Blogs from East, Tanzania, Africa - page 6

There are moments in life sometimes where I need to stand back, realize what amazing blessings I have in my life. I (Lisa) have dreamt of this for so long, this dream of living and working in Africa. And here I am. I had prec-concieved notions and romanticized ideas of what it would look like. For some odd reason I thought it would be easy and fun all the time. I guess that's what I get for being an optimist. :) While there are definitley times where it is easy and fun, moments of difficulty, frustration and feelings of being uncomfortable occur more than I would like. It's the reality of living in a country different than my own. The language barrier is one of the biggest hinderances living here. For some reason it did not ... read more

Zanzibar is an island located off the coast of Dar Es Salaam. It is a predominatly Muslim, and has a historic town called Stone town which is said to be the only functioning ancient town in East Africa. It is also known as a spice town and used to be where slaves were auctioned off. Our group of eight spent one night in town and then two nights at a place called Kwenda Rocks which is right on the beach. So so so so so so so so beautiful. We will let the pictures say the rest.... read more

Last Tuesday Lisa and I had the amazing opportunity to sit in on a day long meeting between MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) and KMT (Kanisa la Mennonite Tanzania). It was a celebratory farewell for the current MCC representatives in Tanzania as well as the welcoming of the new representatives hosted in thanks by KMT. MCC and KMT have been partners for many years now and it was so interesting, in that Lisa and I are both looking at potentially working with MCC in the future, to see the interaction between the two and also the projects that were in the works as well as those that had been completed. We also got to see the opening of a water project that had been a long time in the works! So in all it was good day ... read more

It’s been about a week and a half since we arrived here in Dar and so much has been experienced so far. Since we got here a couple days before our professor and all the other students, we had a lot to figure out on our own. Finding the cheapest place to buy food, finding what food to buy, how to go about taking the various forms of transportation (the hectic three-wheel ‘bajaj’ being our favorite so far), and how much each of those forms cost are just a few of the many things facing us those first few days. The place we are staying at is an actual house on the grounds of a Catholic guesthouse. Father Aloysius, along with the various brothers and sisters, run the place, and they are so wonderful. They serve ... read more

The north To start from the beginning we didn’t arrive straight from Moshi to the beach but started the travel in Dar es Salam by visiting a friend of the Sister. Her boyfriend currently works outside of Dar in Tegeta. We stayed at their place for three nights and had time for a daytrip northward to Bagamojo where we were to visit the Art College, an independent school for artistic education such as music, dance and artwork. Perfect for the Sister who is, for those who don’t know her, addicted to dancing. Meet a finish girl who studied there as well as Margaret, a Swedish lady we got to know at the festival on Zanzibar. Nice people who showed us around the place. At this time the semester for the school had just started, meaning that ... read more