Blogs from Iringa, Centre, Tanzania, Africa - page 6

Greetings dear readers! The word "wedding" undoubtedly stirs a variety of thoughts for different people. For a widow, hearing the term may prompt both happy recollections as well as sadness for present loneliness. For a fiancée, there is likely the feeling of anticipated joy. Often in America, a young couple desiring to be wed, inform the parents, "set the date," and inform family and friends. All things are then set in motion; a countdown to the big day begins! Please allow me to share with you a situation our brother Charles is facing. Charles and Editha are both Tanzanians. Each is a member of the Lord's church. I enjoyed having Charles as a student at the School of Preaching for two years. Last year these two "set the date" for a June 2010 wedding. Sadly, Charles' ... read more

First of all, we'd like to let you all know that we are alive and well in Iringa. We've had quite an eventful past couple of weeks! We are now trying to get our house somewhat functional so that we can carry on every day activities and get busy with the work we came here to do. We do not have internet at our house; therefore, an internet cafe is our means of getting online for the time being. Until then, here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. :) ... read more

Hi everyone, First I have to say, I have the best field assistant on Earth. I am just so happy to have such a trustworthy, hard working guy looking after things out here! I am back in the field and have a little portable modem with me this time, so I can access the internet (if briefly), which is very exciting and luxurious! I’ve spent the morning meeting with field assistants who are supervised by the superstar mentioned above, each of whom collects data on elephant raids in their own village.. it seems people are having even more problems this year, with both elephants and rainfall, which came very late and was EXTREMELY low.. when it should rain nearly everyday for weeks/months, it only rained a total of 5 days over the entire rainy season. For ... read more

Day 13 - Dar Es Saleem - 11/8/09 We left at 0900 again and only 1 minibus turned up. With number swelling due to people arriving here early needing to be picked up as well there were too many of us for the one minibus. A second one arrived and it was pure luxury; blacked out windows, curtains with uber comfortable spacious seats. We had an hour to kill in Stone Town, which I used to get some cash, post one last postcard and use the internet. The ferry seemed to be less chaotic then the way over though this time no luggage was allowed on, it all went on at the front. I really don’t like the idea of leaving my luggage with a stranger! The sea was rough, rocking the ferry like a toy ... read more

We left the coast and headed towards Malawi, it was to far to travel in a day so we headed to our campsite in Iringa. On the way we drove through Mikumi NP where we saw Elephants drinking, Giraffes eating and loads of Zebras. It made a nice break in the drive otherwise we were looking at trees. The only problem was that we couldn't stop for toilet breaks!!! When we got to the campsite the sun was starting to set and there was not many places left to camp because a load of other overland trucks were already at the site. Nick decided to go for a run (came back early because he was scared by noises in the bush) I made my way to the bar with the others. The bar was a thatched ... read more