Today is Saturday which means back home, many of my friends that are photographers are out shooting weddings. And if you are not you are probably out enjoying your day off. So at first I decided to take today off from blogging – it was also a great excuse for not wanting to blog. After sitting out in the sun all day in 90 degree weather with humidity which makes it feel like it’s over 100 degrees, the last thing you want to do is come back to our hotel and sit in front of the computer for another hour or so.
Well at least that was my initial thought. But after perusing through some of these days I captured today, I felt like I would be robbing the experience out of the ones that have been faithfully following out blog and facebook updates. So in my guilty conscious, I am staying up again to give you a quick update about what happened today.
Just when we think today can’t get any better, tomorrow it gets better with more and more different things we are experiencing here. (By the way, please pray for Jim Hicks. He spent the first half of the day with us then the second half of the day he had to stay in bed – we are not sure what he has right now but he’s been feeling pretty ill)
Please bear with me as these 30 images download. They will be worth the wait. We would love to hear from you or answer any questions about our trip as well. Feel free to leave them in the comment section.
We decided to pull off the side of the road to capture some common daily life activities along the road. We stopped near a stone querrying site where construction companies would come, exploit the land of various rocks then leave them empty.
After the land has been excavated they are often taken over by the people who need homes. They will build houses using what ever the materials that they can find. This photo shows a typical style of homes that you would expect to find in these sites.
Along the road we stopped again to find a group of guys working in the trenches. They have been digging since the morning. At first we thought they were digging water trenches. Turns out they were building cable lines for local phone company and also using the rocks that they excavate for stones which will be broken down into little rocks that can be sold for various uses.
That man you saw above working hard – his name is Hamad. He is 28 years old and he works all day without shoes. Most of these guys don’t get water breaks so until it is their lunch time they are constantly working digging trenches along the road.
We were led down to the lower part the town where women & children were sitting around crushing the big stones into little rocks.They also work all day.
This is the kind of environment that the people down here live in. Did you know about 80-90% of workers in Tanzania work for about a $1 per day?
The stones are crushed into these smaller rocks which are using for gardening, road paving, etc.
This child was left to attend the food for lunch. Their typical mean consists of rice & beans. Today they added a little anchovy fish to their meal which the boy was excited about.
This woman is 65yrs old and still works daily at the excavating site. She was such a sweet heart and gave me a big smile when I met her. Then she posed for me to take this shot of her.
Ever wish what kind of toy you want for your next Christmas present? Why not just make it at home like the kids in Africa do? It doesn’t take much for these kids to have fun.
One of the missionary families that is hosting us, The Buckleys, had us over for lunch. We were treated with fresh brewed, french press style coffee using coffee beans that were locally roasted. Man this was so good! 
Their son Elliott was such a cute boy. He is playing with Bob Davis’ iphone here. He found the lightsaber app so he was running around the house swinging he phone like a lightsaber.
Here’s Bob experiementing with different angle for the car mount shot. I saw a sneak peak of this and it looks awesome!
Then we visited the Kigogo area in Dar es Salaam. We partnered with the Vineyard Church group that also partner with Thirst Relief. When we arrived on site, we found a group of local kids drawing water from a main pipe that was broken. The water looks clear, but it is almost always not safe to drink straight out because there are many cracks in the pipes which contaminate the water. This boy was so thirsty that he didn’t care whether the water was contaminated or not. Having clean drinking water is the most critical problem that these people have out there. I’ve heard it many times but seeing it with my own eyes changed my perspective quite a bit!
Albino kids are precious & also endangered here. Many witch doctors will convince people that their organs will bring healings. So it is common to hear about albino kidnapping stories around this area.
Here’s Bob & Anton with Edmond – the local Vineyard group leader in this region. He is Tanzanian but went to live in the US for over 13 years. He is now back at his homeland leading the group of Vineyard staff workers here. He was such a gentle and charismatic man.
Everyone loves taking photos here. I gave my camera to one of the boys to take this picture of us. I don’t know why I decided to do that cheesy post!
Waters are filled with random buckets and constantly being carried back to their homes.
I fell in love with this wall so I did some random shots and snapped some interesting compositions:
Most kids run around here in bare feet. Their idea of a soccer ball is an old cloth clumped and stuffed with various materials inside.
Edmond conducted the childrens’ ministry during the afternoon. Many kids came and gathered around him.
Everyone could use a little push sometimes.
These kids don’t have much but their faces convince me that they are content with what they have as well.
We are going to be attending a local church service tomorrow. I am looking forward to worshipping with fellow African brothers and sisters. Good night everyone!
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