Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for December, 2007

Little too cold outside to expose the belly.

December 26, 2007

Most everywhere I’ve traveled in Tanzania over the past 4 1/2 months I’ve had my Garmin GPSmap 60CSx turned on to record my path. I’ve selected all of the best tracks and waypoints and loaded them into a Garmin database which you can download from this link:

www.jonathananddana.com/gps/TZ.gdb

Here are some of the things you’ll find in this database:
Complete record of Tanzam Highway between Dar es Salaam and Mbeya with many Police Checkpoints noted
Roads in Dar es Salaam, Iringa, and Mbeya
Road from Iringa into Ruaha National Park
In Dar:
Free Penetecostal Church of Tanzania (FPCT) Guest House Facility
Some good restaurants
Aga Khan Hospital
IST Clinic
Mlimani City Shopping Center (Game, Shoprite, Movie Theater & others)
SIL International – UTB Branch Office
Scandanavian Bus Station
In Iringa:
Riverside Campsite
Mama Miho Grocery
The Book Point
Info Iringa
IMECC Hospital (see Dr. Lushino)
Gapco Petrol Station
Acacia Pharmacy
Scandanavian Bus Station
IringaNet Cafe
Isimila Ruins
In Mbeya:
Swiss Hospital
OilCom Petrol Station & Grocery
Karibuni Center
Baptist Compound

There may be other things in it that I overlooked but this should help you find a lot of the things we spent a lot of frustration trying to find.

Drop me a line on the CONTACT form on our main page if you have any specific questions about these areas in Tanzania. Enjoy!

After being told by KLM/NWA that we needed to handle our problem with Continental and Continental telling us they couldn’t help us and we should take it up with KLM/NWA, drastic measures had to be taken. Hopped on the wireless internet (the only good thing about Newark Int’l Airport so far) and bought us two one-way direct flight tickets on USAirways to Charlotte. Not too happy with KLM/NWA/Continental/Peanut Gallery Alliance but am very pleased about being able to get my pregnant wife all the way home today. We’ll let you know when we’ve made it safely there.

Peanut Gallery

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Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A peanut gallery is an audience which heckles the performer. The term originated in the days of vaudeville as a nickname for the cheapest (and therefore rowdiest) seats in the theater; the cheapest snack served at the theater would often be peanuts, which the patrons would sometimes throw at the performers on stage to show their disapproval.

In the 1950s, the Howdy Doody show adopted the name to represent their audience of 40 kids.

Here we are in line at the KLM/NWA office.

Dana has a post about this ‘diversion’ here.

We left Dar 30 minutes late but got to Amsterdam right on time.  The flight was uneventful and we’re getting ready to board our flight to Newark in about half an hour.  It takes off at 10:20a local time (+6 on Charlotte).  Dana is doing great.  She got up numerous times during the flight to use the bathroom and exercise her legs.  See you in Newark.

We’re sitting in Julius Nyerere Int’l Airport in Dar es Salaam finally getting to eat dinner.  Toasted cheese sandwiches and fries.  We had to shift some weight from suitcase to suitcase at check-in because 3 of 4 were over the 23kg (50 lbs.) weight limit.  At $75 fee each, we couldn’t keep them that way.  After sweating away 6 pounds (so stinkin hot here), I had all of the 4 checked pieces under and we were on to immigration.  No problem.  Now just waiting on the plane.  Boarding is supposed to begin in 20 minutes.  That’s the KLM plane over my left shoulder.

Just sitting in the guest house room right now.  I’m piddling on the computer and Dana’s doing some cross stitch stuff.  We’ve got a lot of time to kill today but we planned to just stay here and rest as much as possible before our 30-hour trip home… that starts at stinkin’ midnight tonight.

As we were going to bed our first night here, we noticed the room was warmer than it had been during the day without either of us changing anything on the air conditioner.  So, I took the front panel off of the A/C window unit (not hard, only one screw holding it on) with optimism hoping I could find a problem to fix… then be able to fix it.  Sure ’nuff the entire radiator thingy-majigger was completely frosted over.  Not an A/C expert but that didn’t look right to me.  Pulled out my trusty Buck pocket knife, scraped a ton of frost off, and cranked it back up.  Instead of freezing back over again, turning it on made it thaw the rest of the way out.  Success and coolness… great 1-2 punch.

