I’ve been benefiting from listening to a Swahili women’s podcast ‘Wanawake wa Imani‘ (Women of Faith). One of the recordings is a talk on John 4, Jesus’ encounter with the Samarian woman at the well. I was especially encouraged by the comments made about the bit where the woman asks […]
“We always assume our way is normal,” I told the group I was teaching on cross-cultural communication last week. This thought was still bumping its way around my head as I thought about the birthday cake I was about to make. Five of the TAFES staff are September birthdays, and […]
Yesterday I ran a session for university campus workers on crossing cultures. I was the teacher, but I learned heaps too. For example, I learned that the way people treat children is a key way in which you can judge their character. I knew that interacting with children is very important […]
“This is such a heavy burden. May God give me strength to bear it.” This is what people say when they have been elected to Christian leadership in Tanzania. During elections, people are very reluctant to put themselves forward, always waiting for someone else to suggest them. Even the most […]
One of the common laments for westerners living in the majority world is how long it takes to do things. It’s often hard to work out why, so every now and then I record all the steps it takes for me to fix things. For example, it took me this […]
Since we moved house, I have joyfully returned to having house help. (The story of why is for another day.) Mama Pendo is a grandmother who comes twice a week to clean the house. This week she said to me very kindly, “Kama kuna tatizo, usinyamaze.” It means, “If there’s […]
There was a discussion on a TAFES whatsapp group… should we impose fines for those who post irrelevant, off-topic or offensive material? The senior associate who suggested it was aiming at improving the quality of the group’s traffic. The fascinating thing was that the responses all spoke of whether or […]
