Beautiful Weather and Zoom Calls

Despite it being the rainy season, we have nice days here and there between the rainstorms.  Today, the clouds cleared for a beautiful afternoon.  I walked down by the clinic and out in front of the Smelsers' house for the wide-open view out over the valley.  

After that, I had a zoom get-together with a group of friend from high school; we're scattered around now, but it was a fun way to catch up and spend some time together! We had to negotiate the time due to the time difference, but worked it out for noon their time (they're all in US Eastern time at the moment) and 7 pm my time, so that it wasn't too early or late for anyone.  One blessing of this time of quarantine is that we thought of doing this; I hope we can continue to do it periodically even once this is all over.  

New Kitenge Dresses!

I know they aren't great pictures, but I got my two new dresses today!  I've had the top fabric for a long time, since only a few months after I arrived in Tanzania, but hadn't done anything with it before now.  The second fabric I bought here in Monduli recently.  I didn't really need it, but I really like the pattern and it's just nice to have something new now and then, and I don't spend much on personal items here.  It's a rather slow time of year for Grace, my favourite seamstress, now that all the rush for school uniforms at the beginning of the year has finished, and I'm afraid that things might get rough here if there are a lot of closures in the future due to the virus, so I went ahead and had two dresses made.  I really like them!  I'm planning to save the top one for graduation this year.  If you can't see it well, it's a lime green pattern with big fuschia lilies all over it.  It's a little loud, but I love it.  I love the kitenge fabrics here; fair warning that when I do come back to the US I'm likely to dress rather loudly for local tastes. 

Also, have a view of my apartment from my dining table...and here's the second dress.  The background is mostly light blue with bits of green, with the major orange and black curlicue print.  I really like how it came out! I had her do a different neckline on this one, as all the rest I have are simple round necks.  

Another Bell Tower Update

Now, they're working on the bapistry that's being built into the base of the bell tower. 

Drive Back from Dodoma

We got up and ate the breakfast provided at the lodge (toast, boiled eggs and tea) and left around eight (late by the Allisons' standards, quite early by mine ;) ).  We were blessed with another day of beautiful sunny weather with fluffy white clouds for our drive.  It's pretty flat around Dodoma, with some occasional outcroppings here and there, but it got hillier as we drove north. 

I took some pictures of the countryside along the way; sorry they're not great as I didn't roll down the window for most as we were trying to get the air conditioning to keep up as the day warmed up.  

The dirt in central Tanzania is very, very red; you can see a bit of it at the edges of the road but none of these photos really capture it.  I love driving here, seeing farms and villages along the way, and many baobob trees.  We don't have many baobob trees right around Monduli and Arusha, but in most of Tanzania (and much of East Africa) they are common.  They are such iconic African trees, and I love to see them.  

We thought the roof on this little guard house was interesting.  Must have been a lot of fun putting the metal roofing on that.  The corn is really coming up, too! We chatted about music for a good while; the Allisons had a pretty good mix of country music on an iPod, and I played some Home Free, Secret Sisters and Chris Stapleton on my phone. 

We stopped in Babati on the way back to get some fresh vegetables at the market, since it's a bigger town than Monduli and therefore likely to have more variety, and so we wouldn't have to stop once we got back home.  I found a little bit of broccoli, but they didn't have much, but I also got my usual staples, bell peppers, onion and carrots.  The Allisons wore their masks while there; I didn't have a mask (and no locals were wearing them at all), but I did wrap my scarf around in such a way that I could pull it up to cover my mouth and nose when in a crowd.  However, I mostly just managed to confuse people; in their experience, Americans (which I clearly am) who come to Tanzania are generally Christians, but I was wearing a scarf on my head, so was I Muslim?  At least it was a conversation starter to have a nice chat with an avocado and green bean seller.  

Below, the gates into the market place: 

Above: the street that runs alongside the market in Babati.  

We stopped for food at a rest area a bit after Babati; I bought some chapati and some mishikaki (beef on a stick) for lunch, and the Allisons found some samosas.  They only had beef samosas, though, and I prefer the chicken ones.  I really need to learn to make good chapatis or find a good place in Monduli to buy them.  My friend Upendo can make them, I know, but she's pretty busy these days with her laundry business.  

