Left imili after breakfast and were back in Hanga by 3:15!
Ready to head to Mbamba Bay tomorrow.
Location:Hanga, TZ
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
From imili to Hanga
Left imili after breakfast and were back in Hanga by 3:15!
Ready to head to Mbamba Bay tomorrow.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Imiliwaha - pics part 2
let the pictues do the talking. more explanation to come at a later date. we are on the road back to hanga tomorrow...after Mass in the morning...feast of the visitation...should only be about an hour or hour fifteen. not bad for a tuesday :) talk to you again from hanga!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Day 2 Imiliwaha continued
Hey folks,
Thanks for continuing to follow our little safari across Tanzania. Day 2 in Imiliwaha started rather promptly with 6:30 mass over at the church, I would have loved to describe the experience, but I unfornately slept in a little more trying to get over a little bug I seemed to have caught yesterday.
After breakfast, Sr. Petromila led us to the orphanage run by the convent where we were met by a line of little ones whose ages consisted primarily from 2-5, who then welcomed us with a song. After a few hours of cradling, playing, blowing up balloons, and hugs, I was certainly not the only one who had a pretty hard time leaving that building, even for the day.
We then headed over to the health center also run by the sisters. We were shown the different services and equipment the facility currently offered, which included a maternity war, lab, and dentist office, all of which were either run or supervised by the sisters. It was truly impressive to see how much could be organized by such a modest number women.
Our last stop of the morning was to the secondary school (all womens) also run by the convent. The facility itself had just undergone some major expansion to meet the demand of the rather large and still increasing enrollment. About half of the students had already left, those that remained were Form 2 and Form 4 (sophomores and seniors) who were waiting to take their national exams. In the mean time, it looked like these girls time consisted of eating, studying, and helping out with gardening and upkeep of the school grounds.
After a short visit to the cemetary where we paid our respect to past members of the convent, we washed up and had a delicious lunch. In the afternoon consisted of catching up on sleep, running, and spending time with some of the sisters which included fishing, hiking, more lunch, and even dancing.
Onwards
Eric
Thanks for continuing to follow our little safari across Tanzania. Day 2 in Imiliwaha started rather promptly with 6:30 mass over at the church, I would have loved to describe the experience, but I unfornately slept in a little more trying to get over a little bug I seemed to have caught yesterday.
After breakfast, Sr. Petromila led us to the orphanage run by the convent where we were met by a line of little ones whose ages consisted primarily from 2-5, who then welcomed us with a song. After a few hours of cradling, playing, blowing up balloons, and hugs, I was certainly not the only one who had a pretty hard time leaving that building, even for the day.
We then headed over to the health center also run by the sisters. We were shown the different services and equipment the facility currently offered, which included a maternity war, lab, and dentist office, all of which were either run or supervised by the sisters. It was truly impressive to see how much could be organized by such a modest number women.
Our last stop of the morning was to the secondary school (all womens) also run by the convent. The facility itself had just undergone some major expansion to meet the demand of the rather large and still increasing enrollment. About half of the students had already left, those that remained were Form 2 and Form 4 (sophomores and seniors) who were waiting to take their national exams. In the mean time, it looked like these girls time consisted of eating, studying, and helping out with gardening and upkeep of the school grounds.
After a short visit to the cemetary where we paid our respect to past members of the convent, we washed up and had a delicious lunch. In the afternoon consisted of catching up on sleep, running, and spending time with some of the sisters which included fishing, hiking, more lunch, and even dancing.
Onwards
Eric
Day 2 in Imiliwaha
We had a great day today touring Imiliwaha with Sr. Gertrud and Sr. Anita and Sr. Petronila. I think we have decided to stay until Tuesday. Above is a picture of the church in Imiliwaha. More pictures to come soon. Thanks for reading!Friday, May 27, 2011
Hi from Imiliwaha!
we are now all in imiliwaha near njombe where we will stay until monday. it was only about a 5 hour journey today :) thanks for your continued prayers.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Mambo from Hanga!
Mambo from Hanga!
As you can see from the pictures we posted, we have been living it up here in Hanga. The last 2 days we have focused on spending time working with the students of Saint Laurent’s primary school and Saint Benedict’s secondary school, as well as assisting in the Dispensary.
