WORKING IN DAR ES SALAAM

People in Dar es Salaam fine all kinds of ways to make a living.  Some are educated and do well providing for their families.  Others struggle, you will see them providing transportation for others.  Each "Bjuj" or "pikipiki" is individually owned and they charge for transport.  Some peddle products between vehicles waiting at intersections.  They peddle everything from food items, clothing and even auto maintenance supplies.  You can see them carrying the tables they use to display their products on their head until the find an open space to place their merchandise on the roadside for selling.  This fellow has a ice cream business and he rides around the open market areas selling his ice cream.  Many of the people work very hard.

OUR SISTER MISSIONARIES

These are our Sisters, left to right, Sister Mayoli and Sister Isiche, they are both from Kenya but Sister Isiche was first serving in Sierra Leone and now we have the pleasure of working with both of them.  This is their flat and we are picking them up and taking them to the airport, to fly to Nairobi for a Sisters Conference with President and Sister Hicken.  They work very well together and very hard.  Yesterday we attended their Branch and they had two confirmations.  Sister Mayoli also spoke in Sacrament Meeting and did an excellent job.  They have such strong testimonies of the gospel.  We love them.

Post Office and 1st Mail

 Macie, thank for our first letter.

This is the Post Office. 

ATTENDING CHURCH IN TANZANIA

Today we went to the Kinondoni Branch for church. This is a picture of the church building. There are four branches in Dar es Salaam. The Kinondoni Branch, the Ubungo Branch, the Changombe Branch and the Mbezi Beach Branch. We have visited all four branches and will try to rotate every week. The meetings are conducted in Swahili but when we are there, the teachers make an effort to teach some of the lessons in English going back and forth. Sometimes the hymns are sung in Swahili and sometimes in English. It is an interesting experience to sing "Praise to the Man" in Swahili.

The Kinondoni and Ubungo buildings are built and owned by the church. The buildings are quite nice and have air conditioning. The Changombe and Mbezi Beach buildings are rented with some air conditioning at Changombe but none at Mbezi Beach. In each case the spirit of the saints is strong and readily apparent in their dedication to the gospel and testimonies of the Savior and his atonement. 

Today's priesthood lesson was about Joseph Smith. The brethren bore strong testimony of the divine calling of Joseph Smith, the reality of the first vision and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The promise that the name of Joseph Smith would be heard throughout the world for good (and sometimes ill) is quite apparent in Africa. It is amazing that this young boy in up state New York is having the kind of profound impact where ever you go.   

This is to go along with our last post, after all you can't talk about vehicles with funny names and not send pictures for "little boys" to see.  Top photo is a "bjuj", they come in red, blue, green and yellow, at least those are the colors I have seen.  Bottom is a "daladala" and there are no two alike, they have all kinds of writing and artwork on them.

Traffic in Dar es Salaam

There are several methods of transportation in Dar es Salaam.  You can travel by foot, bike, pikipiki or motor bike, bjuj, daladala (bus), car.  We drive on the"wrong"side of the road and the stirring wheel is on the"wrong"side of the car.  The daladala's just make everyone get out of their way.  Bjuj are little three wheel vehicles and they just dart in and out of the cars and buses.  The pikipiki's go everywhere, around other vehicles, down center lanes, basically anywhere they can find a little room to sneak in and out.  Bikes are mostly on the sides of the roads.  The roads have many potholes so you really have to watch out for everyone no matter how they are traveling.  Sometimes the traffic lights are not working so a police officer is directing traffic, but I would not want to be in the center of the street trying to tell people how to drive.
All of the transportation is a form of income, the pikipiki's often have paying passengers on the back, the bjuj's you will most often see ladies riding in them with their packages from shopping.  Of course, the daladala's are packed full of passengers.  ABOVE PICTURE IS FOR THE BOYS:  Thought they would like to see Papa sitting on a pikipiki.  A repairman came on it to fix our generator.

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!

Our blog is working and  we are not in Kenya!

We are in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.   We should be here for the next 18 months. There are 4 branches here and the people are wonderful.  The missionaries are great and we love working with them.  
We have been here about three weeks on our own, since the couple that were training us left to go home.  Weather here is HOT and HUMID, of course, the humidity makes it seem hotter than it really is.  This also t is the rainy season and the sky can be full of rain clouds, than the down pour starts and it rains really hard for 45 minutes to an hour and than a beautiful blue sky appears with fluffy white clouds.