Just “Dropping In” for a Visit…Tanzanian Style

Dan Eads, a missionary to Tanzania, East Africa that our church supports, posted an insightful couple of paragraphs on his blog concerning visiting people’s homes in Tanzania:

This morning I was in the office working. This afternoon I was out of the office making the weekly town run. This morning had more to do with Excel spreadsheets, recording purchases, and filing papers. This afternoon had more to deal with finding a parking spot.

Yesterday, we worshipped with the church in Sweya. Later in the afternoon, I stopped in at Pastor Paulo’s house, and we, along with four different “guests” that stopped in at different times to talk, chatted with one another. One thing that you do not need to do here is “call ahead”. The American in me wants to announce that I am coming before I just show up, but that is not the way that it is done here. In fact, when I spent the four days in Nyakaliro with Pastor Elias’ family, it was more culturally appropriate to just show up and let him know how long on was planning on staying than to call him ahead of time to let him know the dates and times. Better not get into the habit of doing that when we come back to visit the States!