Isaac, Laura, Austin, and Cecilia are living in small villages north of Tarime. Cecilia is living and volunteering on an agricultural extension farm run by the Anglican church in Mogabiri. She finds herself editing grants, but has also learned to milk a cow. Her host mother is the director of…
Peter, Hannah, and Anna are living in Tarime. Peter is teaching physics and mathematics at Angel School–a secondary boarding school. His nickname there is Matiko Jr, since Matiko (Sr) has already been teaching those subjects at Angel. He lives on a shamba (small farm) with his father, a retired teacher…
Mara Region of Tanzania. Base map, Maps.me based on OpenStreetMap Musoma: This is the regional capital and largest town (population ~130,000) in Mara region. Paul and Kathy live just outside Musoma in Nyabange. Rachel and Maddy, and Nat and Grant are doing their service assignments in villages close to…
The first Mennonite missionaries to Tanzania came to the market town of Shirati, on Lake Victoria, near the Kenyan border, in 1934. Kevin, Kayla, and Sadie are doing their service terms here in Shirati. Sadie is working at the Shirati hospital, which has an impressive array of services including…
We took Lydia and Ben along with us to Mugumu where we played games and ate together with the students in Mugumu as well as Laura from Nata. Jenae and Jennifer are assisting Neema at the Mugumu Safe House. It’s a ministry of the Anglican Church set up to provide…
We are starting our visits to students on service! Ben and Lydia are in one of the remotest villages: Kemgesi is largely settled by Ngoreme people. It lies on a broad plain between distant hills. Ben is teaching Physics and Math at the secondary school. One of Mw. Nyerere’s strategies…
Finally we reached the Mara region! Mara lies between Lake Victoria (west), and the Serengeti (east) and is where students will spend their service time for (most) of the remainder of the SST term. Here on the western side of the Serengeti there is a profusion of tribal groups. The…
Each year wildebeest (gnus) give birth in February in the south-eastern Serengeti. As the rains end around May they start moving, almost 2 million, northwest towards the Maasai Mara region (in Kenya). They return in November. Along with the wildebeest, several hundred thousand zebra, as well as gazelles, buffalo…
At the heart of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is the Ngorongoro “crater”. It is a crater-like depression left by the collapse of the top of an ancient volcano cone, and home to an amazing variety of large animals. Panorama of the Ngorongoro crater We had the…
[Students have just started the service portion of SST. We’re looking back at our journey from Dar es Salaam to the Mara Region, via Arusha, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, and the Ikoma cultural center.] Rising early Monday, we took the 7 AM bus from Dar to Arusha–a trip of about 12 hours.
