Africa Experience - Tanzania - Day 3

June 28, 2014

The view from our rooms at the Lutheran
Center in Arusha

We got to sleep in a little :-)  After enjoying breakfast together at the Café Bamboo Restaurant, we walked around in a few of the local shops and got an idea of things we would buy later on.



Elizabeth wore her Seahawks shirt!! 

We stopped at McTaco Mt - It is also called Buttock Mt - or that is what they told us!

It was time to pack up ALL our suitcases and drive the hour long trip to Oldonyosambu .  We would spend the next 7 1/2 days in OS.  We stayed at the TEE Evangelical Lutheran Training Center.  It is a very large property with a lot of potential for growth and

a quick drawing of the property at TEE

improvement.  There were several dormitories, and the young boys stayed in one and the young girls in the other.  Both dorms had shared bathrooms/solar heated showers.  All of the moms/single women stayed in single dorm type rooms, with their own bathrooms, although there was no solar heated water.  Brett/Toni and John/Laurie each had a duplex of sorts.  They were called the bishop's house and the assistant bishop's house.  They had a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen/eating area and a gathering room with a wood burning fireplace.  There was a separate room similar to a cafeteria where we gathered for all our meals. 



We have arrived in OS!

Brett and Toni's place.....

The beds in the dorms, the 'single' ladies rooms, The Bishop House, eating hall
 




our bathrooms, although the tub didn't work

Toni went to use the bathroom in one of the girls rooms
and got locked in - literally!  It took Stephan 20 minutes to break
the lock on the bathroom door!

After checking out our rooms, it was lunchtime!  There were several women that worked together in the kitchen to prepare all our meals during our stay.  For lunch, we had rice (rice was served with almost every meal), meat/sauce (all sauces are made of fresh vegetable, usually tomato/carrot base), a cucumber/tomato salad and sliced fruit (watermelon, oranges, etc, served with every meal).  It was very good. 

Traditional Massai Market

 

It was Saturday, and therefore the local/Maasai people would be coming to the market to buy their goods for the week.  We had a list of things we needed to buy to give away as gifts later in the week.  People walk for miles and miles to and from the market, often carrying things on their heads.  You can buy cloth, sugar, rice, soap, oil, fruit, vegetables, goats, meat, tennis shoes, tire shoes......

Gideon was our guide
 

Heading back to the compound with Mt Meru in the background



Practicing our songs for church the next morning.....

 

For dinner the first night, we had a sauce with cut up sausage (similar to hot dogs) served over rice and potatoes and fruit.  After dinner each night, we would gather in John and Laurie's room to talk about the day and what we had seen/learned so far.  We only had power from 7pm to 10:30pm each night (run by a generator).  We all had to make sure we were ready for bed before 10:30pm or out came the flashlight.  I would write in my journal each night, jotting down observations of the day along with the events of the day.  First day observations.....dusty (dirty shoes/feet), showers (run by solar power) run out of hot water very quickly, large compound, people walk EVERYWHERE! 

Africa Experience - Tanzania - Day 2

Arusha, Tanzania

After a well rested night, we enjoyed breakfast of Africa coffee (my favorite - http://africafecoffee.com/), eggs, toast, jelly, fruit, and wonderful fruit juices at the Café Bamboo Restaurant.  We needed to fill up and be ready for our busy day.

                                   ALMC                               Presentation from Director, Dr. Mark Jacobson

Our first stop of the day was at the ALMC, Arusha Lutheran Medical Center (http://www.almc.habari.co.tz/).  It is an amazing hospital in the center of downtown, run by director Dr. Mark Jacobson.  Dr. Mark Jacobson presented a slide show on the history of the hospital and medical care in Arusha.  We also toured the hospital, maternity ward, and urgent care area. 




A beautiful glass window made from recycled bottles

 

Our group with Dr. Mark Jacobson



We all enjoyed getting to know the young children at the Plaster House!

 

 

This little boy was so cute and entertaining.  You can hear him

giggle!  We have learned that  he recently had

his casts removed and is doing awesome!

 

 

Our next stop was the Plaster House  (http://www.theplasterhouse.org/ - click on the link to learn more and donate). The Plaster House is a rehabilitation home for children recovering from corrective orthopedic and plastic surgery at ALMC and Selian, in Arusha, Tanzania. The service was greatly needed as outreach patients often returned home after surgery and casts were uncared for and follow-up appointments were unlikely. Plaster House provides a clean, safe and loving environment where the children receive medical checkups, are well-nourished, and for the first time are surrounded by children in similar situations.   It is an amazing place started by Sarah Rejman! We spent time talking to the children, reading and playing games with them.  They were so cute and social.  The Plaster House is for children birth to 18 years, and only accompanied by their mom if nursing.  Many of the kids suffer from club foot, burns, scars, and cleft palate. 



picnic lunch

For our lunch.....we had our own picnic, making sandwiches in the gravel outside the Plaster House.  It was a quick break before moving on to the nursing college. 