We stopped for gas in Makuyuni, where the road turns toward Arusha.  If you turn left in Makuyuni, the B144 runs out by Lake Manyara an on to the Ngorongoro Crater and eventually the Serengeti.  After Makuyuni, we could see the crater wall of Ngorongoro in the distance for several miles.

I finally did roll the window down briefly to get a good shot without glare.  What a beautiful day!

We made it back to Monduli by three in the afternoon.  The photo below is driving up the TMA road into Monduli.  It's so green here after the recent rains! 

Road Trip to Dodoma

Road trip time! While we have been trying to socially distance as we can (social distancing is not really a thing here, and we are only at the early stages of the pandemic here, unlike the US), the Allisons and I are all still trying to get our residence permits (still...I've only lived here a year and a half...), and one of our current issues is that our work visas we got last year are not coded correctly for the type of residence permit we need.  Fielden has been on the phone with the labour department in the capital city, Dodoma, but it's hard to get much done over the phone here.  Without school, we've got plenty of time anyhow, so the Allisons decided to just drive down to Dodoma and ask at the office in person, and invited me along. 

It's about a six-hour drive to Dodoma.  Dodoma is not a huge town; the capital was moved there from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's biggest city, a few years back because Dodoma is so centrally located.  Dar es Salaam is on the coast, which made for quite a trip from the western parts of the country.  The highways only pass through one city of any real size on the way, Babati.  Other than that, the scenery is rural countryside.  I took these picture from where we stopped alongside the road in case anyone needed to use a bush.  

We packed our lunches to eat along the way so we didn't have to stop; I had peanut butter crackers and yogurt and we bought some bananas along the way.  

I took some photos of the streets of Dodoma as we arrived; I took them through the car window from the backseat so sorry about the reflections.  We were fortunate to have beautiful weather for our drive (not a given in April, the middle of rainy season).

Above, I didn't get a good picture of the parliament buildings, but here's a photo of the entrance to the Bunge (parliament) complex. 

We went directly to the labour department office.  We got the information we needed, but unfortunately, we can't get our work permits corrected until we have a certain document that is dependent on the school finishing an audit that has been put on hold due to the coronavirus closures.  Maybe someday...

Although our trip didn't yield the results we hoped for, it was really nice to get out of Monduli and it was a beautiful drive.  After we left the labour department, we went to Dodoma's new Shoppers (one of the small chain of grocery stores that we often shop at in Arusha).  They had the chocolate that I like that the Arusha Shoppers' had been out of, and a new flavour of Doritos, as well as a few other things that I picked up.  

Below, some of the items in the bakery at Shoppers.  I'm not sure Americans would always recognize things that are labeled American, and I'm not sure they quite understand the meaning of the word pie, but they tried.  We decided to just buy some snacks to eat for supper rather than trying to find a restaurant, especially as the Allisons are older and trying to wear masks when in public spaces when it's necessary to be in public.  I bought a little mini pizza (edible) and a spring roll (not edible), and I have some bananas as well as the chips and chocolate I bough just to stock up, so I've got plenty to munch on if I want it.

We stayed the night at the Zebra Lodge, which the Allisons had stayed at on a previous trip and liked.  It was clean and comfortable and had a gated area to park, so it was fine, although my shower didn't work.  I was looking forward to a real shower since I take showers with a bucket at home, but oh well. 

We checked in and sat around reading on the front patio for a while, but we still had a nice afternoon and we weren't ready to eat the snacks we'd bought at Shoppers for our supper yet, so we went on a walk through the nearby neighbourhood.  

Here's my room for the night.  It was nice to be in a city, as I had really good phone service.  I never could quite figure out the lights, though; the bathroom had a normal light, but the room seemed to only have an odd red bulb (trust me, it's not the red light district ;) ).  The room had an air conditioner, but it didn't seem to actually be cooling much, but it also had a ceiling fan which was plenty to be comfortable. I had a pretty good night, and we'll be up for the provided breakfast tomorrow and then drive back to Monduli.

Owl on the Bell Tower

Another bell tower update--the roof is finished now.  And tonight when I came out of the library, I saw a big owl fly over and land on top.  I hope he'll become a frequent visitor! 

Car Wash!