This morning, we woke up to no electricity.  Not good for a full day in the room in the Dar heat and humidity.  But, it came back on before the temp reached 80 in the room.  Yippee… until just now… out again.  We were chillin at 71 degrees 30-minutes ago.  Already 76 now and that’s inside the room.  I looked on weather.com and it is 90 outside but feels like 97 because of the humidity.  Might try to take a nap now… will probably dream about sweating…

Ijumaa, Desemba 14, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007

If you’ve ever traveled overseas, especially to a 3rd world country, and spent time close to real life there, the feelings I’m about to describe may be a little familiar.

I went to town this afternoon and on the 15-minute ride there, I had a little time to just ride and think about what I was seeing. Sometimes life here (and even on short term mission trips) feels like a show that I’m sitting there watching. The ways of life all around me are so different than from what my home is like. It feels as though I ride through a movie each and every day and that all the people I see are actors. It is hard for me picture in my head the fact that what they’re doing has carried on before I arrived and will continue after I’m gone. Just growing up and living so far away from this culture makes it feel like it doesn’t even exist except for the moments I happen to be passing through.

Tanzania will keep on keepin’ on even after we hop on the plane Saturday night, just like everyone back home has been since we left there. I’m finding this to be a hard feeling to put into words but if I could sum in a sentence or two, it would be this:
It is impossible to truly know what life is like in a place far far away unless you are there in person or have been there for a considerable amount of time living with the people. No matter if you live in the USA, Tanzania, or Timbuktu (where is that, anyway?) this is true.

My point in all of this? Well, after spending 4 1/2 months preparing for life here immediately followed by us leaving the country… well, I want to remember as much of what I’ve learned as possible about the people and place of Tanzania. I want to easily remember what life is like here… not for Wazungu (white foreigners) but what life is like for Tanzanians. How they think, interact, react, talk, and so on. I’ve soaked up a lot in our short time here and part of me is a little sad knowing I’ll leave some of it behind on Saturday.

I’m really going to miss Africa while we’re gone.

I’m enjoying where I am in terms of speaking Swahili. I’ve probably had hundreds of conversations by now, both short and long. I love being able to communicate with people in the language they know best. Rich Reid, a good friend of ours who has served in numerous places overseas, wrote to me in a recent e-mail, “Do you feel like you can communicate with the locals? Can you believe you are actually learning a new language?” A big YES, and a big NO, respectively.

I’ve made some great friends… Tanzanian friends here simply because I wanted to know about them and had the ability to converse with them. Friends from the ages of 18-60ish. Alloyce, Godfrey, and Faraji are all the young guys who work in the dining room so we have a lot of contact and conversation with them. Domogazi is my pineapple guy in town. He’s in his late 30′s and we met during one of our Swahili town projects (go talk in town) back around week 5 or 6. We have frequented his little stand many times since. Then, there is Baba (Father) which is what I just call him out of respect for his age. He’s 60ish and has a beans stand in the market in Iringa. He’s the one from whom I bought 30 kilograms of beans to give to the villagers around the campsite. He suggested Maharagwe (type of bean) because “Watanzania wote wao hukula maharagwe!” (All Tanzanians eat Maharagwe!)

I’ve even began to dream in Swahili… now, that’s weird. And, most of the English I hear, type, or write automatically starts to be translated in my head. Kinda hard to get it to stop sometimes. But, things will be different in the States because the life for which school has prepared us is now delayed by a 4.5 month detour back to the States where news on the internet will be the only source for native Swahili speakers. I don’t want to lose the communication line.

As I began typing the first paragraph of this post, I realized how one of the sentences I typed pretty much sums up the whole reason we’re in Tanzania. I love being able to communicate with people in the language they know best. That is exactly what we believe to be true for God and those we’re here to introduce to Him. He’ll be able to do the most in their lives when they have all the revelation God has given to us through the Scriptures. We’re here to make that happen.