Iringa

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We all got to our destinations safely.  You knew that.  No news is good news! 

We left the Landmark after waiting quite awhile for the manager to arrive to unlock his office where it was being kept.  We got it loaded and left.  It ‘s a long drive to Iringa from Dar.  We made a bio break at Chalinze.  Laura was standing at the table first looking through her wallet for Tsh, then set it down for an instant,  You can guess the rest.  Fortunately, she did not have her passport or other valuables in the wallet.  You won’t guess the rest.

About ten minutes out of Chalinze, Peter, our favorite bus driver, got a call.   The wallet was found!  They turned around while the second bus went on.  Quite a happy ending.  I would love to have you think that it was the milk of human kindness that saved the wallet, but no.  I found out a little later that Peter had talked to Dennis Ngede.  Dennis suggested Peter talk to the manager with a message.  This message was in quite definite tones describing the economic consequences should the wallet not turn up.  I think it may have been along the lines of “no more business…” etc., etc.  All’s well that ends.

Day of Grace folks and I had a nice dinner at the Lutheran Center.  It was pork off the loin, potatoes a salad and dessert: pineapple drenched in warm syrup. (“How was it?”)  Why do you even need to ask?  Petro is a great chef and you know I would not have mentioned it otherwise.

I am gathering my thoughts about our approach to the Nutrition Project, i.e. that is how I refer collectively to all the functions we are doing around the subject of nutrition.  There are so many contacts to make already here and doing similar things.  This does not remotely imply that there is no room for us to work!  It does mean that greater success will involve more than our project.  I am learning. 

I asked our “first-timers” their impressions after we had only been on the road to Iringa for a short time, having stopped for lunch at Tan-Swiss, a restaurant and lodge, operated by a Swiss family.  Good food, a Serengeti and a breeze.  One of the students said she was already in love with Tanzania.  Another agreed with my adjective “surreal.”  I will be curious to hear reports tomorrow after they have been here a couple days.

The road to Iringa, so nice a couple years ago, is now showing its wear.  There are grooves from the huge amount of truck traffic.  Crossing them to pass slower traffic, of which there is plenty, is wobbly in a bus that needs shocks.  Around Morogoro is a mountain range called the Uguru Mountains or Uguru Milima.  They are quite beautiful.  From Morogoro on, the mountainsides are studded with baobabs that currently have leaves, so different from the dry season when they resemble trees that have been upside-down, with their roots showing. 

The more I am here, the more I realize how much there is to see beyond what we have seen so far, things both far and near Iringa and Ilula.  I truly hope there will be an opportunity to see more of Tanzania!

The cathedral, Iringa Lutheran Church

I went to church today with Tom and Beth Hansen, Ken Smith and Lyn and Mollie MacLean.  The service is in Kiswahili (Swahili to us Wazungu), but it was all Greek to me!  I still find it fascinating to sit in a Lutheran service and realize the differences and similarities.  They use the tune at least to “Faith of our Fathers” in the liturgy, but the syllables I utter when singing sound like Greek rather than English or Kiswahili.  But then, I don’t know Greek either.  They also sang “How great Thou Art.”   Same issue, Greek.  But here are some photos, in pretty clear English.

Don't complain about hard church pews.  These have no pads on the kneeler

s and straight backs!

The Choir after church, before the auction.