Beautiful faces: Part I

At the moment, I'm in Dar es Salaam and have a wonderful internet connection! I decided to take advantage of it by putting up more pictures. Since I'm not getting a lot of new photos at the moment I will post old shots, so these are not in any sort of chronological order.

The title of the post says it all: these are beautiful faces! Some of the shots are re-posts, and I hope you enjoy them as much now as you did the first time.

This child is the grandson of one of my co-workers.

This is Ketchu, the oldest child in the Nkya family. After Mrs. Nkya died, she began to act as the mother of the house. She's getting married in December!

Another picture of Eva, my 5 year old neighbor. Isn't she adorable! She knows how to pose for the camera ;-)

This is a shot of Sarari (far left), Eva, Sadam (base of the pyramid), and Willy (top). Pretty creative huh? Thankfully no one fell ;-)

This is one of the guards who watches the compound where we live. Sadly, I don't remember his name.

A few scenes from Dar es Salaam

My stomach has been bothering me for about a month, so on Friday I traveled to Dar es Salaam to see a doctor in the city. I hate that I had to make the trip for this reason, but I am enjoying it!

This is a shot from Slipway, a tourist spot in the northern part of the city. Allan Nicodemus is on the left (works for TCRS and studied agriculture at a university in Canada). He and his sons took a me and a friend to Slipway, had some ice-cream, and then let us explore more on our own.
This is Martina, an Italian interning at a Dar es Salaam publishing house till Christmas. We had a great time looking around the city on Sunday. It was such a treat to have someone to share the experience with instead of touring around on my own. We had a nice lunch and then ice-cream afterwards.

This is a shot of houses on the shore of the Indian Ocean. Though you can't tell it from this pic, the water is very clear and blue.

The Indian Ocean!

This is the old state house where President Nyerere took the oath of office. Nyrele is the Tanzanian equvilent of George Washington. The major difference is that he helped his country gain independence in 1964 rather than 1776.

The Lutheran church in down-town Dar es Salaam. Notice the power lines! It's been about 2.5 months since I've seen them or driven on paved roads. It's amazing how "little" things we take for granted in the States really aren't that little ;-)

Bright Spots!

The light in my living room has been out for over a week. Because bulbs and fixtures can be hard to find here, I had to enlist some of my Kibondo buddies to get the problem fixed. Last night they came through! It's such a treat to have a well lit room again :-)

The crew who helped me out from left to right: "Setter" (still don't know his name, only that he plays on the volleyball team as a setter and everyone calls him this), Victor, Sos (yes, that's really his name, as in S-O-S), and Tabitha.

Let there be light!!!

Friends in TZ

Here are some pics of people who I spend time with:

Tabitha and Victor Seko. Victor is 16 years old and exceptionally bright. They lived in London for 8 years and speak English very well! It's always a blessing to spend time with them :-)

From left to right: Gloriosa (a Burundian secondary student studying at a Catholic TZ boarding school); Sarari (next door neighbor); Eva and Willy Nkya (next door neighbors). We were trying to take a picture of the rainbow you can faintly see in the background.

Kibondo Hospital

Over the past two weeks, I've had some stomach problems. So, on Thursday and Friday I went to Kibondo Hospital to have some tests run. Below are pictures of the hospital. Unfortunately they are out of order, so start at the bottom and move to the top. Also, thankfully I am feeling better! Apparently I have some sort of worms and we're now treating for that infection! God is good!

Willy Nkya (my friend and loyal translator) looking out the window of the lab. I'm still not sure what the little round buildings are.

The entrance to the lab, which was built by the IRC.

A shot of the walkway from the lab (behind--not visible) to the pharmacy (left), main office (right), and wards (further left--not visible). The hospital is a collection of various buildings connected by walkways like this.

The front of Kibondo Hopsital. This government hospital will see a patient for 300Tsh (roughly 25 cents). If the doctor perscribes medication, then you must pay for that. Otherwise, the 300Tsh will pay for consultation and labwork.

A birthday party for Willy and Anna!

The bowl has the first cake I made which fell apart. Don't worry, we still enjoyed the partially masticated treat ;-) The green circle is the second cake. Willy's favorite color is green, which is why we decided to go with green food coloring. Dispite appearances, it tasted good ;-)
Party goers from left to right: Richard and Pryia Crothers (my Christian buddies at IRC), Ketchu Nkya (oldest Nkya daughter at 25), Evabright Nkya (youngest Nkya daughter at 5), Anna Nkya (d-day girl who turned 19 last month), Willy Nkya (birthday boy who turned 13), Sadam (next door neighbor and classmate of Willy's, 15), Sarah (midwesterner who now works for IRC), Sarari (Sadam's brother, 14)

Burundi...

TZ countryside on the way to Burundi.

House in Burundi, close to the Tanzanian border.

Town called Gisuru in Burundi.

More Burundian countryside.

Church

The inside of the church.

The outside of the church. Though the services last 2-3 hours and are in Swahili, this community has been such a blessing!