Well, yesterday I wrote about how muddy the car was after the trip to Moshi and the flooded and muddy roads of Monduli last night.  Well, several of the students have been dropping by my house to say hi or texting me regularly because they're bored and miss the social network that being in a boarding school provided.  I was chatting with one of my coworkers, Oscar, on Whatsapp this morning and I joked that the next student who bothered me was going to be put to work.  It didn't take long--I hadn't even finished my conversation with him before my phone rang.  I sent out a message to a Whatsapp group of local students, too, and quickly ended up with four boys.

I pulled the car outside the gate to the gravel area at the edge of the road.  Much to their disappointment, I moved the car myself and didn't let any of them touch the keys.  None of them have a license or have really learned to drive yet, but they are eager to try.  It's a bit of a narrow fit pulling out of my driveway, though, and it's not my car, so I said no. 

I sat out buckets, rags, brushes and laundry detergent to use as soap, and they got to work.  It didn't take long before the car was looking much, much better! Look, it really is silver!

The finished car, mud free!  The four boys are Salum's friend (Izaki I think, but I don't remember for sure), and my students Salum, Mathayo and Paulo.  

Road-tripping to Moshi

Well, today I went on a little road trip to Moshi (three hours' drive one way) with a car full of Tanzanian friends.  We all had some business there, and so we carpooled.  Moshi is a nice city; I've visited there a couple of times before.  It's the city closest to Kilimanjaro, right at its foot, really, but it was too cloudy to get any good views of the mountain today.  

We had a couple of stops for car issues: getting gas, checking the oil and adding more, fixing a puncture in a tire, etc.  Such is life on the roads here.  Fortunately, all the issues were easily fixed and didn't slow us down much at all.

  

We stopped for lunch at friendly-looking place on the edge of Moshi.  Here's another good look at typical Tanzanian food for you--the guys shared a platter of roast goat meat along with ugali.  I was really craving chapati (kind of like thick, fried tortillas), so I ordered some to eat with roast chicken and pilipili (handmade hot sauce).  Add coca-cola all around, and it's a great meal!  Also something nice about Tanzania--a good lunch for five cost about $15. 

Above: Beth and I had added air to the tire several times, but it kept going flat again.  Albert stopped at Lake Oil to have them fix the puncture once and for all. 

Driving back into Monduli, we realized we had just missed a major downpour.  We had very little rain on us on our trip, but dark clouds were just leaving Monduli and the ditched were full to overflowing.  Just outside of Monduli we came across a place where water was flowing over the road; the car got doused with quite a wave of muddy water as we passed through it.  

I was keeping the car (I have a lockable gate, so I've been keeping the Shorts' car that they haven't sold yet until Lewis is able to return to sell it), so we made the rounds of Monduli dropping everyone off.  It had just gotten dark by the time Jackson (who lives somewhere nearish) and I reached my neighborhood.  I was afraid my road would be a complete mess after the heavy rain, especially as they just did major work to move the road over several feet and straighten it out just a few days ago.  When we got there, a gravel truck was dumping a new load of rocky dirt onto the new road, and several guys were out shoveling it out on the road as it began to drizzle again.  The old road is still there just to the right of the new road; we tried driving along it so as not to disturb those working, but it quickly became so deep with mud that we backed out of it. I was going to turn around and go park the car at Beth's and walk home from there, but Jackson insisted that we could make it through as soon as they finished shoveling, and jumped out to help shovel.  Sure enough, after a few minutes the pile of rocks and dirt was smoothed enough that I made it through with the car.  

I think it might need washed, though.  

Baraka's Baptism

On April 7th, we had our seventh baptism of the year at Alpha Omega!  Although the school is still closed due the covid19, Baraka, who lives here in Monduli, decided he was ready to make this decision and came back up to the school to be baptized by Mr. Fielden (Allison), his Bible teacher. Unfortunately, I was already elsewhere that day, so I couldn't go up to the school for the baptism, but I had Fielden send me photos.

The name Baraka is very common here; it means 'blessing.'  We currently have two students named Baraka; last year we had three, but one graduated.  This Baraka is now a form four student and the head student librarian; he's had a pretty rough go at life but he's a hard worker and keeps a positive outlook.  Please pray for him as he takes this new step in his life!