Dodoma 22nd Jan 2005
I have arrived !
I arrived in Dodoma on Thursday 11pm Sydney time which is 3pm local time. It is good to be here at last where the climate is pleasant, a cool breeze in the morning and evening with high 20's during the day.
Dodoma is infinitely more pleasant than Dar es Salaam (henceforth referred to as Dar) my first stop in Tanzania, on the coast and where the international airport is.
I arrived from Jo'burg about 3pm and was met at the airport along with another misso going to the medical centre at Moshi. We went back to the place we were to stay the night and met Ken & Di Phyllis. Where we sat under the gazebo had 2 bottles of Sprite for the cost of 70c. The humidity in Dar is incredibly oppressive all the time!‑
When I went to the bus terminal the next morning to catch the bus to Dodoma, a 6 hour trip, there was a sign which said it all albeit accidentally, it said;
Tangazo = "Notice" but the english translation below said "To our steemed customers ".
I am staying with friends until Monday afternoon when my unit becomes available. Yesterday was a public holiday , Jeremy - the Headmaster and I went to the school to start setting up the computer room, the computers are on the desks but we need to finish setting them up before I can start creating the domain and all the other following tasks. There are 5 IBM 300GL's and as 8 other newer machines there had been a power surge a few days earlier and 2 of the power supplies on the 300GL machines went bang so I am currently trying to source some replacements.
Today, Saturday is pool afternoon, we go for lunch at the pool club where there is a swimming pool, a pool table and a squash court. It is a very pleasant oasis, one could easily forget you are in the middle of Tanzania, but Tanzania it is, and the pool is in the grounds of the hospital which houses their psychiatric patients who spend nearly all of their time inside because the government doesn't have the money for the drugs which will allow them a more normal life.
On the other side of the pool is the maximum security prison.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
The next chapter
30th Jan
Last Sunday we went to church at the cathedral, (Dodoma being the capital has a cathedral). The English service is at 9.15 between 2 Swahili services, which are both full, where as the English service has around 60 people both European and Tanzanian.
Monday was my first day at school. The staff meet for prayer at 7:30 and school starts at 7:45 and finishes at 2pm. I am slowly adjusting to having so much free time in the afternoon. I've been reading a great book called "Inspired Stuff" by Peter Downey. It is a simple users guide to the bible and well worth reading as it is simple and often humorous guide for those who have never read it and those who have. So if you see me getting ready to go around 2pm when I am back in Oz remind me that I am back in Australia hehe.
After school we went to the fruit and veggie markets with some of the other teachers in my compound. The markets cover quite a large area mostly under cover. There you can buy almost anything in the fruit and veggie line, as well as multiple varieties of rice, maize beans, spices flour and many other things. Things don't come in packets here so what ever you want is weighed out and put into black plastic bags. Fruit and veggies are very cheap here. Anything else you might need is available from one of the many shops in the street that sell a variety of things. The other things of interest that some of the fruit is not always the same colour as we have back in Oz, oranges are actually 'greens' over here and passion fruit are yellow.
After shopping I moved into my unit in the lower school compound, it is very roomy (pictures to follow) separate lounge and kitchen/dining room, bedroom with lots of storage space and double bed.
I have a house helper, whose name is Nema who comes twice a week to wash my clothes and clean house as well as cook, she makes excellent quiche and I'm told she makes sensational coconut cookies but I think I'll try and stay away from those as I am trying to lose weight!
Tuesday; rain at last, we had a storm lots of rain but only lasted 1 1/2 hours, more rain needed.
Wednesday - Australia Day! Went to the chemist to buy more Doxycycline (antimalarial) drugs and medicines are very cheap here 2 months supply (60 tabs) cost about $A3.20 compared to the ~ $8.50 I paid for 2 weeks supply in Sydney. The Pharmacist is on a 2 year assignment. So all you pharmacists out there, would you like a change from the rat race in Sydney - then think about Dodoma!
That evening we had an Australia Day dinner at the Horrock's house with all the Aussies complete with meat pie and peas, meringues and all other types of Aussie tucker.
Thursday, another bigger storm more rain in the late arvo in to the night. We were sad to learn at bible study tonight that in Tuesdays storm at Mvumi - 40km's away they had a very bad hail storm - hail is very unusual in this area which completely decimated all the crops. Please pray that they will be able to grow another crop before the rains stop in April/May. Another interesting little difference about life here is that margarine is made to be stored on the shelf, if you forget and put it in the fridge it becomes rock hard.
For most wazungu there are 2 rituals that mark everyday, antimalarials in the morning and tucking in the mosquito net at night, sleeping under a mosquito net is a way of life here. Wazungu is what westerners are called here. It is derived from a Swahili word which means to run around in circles, which if you stop and think about it for minute is very apt as we are often so busy doing things that we have little time to just stop and appreciate all the gifts and good things that God has given us.
Saturday: we go to the meat market 6kms out of town. This is quite an experience, There is a row of tables and the 'butchers' either have their carcasses hanging or laid out on their tables and you just ask for what you want and they cut it off and trim off the fat. I bought a kilo of beef fillet steak which cost $3.50! At the meat market you can also buy good quality new and used clothes very cheaply as well as locally made - Kanga's - printed cottons, some fruit & veggies and also pots pans and plastic ware.
In the afternoon I went to the pool, Saturday afternoon is after all pool afternoon
Today I went to the Swahili service with 4 other teachers from school - one sings in the Swahili choir that performed
The service was a lot longer about 2.5 hours but the music and singing was fantastic and at end they sung Lord I Lift your name on High in English that Jon had taught them.
Another difference between services was that in the Swahili service when the collection time comes, they put baskets at the front and everyone who has an offering files past and drops the money in the basket After the service we went to the New Dodoma Hotel for lunch - this is the most upmarket hotel in town and very nice. The prices were expensive by local standards but still very cheap compared with Sydney prices.
The work that I have come to do is progressing slowly, there have been a few complications, as I mentioned last time 2 power supplies died and we have also had some cabling issues but these are being sorting these out and hope to start creating the AD structure and accounts later this week.
The network is alive !
Dodoma 20 Feb
Dear Friends,
Welcome to a short but significant edition of Tanzanian Tales. Last Monday the computer room had its first classes and apart from a couple of small teething problems it all went very well. We are still waiting for the router to arrive so no internet access yet. It is very appropriate at this time to thank those of you who responded so quickly to my emails with good advice and answers to my questions. Asante sana. This doesn’t mean however that my work is anywhere near done yet, the school office has no cabling yet – Jeremy plans to do that while everybody else is on holidays and after that comes creating an internal website where the students will be able to access web pages and other resources that the teachers have downloaded
Can you guess what goes beep beep --- beep beep beep --- beep beep --- beep beep beep?
It is the horn of the lead car in a wedding procession as it passes by with the wedding party in an open top van, followed by bus loads of guests. We have had 2 pass by since the last TT.
Some of you I know like going off road for the bumps and dodging the pot holes well I reckon you get more action driving along road the road that leads to our headmaster’s house than many places I’ve been and that’s only a stretch of 900 metres !!
Apart from the main streets in town and out of town all the others are dirt and full of potholes and do nasty things to your suspension.
The 2 teachers I mentioned in TT2 are now back in town and will start teaching again on Monday but please keep praying for them .
In conversation I discovered that the concept of a “pie” – any sort of pie doesn’t exist in the Tanzanian culinary encyclopedia. I am doing my bit to redress this. Last Friday to welcome Kath Budden – a returning CMSA misso to our compound we had dinner at my unit. With the help of Jon my neighbour we started the process by explaining and showing her a picture of a shepherds pie except with a pie base and using steak pieces instead of mince . It was an outstanding success – nzuri sana - (very good). The next step this Tuesday will be to substitute a pastry crust for the potato… stay tuned.
Last Wednesday I started Swahili lessons with another CMSNZ short term teacher in my compound. Lucy – the teacher comes on Wednesday’s for around an hour for only TZS 2000!
Today at church we had a visitor, the bishop of Tabora, Francis Ntiruka was passing through on his way back home. It was a great honour to meet and talk with him. When I was in Tabora 2 years ago he was away. He is retiring this year in July, so please pray for a wise and godly replacement.
School holidays start next Friday and a group of us are going Dar to drop off someone and go shopping, they for school books and me for software and computer bits. There is no tax at all on computer parts and accessories so computer parts and most peripherals are quite cheap here.
Then we are going to Iringa – higher, so much cooler – to visit friends and look around, we are told the craft markets are very good there.
While we are there most of us are going to Ruaha National Park about 3hrs drive. I’m staying at the Ruaha River Lodge and the others are camping .
I am hoping to see some big cats as I didn’t see any of those last time apart from a couple of lionesses.
Apart from mosquitoes, one of the other more unpleasant dudus (insects) that inhabit Ruaha and partly the reason for its existence the guidebook says, are the Tse Tse flies which abound and can carry sleeping sickness…. Which is another reason why I am staying in a nice comfortable screened lodge!
In the meantime ;
Please continue to pray for my health as there is a bug going around at the moment.
Pray for our safety in Ruaha – wild animals can be unpredictable and as well the elephants in this park are known to be potentially very unfriendly and aggressive due to massive poaching last century – it is true – elephants never forget ;)
Dear Friends,
Welcome to a short but significant edition of Tanzanian Tales. Last Monday the computer room had its first classes and apart from a couple of small teething problems it all went very well. We are still waiting for the router to arrive so no internet access yet. It is very appropriate at this time to thank those of you who responded so quickly to my emails with good advice and answers to my questions. Asante sana. This doesn’t mean however that my work is anywhere near done yet, the school office has no cabling yet – Jeremy plans to do that while everybody else is on holidays and after that comes creating an internal website where the students will be able to access web pages and other resources that the teachers have downloaded
Can you guess what goes beep beep --- beep beep beep --- beep beep --- beep beep beep?
