Anyway, a lot has happened in the 2 weeks since I was last
able to write. I was once again blessed
with the opportunity to travel a bit around Tanzania with the wonderful
Maria! We started our adventure in Arusha
visiting her family. Oh yeah, and I got
to go to the Ngorongoro Crater again. No
big deal...
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| This is Lucy. She found herself. |
After a few days in Arusha, we took the bus to Moshi. We spent the afternoon helping a friend and
fellow teacher unload a shipping container into her new place there. She is moving there to take over a primary
school. Exciting for her! It was great to get to help her because she
is a fellow American and had packed her container about 2 years ago. It was kind of like taking a step back home
for a few hours. I got to ogle at her
Red Lobster and Olive Garden bags, drool over her Heinz beans, and dig around
for her jar of Miracle Whip. Afterword
she treated us to a late lunch and we got to go shopping. One thing Moshi has that Dodoma doesn’t have
is a supermarket… like one with carts… and a machine that prints your receipt… It was amazing!
We spent only one night in Moshi this time before heading on
to Dar es Salaam. I had only spent about
8 hours in Dar in my whole time in Tanzania, and they were all in the dark,
after a 2-day long flight experience. I
was excited to get to see more of it.
Boy was I amazed!!
Not only are there infinitely more restaurant options, but
there are also shopping malls and supermarkets that stock imported goods. I got to eat Reese’s Pieces for the first
time in 9 months! (If you remember my brief rant above about not having
non-chocolate options for lent, you will see the importance in this statement,) I also got my first taste of Ethiopian
cuisine. We saw restaurants serving
traditional Tanzanian food as well as Himalayan, Brazilian, Italian, and even
spotted a few Subway and KFC restaurants.
It amazes me that such a different world can be found only an 8-ish hour
bus ride away.
Even more of a blessing in Dar was a meeting with a friend
of Maria’s. She was excited to catch up
with a friend she had known as a student at CAMS. It just so happened that this friend is
pregnant and due any day, so had been staying with her mother. That has left her apartment empty. She offered it to us, free of charge, so that
we could stay and make it seem like someone lives there. We couldn’t turn down such an amazing
offer! It became even more exciting as
we learned that our return to Dodoma would have to be delayed due to some
extreme rain and flooding on the route home.
A major bridge between Dar es Salaam and Dodoma had once again sustained
some damage and busses weren’t running that route.
We chose to stay in Dar rather than spend the extra 2 or so
hours the alternative route demands. This
allowed us 2 extra days to explore the city.
We took that time to do some more shopping and to pamper ourselves a
bit. We stumbled across a spa in one of
the malls and Maria took the opportunity to get a massage and a haircut by
someone who knows how to cut mzungu hair.
I treated myself to a manicure and arm massage that was pretty
amazing. The sacrifices that
missionaries make…
One more note before I let you get back to your regularly
scheduled day. Be sure to check out the
Lenten reflections my fellow YASCers and I have been writing. There are some amazing minds out there
serving the Anglican Communion! Tomorrow
is Easter, so keep an eye out for pictures of Easter celebrations from all
around the world! http://yasclenten.blogspot.com
awesome - :) i had so much fun with u :P
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