Tanzania, you stole my heart.

First in a series of videos about my journey to the rural Tanzanian Highlands.

I was afraid to go to Tanzania. It felt unknown, uncertain, maybe even a little dangerous. When I think of it now I feel an overwhelming sense of love, connection and gratitude.

I was going to write about my experience, but decided, instead, to video myself talking about it, interspersed with photos and videos from the trip.

This is the first in a series of 10 minute videos… I hope you find them interesting.

Setting the Scene

To set the scene… my old friend Susie has run a charity that supports a community in rural Tanzania for 30 years. Her parents had set off 31 years ago in a Volkswagen Golf to drive from Johannesburg to Nairobi. If you know the roads in much of southern Africa then you know how mad that was.

One night they stopped, with their little tent, to camp. They chose a churchyard on a hill above the village of Ifunda. The priest eventually persuaded them that it would be safer to stay in his house and they learnt that his name was Father Alfons. By the strangest coincidence, …