It is the horn of the lead car in a wedding procession as it passes by with the wedding party in an open top van, followed by bus loads of guests. We have had 2 pass by since the last TT.
Some of you I know like going off road for the bumps and dodging the pot holes well I reckon you get more action driving along road the road that leads to our headmaster’s house than many places I’ve been and that’s only a stretch of 900 metres !!
Apart from the main streets in town and out of town all the others are dirt and full of potholes and do nasty things to your suspension.
The 2 teachers I mentioned in TT2 are now back in town and will start teaching again on Monday but please keep praying for them .
In conversation I discovered that the concept of a “pie” – any sort of pie doesn’t exist in the Tanzanian culinary encyclopedia. I am doing my bit to redress this. Last Friday to welcome Kath Budden – a returning CMSA misso to our compound we had dinner at my unit. With the help of Jon my neighbour we started the process by explaining and showing her a picture of a shepherds pie except with a pie base and using steak pieces instead of mince . It was an outstanding success – nzuri sana - (very good). The next step this Tuesday will be to substitute a pastry crust for the potato… stay tuned.
Last Wednesday I started Swahili lessons with another CMSNZ short term teacher in my compound. Lucy – the teacher comes on Wednesday’s for around an hour for only TZS 2000!
Today at church we had a visitor, the bishop of Tabora, Francis Ntiruka was passing through on his way back home. It was a great honour to meet and talk with him. When I was in Tabora 2 years ago he was away. He is retiring this year in July, so please pray for a wise and godly replacement.
School holidays start next Friday and a group of us are going Dar to drop off someone and go shopping, they for school books and me for software and computer bits. There is no tax at all on computer parts and accessories so computer parts and most peripherals are quite cheap here.
Then we are going to Iringa – higher, so much cooler – to visit friends and look around, we are told the craft markets are very good there.
While we are there most of us are going to Ruaha National Park about 3hrs drive. I’m staying at the Ruaha River Lodge and the others are camping .
I am hoping to see some big cats as I didn’t see any of those last time apart from a couple of lionesses.
Apart from mosquitoes, one of the other more unpleasant dudus (insects) that inhabit Ruaha and partly the reason for its existence the guidebook says, are the Tse Tse flies which abound and can carry sleeping sickness…. Which is another reason why I am staying in a nice comfortable screened lodge!
In the meantime ;
Please continue to pray for my health as there is a bug going around at the moment.
Pray for our safety in Ruaha – wild animals can be unpredictable and as well the elephants in this park are known to be potentially very unfriendly and aggressive due to massive poaching last century – it is true – elephants never forget ;)
On Holidays in Iringa
We left on our trip to Iringa Friday afternoon with a very hot wind blowing as we (7) left Dodoma in the Nissan Patrol from school, after an hour or so it cooled down somewhat. Just after 7pm we arrived at Morogoro where we were staying the night at the Kola Hill hotel, just after 7:30 we found the hotel – out of town – on a hill… My room had a nice breeze blowing through the window , I found out later that some of the others weren’t so fortunate. We had dinner in a very pleasant outside bar area. I ordered fillet steak & chips – the steak was nice though it came in thin strips more like stir fry. Only 3500 Tzs.
Other interesting alternatives that we didn’t try were beef biting -, pea sandwiches and by popular vote the most interesting was mixed grill – described as “assorted gribblings –(fish etc)”
The next morning we set off early for Dar (Dar es Salaam for those of you who have forgotten) saw a truck that had come out of a street and driven straight into the deep drain on the other side of the road. In time we reached hot humid Dar – only 18ft above sea level. The others went to the discount bookshop for school and I went looking for computer shops. Eventually we all met back at the Econolodge – I had an air conditioned room on the 5th floor which is the top floor – turned out to be not such a good choice because there was a compressor making a huge racket on the roof above my room all night. We set off to Wet & Wild about an hour out of town – but it took a lot longer because the traffic was horrendous. When we finally got there I was rather disappointed to discover that the water was very warm, but the rides were pretty wild so it wasn’t too bad. We decided to go to the Movies on the way back – we chose Closer with Julia Roberts and Natalie Portman amongst others, without any idea what it was about – a BIG mistake! – take my tip and give this one a wide berth – lets just say we all came out feeling polluted.
The next day we set off for the long drive to Iringa – having to drive back to Morogoro to get on the road to Iringa. About an hour or so out of Morogoro you pass through Mkumi National Park and it was here we saw our first and only elephants, including a very cute little baby who was having very great difficulty climbing up the muddy slopes out of the large puddle they were refreshing themselves in until he got a helping nudge from mum. Here we also saw some very large giraffe and some monkeys crossed the road in front of us. Eventually we reached Iringa, which at 5000 feet is much cooler and more pleasant than anywhere we had been in the last month. We stayed at the Baptist guest house which was a pleasant place in very nice gardens.
The next morning (Mon) we explored the local markets and Ian Oates dropped by and kindly invited all of us to dinner which was a lovely time. Peach crumble for desert.
Tuesday most of us went on the long drive to Ruaha National park – 3hrs over dirt roads some of it rough even by Tanzanian standards. I was staying in a tented lodge deep in the park, the others were staying in the public accommodation huts called bandas. It turned out that theirs was relatively new and had good beds and nets with nice towels supplied for only $20US pp. When they dropped me off at the lodge I discovered I was the only guest. The lodge is on the Mwagusi river and my very spacious banda was high on one bank overlooking the river The river was dry and about 30 metres across where I was. I went on a game drive, saw many impala, a few giraffe and several groups of zebra but was disappointed to see no big cats or elephants.
After a wonderful hot shower I was escorted to a clearing about 400m from camp where they had set out a perfectly laid dinner table. I ate with the owner and his wife and 2 of his staff. It was a lovely meal and a very interesting conversation over dinner with 3 courses. The only thing missing was a clear sky – the clouds covered what must have been a beautiful sky – so far from any other light pollution.
The next morning I was woken by the sound of the river flowing again swiftly past my banda. After another hot shower and a breakfast consisting of fruit, scrambled eggs and hot cinnamon bread – yummo !
my friends arrived to collect me except this time they had to wade across the river to collect me. After wading back across the river we set off to find some LION. They had already had an amazing experience earlier that morning when they came across a family of lions, a big daddy with a full mane, mum and several cubs – the cubs were playing then mum and the cubs walked around the vehicle – unfortunately it was still too dark for photos. For three hours we saw nothing except the ever present impala and a few giraffe in the distance. Then at last we came upon a group of lions resting under a large tree. We got very close –about 3 metres. For a while they were interested but eventually decided that they’d had enough of being photographed and turned their backs to us. We never saw any more elephant but it was time to leave. I drove most of the way back to Iringa which was quite a tiring experience as the roads are very rough in places and would do nasty things to the suspension on a sedan. After a hot shower – went to dinner at the Bottoms up pub and had a very nice meal – ordered a lemon sole fillet – when it came it was this big black thing that looked more like a rissole than a fillet of fish – it was however very nice. – Soda’s ie Coke, Sprite etc are very cheap in Tanzania, a 350ml bottle will generally cost you 300 Tzs - about 42c and a litre of water is about 500Tzs
The next day we went to Isamilla – a must see if you are ever in Iringa - where they found and still find large quantities of prehistoric stone tools, axeheads etc they have them out on display and you can pick them up , if you look around the ground you can even find your own quite easily. There is also a gorge just a short walk away which has the most amazing natural rock formations caused by weathering and water erosion. Just as we were climbing out of the gorge it started to rain lightly- fortunate for us because the gorge is known to flash flood.
A couple of hours later it poured for an hour, after it had eased of a bit 3 of us went to visit a CMSNZ family at the Armani Christian training center – to deliver a parcel from friends in Dodoma. We took the wrong turn and came to a ford across a small creek – which had now become a raging torrent so we stopped and waited after about 30 mins the water level dropped enough for one of the trucks on the other side to attempt the crossing, having been successful more people got courage to attempt it – then we took our turn – only to discover that we were on the wrong road 15mins later. And had to come all the way back , the water flow had dropped to a trickle by this time, never the less it was an exciting diversion. We did eventually get to the right place and spent a very enjoyable time with the family and got our hair cut in to the bargain. There are many hair dressing “saloons” around but they are not used to cutting wazungu hair and you would probably come out with a No2 all over.
Next day we set off early to head home.
Computer room
Things continue to progress slowly , Jeremy spent his holidays running cable into the school office , and fixing and having fixed lots of things that needed fixing. We are still waiting for the router to arrive so we can at last have internet access. Eventually we will create a school intranet – the teachers will be able to download pages from the www and then we will host them locally and create home pages with links for each of the different subject areas.
Truth is stranger than fiction: A very kind friend sent me a care package of a number of blocks of dark chocolate weighing just over a kg – this parcel arrived 8 days after it was sent !! When I sent my residency application – thank you Colin for signing all the copies I sent them by EMS post at the cost of $49.00 and it took 16 days – Australia post did however refund the charge when I pointed out to them that their stated delivery time was 7-10 days .
We celebrate Easter Day in a Village Church
7th April 2005
Today is a newly proclaimed holiday so I thought I would celebrate by sending another short tale.
I think I have solved the email problem we should be ok from here in. I apologise to all those whose birthday I have missed, the motherboard on my computer died after 3 days and I am still waiting for its replacement.
We now have internet access ! And thank you to Andrew Cooper for his invaluable help in solving the final problem! The main use for this currently is email on the school MAF accounts – now that we don’t have to dial up several times a day to send and receive email, this will save the school a significant amount of money each year.
