Lectures at the University (and Donna’s Bday!)

Thursday Jan. 26th

Wow, the last few days have been a flurry of activity! Tuesday and Thursday we visited the University of Dar es Salaam for our last two history lectures: the first on the Swahili Civilization and the second on the colonial period.

In between these lectures we had a rich time of sharing, story-telling, and discussion at Unit House on Wednesday.

Today during Swahili class the students ventured to the kitengi and kanga market to practice their Swahili – and of course to buy some clothes! The morning culminated with a surprise Birthday party for Donna (aka Mama Mara – it is traditional to call mothers in reference to their children – Mama Isaac is fine too!). Our wonderful students pooled their resources and bought her a kitengi dress and a bag – who of you out there is responsible for these amazing people? Their care and good spirit has been amazing.

Tomorrow morning we will board a daladala for our first overnight weekend trip. We’ll spend 2 days and one night in Bagamoyo, a small fishing village about 90 minutes north of Dar. We’ll report on that trip in our next blog.