Today, Kayla, Michael, Sam, Yama, and Izzy taught a computer class at Saint B’s. They were teaching things that ranged from how to use a mouse, to how to make a powerpoint! Some of the students were pros at using Facebook, yet barely new how to open a word document! A big part of their lesson was how to use a keyboard correctly and how to use Microsoft Word. Those of us who are Mac people were surprised that Macs are virtually non-existant here in Tanzania. It’s a PC world over here!
At the Dispensary, Hannah and Stuart worked on making the new log books for the clinic, while Katie helped with organization in the pharmacy. Eric was the star of the show, working with the head doctor. He proved himself to be extremely useful, and Dr. Lucius began introducing him as an American doctor! It’s not easy seeing some of the sick kids that come to the dispensary, and while the dispensary is quite advanced and well run, there are many things that they could use. Eric gave Dr. Lucius his penlight because he had no way to check patient’s eyes. It’s amazing that something so little can make such a big difference!
Later today, Caitlin, Eric and Yama, assisted in making dinner for us! They made a delicious dinner of chipati, plantains, rice, ugali, stew, and chicken. Lately we have been enjoying fresh papaya for dessert!
While they worked away, the rest of us went to a soccer game in town. St. Laurent’s was playing the public school. We had a ton of fun hanging out with the local kids! Some of us had brought our cameras, and the kids could not get enough of them! The wanted us to piga picha over and over and over again. While they liked having their pictures taken, seeing the picture on the digital screen afterwards was even more exciting!
We have also made friends with some other people at the guest house, there is Sam, a British actor who is filming a documentary, and Kiara, an Italian who is here with Veterinarians Without Borders. They both seem to enjoy having us here, it must have been quiet at the guest house before we came!
Tomorrow we are leaving for Imilliwaha, a town in the mountains that is 4 hours from Hanga. (According to Ben, so we will see how that goes). We will stay there for the weekend and then come back to Hanga for a night before leaving for Mbamba Bay. If you have been following our itinerary- you might as well throw it away, because as often happens in Africa, plans change, and we have reworked the entire trip. It actually worked out well, because now we will be back in Hanga on June 7th for the Jubilee, a celebration in honor of the Bishop’s 50 years of service as a Bishop! He is almost 95, and a total trooper!
We will try to keep you updated as we go! Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments, we love to hear from you guys! Hope everything is going well in the USA.
Lots of love!
-The gang.
As you can see from the pictures we posted, we have been living it up here in Hanga. The last 2 days we have focused on spending time working with the students of Saint Laurent’s primary school and Saint Benedict’s secondary school, as well as assisting in the Dispensary.
Today, Kayla, Michael, Sam, Yama, and Izzy taught a computer class at Saint B’s. They were teaching things that ranged from how to use a mouse, to how to make a powerpoint! Some of the students were pros at using Facebook, yet barely new how to open a word document! A big part of their lesson was how to use a keyboard correctly and how to use Microsoft Word. Those of us who are Mac people were surprised that Macs are virtually non-existant here in Tanzania. It’s a PC world over here!
At the Dispensary, Hannah and Stuart worked on making the new log books for the clinic, while Katie helped with organization in the pharmacy. Eric was the star of the show, working with the head doctor. He proved himself to be extremely useful, and Dr. Lucius began introducing him as an American doctor! It’s not easy seeing some of the sick kids that come to the dispensary, and while the dispensary is quite advanced and well run, there are many things that they could use. Eric gave Dr. Lucius his penlight because he had no way to check patient’s eyes. It’s amazing that something so little can make such a big difference!
Later today, Caitlin, Eric and Yama, assisted in making dinner for us! They made a delicious dinner of chipati, plantains, rice, ugali, stew, and chicken. Lately we have been enjoying fresh papaya for dessert!
While they worked away, the rest of us went to a soccer game in town. St. Laurent’s was playing the public school. We had a ton of fun hanging out with the local kids! Some of us had brought our cameras, and the kids could not get enough of them! The wanted us to piga picha over and over and over again. While they liked having their pictures taken, seeing the picture on the digital screen afterwards was even more exciting!
We have also made friends with some other people at the guest house, there is Sam, a British actor who is filming a documentary, and Kiara, an Italian who is here with Veterinarians Without Borders. They both seem to enjoy having us here, it must have been quiet at the guest house before we came!