On the 20th of March 2 of us went to hear Kath Budden preach –(in Swahili) at Igondola parish near Mvumi ( of Jungle Doctor fame ) which is about 40 km away from Dodoma. The trip is quite interesting as you pass over a mountain range and into the next valley the landscape changes quite markedly and it is very beautiful. When we finally get there find someone to show us where the Pastor – Julius Chiswagala lives we are invited in and I bump my head on the low lintel as there is a step up from the ground to the door way.
Julius has 5 churches in his parish each of around 40 -70 people (plus their kids) and 3 catechists who lead the out lying churches. After a drink and some Japati we leave for the service - when we arrive at the Church building the building is packed about 150 people they have combined 2 of the 5 meetings in the parish to listen to Kath preach. The congregation is already singing with great enthusiasm and gusto in true African style. We are met & greeted by the elders outside the church and then process inside behind the pastor.
After some more singing we are welcomed – which involves standing at the mic and introducing yourself – your name and where you come from and anything else you care to say in bringing greetings to them. – in Kiswahili of course. One of the elders got up and then thanked us at length in English which must have taken him some time to prepare even though his English was good.
As this is a rural parish almost all of the people are farmers and are subsistence farmers,
But when it came time for the collection they all had something for the collection. – even if it was only some of their produce. as I mentioned in an earlier TT, in Tanzanian churches at collection time they don’t pass the bag around, the bag is up the front and all those with something to give file past and put it in. Seeing this especially when their area had been badly effected by hail reminded me strongly of the story of the widow’s mite in the gospels.
I was even more blown away to hear that the parish runs a kindergarten for 250 children and feeds them lunch every day. Of these 250, 35 are AIDS orphans and 24 come from single parent homes. Once a month the congregation takes up a special collection to raise money to pay the fees of the orphans and give the 2 teachers a small allowance.
It struck me that many of our churches are struggling for funds – why is that when many of us are incredibly rich. Yet in this parish where the people have demonstrably so little, they give so much.
The service is close to 3 hrs which is normal especially when you have a special guest preacher and during the service several of the church choirs sing. After leaving the church we line up outside behind the pastor to be greeted by everyone in the church while greets us – while the
Choir joined by others sing in a large group facing us.
After church we went back to the house where Julius stays for lunch of chicken &rice followed by watermelon – very nice, I go outside to the pit toilet and on the way in bump my head only harder this time – Julius is very apologetic, pole sana but its my fault for not watching.
After lunch, we go for a walk to the local shops where Julius’ friend owns a small what passes for a ‘café’ here. On the way we pass the local equivalent of a home made brewery where they sell the pombe – which is very potent but apparently tastes awful so people only drink it for one reason. At his friends café we had a very long and interesting conversation about the visible fruits of the Christian life. Julius speaks quite good English and has a great sense of humour, never the less, Kath is very tired by the time we leave as she did most of the work “alisema” ie “He said……” On the way we pass through a storm, but this didn’t get over the range so Dodoma got very little.
Tuesday: Rain woke me up around 12:50am as I lay there it kept getting heavier and heavier
But it stopped by early morning.
Wednesday Rain again until lunchtime this time and we had a blackout as well. But power outages are commonplace here and the kids and teachers took it in their stride. There is concern that the Primary school Easter production of Godspell (for which all the classes had been practicing for 6 weeks) which is being performed outside – the school has no hall. May be disrupted – so we organize with the cathedral to perform there if it is raining tomorrow morning. However we are blessed with fine weather on the Thursday so the performance goes ahead as planned and both the children and parents really enjoy the show.
Good Friday: Went to the service and back to the Horrocks for lunch.
Because we are so close to the equator Swahili speakers have a biblical approach to telling the time: their day starts at 6am so 7am is 1 o’clock so on Good Friday the Swahili congregation has their service from the 6th to the 9th hour.
Easter Saturday night we have dinner at the Dodoma Hotel where there internet is really slow but the food is quite reasonable – they do good steaks $6.00
Easter Sunday we leave after the English service for the Ukwata - (like ISCF- a national School Christian group) conference in Mpwapwa about 2 1/2hrs away – It has been raining and we have to go the long way – fortunately we have the patrol which has low range 4wd – there were some mighty big puddles and parts of the road very rough and would be impassable by a normal car.
We arrived the Teachers college complex - a big place and the oldest teachers college in Tanzania. After lunch we waited for the Choir competition to start – the program was running a long way behind schedule even by Tz standards and we were only able to stay for 2 of the 10 choirs that were performing. Because it had started to rain and we wanted to be back by dark if at all possible – driving after dark out of town is to be avoided if possible here.
The next school holidays start next Friday afternoon for 1 week, also I am moving house as Mark & Liz Williamson are returning from language school in Iringa to start their ministries here.
Jeremy’s wife Jill and their girls leaving for Australia via Switzerland this Sunday so next Friday
afternoon I am moving in with Jeremy until we leave in June -.
Next Saturday I am going to Dar to catch a plane up to Mwanza and then a bus to Musoma to visit the Vinks who are involved in Youth Ministry there. Musoma is on lake Victoria and I am told it is very nice.
Today is a newly proclaimed holiday so I thought I would celebrate by sending another short tale.
I think I have solved the email problem we should be ok from here in. I apologise to all those whose birthday I have missed, the motherboard on my computer died after 3 days and I am still waiting for its replacement.
We now have internet access ! And thank you to Andrew Cooper for his invaluable help in solving the final problem! The main use for this currently is email on the school MAF accounts – now that we don’t have to dial up several times a day to send and receive email, this will save the school a significant amount of money each year.
On the 20th of March 2 of us went to hear Kath Budden preach –(in Swahili) at Igondola parish near Mvumi ( of Jungle Doctor fame ) which is about 40 km away from Dodoma. The trip is quite interesting as you pass over a mountain range and into the next valley the landscape changes quite markedly and it is very beautiful. When we finally get there find someone to show us where the Pastor – Julius Chiswagala lives we are invited in and I bump my head on the low lintel as there is a step up from the ground to the door way.
Julius has 5 churches in his parish each of around 40 -70 people (plus their kids) and 3 catechists who lead the out lying churches. After a drink and some Japati we leave for the service - when we arrive at the Church building the building is packed about 150 people they have combined 2 of the 5 meetings in the parish to listen to Kath preach. The congregation is already singing with great enthusiasm and gusto in true African style. We are met & greeted by the elders outside the church and then process inside behind the pastor.
After some more singing we are welcomed – which involves standing at the mic and introducing yourself – your name and where you come from and anything else you care to say in bringing greetings to them. – in Kiswahili of course. One of the elders got up and then thanked us at length in English which must have taken him some time to prepare even though his English was good.
As this is a rural parish almost all of the people are farmers and are subsistence farmers,
But when it came time for the collection they all had something for the collection. – even if it was only some of their produce. as I mentioned in an earlier TT, in Tanzanian churches at collection time they don’t pass the bag around, the bag is up the front and all those with something to give file past and put it in. Seeing this especially when their area had been badly effected by hail reminded me strongly of the story of the widow’s mite in the gospels.
I was even more blown away to hear that the parish runs a kindergarten for 250 children and feeds them lunch every day. Of these 250, 35 are AIDS orphans and 24 come from single parent homes. Once a month the congregation takes up a special collection to raise money to pay the fees of the orphans and give the 2 teachers a small allowance.
It struck me that many of our churches are struggling for funds – why is that when many of us are incredibly rich. Yet in this parish where the people have demonstrably so little, they give so much.
The service is close to 3 hrs which is normal especially when you have a special guest preacher and during the service several of the church choirs sing. After leaving the church we line up outside behind the pastor to be greeted by everyone in the church while greets us – while the
Choir joined by others sing in a large group facing us.
After church we went back to the house where Julius stays for lunch of chicken &rice followed by watermelon – very nice, I go outside to the pit toilet and on the way in bump my head only harder this time – Julius is very apologetic, pole sana but its my fault for not watching.
After lunch, we go for a walk to the local shops where Julius’ friend owns a small what passes for a ‘café’ here. On the way we pass the local equivalent of a home made brewery where they sell the pombe – which is very potent but apparently tastes awful so people only drink it for one reason. At his friends café we had a very long and interesting conversation about the visible fruits of the Christian life. Julius speaks quite good English and has a great sense of humour, never the less, Kath is very tired by the time we leave as she did most of the work “alisema” ie “He said……” On the way we pass through a storm, but this didn’t get over the range so Dodoma got very little.
Tuesday: Rain woke me up around 12:50am as I lay there it kept getting heavier and heavier
But it stopped by early morning.
Wednesday Rain again until lunchtime this time and we had a blackout as well. But power outages are commonplace here and the kids and teachers took it in their stride. There is concern that the Primary school Easter production of Godspell (for which all the classes had been practicing for 6 weeks) which is being performed outside – the school has no hall. May be disrupted – so we organize with the cathedral to perform there if it is raining tomorrow morning. However we are blessed with fine weather on the Thursday so the performance goes ahead as planned and both the children and parents really enjoy the show.
Good Friday: Went to the service and back to the Horrocks for lunch.
Because we are so close to the equator Swahili speakers have a biblical approach to telling the time: their day starts at 6am so 7am is 1 o’clock so on Good Friday the Swahili congregation has their service from the 6th to the 9th hour.
Easter Saturday night we have dinner at the Dodoma Hotel where there internet is really slow but the food is quite reasonable – they do good steaks $6.00
Easter Sunday we leave after the English service for the Ukwata - (like ISCF- a national School Christian group) conference in Mpwapwa about 2 1/2hrs away – It has been raining and we have to go the long way – fortunately we have the patrol which has low range 4wd – there were some mighty big puddles and parts of the road very rough and would be impassable by a normal car.
We arrived the Teachers college complex - a big place and the oldest teachers college in Tanzania. After lunch we waited for the Choir competition to start – the program was running a long way behind schedule even by Tz standards and we were only able to stay for 2 of the 10 choirs that were performing. Because it had started to rain and we wanted to be back by dark if at all possible – driving after dark out of town is to be avoided if possible here.
