Back to Songea...and Hanga

As I was sitting at breakfast on Sunday in Dar es Salaam planning my day starting with Mass at the Cathedral at 11:45, i was informed that the car to Hanga was leaving in the early afternoon! I had to cancel lunch with Ariel, and quickly start my laundry so it could dry before i had to pack it, but I was happy to be headed back to Hanga...finally.

I couldn't leave Dar without saying hello to my friend Aiden, who I met when I was there in July. this first photo is of us. (notice his Tanzanian soccer jersey next to my American football vikings jersey!)

I was very glad to ride with Br. Kizito all the way back to Hanga. we couldn't do the trip all in one day, so we stayed the night at a very nice hostel in Makumbuko (sp?) I had my own bathroom, a nice bed, and even a TV in my room where i could watch the BBC news. all for only 6000 Tsh a night. cant beat it. This picture is of Kizito buying potatoes the next morning on the road along the way home. This was after we stopped in Njombe for breakfast.


It was good to arrive back in Songea during the day. I had a chance to walk around again, check the mail at the post office, and even write and send a letter to Honduras :) here are some nice scenic pictures of the city from the second floor of the Amani shop...the building that Hanga monastery owns in Songea.


I was worried that I would be fired from teaching because i missed the first day back on Monday! (we didnt' arrive in Hanga until Monday evening) At school on Tuesday morning, though, the students told me that they didn't have any class at all on Monday. I was relieved. In the afternoon yesterday I went back to Songea with Br. Kastor (the headmaster of the primary school i teach at) we needed to get some pencil boxes made and buy a door handle. of course we had to stop and chat with everyone in the town that Kastor knows too. it was fun, though because i got introduced to a lot of new faces! maybe they will recognize me next time i am in Songea... OH! and we also got some ice cream at SuperCafe after eating Chips Mayai at the Mtini pub. It was a good afternoon.

more projects to keep busy today! and there will be more to do tomorrow. it is good to be busy again...

all for now.

Two weeks in Dar

Strange to think it has already been two full weeks in the big city. I have been keeping busy seeing the city. Here are some pictures of the Catholic Cathedral that I went to for Mass in english last Sunday! it was nice to be able to fully participate. it has been almost 3 months since i have been able to do that.


Below is a picture of Ariel and me with the family of one of his students. They invited us over to visit at the beginning of last week. Though most of the conversation for the 4 hours we were there was in Kiswahili, it was good practice for me to listen and try and follow!

It looks like I will be headed back to Hanga on Monday of this week. That is when a car is going back. It will be nice to ride with someone and keep him company, and also not have to ride on the bus alone!

Once back in Hanga the thing i will miss the most will be the variety of food i have been enjoying around Dar. It has been a lot of fun eating this week :) I have had:

american hamburgers
steak
ethiopian
indian
italian (well, pizza)
milkshakes
ice cream cones
real coffee

It is nice to know these foods still exist and I will be able to enjoy them next time i am in Dar. And back home! i am also thankful for the food at the monastery, though. they do a great job, but sometimes i just crave some pizza!

all for now. look for pictures soon of the new coffee maker i bought yesterday to bring back to hanga with me. mmmmm Kilimanjaro coffee...freshly brewed...

Safari ... then Dar Es Salaam!

I have a confession to make. This trek through Ruaha national park constantly reminded me of my visit to Animal Kingdom at Disneyworld! I suppose that is just a compliment to how realistic they make that safari seem. but of course nothing beats the real thing! let the pictures tell the story...

These Baobab trees were all over the place in Ruaha National Park. very interesting trees...

This was the Land Cruiser that Br. Justin drove us in around the park.

Br. Justin and Br. Theodore looking out over the Ruaha river valley. This is all full of water in the rainy season.

A Croc in the river...

We found another safari vehicle on the roads. The guides in that car were very helpful and even told us where to find good places to see the rare animals.

Dont know where Timon was, but we found Pumba and company...

I did take all of these pictures with my small point and shoot 6 megapixel digital camera with 3x optical zoom. so...when you see a giraffe that close...it was literally that close out of our window!

Claudia leaning out.

(you are not allowed to get out of your vehicle while driving through the park)

This guy met us on the road on our way out. I guess he didn't want us to leave...

After the animal viewing in the park, it was back to Iringa for the night. As with most African towns that I have seen, there doesn't seem to be much "city planning" in the layout of the houses. It was great to eat at Neema's Cafe in Inringa. They even had ice cream! and delicious paninis. I felt good eating here and supporting the place, too, because it is a project run by the Diocese of Iringa. There is also a workshop attached to the restaurant that provides work opportunity for the handicapped. They make beautiful crafts. If trekking through the middle of Tanzania, Neema's Cafe in Iringa town is a must stop.

This is Iringa...

I mentioned meeting our friends from England in Iringa. They rode with us back to Dar Es Salaam. This is me and Leila in Morogoro.

