We had three friends – a Kenyan, a Ugandan and a Tanzanian – come into our house for a visit and they were amazed at the children’s books on the coffee table, the basket of toys in the living room, and the posters around the house of daily routines, calm […]
As Arthur was dropping a colleague to the bus stop after she had come to do a sympathy visit with us, she told him that they really wanted to support and care for me. Was there anything else they could do? Arthur tried to work out what she was offering: […]
Our TAFES colleague Mr Seth came around for dinner a while ago. His wife wasn’t able to make it because she was organising things for their daughter’s kitchen party as she was about to get married. Just before the wedding it’s customary to have a ‘Send Off’, which the men […]
When you look at how Tanzanians manage money, it’s easy to conclude at first glance that they don’t have savings. To be sure, to have a savings account is still considered somewhat unusual. Even uni graduates and the middle class seem to have cash flow problems. It’s common for a […]
The suburb we’re house hunting in at the moment is about an hour from our current place. Today I had a window of 3.5 hours between needing to pick up children. I figured 2 for travel up and back, left me 1.5 to see some places. After all, they were […]
International Women’s Day received a high profile in Tanzania this year. President Magufuli acknowledged women’s contribution in improving society. There were also discussions in the media (mainly among men) about why we don’t see women CEOs when they have equal access to education. None of it was particularly insightful in my […]
When I took a group of student leaders through DISC, I tried to contextualise it somewhat, but many of the questions played out very differently in Tanzania from how they would in Australia. For example, even the guy who was a super strong D ticked the box in the quiz that […]
Meet Jesus at uni 