Goodbye and Hello!

Justin and I finally finished packing and were ready to head off to Tanzania. The only thing we had left to do was say our final goodbyes. Neither Justin nor I particularly like saying goodbye, and it was challenging for us. Having to say goodbye to are families was one of the hardest parts about leaving. Even though we will stay in touch and Skype them, we still miss them a lot.

We left for Tanzania on July 1^st. It took us thirty hours and four flights to make it to Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. In Dar Es Salaam we spent our first night in Tanzania at a hotel, and then had to take one more plane to Mtwara. We received a great welcome at the airport. Our headmistress, Sister Maureen, our new parish priest and Earl Fong, a current Lay Mission-Helper in Mtwara, all came to pick us up in the school van. It was great to have a good welcome at the airport after such a long trip.

We have been spending this week at a house on the beach that is used by the Benedictine Sisters we are working for as a retreat house. The house is right next to a clinic or “dispensary” as they call it, run by the Sisters and one of their convents. We have been spending our time getting oriented to Mtwara. Earl has been acting as our tour guide and has been taking us around town. Really it wouldn't take more that one day to get a good tour of the town, but we took our time and saw it in two. Everyone has been very understanding with our need to recover from jet lag and not take in too many new things all at once.

We have been eating most of our meals at the convent. It has been great to spend this time with the Sisters. At the moment in this particular house there are two German Sisters, a Tanzanian Sister and one American Sister from Nebraska who has been a missionary in Tanzania for fifty-three year and shows no signs of slowing down. They are all very busy and most seem to have multiple jobs at the various sites the Sisters manage. Sister Martha, the Tanzanian, is the midwife at the clinic and has already missed two meals delivering babies.

So, we are beginning to get settled here. We went in to town on our own today and were able to buy some groceries in Swahili. On Sunday we will move in to our new house, and on Monday we will go and meet everyone at school. We are very exciting and grateful to join the great work that is going on in Mtwara.

-Lauren