Since arriving in Dar I have said goodbye to my Italian friends who flew back home last Monday, and the crew from England who went back home in the middle of last week. On Wednesday my friend Ariel (PC in Songea) came to town and it has been fun to hang out with him for the past week. So much to see in the big city! Dar has a population of over 3 million.

There is so much to share, but i cant write it all right now.

some highlights from the week in Dar:

-have been feeling competant getting around on the public transportation, though sometimes the Daladalas (small buses) are literally so packed that it is hard to breath. makes you appreciate traffic laws that limit the number of passengers to the number of seats!

-Saw "The Mummy 3" in a new movie theater in a big mall complex on the other side of the city. The movie was so/so but the theater felt just like back home! i might go see another one tomorrow...

- went to the market in Kariakoo by myself. a lot of activity. so much stuff. words cant describe the smells.

-Have been eating great food all around town. There are pizza places, very good Tanzanian style food, and a lot of good Indian restaurants.

-I visited the home of one of Ariel's students from Songea. Her family lives in Dar Es Salaam. This was one of those experiences that not everyone gets the chance to experience. It was an entirely different side of the big city. The neighborhoos was quiet and didn't smell. Their house was surrounded by fruit trees (oranges, mangoes, passion fruit, pinapple) and life is so simple. I mostly sat and listened as Ariel had conversation in Swahili with the father of his student, but i was able to follow most of the conversation, just not participate. And after sundown we were served a type of porridge and yam and potato stew to break the fast (it is Ramadan and the students mother is Muslim)

so, like i said, too much to say in one blog post! it has been a great week in Dar so far. I think I will be headed back to Hanga by the end of the week. class begins again on Monday!

thank you for reading. sorry for such the long delay. hope to get back on my regular schedule once back in Hanga!

Standard VII graduation - Departure

It has been a full, and different, last couple weeks here in Tanzania. On the 6th of September (10 days ago now) the Standard VII class from the primary school graduated! that means they will not be back in school until January when they will start secondary school. The rest of the school (kindergarten through Standard VI, my students, will still have two more months of class.

below are pictures from the graduation

here we are in the yard of the guest house before departing on our journey.

(check out the sweet suit that the tailor shop in Hanga made for me for the graduation!)

i am pictured with Mereike on the left and Serena on the right.

i hope you recognize my counterpart, Charlie!

BUT, this graduation meant that it is mid-term and so the students have no class for 2 whole weeks. I took advantage of this time off to travel with some of the other volunteers that have been around, namely Serena and Claudia from Italy and Mereike and Gisa from Germany and Charlie from MN and Catherine from Uganda and Br. Justin and Theodore from Hanga and we ran into our friends from England along the way, too!

See next posting for the rest of the journey. it is easiest to split this up!

thanks for reading. sorry to throw all of this at you at once. internet is a little less reliable here in Dar Es Salaam.

Teacher Ben

This week has seemed very busy and fast. My time between classes, and also in the afternoon, at my school has been spent organizing and cleaning the head master's office. I am putting my organization skills to work! Serena has also been helping me the past couple days. I think after finally getting all the books on shelves and dusted off, my next project there will be cataloging the books! Any librarians out there that can offer some advice?

The graduation at the school has been postponed until Friday, so tomorrow I will have time to continue cleaning and organizing. Though i love my students already, it will be nice to have a day where i dont have to teach.

Friday after graduation we are off to Iringa, and then Ruaha National Park to see some wildlife! should be fun...no school for the next two weeks, so I will have to find more projects to keep myself busy :)

this week i was teaching volume in math class...can you recognize the picture of the cube on the board? V= L x W x H
or more simply stated, (Area of Base) x (Height) as we learned today.


i also found some more nice pictures from our trip to Mbamba Bay a couple weeks ago. These pictures, and the ones from my classroom, were taken by Claudia.
the top picture shows the kids impressed by my fast texting skills...and the bottom is of me, Charlie, and Serena.

Songea for the weekend

this past weekend we made a trip to Songea! we met up with some other volunteers who were in the area. Friday night we ate dinner with a group of students from a university in England who were in the country distributing books, saturday we helped them unload the truck of books (my shoulders are still sore from carrying those boxes of textbooks)

and then show them Peramiho (where we got 7 kilos of fresh picked strawberries!) we also had dinner together (fresh salad and spaghetti) and watched a movie.


sunday morning we got up and went to Mass at the Cathedral in Songea. still frustrating to not be able to understand any of the readings or the homily, but at least a little comforting to be able to follow where we are at in the Mass (liturgy of the word, Eucharist, et. c.)

it was a good weekend!
this week: back to teachin Mon-Wed (and continuing to clean/organize the headmaster's office) Thursday is Standard VII graduation, which should be a big feast, and then off for a trip to Iringa and Ruaha national park on Friday to see the wildlife, and on to Dar Es Salaam to say goodbye to our Italian and German friends, and hello to the Bennies just entering for their time in TZ. all for now...