I have been really busy the last two months traveling for the first couple weeks in January and then arriving back in Dodoma to help write proposals for the HIV/AIDS program here. My computer at home hasn't been working so its been a little tought to write up things to post on this blog. Lets face it though, maybe I'll never be a faithful blogger like some =). There is a lot I would like to share about and I would like to do a lot of it through photographs (most of the time images are prettier than words) The following pictures were taken on Lake Victoria in a town called Mwanza. My friend Joyce and I "trained" it to Mwanza (about 24 hours) enjoying a cup of tea in the resto-cart. I stayed with Joyce for a night and had fish from Lake Victoria for lunch, dinner, and breakfast, hmmm. I also met her beautiful, hilarious son Antony who is just a little Joyce (talks a lot and laughs and dances like his mama too). (I have to say I feel so happy right now, I think its because I am listening to kexp.org world streaming archive, I also locked on to iranianradio.com beforehand-- one of my faves, but i get a bit tired of it after awhile, but it brings back memories of dancing with my neice Rosie last year, man where does the time go! I had no idea I would be landed and living,
in the land of the living, in Tanzania a year ago)
Beautiful Lake Victoria kama oceana splendida, ajabujabu.
I attended a memorial service for Joe Shenk, a missionary with Eastern Mennonite Missions and MCC who died last year in a car accident while living in Musoma Tanzania. Joe was born and raised in Tanzania, and had returned with his wife Edith two years ago to work at the Mennonite Theological Seminary in Musoma (where the pastor of our church Mannesseh studied). many of Joe and Edith's family traveled from the States to be at the memorial. All of his five daughters and their families came for the service and to spend some time in Tanzania with Edith. His younger brother Daniel Shenk was also there. It was a powerful service. I remember the choir sang some songs written for Joe which had me in tears. I never met him but I could tell he was dearly loved, respected, and treasured here. His daughter Rose, lost her husband the same week that Joe died in the hospital in a car accident. She has four boys (1,3,6,9) (Jacob, Daniel, Andrew and Christian-beautiful boys). They were very cute. I kind of fell in love with them.
I travelled to Nairobi with Rose and her four boys from Musoma after I went with Rodney, Barb, Janae, Trevor, and Levi (also very smart and cute kids!) (the MCC TZ reps) to Jan's wedding in Mugumu TZ. Jan has been working under MCC the last 6 years as a coordinator for an HIV AIDS project. She's amazing and speaks wicked swahili (meaning awesome). She married Kajungu who is the youth coordinator of the program there. Also very cool (yes I could decipher the coolness after maybe two brief conversations =)). Very cool wedding. A goat was the "wedding cake". It was beautiful and it rained that day as well. A sure sign of blessing. Jan had 13 family members from Virginia there. Had a nice conversation with one of them on fly fishing in Alaska. Dont remember any details though. Remember, I am writing this all two months late.
The drought there was horrible though. Someone told me that people get up at 3 in the morning to walk to the water holes/wells because the lines are so long. Like Dodoma, things are very dry right now. The following pictures are of Rodney and Levi during the service for Joe Shenk, then a picture of Jacob, Rose's youngest, and his nanny. Then some pictures of Jan's wedding. I also hung out with Nick the other Tanzanian Salter who is teaching science at the nursing school in Mugumu. He like me, joined the church choir. I met lots of his students who were hilarious and forced me into their dorm rooms and fed us fish and tea. Nick is doing super great, his swahili kicks mine. Mines improving but maybe I have to try harder =). He is living with a fun family, and his host father does not let Nick out of the house after 6 pm or else there is big trouble. Nick had the funniest story about being attacked by safari ants in the middle of the night after two weeks in Mugumu. There was no electricity so he just jumped up and was scrambling around calling for someone to turn on a lantern so he could see what was going on! His host dad Nyamataga, finally got a light on, and stood on a chair escaping the ants and kept clapping his hands and exclaiming to Nick, "Serving and Learning Together! Serving and Learning Together!" (that what the acronym of the SALT program (which Nick and I are in) stands for. I laughed pretty hard! I had dinner with his family, and they were fun.
and more to be continued later freinds!
