Habari gani from Chelsea and Christina!

Habari gani from Chelsea and Christina! We had a wonderful experience today that we would like to share with you.

We were walking to go to the store at the Seminary where pop is available. The store was not going to be open for another 5 minutes when we got there, so we decided to explore the grounds for a little while. We ended up in the area with dormitories for girls. An older woman emerged from her house and began speaking to us in English. She had a very thick accent and was hard to understand at first. The woman ended up taking us on a tour of the Seminary and telling us about the history.

First, she showed us the areas where the girls and boys stay. Supposedly, there are about 200 girl students and 360 boy students. About 50 students live in each dorm building.  After that she led us to the dining hall and place where the prepared the food.  Behind those buildings was the dispensary, which is like a small hospital for the students.  There are two separate wards, one for women and one for men.  She told us that the most common problem here is malaria.  Because no one was in the ward, we even got to peek inside to what it looked like.  She kept telling us how gracious she was for all the things Americans, Germans, and English have done, like providing mosquito nets. She even encouraged us to bring back our future husbands and families to Tanzania in the future.

Next, the woman showed us the area where the classrooms and courtyard are located. Many students were gathering in the courtyard and a choir was practicing in a classroom as we walked by. The Seminary even has a library, which Chelsea is very excited to check out next week since she is interested in becoming a librarian. The woman also told us that a German man donated 75 million shillings (equivalent to about $52,500) last year to build the administration building.

Finally, we walked past the beautiful chapel and a cemetery where German, Tanzanian and American missionaries are buried. The chapel was being used for prayer and a meeting, but we hope to go back later to take pictures. The cemetery was very interesting. Each grave is raised up with brick surrounding the dirt grave. Flowers are planted in the soil part of the grave and writing is engraved on the top with the name of the missionary and dates of birth and death.

After an hour of spending time with the woman, she finally introduced herself as Frieda Denara. She has been at the Seminary for ten years and greatly appreciates the help provided by Americans. Frieda talked about JFK being the first president to take an interest in Tanzania. After our amazing tour, Frieda even took the time to walk us back to our housing area. She said that she felt that it was her responsibility through Jesus Christ to be a gracious host and take us around the Seminary. Frieda was probably the nicest person we have met so far, but everyone here is very welcoming.

We can’t wait to explore the Seminary even more and improve our Swahili so we can talk to people in Tanzania and we are planning to try and visit Frieda again before we leave!