I googled ‘God is a Negro’ after seeing it mentioned in an article in The Global Dictionary of Theology. It’s written by a free African American, Henry McNeal Turner, who was a church planter, pioneer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a chaplain in the American Civil War, and later […]
During our language classes, our tutor acted as cultural interpreter as well. One piece of advice he gave us was to think about what Australians do and then assume the opposite. Here are some ‘opposites’ we’ve been told about or discovered: if you want to protest your innocence, indignance or […]
1. A spare tyre on the back of the car can save the day. We got rear-ended by a van while stuck in traffic, however there was no harm to our car (or us) because the impact was cushioned by the spare tyre. 2. Maps are no one’s friend. The […]
With the start of Ramadan imminent, we chatted with our Muslim conversation partners about religion. We learnt that Ramadan in Swahili is actually ‘Ramadhani’. The ‘dh’ sound is more like ‘th’ and the ‘i’ on the end is an ‘ee’ sound. It sounds like ‘Ramathanee’. We were interested to hear […]
Friday is Elliot’s first birthday and I’m feeling a bit sad. In my mind, a first birthday party has several components: presents (and wrapping paper!) family and godparents a cake, in the shape of a number 1, covered with Smarties or M&Ms. a candle to blow out Elliot’s first birthday […]
Kicking off a new series for Friday afternoons, Students Speak contains some of the highlights from our conversations with students each week. This isn’t about getting an ‘accurate’ picture of Tanzania so much as learning how the students we meet with each week see their world.
On our recent trip to Songea, we saw a bit more of village life than we normally encounter in Dodoma. It’s one thing to want clean water and education for people caught in poverty, but I found myself pitying the people I saw because they will spend their lives in […]
Meet Jesus at uni 