Also in conjunction with the ALMC, the nursing school was officially opened in March of 2014.  The goal of the school is to help overcome the great deficit of nurses and to recruit local students into nursing and into serving in the hospitals.  We didn't get to meet any of the nursing students on our tour, as they were working at the ALMC hospital.  Again, another great opportunity for young students in Arusha. 

We had a wonderful day learning about the great people and places that are bringing opportunity and good things to the people of Arusha and Tanzania. 

Arusha Market

We had time in the late afternoon to check out the local handcraft market in Arusha.  Some of us bought some treasures to take home and others made a list of things to buy later on. 

Dinner was enjoyed at the Njoro Mall.  It reminded me of a mall food court.  There were several menus and choices for dinner.  Brett and I shared an amazing curry dinner in clay pots.  It was a great way to end the day!

chicken curry for dinner - the food was amazing!








 

Africa Experience - Tanzania - Day 1

June 26th - After over a year of planning, fundraising, collecting gifts and donations, meetings, and more planning, 18 of us embarked on an amazing journey and mission trip to Tanzania, Africa!  13 of us are all members of Kent Lutheran Church, in Kent, WA.  We ranged in age from 14 to early 60s - all bringing different gifts/talents that would be used along the way.  Almost all of the details of the trip were pre-planned, so we could each enjoy the trip to the fullest. 

Our group of 18 - Ready to go!!!

Doha, Qatar in the Persian Gulf

We all met in the morning at the airport in Philadelphia, PA on June 25, 2014, traveling on our own from Washington State.  We flew Qatar Airways from Philly to Doha, Qatar (over 12 hours), from Doha to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (almost 6 hours), and from Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro International Airport near Arusha, Tanzania (about an hour).  Needless to say, it was a long day and half of travel, but we made it safely and all anxious to see this new country!

Pastor Jane and Jean (friends for 32 yrs) were ready to travel....little did they know how awesome our trip would be!!!

 

Upon arrival at the Kilimajaro airport, we had to go through immigration and purchase our visas (FYI...a visa is purchased upon arrival and cost $100, new US bill, yr 2009 or newer).  The Troutner's had purchased their visa's in advance mailing passports to WA DC, but I would recommend just waiting until you get to TZ - it's easy!  Then it was time to gather our luggage and begin the drive to Arusha.  We were greeted by Nature's Gift Safari (http://www.naturesgiftsafaris.com/) , who had made most of the arrangements for our travel and trip details within Tanzania.  I had exchanged emails with Elizabeth, one of the owners and coordinators of Nature's Gift Safari, and I finally met her in person!  She was wearing a Seahawks shirt, and I knew I would love her right away!!!

 

The Troutner's are ready to go.....

 

We saw so many things immediately on our drive from the airport to Arusha.....Dukas (comparable to a very small convenience shop), fields of sunflowers, corn fields, rows of coffee beans, lots of motorcycles parked on the side of the roads (major mode of transportation for many in TZ)...our eyes were wide open!

We would spend the next several nights at the Lutheran Center guesthouse in the town of Arusha, as well as come back to this place through out our trip.  Arusha is a large city in northern Tanzania, with over 400,000 people.  It is surrounded by many of the most famous landscapes and the perfect place for us to come and go during our journey.  Arusha is known for its vibrant nightlife, Famous Clocktower (midpoint between Cairo and Cape Town), National Natural History Musuem, Tourism (made famous by John Wayne's Hatari, which I recently watched on Amazon Prime - recommended!), cuisine, just to name a few. 

 

Various rooms - double rooms had a bathroom shower (Brett/Connor and Kyler/Kyle).....single rooms (Toni) used the bathroom/shower down the hall or snuck into Brett and Connor's room!

Sometimes, those locks were tricky to get undone!



Arusha, Tanzania

After arriving in Arusha town, we did some quick shopping for bottled water and lunch fixings at the corner store.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Café Bamboo Restaurant (right next door to the Lutheran Guest House, on Boma Rd) where they served curry dishes, baked chicken, spaghetti, and hamburgers and French fries!!!