The next school holidays start next Friday afternoon for 1 week, also I am moving house as Mark & Liz Williamson are returning from language school in Iringa to start their ministries here.
Jeremy’s wife Jill and their girls leaving for Australia via Switzerland this Sunday so next Friday
afternoon I am moving in with Jeremy until we leave in June -.
Next Saturday I am going to Dar to catch a plane up to Mwanza and then a bus to Musoma to visit the Vinks who are involved in Youth Ministry there. Musoma is on lake Victoria and I am told it is very nice.
Adventures in Musoma and Berega
Dodoma, 27 May 2005
Dear Friends,
Its been a while since TT5, lots of things have happened.
First, the good news is that Anna is recovering very well. She is still in hospital while she waits for a skin graft in the next 2 weeks. Thank you to all of you who prayed.
Tanzania is a very beautiful country but I as I walked out of our gate the other day to see the field of sunflowers with their golden faces smiling at me and the equally beautiful crimson and orange bougainvillea trees in full bloom, It occurred to me that it would be so easy to get caught up in what you were doing that you missed the real beauty of the place.
In which capital city in the west could you see a heard of cattle moving down an inner suburban street or a man moving his cows past your front gate?
Before I tell you about my trip to Musoma, let me tell you a little story that happened to me the other day.
In Tanzania the era of the corner shop (duka) is far from over, these shops mostly no bigger than the width of 3 phone boxes abound. These dukas stock a wide range of household necessities. Here in Tanzania eggs are sold individually, so if you only need 2 eggs why buy more! Anyway I was walking home from school and called at one of these dukas for some cold bottled water, as it was a warm afternoon. There was no one at home, however I could see someone on the verandah of the house 20m behind. So I called out to them and as the obviously African lady approached I called out to her in my best Swahili “Naomba maji” which is the polite way of saying “I would like some water” all I got was a blank look, thinking she hadn’t heard me clearly I waited till she got closer and repeated myself, more slowly this time- another blank look and then she said – I don’t speak Swahili. That’s ok I said, I want to buy some water. Not our shop, they must be out where are you from, she says, – Australia I reply. I’m Danish she says- Ok, I say - Thinking – Hmm never would have guessed that one.
You may remember at the end of TT5 I was catching the early bus to Dar because I* need to be there before 2pm to pay for my ticket. . Well I was successful in my quest. Dar was as usual, Hot, Humid and generally not pleasant, raining on and off all afternoon. I met up with the others and we ended up at a Mongolian restaurant called Storm – Nicely done up and air conditioned – it was a little expensive but the food was good and it was air-conditioned.
Next morning 4:30am wake up early to catch a 5:30 am Taxi to the airport – 20mins out of town. Breakfast on board the plane to Mwanza consisted of a butterless bread roll with some chicken mush and a small tetra pack of Lychee juice. (On the subject of juice – if you ever get the chance to try tamarind juice, do it).
On arrival at Mwanza airport, The first thing that was apparent was how quickly guide books go out of date contrary to what I had read the road to the airport is now tarred & sealed so Taxi’s and Dulla Dulla’s (more about them later) abound. There was not much business coming off the plane so there was a scrum amongst the waiting taxi drivers for my business. I choose a taxi and drive in to Mwanza, Tanzania’s 2nd largest city. I am told that the buses to Musoma now leave from the new bus stand at Nykato about 5 km from Mwanza. So it costs me 9000Tzs from the airport, I find out later that the Scandinavian buses still leave from Mwanza bus station.
I find a bus company that will take me to Musoma, buy a ticket and wait, about an hour later a bus arrives - destination “DAR”.
Musoma is north of Mwanza on the road to Kenya & Nairobi. Dar es Salaam, where I have just arrived from is a long way south. This is obviously not my bus I think – Wrong again! Buses to Dar from Mwanza travel North to Nairobi and back into Tanzania via Arusha, not realizing this important fact I almost miss the bus until the ticket man comes rushing up to me and tells me to get on quickly.
The padding in the seats isn’t great so I have a NB when we arrive at Musoma 3hrs later.
I am unable to make contact the Vinks – I realize the mobile no I have is 1 no. short and no answer on the house phone – so I take a taxi to the only hotel I can remember the Afrilux, having lest the Musoma map and info at home. I have lunch there, I am the only person in the restaurant but my meal still takes 1 hr – which is fine given the circumstances.
After lunch I start to explore the town –Musoma is on Lake Victoria and by the lake there are lots of boats and a small fruit and veggie market. To cut a long day short I finally make contact with the Vinks and they pick me up at 6:30pm. They have a lovely house in a compound on Mara bay, about 8km out of Musoma towards Mwanza. They look out over part of the lake, and enjoy very much sitting on the deck that Grant Murray made – during his time there. It is very peaceful sitting watching the lake. Behind their house on the road in there is a very interesting large granite kopje with a monolith on top – we climbed the kopje on my last evening in Musoma great view of the area from up there.
The location is beautiful but it does have a problem, over the years salt water from the lake has seeped into and contaminated their well so they wash in cold salty water most of the time unless their rainwater tank is full and then they can use a camp shower with some added hot water. The other problem with this part of Lake Victoria is that it contains Bilharzia and Giardia so swimming is out of the question.
The next morning – Monday, I go in with Jono to the Diocesan offices in Musoma and get a tour from Arthur who wears many “hats” in the Diocese. I meet a Crosslinks UK couple Martin & Sue who are doing a great work there, Sue has set up a typing school with old donated typewriters and also teaches English to the students. The school is highly regarded locally and almost all their graduates had found a job with 6 weeks of graduating
Martin has set up a small peer to peer computer network with a number of old donated Pentium computers running Windows98. They have a brilliant Tanzanian teacher who teaches MS office and was teaching the students how to link sheets in Excel the morning I visited.
I did investigate the possibility of catching a bus to Seonara in the Serengeti game reserve but they wanted me to be at the bus at 4:30am – far too early and I had been to other game parks previously. After looking around town and having fish & chips for lunch in a local “hotel”. The fish has been fried whole – not much flesh on it but it was only 1500tzs, about A$1.90. I arrive back at the Vinks and soon dark & threatening clouds appear accompanied by thunder, but sadly we get nothing.
Tanzanian’s often show great creativity when naming their shops, my favourite in Musoma was the barber shop called “Man barbing”.
Dalla Dallas – small people movers in various states of repair, are the predominant form of transport used by the people because they are very cheap a trip in a Dalla Dalla usually costs around 1/20th the cost of a taxi. The cost of a taxi from town to where the Vinks live @ Bweri is 5000tzs, (8km) the trip in a Dalla Dalla is 250tzs.
The disadvantage is that although they are not supposed to they often have far more people than seats. One afternoon in fact, I’m sure I participated in the Dalla Dalla people stacking record attempt, at one point we must have had 26 people in this bus with seats for 14.
Later that day Jono, the kids and I went down to the lakes edge towards sunset, saw a mono sail dhow making its way back down the lake and some boys fishing off some rocks just off the shore on the way back we saw 2 mongooses on top of a rock quite close to us up on their hind legs keeping a close watch on some local dogs.
Thursday morning early Jono dropped me in town to catch the Scandinavian bus – to Mwanza.
This turned out to be a drama & a half, bus was 2hrs late and despite being assured that there would be plenty of seats, the ticket collector on the bus told me that there were none! I went back in and complained and in the end there were actually seats – I got a single seat and my money back. The seat was right at the front and a bit scary as I could clearly see the bus speedo and he was doing 130kph on several occasions.
That afternoon I went out to the Sikuma cultural centre 15km out of town and 1.7k on a dirt road off the main road. It was a very warm afternoon and as the taxi kept on going on this long dusty road mostly uphill I was thinking about how I was going to get back, I wasn’t looking forward to walking back to the main road.
A French Catholic priest set up the center in the 50’s. He appeared to have been quite an enlightened fellow. The church is round like their huts and all the things in the church have symbolism for them in their culture. E.g. the pulpit is shaped like a drum with a flat sloping top, in their culture only the chief was allowed to bang a drum and when he did everybody would come to here what he had to say.
They have a collection of chief’s drums from all the Sukuma tribes – some of the drums are 900 years old I was told.
They also have a school that has so many students they have to run a 2 shifts a day as they only have a few classrooms. At the end of my tour I asked the guide about the possibility of a lift back to the main road. He went looking for the man with the car; he was nowhere to be found. However he did find a man with a bicycle who was prepared to put me on the pillion seat over the rear wheel. Not all that comfortable, but I was very grateful that I didn’t have to walk. On reaching the main road – caught the next Dulla Dulla for 500tzs.
That night it turned out that Helen Hoskins, CMSA misso from Bunda (between Mwanza and Musoma) was in town, having just arrived back from Aus and I caught up with her over dinner.
Just below my window at the hotel was a market that sold only clothes and shoes, both new and used, many, many vendors all crammed together.
Next morning back to the airport and back to Dar. Which was hot & humid as usual. I had planned to stay overnight in Dar, as I wanted to do some shopping for the computer room. The thing I had forgotten was that this Friday was a public holiday. And none of the shops were open.
I could have made the 11am bus back to nice pleasant Dodoma if I had realized!
It also turned out that it was Muhammad’s birthday and there was a big street procession with many different groups taking part including a troop of boy scouts who were carrying long wooden poles that they all banged on the ground in unison.
My trip back to Dodoma the next day was pleasantly uneventful.
