Blogs from Morogoro, East, Tanzania, Africa - page 4

leaving for morogoro in one hour so i must pack in a hurry. thought i would just say that i will be seing the chimps in gombe. it means taking the bus 6 hours to the capital of dogoma. catching the train from there (i have reserved a first class ticket to sleep) that stops in tabora for two hours and then goes on to kigoma. this central line railway (hope the worriers dont google it because you will only get info on the tragic derailing a few years back) the ride in the train will about 27 hours. i have a contact in kigoma that i trust. he is a friend of my teacher here and may even go to gombe with me! he will try to get me a boat from kigoma (where i ... read more

A couple weekends ago was IDD (sometimes written Iddi), the celebration to mark the end of Ramadhan. Even though we didn’t participate in the Ramadhan fasting, we joined in the celebrations by attending an IDD party at Maggie’s in Dar! Teresa, Maggie and I helped get ready for the celebration by preparing some chickens ‘from scratch’. Well, maybe we did more observing than helping, but I did do a bit of plucking, and Maggie and I received a really interesting anatomy lesson from Abu! Some women Maggie plays basketball with served an amazing meal and we spent the afternoon eating, and playing TZ games, and eating some more. Last week we held a music and health education workshop at the Faraja Youth Centre which was a huge success! Thirty TZ youth ages 18 to 24 came ... read more

Morogoro is a large town nestled in the foothills of the Uluguru Mountains about 200 km inland from Dar es Salaam. The view of the mountains as I walk through the town is breathtaking - huts can be seen all the way up the side and clouds often linger on the top. Morogoro relies on Agriculture as its main industry. I've been getting spoiled with fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and traditional Tanzanian dishes at every meal. So delicious! It is very hot, dusty and dry here. Most of the roads are dirt (and are really more like trails than roads), so that adds to the dust. Some desperately needed rains are expected in November and December, although probably not a lot. The Uluguru Mountains are home to one of the 130 ethnic tribes in TZ. They ... read more