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!