Then back to school on Monday. The next important date was Anzac day, celebrated with a gathering of the Aussies and Kiwi’s at the house of Kath Budden another Aussie CMS Misso, a very pleasant evening was had by all. Then this was followed by Jeremy’s birthday which we celebrated with a BBQ on the escarpment overlooking Dodoma, we watched the sun go down and after dinner the clouds cleared completely and we saw the stars in their full beauty – undimmed by light pollution. “ In the skies his handiwork I see” goes the old hymn, we certainly did that night as we looked at the Southern Cross in all its brilliance and even the Milky Way was bright that night.
The weekend before last I was invited to spend the weekend with the Bradfords who live in Berega, which is half way between Dodoma & Morogoro – see the map, Steve is the deputy medical superintendent at Berega hospital and Kate teaches at the Lay training center and home schools her 2 delightful young daughters. So early that week I go down to the bus terminal to find a bus that will get me there on Friday afternoon after school.
After explaining the time I wanted to leave in both English and Swahili (you may remember that time in Swahili is different to English time) I was assured by one bus company that they had a bus at that time. When I went down on the Thursday arvo to buy the ticket – it was a different story of course – their last bus was at 11:30 am. They did however direct to another bus company that had services in the afternoon. But again when I actually got there on Friday arvo it was another story – but they put me on a long range Dulla Dulla bus – a big bus but doing the all stops to Morogoro, about 180kms. After leaving at 2:30pm we eventually got to the got to the Berega turnoff @ 6:00pm where Kate and the girls were waiting for me. The cost of the trip? 3000Tzs how far do you get in Sydney for $3.40? And the trip was quite comfortable really. They didn’t start loading the chickens and stacking the people in until Gairo –about 20mins before the Berega turnoff.
Berega village is only 6 km off the main road but it takes 20-25 mins to get there over a bumpy dirt road. A local chief gave the area where the Hospital, Bible College are and the wazungu live to the church 100 years ago. Berega is typical of most villages - no electricity so the Bradford’s cook on bottled gas, use a bottled gas fridge and use solar power for lighting. The house I am staying in has no water connected yet except a rainwater tap in the kitchen, so showers are a ‘bucket & chuck it’ affair with a thermos of hot water added to take the chill off it.
The next day we visit the orphanage- a slightly different setup, these babies usually have a family but the mother has usually died in childbirth or when they are still very young and the family can’t cope. Often a sister will come and help look after them and they will teach her mother craft, hygiene and give some basic schooling. Later they will reintroduce the child back into the family when it is a bit older.
After this we went to the hospital & visited the wards, in many hospitals especially rural hospitals like Berega, the parents or relatives of the sick person have to cook and provide food for them, as the hospitals cannot afford to provide food. At Berega there is a “relatives camp” at the top end of the property bordering on the village where they can rent a small bare room for a very small sum and can cook for their patient on small wood fires they make themselves. The village is typical of the area with thatched roves with mud brick walls or thatched lean-tos supported by sticks. Later that afternoon we were able to have a look at the surgery theatres – which had been recently renovated but were still very basic but practical.
On the way home the bus was ½ hour late and it started to rain while I was waiting but a another lady waiting for a bus shared her tree with me so it wasn’t all that bad.
Dear Friends,
Its been a while since TT5, lots of things have happened.
First, the good news is that Anna is recovering very well. She is still in hospital while she waits for a skin graft in the next 2 weeks. Thank you to all of you who prayed.
Tanzania is a very beautiful country but I as I walked out of our gate the other day to see the field of sunflowers with their golden faces smiling at me and the equally beautiful crimson and orange bougainvillea trees in full bloom, It occurred to me that it would be so easy to get caught up in what you were doing that you missed the real beauty of the place.
In which capital city in the west could you see a heard of cattle moving down an inner suburban street or a man moving his cows past your front gate?
Before I tell you about my trip to Musoma, let me tell you a little story that happened to me the other day.
In Tanzania the era of the corner shop (duka) is far from over, these shops mostly no bigger than the width of 3 phone boxes abound. These dukas stock a wide range of household necessities. Here in Tanzania eggs are sold individually, so if you only need 2 eggs why buy more! Anyway I was walking home from school and called at one of these dukas for some cold bottled water, as it was a warm afternoon. There was no one at home, however I could see someone on the verandah of the house 20m behind. So I called out to them and as the obviously African lady approached I called out to her in my best Swahili “Naomba maji” which is the polite way of saying “I would like some water” all I got was a blank look, thinking she hadn’t heard me clearly I waited till she got closer and repeated myself, more slowly this time- another blank look and then she said – I don’t speak Swahili. That’s ok I said, I want to buy some water. Not our shop, they must be out where are you from, she says, – Australia I reply. I’m Danish she says- Ok, I say - Thinking – Hmm never would have guessed that one.
You may remember at the end of TT5 I was catching the early bus to Dar because I* need to be there before 2pm to pay for my ticket. . Well I was successful in my quest. Dar was as usual, Hot, Humid and generally not pleasant, raining on and off all afternoon. I met up with the others and we ended up at a Mongolian restaurant called Storm – Nicely done up and air conditioned – it was a little expensive but the food was good and it was air-conditioned.
Next morning 4:30am wake up early to catch a 5:30 am Taxi to the airport – 20mins out of town. Breakfast on board the plane to Mwanza consisted of a butterless bread roll with some chicken mush and a small tetra pack of Lychee juice. (On the subject of juice – if you ever get the chance to try tamarind juice, do it).
On arrival at Mwanza airport, The first thing that was apparent was how quickly guide books go out of date contrary to what I had read the road to the airport is now tarred & sealed so Taxi’s and Dulla Dulla’s (more about them later) abound. There was not much business coming off the plane so there was a scrum amongst the waiting taxi drivers for my business. I choose a taxi and drive in to Mwanza, Tanzania’s 2nd largest city. I am told that the buses to Musoma now leave from the new bus stand at Nykato about 5 km from Mwanza. So it costs me 9000Tzs from the airport, I find out later that the Scandinavian buses still leave from Mwanza bus station.
I find a bus company that will take me to Musoma, buy a ticket and wait, about an hour later a bus arrives - destination “DAR”.
Musoma is north of Mwanza on the road to Kenya & Nairobi. Dar es Salaam, where I have just arrived from is a long way south. This is obviously not my bus I think – Wrong again! Buses to Dar from Mwanza travel North to Nairobi and back into Tanzania via Arusha, not realizing this important fact I almost miss the bus until the ticket man comes rushing up to me and tells me to get on quickly.
The padding in the seats isn’t great so I have a NB when we arrive at Musoma 3hrs later.
I am unable to make contact the Vinks – I realize the mobile no I have is 1 no. short and no answer on the house phone – so I take a taxi to the only hotel I can remember the Afrilux, having lest the Musoma map and info at home. I have lunch there, I am the only person in the restaurant but my meal still takes 1 hr – which is fine given the circumstances.
After lunch I start to explore the town –Musoma is on Lake Victoria and by the lake there are lots of boats and a small fruit and veggie market. To cut a long day short I finally make contact with the Vinks and they pick me up at 6:30pm. They have a lovely house in a compound on Mara bay, about 8km out of Musoma towards Mwanza. They look out over part of the lake, and enjoy very much sitting on the deck that Grant Murray made – during his time there. It is very peaceful sitting watching the lake. Behind their house on the road in there is a very interesting large granite kopje with a monolith on top – we climbed the kopje on my last evening in Musoma great view of the area from up there.
The location is beautiful but it does have a problem, over the years salt water from the lake has seeped into and contaminated their well so they wash in cold salty water most of the time unless their rainwater tank is full and then they can use a camp shower with some added hot water. The other problem with this part of Lake Victoria is that it contains Bilharzia and Giardia so swimming is out of the question.
The next morning – Monday, I go in with Jono to the Diocesan offices in Musoma and get a tour from Arthur who wears many “hats” in the Diocese. I meet a Crosslinks UK couple Martin & Sue who are doing a great work there, Sue has set up a typing school with old donated typewriters and also teaches English to the students. The school is highly regarded locally and almost all their graduates had found a job with 6 weeks of graduating
Martin has set up a small peer to peer computer network with a number of old donated Pentium computers running Windows98. They have a brilliant Tanzanian teacher who teaches MS office and was teaching the students how to link sheets in Excel the morning I visited.
I did investigate the possibility of catching a bus to Seonara in the Serengeti game reserve but they wanted me to be at the bus at 4:30am – far too early and I had been to other game parks previously. After looking around town and having fish & chips for lunch in a local “hotel”. The fish has been fried whole – not much flesh on it but it was only 1500tzs, about A$1.90. I arrive back at the Vinks and soon dark & threatening clouds appear accompanied by thunder, but sadly we get nothing.
Tanzanian’s often show great creativity when naming their shops, my favourite in Musoma was the barber shop called “Man barbing”.
Dalla Dallas – small people movers in various states of repair, are the predominant form of transport used by the people because they are very cheap a trip in a Dalla Dalla usually costs around 1/20th the cost of a taxi. The cost of a taxi from town to where the Vinks live @ Bweri is 5000tzs, (8km) the trip in a Dalla Dalla is 250tzs.
The disadvantage is that although they are not supposed to they often have far more people than seats. One afternoon in fact, I’m sure I participated in the Dalla Dalla people stacking record attempt, at one point we must have had 26 people in this bus with seats for 14.
Later that day Jono, the kids and I went down to the lakes edge towards sunset, saw a mono sail dhow making its way back down the lake and some boys fishing off some rocks just off the shore on the way back we saw 2 mongooses on top of a rock quite close to us up on their hind legs keeping a close watch on some local dogs.
Thursday morning early Jono dropped me in town to catch the Scandinavian bus – to Mwanza.
This turned out to be a drama & a half, bus was 2hrs late and despite being assured that there would be plenty of seats, the ticket collector on the bus told me that there were none! I went back in and complained and in the end there were actually seats – I got a single seat and my money back. The seat was right at the front and a bit scary as I could clearly see the bus speedo and he was doing 130kph on several occasions.
