Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

I thought you might like to hear some of the stories from my travel home during the middle of a global pandemic.  Some of you may have seen some of the photos on my facebook feed, but I have some more that did not make that feed.  I am also going to talk about what I am doing now that I am at home and in self imposed quarantine before I go to stay at my folks home.  I am also going to ask for your help to decide what I should be doing on the blog during what will be an extended break. Let's start with what was happening in Tanzania before I left.  The government had encouraged people not to gather in large groups and given some basic guidance along those lines.  They closed all school and  universities.  They required everyone coming in to Tanzania to go into a 14 day quarantine at a place the government set up.  This meant expensive type hotels that many of the Tanzanians returning after being overseas could not afford.  The government howev...

Welcome back to Conversations with Barnabas Bear. A couple of items up front, the conversation is fictional (hopefully that was obvious) but are pulled from some of my conversations and observations during my time here in Tanzania.  The main purpose of these is to help everyone get to know the people in Tanzania a little bit better while having a little bit of fun.  I would love some feedback on these so I know if I should continue and if so what types of conversations Barnabas needs to be having.  The stories are told from Barnaba’s point of view and because of that they are in English though I try to reflect some of the problems with the English translation. Today I got to spend time with Alec (best I guess to spell the name as he got really quiet every time he said it) while he was getting water for his family.  He does this at least once a week and sometimes twice.  He has 2 each 6 to 7 gallon containers and one that is around a gallon.  He...

As I am two days late with this blog and part of that is due to falling sick to some very small sardine like fish in a soup that was absolutely no fun while traveling from Yulansoni to Singida and then a day later to Arusha, I am not doing a normal blog but instead a couple of small items I thought were interesting.  Please feel free to comment if you run into similar situations. First a note about traveling while having a stomach problem-they don't stop for bathroom breaks or at least nothing that would help.  It used to be they stopped at a midway point for a significant amount of time but since they finished paving the roads they no longer do that on the 6 hour trip to Arusha.  They did make one very quick stop-not nearly long enough for me to risk getting off the bus for.  The second travel day while not pleasant was much better than the first that was at the height of my problems. Speaking of traveling on buses:  It was interesting that a policewoman ca...

This one will be a bit long as there are a lot of things to cover about the trip out to Singida and Yulansoni this first time as an individual.  While I have had the pleasure to go to both and to use local transportation to get to Singida in the past this trip as you will see had a lot of new adventures.  For those not familiar with the geography:  Singida is a town and a district in Tanzania.  It is the nearest town with things like hotels, "regular" electricity and so forth.  It is 324 Kilometers (201.3 miles) from Arusha where I had been before.  In the past this trip was only partially paved, but now it is almost completely paved (mainly repair areas you have to go off road).  Yulansoni is the village the Full Dimension Ministry site is located nearest to in the valley area, so we don't actually go to the village but to the site.  (BTW site is located at -4.381468, 34.572284 and can be found on Google Earth where you can see the buildings...

It is hard to believe I am already a week in and as promised I am not going to let too much time get by without giving an update.  The biggest problem this first full week is what I should include because there is so much to tell everyone about.  I hope not to bore those who have been here or other parts of the world on mission trips because some of this will seem old hand maybe but for those whose ministry is the support of those who go to these locations I feel called to share some of my life here.  First for everyone asking:  Barnabas is fine, his hibernation state is over and he is out and about in town.  We will start with him as a matter of fact.  He was worried because bears are not native to Africa (look up why Paddington Bear had to come from Peru-because the author first wanted him to be from Africa until they learned Bears are not native to Africa so poor Paddington got an address change). At William and Martha's trying to work the deve...

I am not one to normally write about everything that happens in my life-hence the reason I am not a great blogger.  I have made a commitment to do better both on Facebook and here on the blog to "talk" more.  That being noted I have been here in Arusha, Tanzania with William and Martha Makali for three days now and am getting into the swing of things.  Normally when I make these trips it is go, go and more go because we only have two weeks to accomplish a lot of tasks.  This trip is slower from the perspective that I am not working on tasks as much as a way of life change and that does take time. When I first got here after a full 24 hours of flights and layovers I was welcomed by 80 degree F temperatures at night after having a daily high of 40 at home.  The first day I spent getting adjusted to the heat and getting on the right time schedule which really meant falling asleep throughout the day as I tried to study my Swahili text.  Needless to say my n...