Blogs from Tanzania, Africa - page 373

I'm so proud of myself. As hard as it is, I've been hitting the gym like 4-5 times a week since I joined about 2 weeks ago. Mind you, this is my first time working out since August when I got sick with Graves disease. All the muscle I loss is finally returning. I had gotten so weak it was hard to walk stairs, I'd say I'm about 90% back. The next problem is where to find more medicine here. I'll run out within the next 2 weeks, but I still have over a month before I return home. Hmmm!... read more

Tuesday 15th February Harriet had asked us before whether we wanted to go to the mnada earlier in the day and cut our Akie visit short, but we had declined as we were not particularly interested in seeing the animal slaughter which was taking place in the morning. We would miss some of the commerce and most of the cattle and goat selling, but the Akie visit more than made up for that. There would still be lots going on at the market in the afternoon and Harriet especially wanted us to eat some goat meat which could be bought and to meet a friend of hers called Mr Moita, who, although he is not old in years, is a Maasai elder and would show us around the market. Mr Moita spotted us immediately when we ... read more

The wedding was last night finally. We had been talking about it for a week. And a wedding it was. They started at 3:00 at the church and then caravan'd around the beach and city center taking pictures of the wedding party at each stop. The procession was led by the brass band who played from the church to the last stop.... The reception. The reception was awesome. What I was told was that the groom was from a somewhat wealthy family and he's father had worked with the State House. So the reception was held there outside with tents covering the tables where the food was served. The dresses and attire of the party and guess were largely Western-like. Though ceremony itself has a lot tradition and formality to it. We had problems with transportation ... read more

Having had the return of both bad faeces (probably technically not diarrhoea) and earache, I had decided it was time to see the Doctor again. When we got to the hospital, the Doctor was not there, so we were going to Patrick's office. On the way we spotted a familiar face. Emmanuel Mungongo, my Kiswahili teacher from Britain. He had been in Moshi - near Kilimanjaro, his home town, but I think he had returned to Dar the same day I had arrived. I had not seen him though until today. It was very good to see him, and I most of the rest of the day with him. He is staying in the YMCA and I ate my lunch there after trying to change some travelers cheques, but failing. The banks here as are not ... read more

Being Sunday, today I went to church with Patrick and his family. The service was early, starting at 8:30, although that is not at all unusual here. Patrick and his family are Pentacostal, so it was a very different service from the Anglican ones on Zanzibar, and it was also actually in English. (They have a Kiswahili service later) Yay! It was only my second English service since leaving the UK. In some ways it was more similar to StAG back in the UK, but I would place StAG roughly between the Cathedral and Patrick’s church. Although the sermon was more similar (with the exception of regular amens from the congregation), the worship style was a little different, was about 40 minutes of just worship to begin the service, although the use of guitar, keyboard, drums ... read more