That afternoon I went out to the Sikuma cultural centre 15km out of town and 1.7k on a dirt road off the main road. It was a very warm afternoon and as the taxi kept on going on this long dusty road mostly uphill I was thinking about how I was going to get back, I wasn’t looking forward to walking back to the main road.
A French Catholic priest set up the center in the 50’s. He appeared to have been quite an enlightened fellow. The church is round like their huts and all the things in the church have symbolism for them in their culture. E.g. the pulpit is shaped like a drum with a flat sloping top, in their culture only the chief was allowed to bang a drum and when he did everybody would come to here what he had to say.
They have a collection of chief’s drums from all the Sukuma tribes – some of the drums are 900 years old I was told.
They also have a school that has so many students they have to run a 2 shifts a day as they only have a few classrooms. At the end of my tour I asked the guide about the possibility of a lift back to the main road. He went looking for the man with the car; he was nowhere to be found. However he did find a man with a bicycle who was prepared to put me on the pillion seat over the rear wheel. Not all that comfortable, but I was very grateful that I didn’t have to walk. On reaching the main road – caught the next Dulla Dulla for 500tzs.
That night it turned out that Helen Hoskins, CMSA misso from Bunda (between Mwanza and Musoma) was in town, having just arrived back from Aus and I caught up with her over dinner.
Just below my window at the hotel was a market that sold only clothes and shoes, both new and used, many, many vendors all crammed together.
Next morning back to the airport and back to Dar. Which was hot & humid as usual. I had planned to stay overnight in Dar, as I wanted to do some shopping for the computer room. The thing I had forgotten was that this Friday was a public holiday. And none of the shops were open.
I could have made the 11am bus back to nice pleasant Dodoma if I had realized!
It also turned out that it was Muhammad’s birthday and there was a big street procession with many different groups taking part including a troop of boy scouts who were carrying long wooden poles that they all banged on the ground in unison.
My trip back to Dodoma the next day was pleasantly uneventful.
Then back to school on Monday. The next important date was Anzac day, celebrated with a gathering of the Aussies and Kiwi’s at the house of Kath Budden another Aussie CMS Misso, a very pleasant evening was had by all. Then this was followed by Jeremy’s birthday which we celebrated with a BBQ on the escarpment overlooking Dodoma, we watched the sun go down and after dinner the clouds cleared completely and we saw the stars in their full beauty – undimmed by light pollution. “ In the skies his handiwork I see” goes the old hymn, we certainly did that night as we looked at the Southern Cross in all its brilliance and even the Milky Way was bright that night.
The weekend before last I was invited to spend the weekend with the Bradfords who live in Berega, which is half way between Dodoma & Morogoro – see the map, Steve is the deputy medical superintendent at Berega hospital and Kate teaches at the Lay training center and home schools her 2 delightful young daughters. So early that week I go down to the bus terminal to find a bus that will get me there on Friday afternoon after school.
After explaining the time I wanted to leave in both English and Swahili (you may remember that time in Swahili is different to English time) I was assured by one bus company that they had a bus at that time. When I went down on the Thursday arvo to buy the ticket – it was a different story of course – their last bus was at 11:30 am. They did however direct to another bus company that had services in the afternoon. But again when I actually got there on Friday arvo it was another story – but they put me on a long range Dulla Dulla bus – a big bus but doing the all stops to Morogoro, about 180kms. After leaving at 2:30pm we eventually got to the got to the Berega turnoff @ 6:00pm where Kate and the girls were waiting for me. The cost of the trip? 3000Tzs how far do you get in Sydney for $3.40? And the trip was quite comfortable really. They didn’t start loading the chickens and stacking the people in until Gairo –about 20mins before the Berega turnoff.
Berega village is only 6 km off the main road but it takes 20-25 mins to get there over a bumpy dirt road. A local chief gave the area where the Hospital, Bible College are and the wazungu live to the church 100 years ago. Berega is typical of most villages - no electricity so the Bradford’s cook on bottled gas, use a bottled gas fridge and use solar power for lighting. The house I am staying in has no water connected yet except a rainwater tap in the kitchen, so showers are a ‘bucket & chuck it’ affair with a thermos of hot water added to take the chill off it.
The next day we visit the orphanage- a slightly different setup, these babies usually have a family but the mother has usually died in childbirth or when they are still very young and the family can’t cope. Often a sister will come and help look after them and they will teach her mother craft, hygiene and give some basic schooling. Later they will reintroduce the child back into the family when it is a bit older.
After this we went to the hospital & visited the wards, in many hospitals especially rural hospitals like Berega, the parents or relatives of the sick person have to cook and provide food for them, as the hospitals cannot afford to provide food. At Berega there is a “relatives camp” at the top end of the property bordering on the village where they can rent a small bare room for a very small sum and can cook for their patient on small wood fires they make themselves. The village is typical of the area with thatched roves with mud brick walls or thatched lean-tos supported by sticks. Later that afternoon we were able to have a look at the surgery theatres – which had been recently renovated but were still very basic but practical.
On the way home the bus was ½ hour late and it started to rain while I was waiting but a another lady waiting for a bus shared her tree with me so it wasn’t all that bad.
I leave Tanzania and visit Cape Town and The Zambian side of Victoria Falls
30th June 2005
I arrived safely in Sydney on the 20th, and am staying with my minister and his family while I look for a new place to live. All tales have an end and this one must end too, but there is a little left in the telling of this one before we reach the end so lets get started.
Life continues in Dodoma however as we approach the end of our time here there are many things to do
There was an official farewell by the Diocese for Bill & Ulla Arthur and the Horrocks at the Furaha hostel. Surprisingly it starts dead on time – this I am told is because it is being organised by the bishop and even more surprisingly it actually finishes earlier than the scheduled finish, which is a major ask here in Tanzania – thank you bishop!
One of the most prevalent diseases in Tanzania is Malaria and for those with a medical bent the type of Malaria you get here is plasmodium falciparium which the books say is the worst type and can often be fatal because of the sudden very high fevers it can produce and also the possibility of getting cerebral Malaria which causes the brain to swell.
Saturday morning 4th June early I need to visit the loo several times, later I have stomach discomfort and a headache as well and generally feel like death warmed up. Today is also the day when most of the furniture is being moved out so the place is a hive of activity. I try to stay out of the way. After organising all the movers Jeremy decides I look terrible as well and after consulting Ulla sends me off for a Malaria test – 500tzs – 60c at 11:30 am. On calling the health centre at 12:30 – the phone is answered by a telecom technician who tells me he is fixing the phone line and will be ready soon. At 2:00 we call back and get confirmation that I have Malaria – my count is +4 ie 4 parasites per 200 white cells.
Jeremy goes off for some Coartem to kill the parasites, and by 3:30 I am feeling much better, I really only felt horrible for 8 hours.
This is obviously because you have been praying for me – Asante, asante Sana. Thank you very much!
I even feel well enough to go down to the bottom compound for dinner with one of the new teachers and her husband – however I play it safe and just have a sandwich and come home early.
9th June is our teaching and office staff dinner at the Nam hotel, I have Grilled (Tanzanian style) Kingfish and chips. Also surprisingly the meals arrive within a short time except for Jeremy’s, which arrives in normal Tanzanian time. He only ordered grilled steak
With drinks my bill came to 4700 tzs ( 830tzs =$A1) I will miss cheap meals when I return to Aus. A very pleasant evening was had by all.
10th June is the last day of the school year. At 8:30 we take the secondary school over to Jubilee High – Jubilee is the new diocesan High school that took over the CAMS secondary site.
Despite the vocal support from the rest of our secondary school and the on field support of some the girls we go down 6 – 0, we was robbed!!.
Then back to school for the final assembly – a very good effort by all involved. All the leaving teachers and yours truly are called up and thanked publicly and given the opportunity for a few parting words
After thanking them for making me feel welcome ,I chose Proverbs 3: 5-6 as my final words.
Some of the students that I had assisted in the computer lab came up to me later and thanked me, which I greatly appreciated.
School finished at 12:00 - after they had gone we had an all staff lunch – egg chops, samosas beef patties and sodas.
You may remember that in Tanzania the most common margarine is Blue band, which doesn’t need to be refrigerated except in the hottest part of summer. I discovered today that Blue band comes in a size to fit all budgets. One of our house workers bought a 100g container - 150tzs, very convenient as we are eating out tomorrow night and leaving Sunday.
Saturday night we arrive late for what we think will be a small dinner with a couple of close friends, only to discover that Jane has cooked up a feast and invited all the CMS and school folk. Thanks Jane J
Sunday after being farewelled at church we go down to the bus terminal. 2 of our students turn up to say good-bye as well which was very nice of them.
The bus trip to Dar was uneventful. That night we ate at a restaurant called Chef’s pride just around the corner from where we were staying at the Econolodge. I ordered grilled Kingfish again, this time it came out western style, well presented and delicious.
Next morning we go our separate ways I head off to the airport.
Street sellers are very common in Tanzania, they carry their stuff on attached to large boards mostly and offering a wide selection of things for sale from ladies underwear to 10mtr power extension cords.
The sellers in Dar mainly walk down the lanes between the cars so only have a small collection.
The fellow I saw this morning had; an iron, a 10mtr power lead, TV/VCR remote control & a heavy padlock.
After leaving Dar enroute to Joburg the pilot announced that the weather in Joburg was overcast and with rain was 14deg quite a change from the 20 degrees in Dodoma.
Flying over Mozambique the cloud cover looked like the cracked mud you see on a dry riverbed then after about 10mins travel it finished a straight line like waves breaking on the shore.
My final destination was Capetown, I was going to visit George Whitefield Theological College, as our church has an association with them. When I arrived, the principal kindly took me out to dinner at Spurs – a local steak house chain. I enjoyed immensely the opportunity to have my steak medium rare, something I had missed greatly in Dodoma because of the health risks involved in eating meat not fully cooked there.
