Nane Nane

Nane Nane means "Eight Eight" and refers to the public holiday on the 8th day of the 8th month, a day of national recognition for all farming and agriculture of Tanzania.
Each year in Dodoma there is a great Agricultural Show just outside of town. This year, I braved the crowds and took the children along to see what it was all about. A great area of land is dedicated to the event and despite the dried, brown land of Dodoma, an impressive array of crops, plants and livestock is displayed. There are also various stalls promoting Tanzania's tea and coffee products and others promoting farming machinery, tractors etc.
Andrew was supposed to come along with us, but at 07:30 on Monday morning, he was called out on a flight. Not wanting to let the children down, I made plans to go along with American friends from SIL (Wycliff Bible translators). I was grateful for the help with the children in what turned out to be a busy and noisy environment, but very interesting.

Not to be outdone, Andrew managed to fly back to Dodoma over the NaneNane site and smapped a great overall shot of the event from the air:

Meanwhile, on the ground, Esther, Ben and their American friend Josiah were drawn to the National Parks display of (caged) wild animals and reptiles, including a leopard (in the cage pictured below), a lion, a giant tortoise aged 152 years (!!), monkeys, an enormous python, cobras, vipers, scorpions, chameleons, mamba snakes and other charming creatures of Tanzania!

While crowds marvelled at the wild creatures, Joel proved to be quite an attraction himself, as the baby front-carrier caused many comments and a fair bit of laughter, as a novel and strange way to carry a baby according to many of the local Tanzanians!

 The size of the display tractors and their mighty wheels amazed the children...

 ... and there was time to sample the delicate texture and scents of Tanzanian tea in the Chai tent:

The sunflowers completed the interesting sights to see and enjoy on our Nane Nane outing.