Blogs from Tanzania, Africa - page 361

We were sitting in a room full of couples, moms, dads, and grandparents. The lights down, a power point presentation running and a box of Kleenex in the middle of each table. The speaker was giving an unsuccessful speech to prepare us parents for our children leaving home. The words were coming out of her mouth, I saw the pictures, but they were not of the Microsoft family she had pasted into her presentation. The pictures I saw were of Joshua. Squatting in front of our home in Monterey sipping the water from a puddle on the sidewalk where it had collected when Anthony washed off the sidewalk after mowing the yard. I saw him peeking out of the dryer from the perfect hiding place when he decided to play hide-and-seek without telling me and I ... read more

Not much to say... just wanted to share a few more pics....... read more

It’s relatively expensive but local buses are inconvenient to track down. I am on a tourist minibus driving across the island of Unguja, commonly known as Zanzibar, to the east coast. Blame the Omanis. Before I first set foot in Africa I once worked in the Sultanate of Oman. In centuries past, Arab dhows traded in ivory, slaves and later in spices up and down the Swahili coast. Zanzibar fell under the control of Oman in 1698 and grew to become a great seat of power in the region. Out of this shared history, modern Oman has gathered a high percentage of Swahili people. These ‘expatriate’ work mates convinced me that Zanzibar was the place to go. So off I went, without Lonely Planet and no Yellow Fever Vaccination, not quite sure what to expect, to ... read more

The countdown begins! We have about 10 weeks left to go, before returning to Tanzania as full time missionaries! We are getting more and more excited each day! The container full of our household belongings will leave August 18th and hopefully not sit in port too long before departure for the North-Eastern African coast! It can take anywhere from 3-6 months for it to get cleared on that end you just never know! We wont be leaving until mid-September but will end up living from suitcases on this end for a month and on that end for several months. I've been reading blog entries with a smile from ear to ear from my dear friend Shasta for the past month now and decided what a great idea it was to keep everyone informed on a regular ... read more

The Malarial Experience: Due to my unfortunate run in with malaria my time back in Stone Town was rather uneventful. While I did make it out every odd day, for the most part I was just lying in bed (thanks to Louisa and Laura for stopping by and bringing some cake) while the home-land defence force, supported by anti-malarials, waged war against the invading malaria forces. The bulk of their forces seem to have been neutralized, but random strikes continue to keep my troops on their toes making for some trying and close calls. For those of you who don't know malaria affects people in different ways: it could be fever, extreme pain, hallucinations, diarrhea or just a simple cold...if left untreated you can fall into a coma, and/or even die. For me, malaria meant fevers, ... read more