I discovered that in South Africa a passionfruit is called a grenadillo, Why is this I wonder?
Next morning it is still cold and overcast with showers. Mandie the asst registrar takes me on a tour of the college, the college is very short of space and is in the middle of constructing a new building that will house over 40,000 books, a computer lab (a requirement from the University they are associated with) and a new auditorium. They have also been able to purchase very cheaply a 3 storey building opposite because it will need a great deal of renovation. When finished, this building will be a new residential wing and a student common room. Check out their website at http://www.gwc.ac.za
In the afternoon the rain stops so I take the train from Muisenberg (where the college is) to Simonstown, which is the end of the trainline- the track follows the shoreline of the bay, on a nice sunny day the views from the train would be magnificent. I enjoyed the long walk from the station into the actual town. The South African Navy has its base in Simonstown and there were many smartly uniformed sailors on their way home. The flat coastal area is very narrow in this area and the mountain range rises steeply immediately behind the houses with some expansion going on up the slopes.
Next day I went to Robben Island – where Nelson Mandela amongst many others was held for 18 years.
It is a 30min trip across the bay by ferry and there was quite a swell in the bay so that was quite fun.
The island is quite a pretty place and there are some springbok and other animals the island .
There are many families of staff resident on the island now as the island is now a historic monument & museum there is even a public school for the kids. We were told that the kids like winter the best because as the teachers all live on the mainland, when the winter squalls make the bay too rough for the ferry to cross they get the day off. The tour of the island has 2 parts a 45min bus tour then the prison tour 1.5hrs however our tour guide on the bus spends so much time telling us about his ANC heroes and the struggle that we arrive very late at the prison and so our prison tour is cut short as we have to catch the last ferry back to the mainland.
Thursday, is bright and sunny and Pat Munro from the college staff and her husband Dave very kindly take me on a tour of the area including a visit to Seaforth and the penguin beach near by, and yes there were lots of penguins there. We had lunch at the very nice Seaforth restaurant that looks over False bay back toward Muisenberg. Then we went over the hill to the Atlantic side of the cape. It is at Cape point that the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet and the water is significantly colder on the Atlantic side.
The beachfront at Muisenberg is very popular in summer as it is a long wide sandy beach and even in winter lots of people go walking on the beach it is also very picturesque as there are a row of brightly painted wooden beach hut changing rooms
While I was at the college I had the great privilege of meeting some Tanzania pastors, Joseph from Musoma & Absalom from Murgwanza amongst others. Joseph has a crippled leg from polio as a child has a long pole that he uses to get around with. He was offered a prosthetic limb but when they told him he would have much less mobility he turned it down because when he visits villages he mostly walks and said that with his pole he could walk a kilometre before getting tired.
Next morning we leave very early (4:30am) to drive to the airport flying to Joburg for connecting flights – I am off to Livingstone in Zambia to see Victoria Falls. I am booked in to a lodge on the Zambezi river about 4km upstream from the falls. From the bar / pool area we can see the mist rising from the “Smoke that thunders” the lodge is very pleasant and has a tented camp option as well as chalets. My chalet is very pleasant and cool, The verandah looks over a creek – wonderful for mozzies so I keep the curtains and windows closed after dusk.
I am booked on a sunset cruise – nibbles and drinks cruising the Zambezi upstream away from the falls
But because the bookings are low at this time of year they only send one boat out which is the dinner cruise so I get dinner as well – but the snacks and hot nibbles they served before dinner were more than enough. The river is beautiful, dark and glassy as we sail the birds and other wildlife and we are fortunate to see a family of hippos up close and they played up a little as though they were putting on a little show for us. The view of the sunset from the river was just sensational.
As we were on the way back to the lodge the crew put on a little show of local song and dance and the passengers got involved it was a great experience.
Saturday, I get a lift to the falls with a fellow just starting his own safari company. After paying the entry fee – an all day pass I see my first (dry) view of the falls. It is truly amazing. On the Zambian side you are actually much closer to the falls than the Zimbabwean side.
They say that a visit to the falls comes in two types, if the wind is blowing the right direction you get a beautiful view of the majestic thundering of the Zambezi as it plummets into the gorge 100 metres below at the rate of over 500 million cubic metres per minute, If it isn’t, you get very wet as well J from the mist as it falls back to earth like heavy rain.
A little way down the path There are a couple of fellows who have a rain poncho rental business, I look at the state of the people coming up the path from the cliff edge and see that the wind is decidedly not blowing in the right direction and rent a poncho to go over my spray jacket. I later pass 2 girls wearing
t-shirts who decided not to rent ponchos and now look like they have entered one of those competitions.
I do indeed get very wet as the wind is blowing towards us and the mist falls like torrential rain.
The view is amazing but after a while, several photos and a movie later I retreat from the cliff path a little to regroup and try and find a drier path.
Later as I splodge my way out of the falls park I stop by the huge arts and crafts market in the carpark area aka tourist trap. They have lots of things on offer from huge ugly statues and masks to small ugly statues and masks as well as small carved ebony and rosewood hippos, rhinos and a few other animals as well as beaded necklaces and drums etc but nothing really took my interest as I already had some very beautiful intricately carved sets of African animals that I bought in Dodoma.
One interesting thing was that many people wanted to swap their goods for my pen or some other item of clothing. I later find out that even though pens are available and quite cheap the traders take them back to the villages where they get their wares and swap them with the people who make the articles in the first place.
Sunday morning 19th: I am flying out this afternoon to Joburg and then home 3hrs later. This morning however I throw caution to the wind – literally! and have booked a microlight flight over the falls and upper Zambezi. I had wanted to book a flight in a Tiger moth but they are all booked out.
For those of you who have never seen a microlight, think of a go-cart with 2 seats squashed into it and a large wing attached over the top of it with large wheels on the bottom.
I am given a padded flight suit and helmet with full-face visor and strapped in to my seat. We take off and it is really cold up here. Before long are approaching the falls, as we are approaching the falls the full realisation that I am a long way up in the air and the only thing between me an the ground is the flying seat I am strapped in to hits me. You will be happy to know that I didn’t panic but when we were over the falls and he dipped the wing and said look over there I found that somewhat difficult. However it was very interesting and later when we where back up stream we flew lower over some white rhino in the reserve. The pilot said when we were on the ground that he sensed that I was a bit nervous up there – that was an understatement but still it was an interesting trip.
Later at Livingstone airport the check-in desk is immediately after the baggage X-ray, the area is small they have no fans or aircon and it is hot & a bit stuffy– pity help people in summer. They have a computer for check-in but no printer so they have to write out a boarding pass for each passenger hence a huge queue.
Once checked in I proceed to the gate lounge – I choose the overflow lounge – some rows of seats underneath the trees on the nice green grass outside. More people join me and soon all the seats are full
until suddenly the water comes on and the large water sprinkler spurts in to life. This has been cleverly placed so that all the people on the left third of the seats relive their falls experience one more time before they leave Zambia. But as they say this is Africa or in my case; This was Africa.
Dear Friends, all tales must have an end and we have come to the end of this one. I do hope you have enjoyed the ride, I have.
In God’s perfect timing there may yet be another tale in the future.
Thank you for praying
I thank God for the wonderful experience /s that I have had in Tanzania,
For the things that I have been able to do in his service over there.
For the new friends I have made and the godly people who have encouraged me.
For my continued good health during my time there.
For the miracle of Anna’s recovery so far from such a life threatening accident.
I arrived safely in Sydney on the 20th, and am staying with my minister and his family while I look for a new place to live. All tales have an end and this one must end too, but there is a little left in the telling of this one before we reach the end so lets get started.
Life continues in Dodoma however as we approach the end of our time here there are many things to do
There was an official farewell by the Diocese for Bill & Ulla Arthur and the Horrocks at the Furaha hostel. Surprisingly it starts dead on time – this I am told is because it is being organised by the bishop and even more surprisingly it actually finishes earlier than the scheduled finish, which is a major ask here in Tanzania – thank you bishop!
One of the most prevalent diseases in Tanzania is Malaria and for those with a medical bent the type of Malaria you get here is plasmodium falciparium which the books say is the worst type and can often be fatal because of the sudden very high fevers it can produce and also the possibility of getting cerebral Malaria which causes the brain to swell.
Saturday morning 4th June early I need to visit the loo several times, later I have stomach discomfort and a headache as well and generally feel like death warmed up. Today is also the day when most of the furniture is being moved out so the place is a hive of activity. I try to stay out of the way. After organising all the movers Jeremy decides I look terrible as well and after consulting Ulla sends me off for a Malaria test – 500tzs – 60c at 11:30 am. On calling the health centre at 12:30 – the phone is answered by a telecom technician who tells me he is fixing the phone line and will be ready soon. At 2:00 we call back and get confirmation that I have Malaria – my count is +4 ie 4 parasites per 200 white cells.
Jeremy goes off for some Coartem to kill the parasites, and by 3:30 I am feeling much better, I really only felt horrible for 8 hours.
This is obviously because you have been praying for me – Asante, asante Sana. Thank you very much!
I even feel well enough to go down to the bottom compound for dinner with one of the new teachers and her husband – however I play it safe and just have a sandwich and come home early.
9th June is our teaching and office staff dinner at the Nam hotel, I have Grilled (Tanzanian style) Kingfish and chips. Also surprisingly the meals arrive within a short time except for Jeremy’s, which arrives in normal Tanzanian time. He only ordered grilled steak
With drinks my bill came to 4700 tzs ( 830tzs =$A1) I will miss cheap meals when I return to Aus. A very pleasant evening was had by all.
10th June is the last day of the school year. At 8:30 we take the secondary school over to Jubilee High – Jubilee is the new diocesan High school that took over the CAMS secondary site.
