We have just returned from a family weekend away. We drove the hour and a half to stay at a self-catering Guesthouse above, situated at the Theological College of St Philip's, Kongwa: a well used venue for MAF staff to have a short break away from compound life.
The road to Kongwa:
The Guesthouse (right-hand half of the first floor):
Kongwa is a lovely, peaceful place situated in the hills where we went for short "hikes", enjoying the fresh air:
Although we really liked our walks, I find that I am not yet so relaxed taking an impromptu hike in Tanzania, as little niggles prey on my mind, like the worry of crossing paths with a snake or scorpion and physical niggles of briers, barbed grasses, ticks and thorns prey on my skin! There is also the need to always remember to carry lots of water in the heat of the African sun.
On Saturday, I was really pleased to meet up with a Tanzanian lady called Flora, who I met and had tea with during my visit to Tanzania in 2002, together with the St Michael's team I was travelling with! Her husband Phanuel now lectures at the college in Kongwa, but was away this weekend. Now that we have renewed contact, we hope to meet up again soon.
In the afternoon, a large party was taking place in a nearby room on the college campus, where a family were giving an extravagant "send-off" for a young couple set to get married and move the 7-hour road journey away to Dar es Salaam. In Tanzanian culture, this pre-party to the actual wedding party is a huge celebration and attended by a wide circle of family and friends. The college campus was a lively place for the afternoon, with some wonderful music and some very lively drumming sessions, singing and announcements. It was interesting to hear it all and to see the large number of people coming and going in their smart dresses and suits.
We did have a small adventure at 2:30am on Friday night, when a large CRASH and smashing of glass woke Andrew and I. Andrew set out to investigate whilst I hid under the duvet (it is lovely and cool in the Kongwa, so I really appreciated being able to comfortably sleep under my English duvet in this cooler season!). Peering into the kitchen, Andrew found the cause of the frightening noise: it seems that little furry "friends" had found my glass jar of peanut butter! In their excitement, they had knocked it onto the concrete floor to get their rodent noses into the sticky, nutty butter. A clean up job was required, gallantly carried out by Andrew. I was galvanised into action by the unwelcome possibility of teeth marks in all my food packets, veg and fruit, so I got up to pack all the food away into my cooler bag /sealed boxes, before retiring back to bed -until Ben wandered through at the slightly more civil hour of 6:40am...
Today, it was time to leave- so off we go, leaving the hills of Kongwa behind. It was a lovely, family weekend -but next time I shall leave my peanut butter at home!
What a lovely weekend.The smashed window was just as scary as some we had in Bootle.Not sure which intruders I'd rather confront!the children are having such a varied childhood and it's good that you've been able to have some quality family time together.x
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you managed to get a weekend "away". I bet not many Tanzanians would go walking / Trekking for the fun of it!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about peanut butter, but I'll tell you that a smashed jar of Marmite is incredibly messy. I found that out this week :o( Jx
Oh, Poor Ben. I am glad he was none-the-worse from his dive into the swimming pool.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds very time-consuming and yucky to have to prepare your meat in the way you describe. Your blog is magnificent and a book in the making. How do you find time to write it all and give such an intereting account of your life in Dodoma? Chris x