In the months before we publicly announced that we are moving on from St John’s University to work for TAFES, we had a number of meetings with our boss and people who have been mentors with us. We were very nervous because we knew they would be very disappointed, but […]
It was the morning of a public holiday and we’d gone out for a family walk to buy some bananas from a local stall. People call out to us all the time so we thought nothing of replying pleasantly to the three drunk guys sitting on the new drain constructions […]
Most of the time our learning about Tanzanian culture is built on observation, but every now and then we get a brilliant opportunity to sit someone down and get them to explicitly answer questions we have. Recently we got to talking about family relationships with two student leaders. Since God […]
Twice in the preceding weeks, Elliot had come home from school talking about people hitting. We hadn’t wanted to alarm him or make a big deal, so we’d made very casual inquiries. Who was doing the hitting? Why? He replied, ‘They were hitting to make the children share.’ Sounds like […]
I’ve picked up my book of Tanzanian proverbs again recently, and here are a few about relationships. Damu ni nzito kuliko maji – Blood is heavier than water. This looks like the English proverb ‘Blood is thicker than water’ but it has an extra connotation. On top of the idea […]
Elliot and I were at the markets, and plums had just come in. This is very exciting! There’s lots of fresh fruit in Dodoma, but it’s always the same ones – mangoes, pineapples and bananas, watermelon, passionfruit, sometimes guavas. Maybe that sounds wonderful and exotic to you, and much of […]
We were at a dinner for TAFES Associates in Dodoma, when we were offered goat intestine soup. We tried it of course, and it was not bad, even the furry bits – definitely better than the fried goat liver I’d eaten for breakfast in a village the previous weekend! We […]
Meet Jesus at uni 