This semester I am again studying in the Swahili department at St John’s University where we work. All the lectures are in Swahili so it’s a brilliant exercise for me in listening comprehension, which is appropriate because this time I’m doing a third year course ‘Theory and Traditions of Oral […]
Here’s my impressive contextualised skill: I have learnt to carry things on my head. I am also a complete convert to it. What is heavy in my hands is light on my head. It’s not that hard to do, especially once you work out some of the tricks to it. […]
Arthur and I have been working on a new project, launching soon, called Tanzania Snapshots. It’s a video library of us talking about some hot topics to do with Tanzania. It’s kind of scary for us because it feels like setting ourselves up as experts about Tanzania when we are […]
Red Twin is temporarily back in Australia after 18 months in Central Asia. She was asked to give a talk about what the first year serving cross-culturally is like. She asked for contributions from us as well as other friends who are in Europe, South Asia and other parts of […]
A few days ago we had an experience that I’m sure will seem funny in hindsight but which was actually quite scary at the time. We were driving back from Iringa on a half-finished road that spanned a flood plain. It had been raining for the last week and the […]
Is ‘Africa’ really rife with a false gospel? Here’s one version of the story: As we’ve seen, however, examples like Lizzy and Mwakatwila mean we can’t automatically equate prosperity talk with ‘prosperity gospel’. Tanzanian headspace is concerned with everyday questions, and Tanzanian Christians are connecting those questions with the parts of […]
When I’m having a conversation with someone and I say something, if they understand, most of the time they repeat it. Often if I’ve made a mistake, they correct it which is really useful for me, but I don’t think they’re doing it just to correct me. I think it’s […]
