Visitors!!!!

Week one of my two weeks off from school was jam-packed with visitors and fun.

Sunday, Cat and Beth, JVs at Gonzaga primary school in Dar came to town.  After a run around "The Rock" we ate dinner and prepped for a night on the town.  We learned that Club 84, the dance club by our house, has LADIES' NIGHT on Sundays!  After some Konyagi and Bongo Flavor, we made it home at about 4 a.m.   Who knew?

The next day, we slept in and then went for a tour of the Village of Hope where I work.  It was pretty low-key there because the kids were napping.  We did go into the dispensary to visit the babies, though which was a lot of fun.  Alice, a British volunteer working in Mwanza came through Dodoma on Monday night on her way home.  Roland came to town and we had a great feast of a dinner including guacamole and velveta cheese!

Tuesday, our first set of guests headed for the bus station and Laura and I began our prep for the next set.

Wednesday, Mary Ahlbach, her nephew Adam, niece Mairead, and friend, Sr. Gaudentia came to Dodoma!  Their main purpose for coming to Tanzania was to visit the Orphan Center near Bukoba that Mary has been working with since 2005.  Generously, they changed their departure city to Dar to be able to pass through Dodoma and see me!  This switch included about 20 hours of bus travel... VERY GENEROUS.  It was so great to see a face from home and make some new friends.  In town for two days, three nights, we made the most of it.  Day one we went downtown, did a little shopping, toured the market, and at lunch at one of my favorite spots.  Then we walked over to the Cathedral where we met a priest who wanted to give us a tour of St. Gaspar's hotel and Radio Mwangaza, promising that it would be thirty minutes.  At this point, I know what that means, but it was pretty cool.  We went home eventually and had a lovely dinner at our house in Area D (thanks Cristina).

The next day we all headed to daily mass at 6:30 a.m. Afterwards, we had a great chai with the Jesuits and sorted out a bunch of the great gifts our guests hauled with them across the world!!  (A volleyball net!?! And LOTS of stuff for me! So heavy!  They are saints.)  We then went to pick up the bus tickets (slight scare there when some were sold out... luckily we have some friends that were able to help us out.) We moved on to St. Peter Claver where Roland gave us a great tour.  It was really nice for me, too.  I'd seen hardly any of the school until this point!  It is a pretty huge place, and a lot of it is still under construction.  Like Mary said, it will be very cool to see that place in about 10-20 years.

We moved on to the Village of Hope and had a great time walking around the beautiful site and again, getting some love from the babies.  Then Fr. Vincent met with us to give us a history of the Village, which is turning 10 years old this year!  He is so humble and truly inspiring to listen to.  I could see the wheels turning in Sr. Gaudentia and Mary's heads, getting ideas for there orphan center outside Bukoba.  We closed up the tour with a quick visit to the church and the new bakery, which is part of the plan to make the Village self-sustaining.  

This being Mary's sixth visit to Tanzania, I thought it was about time she got on a daladala, so we took one part of the way home.  We took a taxi for leg two of the journey, not because they couldn't handle it, but because we were pressed for time.  We wanted to do our hike of "The Rock" before sunset.  We made it about half way up and saw some stellar views of Dodoma.

Mary then treated me, my roomies, and Fr. Sossy to one of our favorite dinners... the swanky pizza place by our house!  It was great, fun, and delicious.  Then it was time to pack up and get to bed, as taxis were set to pick us up for the bus stand at 6:15 a.m.

Though the visit was a little hectic, it was so great to have visitors!  I had some wonderful talks with each visitor and really appreciate each one's advice and perspectives on life here.  It is so refreshing to see things through someone else's eyes.  Also with Adam being a second grade teacher and Mary having taught primary before, they had really good tips and advice for me.

Having visitors also helped me take some ownership of my life here by sharing it with others.  Introducing my friends around town and speaking Swahili really helped me see how far I have come in this experience.  These six months (almost 7 now!) have been really hard, but with encouraging words and perspectives from my visitors, I am thinking it will only get better.  I can't thank them enough.