movin' on up...

...to the east side...

(of Tanzania, that is)

Yep, we have finally moved! After months of waiting (sometimes not so patiently) we have arrived. We are now officially living in Dar es Salaam. So far, we are really happy. We feel like we are where God wants us. I would like to stay I absolutely LOVE living here, but there are a few things that are keeping me from being able to say that...

(1) It is seriously hot here. No joke, you can't get away from it. The humidity is no lie like 100%. We just dropped $1000 on 2 air conditioning units for our 2 bedrooms. Did we ever think we would spend that kind of money on a/c?? No, but we realized after our first night here we had no other option. Down to our skibbies, we moved our bed to the middle of the room so that it was directly under the ceiling fan, we layed there and we sweat. We were miserable. The next day the a/c units were installed and we decided we would never again leave the comfort of our bedroom (just kidding...but not really).

(2) The traffic is pretty nasty. We come from Atlanta, normal traffic doesn't bother me that much. I can handle it..you know? This is not normal, these people are crazy. They make me crazy. Nobody follows the rules. It's one big game of: dodging pedestrians, cows, sheep, goats, motorcycles, and bicycles, cutting people off even if you are the only two cars on the road, buses stopping in the middle of the road to pick up passengers because pulling into the bus lane would take too much effort, memorizing which potholes your car can take and which ones it can't, making one lane into three...and on and on. It's the whole "me first" mentality...my time is more important than yours, I need to be somewhere type thing. I hate it...sometimes me and Nate roll down our windows and yell "shame on you" out the window in Swahili. It doesn't make matters any better, but at least we can make our frustrations known.

But on the other side...we have tons of new places to eat (as opposed to the same 3 restaurants in Morogoro), we have grocery stores, malls (yes, there are 2 now!), and the beach!! As soon as we get all settled, I am very much looking forward to taking a beach trip and relaxing knowing that everything is done! 

This is where we live:

retreat from the retreat...

Do you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? I do.

So this past weekend we had a wonderful prayer retreat in the beautiful mountains of Lushoto, Tanzania. It was a much needed break from the heat and a great time of refreshment with our friends. We absolutely LOVED the cool weather (I got to wear long sleeves and a scarf!). We had people cooking for us and 24/7 chai and coffee with CoffeeMate from the States (yummy!) The ladies had a wonderful tea and gift exchange while the guys played wiffleball and corn hole. And most importantly--we had a chance to just get away and pray and retreat from the places that so often wear us out. 

Unfortunately it was so cool that no fans or air conditioning were needed and at night it was extremely quiet without that white noise. Quiet except when Zoe heard us roll over in bed or heard dogs barking outside. So it was a looong night. She is so used to being in her own room with the fan on high and she usually sleeps so well. Fortunately, the next night, the staff found a fan for us to put in our room and the next two nights went much better! Until the sickness came. Our group had been passing around a little stomach bug and I thought we were going to narrowly escape getting sick...well...not so. The night before we left I caught the bug. I was up early that morning really sick. Of course...disturbing Zoe from her sleep which didn't help the situation much. Nate packed up the car and I layed in bed until the last possible second. I grabbed my pillow and toliet paper and dragged myself out of bed and into the car. A friend gave me some medicine and only by the Lord's mercy did we make it home without any major problems. A 6-hour car drive down the mountains on bumpy African roads is not a great time for a stomach bug. But we made it.

So yesterday and today I've done alot of resting and recooperating. I need it because we are scheduled to move on MONDAY! Yep, that's right...moving day is almost here so we have quite a bit of work to do over the next few days! I will leave you with a few pictures of our trip to Lushoto...

what i'm loving wednesday: pumpkin!

So one of the biggest things I miss here is Fall. I love how beautiful Fall is in Georgia (and pretty much everywhere for that matter). There is pretty much no season change here...we have hot, very hot, and unbearably hot. Unlucky for us...it's getting to that unbearably hot stage. I keep telling myself this is our last Fall/Thanksgiving/Christmas before we go home for our Stateside next year! But I still get super jealous of people talking about carving pumpkins and going on hay rides and drinking Chick-Fil-A peppermint milkshakes (ok...that's more of a lead-up to Christmas...but still).

In an attempt to fool myself, I burn pumpkin pie candles and try to put out some Fall decorations. BUT we are now in the process of moving and so I can't really do that because we are staying at a guest house until our house is ready. But then our teammate found a pumpkin at a local green grocer (I have never seen pumpkins here before!) She made some yummy pumpkin muffins and I immediately went to this little store to get one for myself. When I got there, there was a little pile of these odd looking gourds in the corner and I asked the man what they were. His reply was pumpkins...so I grabbed the one that most resembled my idea of a pumpkin, paid way too much, and was on my way!

We took Zoe outside with the pumpkin so we could take her picture...they are below. Then Nate cut up the pumpkin for me, I roasted it, scooped it all out and made myself some pumpkin puree. I found this yummy-looking recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles and I'm very much looking forward to baking them this week :)