30th July 2009
My thoughts and prayers have been rather preoccupied with the final illness and death of my sister-in-law, Kathy. May she rest in peace. It’s always difficult to be away from family at times like these, when the remembering of our loved one together and the support of each other means so much. It’s a consolation to know that the good that a person does never disappears, and Kathy has left a large legacy.
I’m certainly getting back into the mindset of everything taking lots and lots and lots longer than anticipated. We still haven’t got our internet connection, still haven’t got out check book for our bank account, still haven’t gotten the rest of our furniture. I think one of the reasons is that people have a certain desire to please and so they tell you what you want to hear. “Oh, yes, the furniture will be delivered on Monday” because of course that’s what I’d like to have happen. However, when Monday comes there’s a problem with the hinges not being available, or the varnish not yet being dry, or the person working on it has had to travel somewhere, etc. etc.
We had a meeting with the Bishop the other day and once again he was warm and welcoming. He will facilitate a meeting of the heads of the various departments in the Diocese, our parish priest, the chancellor of the Diocese, and us. That should be a good learning experience for us and a chance to know the things that are happening in the Diocese. And a chance for those folks to know us as well. I hope it doesn’t take too long to come to pass.
And very good news: The funding for a car has been approved!! The request was made to Mission Projects Funding of the Maryknoll Sisters, and the actual funds will come from the fund raising initiative in the Netherlands. Now we need to place the order and, what will probably be the most daunting task, follow all the procedures in order to get exemption from the taxes connected with such a big purchase. As a religious group we are eligible for tax exemption but I hear that the procedure is rather long and arduous. It will be worth it, however, so we’ll do it.
31st July 2009
The rest of our furniture arrived yesterday afternoon – yippee! I had tried to phone several times during the last few days but hadn’t managed to have anyone answer a phone. I was beginning to think that they were avoiding my phone calls …. However, when we least expected it the phone rang and we were told that the furniture would be delivered that afternoon. And so it was – What a nice surprise and how happy we are to finally put away our suitcases. For me, this has been since 12th February, when I was packing to come to Tanzania. Living so long out of a suitcase can get old, so putting them away and out of sight feels like a real accomplishment. By the way, the furniture is worth waiting for. These guys do a really good job and everything looks great. The explanation of the problem was that the hinges that came weren’t the right kind, and so the doors weren’t up to standard and they waited to get the right kind so that everything looks good.
1st August 2009
A new month means that we have been in this house one complete month. We had expected that the completion of the walls and gates as well as the landscaping would have been accomplished by the end of July but that hasn’t happened. We did a bit of prodding of our landlord via text messages on the phone, and he promises to come next weekend. Hopefully a lot of things will be done when he arrives. I especially feel bad about the trees and shrubs he planted but which are beginning to look really desperate for water. We could water them but there’s a trench along one side so most of the water just disappears into the trench. And for security reasons we will certainly need the garage and the gates before bringing a car.
Our Small Christian Community continues to meet early every Saturday morning. Our turn for hosting the group will be coming up before too long. I don’t know where we’re going to borrow the chairs from, but maybe more mats will do the trick.
5th August 2009
Sunday after Mass we went to the Nane Nane grounds that are a few kilometers further down the road out of town. Nane Nane (eighth day of the eighth month) is celebrated as Farmer’s Day, or a day to celebrate agriculture, and the celebration is always held at the large fair-ground here outside Dodoma. There are booths and tents and some permanent buildings in which government departments, companies, community groups, etc. educate and exhibit their work. We only managed to walk in one area (it’s a large area and the sun was hot) and there were lots of interesting things to see. We saw some domesticated animals shown by the department of agriculture and livestock and some wild animals shown by the department of wildlife and tourism. The latter had a lot of visitors and so many Tanzanians got the chance to see one of Tanzania’s great resources up close. Most have never been able to travel to a national park because of the distance or fees or travel costs, etc. so having a chance to see up close a lion, a leopard, hyenas, python, wild cats, parrots, tortoise, etc. was a great thrill. We visited some of the tents showing local crafts and bought a lovely mat for the living room, table mats for the dining table, a couple candles that are supposed to repel mosquitoes. Lots of people were enjoying the festivities, and it was nice to see entire families out together.
We have finally been connected to the internet, thanks to a very competent and caring sales person – her name is Peace (what a nice name!). We had been promised the connection last week but it seems that the modems are out of stock in the country so have had to be ordered from abroad. I don’t know if they come from South Africa or Europe but apparently it will take some time for them to arrive. In order to help us, Peace was ready to lend us her modem, and so on Friday I brought it home. I couldn’t get it to work, so contacted her, and she said she’d try to come. Well, she was busy at the Vodacom booth at Nane Nane so hadn’t managed to come. Finally she did find time, and spent the whole afternoon here, much of the time on the phone with a technician in Dar es Salaam, until she got it to work. Those two young people were so patient and just would not give up. Peace even had to go back to town to her office to get some different software, and finally things work. Hopefully when the new modems come in we’ll have no problems connecting as well. The technician says that some of the Windows programmes work differently, and apparently that’s what he had to work with. Anyway, thanks be to God for their perseverance.
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