Natalie Anne Volpe: Tanzania--Christmas 2005

For Christmas 2005, my teacher Nicole took me and my friends to visit her family who are missionaries in Dar Es Salaam, in Tanzania.

Dress up party (I'm the one on the far right back row)

Arabic food, with our fingers please

Typical Tanzanian meal

Practicing guitar

Visit to Bagamoyo: Bagamoyo was the most important trading entrepot of the east central coast of Africa in the late 19th century. Bagamoyo's history has been influenced by Indian and Arab traders, by the German colonial government and by Christian missionaries. In the first half of the 19th century, Bagamoyo became a trading port for ivory and the slave trade, with traders coming from the African interior, from places as far as Morogoro, Lake Tanganyika and Usambara on their way to Zanzibar. This explains the meaning of the word Bagamoyo ("Bwaga-Moyo") which means "Lay down your Heart" in Swahili. It is disputed whether this refers to the slave trade which passed through the town (i.e. "give up all hope") or to the porters who rested in Bagamoyo after carrying 35 lb cargos on their shoulders from the Great Lakes region (i.e. "take the load off and rest"). Since there is little evidence to support that Bagamoyo was a major slave port (Kilwa, much further south, has earned this status), and that tens of thousands of porters arrived at Bagamoyo annually in the latter half of the 19th century, it is more likely that the name of the town derives from the latter interpretation.

Bagamoyo German garrison from the 19th century

Me and my friends in front of the remnants of the old Bagamoyo Mission building

Tanzanian arts and crafts

Like my pretty sea-shell necklace?

Bagamoyo

Beach side

Indian Ocean

Always a book worm...

Christmas: Nicole, my friends and I put together a little show which we performed for Christmas in orphanages and even at the mall, to cheer people up and remind them of Jesus' birthday.