Greetings and Gizmos

A bright cool morning dawned as the team had a leisurely start to our day. After our communal breakfast, we did a bit of organizing and then our driver arrived in a daladala, which is a very common mass transit vehicle here, like an older Toyota minivan. Daladalas hold about 10 people comfortably, so our group of 15 was very friendly with each other.

Bishop Mameo met us at the diocese office where we were formally greeted and welcomed. Newcomers to the team were introduced and we all enjoyed our visit, exchanging good hearted humor about the extremes in weather between our two countries. Bishop Mameo is studying for his doctorate in divinity through Luther seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and was most recently in the US in February.

Our families may have noticed a bit of deafening silence from us since we arrived because we have not had access to internet or phones. Both tech problems were on the list today, along with moving all of our medical gear to Mazimbu. One of our translators, Kishumu, has already been working with us and was invaluable in helping with our communication and his familiarity with Morogoro meant he was able to tell us just where to go.

Communication has not been our only tech problem… until today we had been unsuccessful in exchanging money. Oddly enough, every bureau de change that we stopped at, beginning with the airport in Dar es Salaam, was closed or not functioning. We learned today that nationwide all of the exchanges are closed pending an investigation. That left the local bank as our only option for changing money. When our troop entered the lobby, it prompted an excess of courtesy so what we thought was a set of routine transactions ended up taking more than an hour and a half!

After high finance, lunch was the order of business and the team joined Tisho and Kristen at Ricky’s, one of our favorite restaurants. Tisho and Kristen are a married couple that are missionaries with The Mission Society and are directors of Berega infants home. Berega is about two hours away from Morogoro in a very rural area and the home is working to acquire livestock to become self-sufficient. Terry is a goat expert and his role on the team is to go with Tisho and Kristen and facilitate the purchase of several nanny goats. So we said goodbye to him after lunch and will meet up with him again this weekend.

By now, the day was waning, so Pati went with Kishumu to solve internet and phone issues, while the rest of the team went back to LJS to gather up our medical bags. We met at Mazimbu after 4 and again renewed our friendship with the doctors and staff at the hospital.

After dinner, more prep was done for the following day. Dr. Doug, Cindy, Sheila and Laura will join the Mazimbu staff at morning meeting while the rest of the team has our first organizational meeting with our translators.

Stay tuned for new of our first day after Tuesday is done!