwork while handing over crisp new United States dollars. As you pass immigration, your eyes scan the local surroundings, watching for hawkers and money changers. Knowing boarders are crime hot spots, you secure your belongings and empty your pockets, preparing yourself for any eventuality. As you wait to be processed outside a small wooden shack, a local approaches asking where you are from. He asks why Mzungus come and take all the jobs. He asks why the English enslaved the Tanzanian people. He says the English aren’t welcome here. He asked how I would feel if he took out the slave trade on me, right here, right now! Surrounded and outnumbered, I felt intimidated, ... read more
From Mikumi to Iringa and The Olde Farmhouse
Published: May 22nd 2010Africa » Tanzania » West » Mbeya
May 17th 2010
May 17th It was the normal routine in the morning, we all creeped out of our tents to the African morning and had our tea and toast. We packed up the tents and in the process I realized I had a friend sleep with me the night before. Okay not exactly with me, but rather underneath me. Coiled up under the tent was a huge centipede or millipede, it was about a foot long! I took a couple pictures and then showed the Germans, I remembered they loved insects because they were taking picture of cockroaches the night before. The six of us said our goodbyes to the Tan-Swiss lodge and headed for south Tanzania. We were to go through the Baobab Valley and along side the Ruaha River. The drive was really really pretty, and ... read more
May 5th 2010
Dear all. Just a quick note to say I'm alive and well in Tanzania. We've seen the Victoria Falls and South Luangwa national park (as well as a lot of road) in Zambia, Lake Malawi, Vyphia Plateau and Livingstonia/Chitemba in Malawi and so far some of the Southern Highlands in Tanzania including the infamous Ngozi Crater Lake. We're hopefully getting on the overnight train to Dar es Salam tonight in time to watch the election results come through tomorrow before getting the ferry to Zanzibar. I can't blog properly here because internet is very difficult to come by - it was particularly bad in Malawi where it was down across the whole country for a week! But I hope to get something up as soon as possible... there is rather a lot to write about and ... read more
July 16th 2009
With Malawi next on my destination list, the obvious overland route is to bus it down to Mbeya, overnight there, then cross the border the next day. It's a 13 hour journey to Mbeya during which I have an entire double seat to myself. I recall reading in the paper that the cost of 1km of road in Tanzania has doubled to $1 million in just two years, and a mere 49km of new road were completed last year, a situation government critics are blaming on corruption and poorly-enforced contract conditions. This same newspaper also carried a letter in which the writer requested that all daladala conductors should be forced to tuck their shirts in, so there are clearly differing priorities in competition. I notice that the porters at Dar's Ubungo bus station wear overalls that ... read more
November 17th 2008
On Saturday we drove to Ruaha National Park…an early start but it was worth it because Ruaha was really brilliant, a complete comparison to Mikumi! The atmosphere of the park was much more enjoyable and so were the animals. We spent most of our time driving up the Ruaha River, which is at its lowest point as we’re just at the end of the dry season. Still there were lots of Crocodiles and Hippos and water birds. The park also had a much wider variety of vegetation, lots of stunning baobab tress and an acacia woodland where we found a very healthy looking pride of 11 lions…they weren’t bothered by our presence at all but it was about 12 by this point so they were having a sleep. After we saw the lions we had a ... read more
August 8th 2008
ear Readers of the Banks' Blog, We have done so much in this week while shadowing Nancy & Mike. Shadowing their daily activities has been an amazing snapshot of what is in store for us at our site. They are busy with the daily chores: hand-washing laundry, sweeping twice a day, toting water, walking into the village for fresh food, and dish washing in cold water. Once you can get beyond the chores, there are officials to meet & greet, villagers who want to have Mike check on the internet to see if their son got into college, a resume to write for a primary school teacher, photos to take of a community theater rehearsal (in our honor), taking material to Bibi's who are raising $ for orphans' tuition by making dolls, a conversation on needs ... read more
June 18th 2008
Sorry that it has been so long since we have put anything on the blog. Things continue to go well here in Africa. We have just started our annual preacher’s seminar today which will last three days. We have an excellent turnout this year with about 50 preachers in attendance. I had the opening lesson this morning which dealt with sermon preparation. I believe the lesson went well, although we ran short on time. Last month we had our yearly WBS campaigns which lasted nearly the entire month. We worked with 7 different congregations during the campaign. Overall the meetings went well and we had 26 baptisms and 2 restorations. We had an average attendance of 94 each night for the public speaking. Next week we have two more seminars coming up, one for the ... read more
May 10th 2008
Malawi was fun, though very hilly, but then I didn't realise how hilly the Poloto mountains in Tanzania would be. There was an interesting 8km climb, which took a long time. Reaching the top all the school kids pilled out of class and whistling and shouting "dongle" or "dongler" they ran with me up the hill, laughing and joking. It really was an occasion to make me smile. Those little kids can really run. There has been a barrage of greetings and I try my best to wave back. Anyhow, Lake Malawi was quite beautiful and I took a wrong turning from Mzuzu ending up at Nkhata beach and did some snorkelling. Malawians are friendly people. I didn't see many people eating, except sugar cane, so it's not so easy to eat myself with the kids ... read more
April 1st 2008
Chimala Mission, Hospital, and Schools 5371 New York Avenue Arlington, Texas 76018 (817) 419-7909.Fax (817) 465-1416 Chimala Newsletter - Jason and Madesha Stapleton - March 2008 I hope this letter finds you doing well. I want to take a few minutes to update you as to how the work is going. Over the past few weeks we have busy working with the Simike congregation in the city of Mbeya (about an hours drive from the mission). During our time there we have spent several days going house to house as well as visiting some of the fallen Christians. As result of the work there we had four restorations and one baptism. Our final day of working there we conducting a meeting with the congregation and had a very good turn out with about 20 in ... read more
