It was a long bus journey…
What if a generation of a nation’s leaders were living for Jesus? We’re spending the next 10 years working with university students in Dodoma, Tanzania’s new education capital.
Posts tagged ‘Dodoma’
Aug 28
4 Comments
Rainfall: Adelaide vs Dodoma
Adelaideans will be well familiar with the statistic that South Australia is the driest state on the driest continent on earth. I was wondering about how this compares with Dodoma the other day and here’s what I found:
- Adelaide is drier. It gets 546mm of rain per year; Dodoma gets 570mm per year.
- In Adelaide, this is spaced over the year. About 50% falls in the winter, between May and August and Jan-Feb is notably drier.
- In Dodoma, 85% of the rain falls between December and March. And there’s nothing between June and September.
So, in summary, Adelaide is less predictable but marginally drier; Dodoma is marginally wetter, but all in one hit!
(Melbourne is wetter than both, by the way. It measures in at about 650mm per year and levels of rainfall are more constant year-round – pretty much always between 45 and 65mm per month.)
Jun 18
Dulcie on childbirth in Tanzania
The CMS missionary training college is called St Andrew’s Hall and we went to their graduation today. There’s a wealth of missionary experience in the people there, including a number from Tanzania. What a wonderful opportunity for us to hear stories and learn! We got talking with Dulcie, an elderly woman who went to Tanzania single, married another missionary and had her children there. I took it as an opportunity to ask her questions about having children in Tanzania and her answers just about floored me! Read more
Jul 12
Dar / Dodoma Comparison
We went to Tanzania to explore the possibility of uni student ministry but Tanzania’s a big place with a number of universities so one question we have to ask is ‘Where in Tanzania?’ The two main places we looked at were Dar es Salaam and Dodoma. Both were keen for us to come so it’s really up to us to choose where we want to go. Here’s a table I drew up comparing the two based on our experiences. If you put the mouse over the issue it should highlight the lines that go with it. Read more
Jul 10
First Bus Trip
This begins a series of reflections on our time in Tanzania. Some of these posts will be stories of what happened (like this one); others will be missiological or cultural reflections; some will be us processing the future possibilities in Tanzania.
Tanzania visit!
When we left Adelaide at the end of 2008, Tamie and I were exploring ministry in Europe. Last year, those plans changed, particularly when we heard about a potential opportunity in Tanzania!
In a few weeks’ time, we’re off to Europe with 44 other Ridley students for the Reformation History in Context tour.
On the return trip, Tamie and I are staying in Dodoma, 3-8 July. We’ll be visiting St Johns University, meeting people like the chaplain Rt Revd Francis Ntiruka, and watching what God might open up for us there. There may be an opportunity at St Johns for some kind of IFES-style student movement, in which the next generation of a nation’s leaders are trained and equipped for gospel impact.
We don’t have any pretensions about being pioneers, because the gospel has been in Tanzania for generations. However, as Westerners, we are in real danger of seeing our own ways as the solution for ‘needy’ others. We’re looking forward to meeting brothers and sisters and having our categories exploded!
This trip comes at a key time for us. We’re now 18 months into our time at Ridley — half way through our three years. Please pray for humility and wisdom as we continue to learn and seek God’s future for us.
We’re now developing our support further, too. Our ‘home base’ isn’t a denomination but a diverse group: a sending organisation, local churches, leaders, and friends. Let us know if you’d like to be a part of this with us! We send out an update once a month so that our supporters can equip us with prayer, finance, encouragement and challenge.
