I would first like to announce that I have had electricity for around 30 hours. It is very exciting. Yay!

Last Thursday I traveled to Moshi to attend a big Roots & Shoots event and conduct some site visits. I live in the south on the coast, and Moshi is right on the base of Kilimanjaro, so traveling to Moshi is a 10 hour bus ride on crazy Tanzanian roads. Although seeing the Tanzanian countryside is nice, it makes for a loooong day!

The event in Moshi was really great! I've uploaded 6 of the hundreds of pictures I took. It was sponsored by the EU because this is the international year of volunteering. We had around 300 students from Roots & Shoots clubs around Moshi come to a village "Old People's Camp" on Saturday. This is basically a retirement home, but African, and therefore utterly and completely different from a North American retirement home. These "camps" are government funded... so they are completely run down. They are also very rare because it is in East African culture to take care of your grandparents, so the people staying in these camps are generally the sole survivors of their family. This particular camp had around 25 residents and 5 staff. On Friday we had a big tour, and we were given the background information on all of the residents by the head nurse - it was really interesting, but also heartbreaking in many cases. Around 5 of the residents are unable to get out of bed, and are visibly extremely close to death.

The R&S event had the students give the camp a complete face lift. Students dug garbage pits, cleaned all of the rooms, gardened, planted trees, cut the grass (with giant knives!), chopped wood, washed dishes, pruned banana trees, cleaned bathrooms, and the most precious of all - they sat and intently listened to these elders tell their stories. The chief elder was definitely a favourite to many, and although I couldn't understand his stories (because they were in Swahili), I was laughing along with everyone as he shared his life stories. Some of the older high school boys even said that they wanted to keep going back to talk to him because he had such great tales to tell. We ended the day with speeches, a meal, and gifts for the elders that were scrounged up by the students. It was beautiful.

There were a few funny moments too that I can't go without mentioning. I didn't really help much with the labour because as soon as I would start, a crowd of students would gather around to watch a white person do work (and laugh). Also, some of the older highschool boys realized that I'm the same age as them (they have 2 more years than Canada, and some have a break in schooling when their family can't afford it), and so I had quite a few very persistent suitors.

We also went to a R&S funded environmental conservation site at the base of Kilimanjaro in Mweka village. It is the most peaceful place I have ever been. I also added an album of some photos. They have 2 fishponds for aquaculture and an elaborate nursery of tree seedlings. It is a brilliant community initiative - there is a section where villagers can come and plant there own seedlings to sell for profit, and a section where the R&S volunteers raise seedlings that are given to the community to plant on their land for free. There are lots of other inspired initiatives going on there - too many to describe, but I felt as if I could happily live in Mweka for the rest of my days (don't worry Mom - I won't).

All in all, a very successful journey. We had quite a few funny moments as it is some kind of strange African culture thing to take your guests on tours to places without telling them about it. I'm not entirely sure of what was going on, this might just be a way of showing off your white friends. We once thought we were going home after a long day, but were driven to our colleagues brothers house (a doctor - who had a Wii!!!), and had a meal, and then to have a drink with a medical student friend, and a tour of the medical college campus, to the friend's house for half an hour, and THEN home. We thought we were finally going to get to go home after each destination, and these kind of surprise tours happened every day.

Jane is now in Tanzania. She was actually living in our house when we were in Moshi - it is unbelievable that all of the things that moved around our house while we were gone was the doing of Jane Goodall. She will be back here on the 19th, then head to Arusha, and then back here on the 22nd for a film showing and social event. Needless to say, life is very busy at the office in preparation.

Life in Dar continues, and I am still joyously adjusting. Choir has been going well, and I have somehow agreed to give music lessons to 2 fellow choristers. I hate mosquitoes more than ever, with more than 300 bites. There are cockroaches in my bathtub. Babies sometimes cry when they see me because I'm white. I've received several marriage proposals. Children tell me to give them money. Oh Africa, you're crazy, but I love you!

And I love all of you too!

Blessings!

P.S. Our ever-excited housekeeper tragically had a stroke on the weekend. He is apparently doing better, and is out of the hospital, but I don't trust the public health system here at all. I hope to visit him soon - possibly tomorrow. Please pray for him.