Despite the vocal support from the rest of our secondary school and the on field support of some the girls we go down 6 – 0, we was robbed!!.
Then back to school for the final assembly – a very good effort by all involved. All the leaving teachers and yours truly are called up and thanked publicly and given the opportunity for a few parting words
After thanking them for making me feel welcome ,I chose Proverbs 3: 5-6 as my final words.
Some of the students that I had assisted in the computer lab came up to me later and thanked me, which I greatly appreciated.
School finished at 12:00 - after they had gone we had an all staff lunch – egg chops, samosas beef patties and sodas.
You may remember that in Tanzania the most common margarine is Blue band, which doesn’t need to be refrigerated except in the hottest part of summer. I discovered today that Blue band comes in a size to fit all budgets. One of our house workers bought a 100g container - 150tzs, very convenient as we are eating out tomorrow night and leaving Sunday.
Saturday night we arrive late for what we think will be a small dinner with a couple of close friends, only to discover that Jane has cooked up a feast and invited all the CMS and school folk. Thanks Jane J
Sunday after being farewelled at church we go down to the bus terminal. 2 of our students turn up to say good-bye as well which was very nice of them.
The bus trip to Dar was uneventful. That night we ate at a restaurant called Chef’s pride just around the corner from where we were staying at the Econolodge. I ordered grilled Kingfish again, this time it came out western style, well presented and delicious.
Next morning we go our separate ways I head off to the airport.
Street sellers are very common in Tanzania, they carry their stuff on attached to large boards mostly and offering a wide selection of things for sale from ladies underwear to 10mtr power extension cords.
The sellers in Dar mainly walk down the lanes between the cars so only have a small collection.
The fellow I saw this morning had; an iron, a 10mtr power lead, TV/VCR remote control & a heavy padlock.
After leaving Dar enroute to Joburg the pilot announced that the weather in Joburg was overcast and with rain was 14deg quite a change from the 20 degrees in Dodoma.
Flying over Mozambique the cloud cover looked like the cracked mud you see on a dry riverbed then after about 10mins travel it finished a straight line like waves breaking on the shore.
My final destination was Capetown, I was going to visit George Whitefield Theological College, as our church has an association with them. When I arrived, the principal kindly took me out to dinner at Spurs – a local steak house chain. I enjoyed immensely the opportunity to have my steak medium rare, something I had missed greatly in Dodoma because of the health risks involved in eating meat not fully cooked there.
I discovered that in South Africa a passionfruit is called a grenadillo, Why is this I wonder?
Next morning it is still cold and overcast with showers. Mandie the asst registrar takes me on a tour of the college, the college is very short of space and is in the middle of constructing a new building that will house over 40,000 books, a computer lab (a requirement from the University they are associated with) and a new auditorium. They have also been able to purchase very cheaply a 3 storey building opposite because it will need a great deal of renovation. When finished, this building will be a new residential wing and a student common room. Check out their website at http://www.gwc.ac.za
In the afternoon the rain stops so I take the train from Muisenberg (where the college is) to Simonstown, which is the end of the trainline- the track follows the shoreline of the bay, on a nice sunny day the views from the train would be magnificent. I enjoyed the long walk from the station into the actual town. The South African Navy has its base in Simonstown and there were many smartly uniformed sailors on their way home. The flat coastal area is very narrow in this area and the mountain range rises steeply immediately behind the houses with some expansion going on up the slopes.
Next day I went to Robben Island – where Nelson Mandela amongst many others was held for 18 years.
It is a 30min trip across the bay by ferry and there was quite a swell in the bay so that was quite fun.
The island is quite a pretty place and there are some springbok and other animals the island .
There are many families of staff resident on the island now as the island is now a historic monument & museum there is even a public school for the kids. We were told that the kids like winter the best because as the teachers all live on the mainland, when the winter squalls make the bay too rough for the ferry to cross they get the day off. The tour of the island has 2 parts a 45min bus tour then the prison tour 1.5hrs however our tour guide on the bus spends so much time telling us about his ANC heroes and the struggle that we arrive very late at the prison and so our prison tour is cut short as we have to catch the last ferry back to the mainland.
Thursday, is bright and sunny and Pat Munro from the college staff and her husband Dave very kindly take me on a tour of the area including a visit to Seaforth and the penguin beach near by, and yes there were lots of penguins there. We had lunch at the very nice Seaforth restaurant that looks over False bay back toward Muisenberg. Then we went over the hill to the Atlantic side of the cape. It is at Cape point that the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet and the water is significantly colder on the Atlantic side.
The beachfront at Muisenberg is very popular in summer as it is a long wide sandy beach and even in winter lots of people go walking on the beach it is also very picturesque as there are a row of brightly painted wooden beach hut changing rooms
While I was at the college I had the great privilege of meeting some Tanzania pastors, Joseph from Musoma & Absalom from Murgwanza amongst others. Joseph has a crippled leg from polio as a child has a long pole that he uses to get around with. He was offered a prosthetic limb but when they told him he would have much less mobility he turned it down because when he visits villages he mostly walks and said that with his pole he could walk a kilometre before getting tired.
Next morning we leave very early (4:30am) to drive to the airport flying to Joburg for connecting flights – I am off to Livingstone in Zambia to see Victoria Falls. I am booked in to a lodge on the Zambezi river about 4km upstream from the falls. From the bar / pool area we can see the mist rising from the “Smoke that thunders” the lodge is very pleasant and has a tented camp option as well as chalets. My chalet is very pleasant and cool, The verandah looks over a creek – wonderful for mozzies so I keep the curtains and windows closed after dusk.
I am booked on a sunset cruise – nibbles and drinks cruising the Zambezi upstream away from the falls
But because the bookings are low at this time of year they only send one boat out which is the dinner cruise so I get dinner as well – but the snacks and hot nibbles they served before dinner were more than enough. The river is beautiful, dark and glassy as we sail the birds and other wildlife and we are fortunate to see a family of hippos up close and they played up a little as though they were putting on a little show for us. The view of the sunset from the river was just sensational.
As we were on the way back to the lodge the crew put on a little show of local song and dance and the passengers got involved it was a great experience.
Saturday, I get a lift to the falls with a fellow just starting his own safari company. After paying the entry fee – an all day pass I see my first (dry) view of the falls. It is truly amazing. On the Zambian side you are actually much closer to the falls than the Zimbabwean side.
They say that a visit to the falls comes in two types, if the wind is blowing the right direction you get a beautiful view of the majestic thundering of the Zambezi as it plummets into the gorge 100 metres below at the rate of over 500 million cubic metres per minute, If it isn’t, you get very wet as well J from the mist as it falls back to earth like heavy rain.
A little way down the path There are a couple of fellows who have a rain poncho rental business, I look at the state of the people coming up the path from the cliff edge and see that the wind is decidedly not blowing in the right direction and rent a poncho to go over my spray jacket. I later pass 2 girls wearing
t-shirts who decided not to rent ponchos and now look like they have entered one of those competitions.
I do indeed get very wet as the wind is blowing towards us and the mist falls like torrential rain.
The view is amazing but after a while, several photos and a movie later I retreat from the cliff path a little to regroup and try and find a drier path.
Later as I splodge my way out of the falls park I stop by the huge arts and crafts market in the carpark area aka tourist trap. They have lots of things on offer from huge ugly statues and masks to small ugly statues and masks as well as small carved ebony and rosewood hippos, rhinos and a few other animals as well as beaded necklaces and drums etc but nothing really took my interest as I already had some very beautiful intricately carved sets of African animals that I bought in Dodoma.
One interesting thing was that many people wanted to swap their goods for my pen or some other item of clothing. I later find out that even though pens are available and quite cheap the traders take them back to the villages where they get their wares and swap them with the people who make the articles in the first place.
Sunday morning 19th: I am flying out this afternoon to Joburg and then home 3hrs later. This morning however I throw caution to the wind – literally! and have booked a microlight flight over the falls and upper Zambezi. I had wanted to book a flight in a Tiger moth but they are all booked out.
For those of you who have never seen a microlight, think of a go-cart with 2 seats squashed into it and a large wing attached over the top of it with large wheels on the bottom.
I am given a padded flight suit and helmet with full-face visor and strapped in to my seat. We take off and it is really cold up here. Before long are approaching the falls, as we are approaching the falls the full realisation that I am a long way up in the air and the only thing between me an the ground is the flying seat I am strapped in to hits me. You will be happy to know that I didn’t panic but when we were over the falls and he dipped the wing and said look over there I found that somewhat difficult. However it was very interesting and later when we where back up stream we flew lower over some white rhino in the reserve. The pilot said when we were on the ground that he sensed that I was a bit nervous up there – that was an understatement but still it was an interesting trip.
Later at Livingstone airport the check-in desk is immediately after the baggage X-ray, the area is small they have no fans or aircon and it is hot & a bit stuffy– pity help people in summer. They have a computer for check-in but no printer so they have to write out a boarding pass for each passenger hence a huge queue.
Once checked in I proceed to the gate lounge – I choose the overflow lounge – some rows of seats underneath the trees on the nice green grass outside. More people join me and soon all the seats are full
until suddenly the water comes on and the large water sprinkler spurts in to life. This has been cleverly placed so that all the people on the left third of the seats relive their falls experience one more time before they leave Zambia. But as they say this is Africa or in my case; This was Africa.
Dear Friends, all tales must have an end and we have come to the end of this one. I do hope you have enjoyed the ride, I have.
In God’s perfect timing there may yet be another tale in the future.
Thank you for praying
I thank God for the wonderful experience /s that I have had in Tanzania,
For the things that I have been able to do in his service over there.
For the new friends I have made and the godly people who have encouraged me.
For my continued good health during my time there.
For the miracle of Anna’s recovery so far from such a life threatening accident.
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