9th June 2009 - Leaving Arusha

I leave my Arusha home tomorrow after having been taken in since my arrival back in Tanzania almost four months ago. And this move has made me reflect once again on "home". Many times when I meet someone for the first time I'm asked where home is. Sometimes I don't know how to answer because it seems like I have so many homes and so many people have welcomed me into and made their homes be mine. The answers range from Maryknoll NY, to the family farm in ND, to Singida/Arusha/and now presumably Dodoma Tanzania, to dear friends in NJ and NY, to brother in Casper WY, to family in Bismarck ND and wherever they are. Everyone of these places and the people there welcomes me and invites me into their lives and I am at home with them. What a gift that is, and one for which I'm very grateful. I guess that's one of the characteristics of a missioner - to be at home wherever, and so maybe the words of the song are true: Home is any place you choose to put your heart. For now my heart is definitely here in Tanzania and notwithstanding how much I miss family and friends in the U.S., it is very good for me to be here.

I go to Dar es Salaam tomorrow, a 9 hour bus ride, and on Thursday will meet my Maryknoll sister, Connie, with whom I will be living with. I'll let her have a couple days to rest and to get over jet lag, and then we'll go to Dodoma, where she'll see if the possibilities that I saw in Dodoma look as positive to her as they do to me, and also we'll make a decision about housing. On June 18th we'll go back to Dar es Salaam where the Maryknoll Sisters will have a meeting and we'll be assigned to our new home. After that presumably we'll start setting up house and get to work as quickly as possible. This is all very exciting for me, and I'm really looking forward to settling in and meeting the people with whom I'll be working.

I was interested to compare the weather of Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Dodoma - this is what I found. This afternoon the temperature in Arusha is 73 F., Dar es Salaam 81 F., and Dodoma also 81. Low expected is Arusha 57, Dar es Salaam 78 and Dodoma 59. However, the humidity is 65 per cent in Arusha, 70 in Dar es Salaam and 39 in Dodoma. So, as expected, the temperatures of Dar and Dodoma don't vary much but the comfort level is very different because of the humidity. And the low temperatures between Arusha and Dodoma don't differ much but it feels colder here in Arusha because the humidity is higher. I'll let you know what it's REALLY like when I get to these places! Stay tuned ...