A Stone in the Road: Two Years in Southern Tanzania

A single-lane dirt road 18 miles long leads to a secondary school in the deep bush of Southern Tanzania. Jim French and his wife Marlyn CUSO volunteers journeyed to the end of this road in 1967 for two years of teaching and unexpected adventure. The only Canadians ever at St. Josephs College Chidya they learned to dodge camel spiders in the bedroom and red ants on the paths to live with skinks in the attic and to cope in a region of malaria and poisonous snakes. In dry season they travelled in rainy they hunkered down with the students and small cohort of staff trapped by a Chidya road often wrecked by the rains. They witnessed the fine work of missionaries and engaged with young Tanzanians who competed and celebrated. This Africa memoir is about travel teaching beautiful bushland culture friendship growing up - and about the lurking stone.