Dar es Saalam

Hello, sorry for the delay, since my last post. Would you believe you have to pay for wifi in the Amsterdam airport. Anyhoo our trans-atlantic flight went well, and the flight from Amsterdam to Dar was long, but I slept most of the way. Danica says I was crossing on to her seat in my sleep but she doesn't have any photographic evidence so who knows for sure! The airport into Dar es Saalam was what I expected, there was that yellow tinge from years of cigarette smoke on the ceiling. and when we got into the main customs room the first thing I noticed was the smell. It was a dirty smell; dried urine, tobacco and body odour. Another thing I noticed was in France the airport was patrolled by soldiers with automatic weapons, the soldiers here carried long black batons. after we went through customs, we met Brother Anthony who led us to an army truck (i'll try to load pictures in the next couple days) and Paulo (our driver) and I loaded the luggage. Let me say this now, everyone (but yours truly of course) overpacked! I'm surprised the planes made it of the ground. oh yeah, i'll also mention this, no one lost any luggage. In fact the service on KLM was great. I particularly enjoyed a complimentary glass (in actual glasses) of red wine... for nerves of course.
Any way travelling in the truck to the compound was an adventure. Many of you have no doubt heard me complain of saskatchewan drivers, well... I now have a new low standard. the motorcyclists outnumber the cars three to one and zip through traffic like nobody's business. There are trenches on either side of the  highway to collect rainwater. and past the trenches are people gathered around little fires though the temperature is in the 20's, they are actually using it for cooking. Driving down the highway the smells hit you again sewage, pork, eggs, fish and people are out and talking and jaywalking like its going out of style. the compound we are temporarily staying at has a gate and the first time we go through it four or five german shepard mutts are barking at us and the girls are saying "Oooo Puppies!" we had a little bread and then went to sleep. I crashed under my mosquito net, which brings to mind the the curtains that draped a royal bed. I slept for eight hours, the jetlag not too bad. but in the girls cabin nobody went to sleep until Katelyne had killed every jumping spider in the room. This morning we had breakfast, toast and a juice made from hyacinth flowers, the tea is fresh and really great! Today is a lazy day as we recover from our jetlag. We went to the Indian ocean and some of us swam a bit. I sampled a local beer and it was very tasty. For those who are curious the legal drinking age here is 18.
Tomorrow we drive to Dodoma, I am excited and filled with a eagerness to get to work. We are Christ's workers and we are ready to work for his glory here. Pray for us.
 Wifi is sketchy here so bear with me if my next post isn't for a couple of days.
Mathew