I have not seen a snake

I'm so happy that I have not had a snake encounter in the year that we have been in Tanzania. No snake has slithered across my path. I've heard snake stories and we saw a dead one that a Maasai had killed when we were camping in the Maasai plain, but no up-close-and-personal snake meetings for me.










My recent visit to the local Snake Park was very educational. There are many venomous snakes indigenous to the area. Black Mamba, Green Mamba, Spitting Cobra and various vipers. Pythons and boas too.





Our guide assured me that this
Rufous Beaked Snake was harmless.





The baby crocodiles were so cute! This guy was 3 years old. He was very active and had a mouthful of small very pointy teeth.













They grow up to be one of these guys, which aren't so cute. His teeth were BIG and pointy. I'm definitely not planning to go swimming in any rivers around here!!

Pamoja Ministries Office

Welcome to the Offices of Pamoja Ministries. Please join me on a short tour.


The office building sits on the lower portion of the property, in the southwest corner. Most of the buildings on the property were part of a larger Polish refugee camp dating back to WWII. The refugee camp was dismantled in the 1950's and the largest portion is now an Agricultural College. Pamoja Ministries moved onto this site 10 years ago and have updated and renovated all the buildings over time. An addition was added to the front of the original structure several years ago and served mainly as a storage facility with a couple of living quarters. The most recent renovation turned the building into a very functional office block and now all the missionaries work from there instead of home-offices.

The renovations are not completely finished but we all moved in November in any case. The exterior of the building will eventually be stuccoed.

I am the Office Administrator and my desk is in the front reception area. The offices of the Director of Operations and the Executive Director open from the reception area.


A narrow hallway connects the reception area to the offices in the back. The hallway houses our water filter and coffee maker. There are two washrooms and two storage rooms. This area will eventually have a counter top and tiles applied.



In the back, there is a finance office, meeting room, an
IT room and 6 cubicles. As you can see, we are a very
happy, friendly group of people. Kim (in pink) is our Bookkeeper and Lis (in white) is the Marketing Manager. Jacob (at his desk) is the Director of Leadership Training and Corporate Relations Manager. Three others also work in this section.



Jeff has his workspace among computers and printers in the IT room. In this picture you can see a portion of the drawers and cupboards he designed for the room. These were built on-site by the Tanzanian carpenter on staff.



I hope you enjoyed the tour. Please drop by anytime. We are in Tengeru, just past Mountain Village Lodge and on the right before you get to the Agricultural College.

This Morning

When I woke up at 5 o'clock this morning the rain was ending. I could hear it pattering lightly on our metal roof and dripping from the trees. A couple of roosters were tuning up and a bush baby shrieked. Day and night colliding.

After a short debate with myself, which I won, I climbed out from under the mosquito net to face the day. Our polished cement floor made it easy for me to creep around quietly and not waken Jeff.

We live in two rooms. 12' by 15' and 10' by 12'.
Somewhat surprisingly, we like it. Living small and simple has a certain appeal. The main room is a living space and kitchen combo. We have a couch, two end-tables, a coffee table and three chairs. The kitchen area has a fridge, microwave, toaster oven, 2-burner gas cook-top, sink and 8 cupboards. Three up, five down. We have converted the small kitchen table into our mini home-office. What more can we need? We have a fondness for peace and our little apartment is a haven.

I could see the muddy footprints of the guard dogs on the porch as I unlocked the grill that covers our door at night. Evidence that they had been on duty with the night watchman. Three big dogs that you wouldn't want to meet if you weren't supposed to be on the property but who love us all dearly and enjoy nothing more than having their ears and tummies rubbed.

The sun rises at 6:30 and was well on its way to heating up the day when I walked down to the office at 8:00. The bush babies and dogs had gone to bed and the sounds of the day drifted on the breeze. Someone was chopping wood, trucks were rumbling by and the voices of people rang out cheerfully. As I sat at my desk, I was struck by the beauty around me.

This is what I see from my desk at the office out the front door and side window.