Friday, March 7, 2008

Cape Town Part III

On Monday February 29th, my last full day in Cape Town, several friends and I drove to Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch is South African wine country and it was beautiful!

Five of us rented the car you can see below and drove for the day. Our gas mileage was great ;-)

This photo shows, among other things, how dry it has been in Stellenbosch. Notice the brown grass and the drained irrigation pool (right), next to the green vines (left).

This is a barn at the first vineyard we visited. Vats of wine are cured and stored inside.


A view of vines and mountains from the first vineyard. This was a smaller operation--notice that the vines are more brown than those in the first picture.

Cape Town mountains as seen from one of the vineyards.





Cape Town Part II

On Friday, our second day in Cape Town, we had more chances to take in the beautiful scenery of the city.

Sunset from Signal Hill and the end of the day...it was very windy and cold from our vantage point, but good company, cheese, and wine took a bit of the edge off the chilly evening.

A view of the M6--the shore line road we drove along Friday afternoon.

This is where Hout's Bay opens to the ocean. At this point along the shore, I think the water is still considered the Atlantic Ocean. We would have had to drive a bit further to reach the Indian Ocean...probably another 30 miles or so.


This is a view of Hout's Bay. On the far shore you can see white sand beaches. To the right, out of the view of the camera is a steep, rocky mountainside.




Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Views from Cape Town--Part I

From February 21st-26th I was in Cape Town, South Africa on the Princeton in Africa retreat. (As you may remember, I am a Princeton in Africa fellow working for TCRS.)

Cape Town is beautiful and the perfect city for an outdoors person. Table Mountain sits at the edge of the city, close to the coast, and several of us hiked to the top of the mountain on my first day there, which gave us all a beautiful view of city.

Below are a few pictures from Table Mountain--enjoy!

Cape Town from Table Mountain. The smaller hill in the left corner is Lion's Head (I think ;-)
Looking out at a rock formation called the 12 Apostles. There is a great winding road along that shoreline. Several miles away and slightly to the left is the Cape of Good Hope.

Another view of the shore--I think that section of the city is called the water front.

A view of Table Mountain from "The Backpack"--the hostel where we stayed for the retreat. Many afternoons a cloud rolls over the top of the mountain. The cloud is called the table cloth--clever.












Monday, March 3, 2008

Yes, the world really is getting smaller...

About three weeks ago, I left Kibondo to travel to Dar es Salaam and the on to Cape Town, South Africa. To make this trip, I rode 6 hours to Mwanza airport where I these lovely people pictured below.

Meet Bob Wagner (middle), a missionary from Ohio sponsored in part by Chilhowie Baptist Church. He and his wife Paige have been in Tanzania for years and now live in Arusha. To learn more about their work and family, visit http://www.bimt.us/.

Also in the picture is Dr. Bob Sanders (far right) and his wife Glenda (far left) who live in Kingsport Tennessee and do ministry work up and down the I-81 corridor. Small world! To learn more about their work, check out http://www.drbobsanders.com/.

The Saunders were visiting Tanzania to help Mr. Wagner teach a course at a Bible college in Mwanza, and our paths crossed at the airport. Needless to say it was nice to talk to them and to learn about their work.




Saturday, February 2, 2008

World Aids Day Part I

Early in December 2007, World Aids Day was celebrated in the camps. Several thousand people gathered to be entertained by speakers, skits, drummers, and dancers. All of the performances were infused with messages that dispelled myths and taught lessons about HIV/AIDS. The next several posts are photographs from the event.


The opening speaker addressing the crowd. Guests of honor were seated in the shelter behind the podium. I sat there with several other friends.


One of our HIV/AIDS officers, Sakina, addressing the crowd.



Women who are part of a group called Stop SIDA (the French acronym for AIDS) dancing.



Another picture of the women dancing. They used whistles and bells as part of their performance and were great!

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Six-hour pizza


I host TCRS guests at my house. The lovely lady in the picture is Heather, a Canadian PhD student, who visited me with translator Bacilious in December. Heather was my first pizza buddy.

Heather chopping veggies for the pizza toppings.

A view of the kitchen. We didn't have any water that day and had to haul it in buckets. The red bucket in the left-hand corner is one of two buckets we used to haul water. The pot on the stove is what we used to boil water. And we used the plastic bins in the sink to save our dishwater so we could reuse it to flush the toilets. As you can tell, the kitchen was a bit of a disaster, but everything turned out okay.

Two of our four pizzas. We baked the pies on pot lids ;-)
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The Hill Top

These photos were taken at the Hill Top Hotel. We went there to swim in the pool and eat at the resturant.


View from the pool at the Hill Top.



The Hill Top dining room--it was a beautiful no-rice meal ;-) Though I do like rice, it was nice to eat something different.
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Dr. Livingston…


About 4 miles outside of Kigoma Town sits Ujiji. This little village is known as the place where Stanley met Dr. Livingston under the mango tree. Since we were so close to this famous site, we took a morning to travel to Ujiji to see it. At the Livingston compound there is a concrete block monument that marks where the original mango tree stood, two mango trees descended from the original, and a small museum.


Children who live near the museum—they are used to posing for photos ;-)

One of the two mangos descended from the original tree and Sarah, my friend from the IRC.

Michael, another PiAf fellow, and I pose in front of the monument.
Michael, the museum guide, and I pose for a picture with paper mache replicas of Stanley and Livingston.
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Kigoma

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ;-) It was great to be home for the holidays and to see so many family members and friends!

Right now I am spending most of my time in the office, so I do not have recent photos to post. I do, however, have old photos and the next several posts will contain these old photos.

At the beginning of December two frinds and I traveled to Kigoma, a town on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world. Here are a few shots from our hotel, The Aqua Lodge.

The view from the back of the Aqua Lodge. It cost about $20 a night to stay here. At night we could hear the water splashing against the shore--so peaceful!!
Another shot from the Lodge.
In the background, on the opposit side of the shore, you can see the hills of the DRC. This is the Eastern part of the country where there is currently fighting between the government and rebel groups. Though the fighting continues, many Congolese refugees are choosing to return.
To the left is a hillside that host the Hill-Top hotel. It is a luxury hotel with a great resturant and a swimming pool! To get to the Hill-Top from Aqua Lodge, you must pass through part of the town and the local prison. When we went past the prison, the prisoners were out working in the fields.
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