From the Pants to the Hat: Tanzanian Trip: There and Back Again, Chapter 1

I apologize that this gets wordy and detailed. I do this for my family and a few friends that might actually care, and for me so I have it documented somewhere. For those that don't...enjoy the pictures!

Earlier this Spring my dad told me he was going to visit the Makonde Mission Team again this Summer. I asked if I could tag along, and he willingly obliged!

While I was preparing for this trip, I was very careful to keep expectations out of my mind. I wanted to go into it experiencing things for the first time and taking it from there. I got my shots, bought some long skirts, some Cliff Bars, and a hat and I was ready.

Dad flew up to MSP on Wednesday the 30th, so that we could fly together on the long haul flights. We left Thursday am at 11:00 and flew to Chicago. We flew from Chicago to Zurich and go in at 6:30 am on Friday. Our next flight was out of Zurich at 11:00 and got to Dar El Salaam at 9:30 pm Friday night. Andrew Fraser had arranged for us to stay at the Guest House of the Benedictine Brothers. A man picked us up at the airport and took us to the guest house. They had a meal prepared for us that night then we went to bed for a couple of hours before our 6:30 flight to Mtwara.

Precision Airline flight from Dar to Mtwara

Meal at the Guest House Friday Evening

I was up at 2:00 because of jet lag, so I read my book and waited until 4:30 to meet our driver downstairs. There was about a 10-minute period of Dad and I thinking no one was coming to meet us, but at 4:55 the driver showed up. We made it back to the Dar airport and our flight said it was on time, but of course that's just a suggestion. We waited for an hour listening for Mtwara over the intercom.

Random sidenote:
There were so many things that go through your mind when you're traveling or moving to a new place. While sitting there in the airport I realized that sunrise/sunset is virtually the same time everyday: 6:30-6:30. It's definitely better than the Winters in Minnesota, but I love our 9:45 pm sunsets we get in the Summer. It would be hard to adjust to 2 seasons (wet/dry) instead of 4.

Back to the story:
Our plane was probably 1/3 full, and we were just thankful they actually still flew there being that empty. We landed in Mtwara at 8:30, got our bags, and met Andrew, Sarah, and Reed at the front of the "airport". It took Reed a couple of minutes to warm up to me because she thought Mr. David was bringing a "kid" when he heard "his daughter" was coming.

We loaded up the car with our two suitcases a trunk of goodies for the families and headed to Sarah's house for breakfast of yogurt, tea, and fruit. We were very excited to hear that Bobby, Candice, and their 11-month-old Georgia Quinn were also going to be at the Fraser's while we were here. After breakfast, Sarah and I ran a couple of errands in town to the market. Sarah introduced me as your friend to the workers at the market, and they all thought my visit was going to be too short. I was given a papaya by a vendor since I was Sarah's guest and a basket by another vendor. It was fun to listen to Sarah interact with the Tanzanians, and an odd feeling to not know what is being said especially if they are looking at you! Sarah typically interpreted the conversations for me if they were worth sharing.

Once we were done at the market we drove back to the house and loaded up to go to the Trull's house. Lauren was recovering from malaria, and we sat around visiting with them for a bit. We stopped back by a restaurant called "Himo" for beans and chicken and a thick-potato-like substance called "ugali" (I don't know how to spell it) that you eat with your hands.

We got back to the house and started some food prep for dinner. We had tomato soup, grilled cheese (on homemade bread) and some salad. We had to soak all the vegetables in some kind of disinfecting rinse before cooking with it. We had some arugula from their garden and Cranberry Hibiscus from their yard for the salad. Dad mixed up a dressing for it and dinner was served.

Dad, Andrew, and Reed looking for greens for the salad.

Candice, Sarah, Bobby, and GQ drinking some tea

Andrew and Bobby making the grilled cheese

Sarah making the soup

Reed "cooking" the grilled cheese.

Sunday morning we met the "office" for the men to have a reading/discussion group. We took an afternoon walk to the beach that evening before dinner. They live about a 10-minute walk from the Indian Ocean.