Tomorrow we are leaving for Imilliwaha, a town in the mountains that is 4 hours from Hanga. (According to Ben, so we will see how that goes). We will stay there for the weekend and then come back to Hanga for a night before leaving for Mbamba Bay. If you have been following our itinerary- you might as well throw it away, because as often happens in Africa, plans change, and we have reworked the entire trip. It actually worked out well, because now we will be back in Hanga on June 7th for the Jubilee, a celebration in honor of the Bishop’s 50 years of service as a Bishop! He is almost 95, and a total trooper!
We will try to keep you updated as we go! Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments, we love to hear from you guys! Hope everything is going well in the USA.
Lots of love!
-The gang.
Hanga pics 5
In front of monastery chapel after noon prayer on Thursday.
Eating in the guest dining room.
Mmmm. Wali maharage (rice and beans)
With Fr. Gregory the first monk of Hanga Abbey outside of the guest dining room.
Laundry day. Drying our clothes on the front lawn of the guest hostel.
In the kitchen cooking supper.
Thanks for the comments! We are off to visit the sisters in Imiliwaha (near Njombe, Tanzania) tomorrow. Will be there until Monday night probably. Wish us a safe journey.
Eating in the guest dining room.
Mmmm. Wali maharage (rice and beans)
With Fr. Gregory the first monk of Hanga Abbey outside of the guest dining room.
Laundry day. Drying our clothes on the front lawn of the guest hostel.
In the kitchen cooking supper.
Thanks for the comments! We are off to visit the sisters in Imiliwaha (near Njombe, Tanzania) tomorrow. Will be there until Monday night probably. Wish us a safe journey.
Location:Hanga, TZ
Hanga pics 4 - work on Thursday
Teaching computers at St. Benedicts
Working at Hanga dispensary with Br. Lucious
Picking rocks out of our beans in the kitchen.
Working at Hanga dispensary with Br. Lucious
Picking rocks out of our beans in the kitchen.
Location:Hanga, TZ
Hanga pics 2
Walking back from breakfast Thursday morning with the guest dining room in the background.
Location:Hanga, TZ
Hanga pics 3
Chilling by the st b computer lab between classes
Solar power running the st b computer lab and satellite Internet
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Hello from Hannah and Kayla!
Hannah and Kayla here, writing for Ben (who's crippled arm makes typing difficult)! We are at the computer lab at the trade school in Hanga, and this it the first time we have gotten a chance to use the internet! We have had a blast the last couple of days since arriving in Dar es Salaam. We went to a beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean, and made friends with locals at the guesthouse in Dar. Yesterday we traveled from Dar to Hanga, which we expected to take about 12 hours (Thanks, Ben) but with a few stops and delays ended up lasting 17 hours. Thank goodness our driver Good-Luck is a champion and got us to Hanga before midnight! The drive was pretty thrilling, because we drove through a national park and saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, baboons, and gazelles. The views we saw while driving through a very mountainous region were spectacular! Since arriving in Hanga we have gotten to explore the town thoroughly. It is bigger than most of us expected, and the spiders are bigger than you can imagine (and rampant). We went to the St. Laurent's primary school, and it was awesome to see the kids. They were all extremely excited to see us, and extra excited to see Ben! They flocked around us, they were interested in everything from our email addresses to our shoes (Kayla's weird feet shoes to be specific) and loved to talk to us in English! We toured both the Dispensary (which is a medical clinic) and the Monastery, which included a large farm with cows, pigs, chickens, sugar cane plants, avacado trees, banana trees, and orange trees. We have been eating the banana's which are delicious, and got to try eating the sugar cane raw, which was super sweet. We have also been trying to learn as much Swahili as possible from the locals. We are fluent in hello (mambo), how are you (habari), thank-you very much (asante sana), water (maji), and banana (ndizi). The food has been better than expected so far, with meals consisting of potatoes, rice, beans, collared greens, some sort of meat, and bananas. Tonight we had egg drop soup, and papaya for dessert! Tomorrow we should be able to spend more time with the kids at the school, or at the dispensary. Hopefully we will be able to update the blog more often, but until then kwa heri (goodbye)!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
In Dar
we are here in Dar Es Salaam! pictures to come soon. had a good morning exchanging money and getting ready to head to Hanga on Monday. We will stay there for about a week.
all for now.
all for now.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Boarding!
All here checked in and ready to go! Talk to you next from Dar Es Salaam.
Ben
Location:Glumack Dr,St Paul,United States
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