The joys of village visits

Four of our last eight days were spent in villages for church services, so there were many parts of the routine we started getting acquainted with well! Such as...the (at least) one hour drive to get to the village. Kids chasing our vehicles they were so excited to see us. Being served chai tea and bread (unsweetened donuts of sorts) in the morning. Playing with frisbees, bubbles, or other simple toys we brought along that the children delighted in. The endless game of taking photos of people, them looking and laughing at the pictures, and wanting more pictures taken. Eventually beginning the worship service after several hours of fellowship. The choirs that would come from miles away, on foot or by bike, and the way their voices carried in spirited praise. Sharing the peace with every single person as we all formed one large circle at the end of the service. Eating rice and goat for dinner—and feeling honored that they would kill a goat. Meat is very expensive and not eaten often, yet they spared no expense for us!



On our last visit, the guys had the privilege of seeing the Maasai men kill the cow and prepare the meat, while the girls were welcomed into a home to hold a baby who had just been born the day before. Even the baby’s father isn’t allowed to see it for two weeks, but we as strangers were honored in this way. Another highlight was our visit to the village of Twatwatwa earlier in the week— a village with which Wartburg has visited consistently and formed a special relationship. Money that St. Paul’s Church in Waverly has raised will be used for constructing a church building there (which costs around $3500). We also brought school supplies and hope to do something about their school building. They informed us that it was constructed incorrectly and is dangerous for the students to be in, yet the government offers little to no support for this remote village. Unless they can build a new school, it will have to close. In yet another village, we shared in the joy of the water to which they now have access because of a well dug with funds raised by Cedar Falls Rotary. So many people met in such a short time! Even if we don’t remember a lot of names, many smiling faces are still with us.

Faraja: the Swahili word for comfort

A very educational day today. We visited the Faraja Trust Fund, an organization in Morogoro committed to ending suffering caused by HIV/AIDS. We briefly met with the director of Faraja, Dr. Nkya-- someone we felt very honored to meet with because of her influential roles with government and other organizations. Faraja provides many services, including community education about HIV/AIDS, low- or no-interest loans especially for women, and legal aid on human rights issues such as property grabbing and domestic violence.

Our next stop was a school Faraja started for street children/orphans- what they refer to as ‘vulnerable children.’ They provide school materials for these children, who vary greatly in age within one classroom. The children were extremely excited to have visitors and stood to greet us with a song. One of the students asked if we could provide them with text books (they have none- just one the teacher might use), and so we left them with the equivalent of $80 for which they were grateful. They promised that they would continue reading and working hard in their studies. When asked how they got to school, many students pointed to other students, and those students in turn pointed to other students...we were encouraged by the way they reached out to each other in response to the free education Faraja offers.

One more stop: Faraja’s center for home-based care. We learned about their outreach to AIDS patients in Morogoro and purchased cloth that AIDS patients sell as an income-generating activity. Two of our group members even got to accompany the workers on a home visit to a family where the mother, her son, daughter in law, and two or three of their four children were infected with HIV. It was an exhausting day of seeing need in so many places, but we also witnessed the “drop of oil” effect. Unlike a drop of water which sinks, oil continues to spread over the ocean.

Church building

Our last few days have been spent on the start of a building project- a church in the village of Olang-Uri. After trekking through the rivers (roads) in the mini-van, we arrived to find the trenches for the new church foundation overflowing from all the rain throughout the last several days. Instead, we crossed the road to dry land in the village, hauled lumber and cement blocks, and worked on building forms and cutting re-bar for the foundation. The people, of course, warmly welcomed us and we enjoyed the minimal conversations we were able to have in Swahili.

It was a busy scene with so many projects—women churching butter, grinding ginger for tea, Maasai men using a skill saw and power drill for the first time, many a dog and goat roaming around, and children excited to have their picture taken over and over again. After several hours of work, we were invited in for fresh ginger tea and a community bowl of rice and potatoes. We’re getting the hang of eating with our hands. Overall, it was a great two days with the satisfaction of working in community toward meaningful results. And we had to laugh at the offers Pastor Hafermann was getting for us from some of the Maasai men-- if they had their way, some parents would be receiving 15 cows in exchange for their daughters! Never a dull moment…

Safari!

What trip to Africa would be complete without seeing some wildlife? Not ours! Now that we have completed the language school portion of our trip, we took a day and headed to Mikumi National Park a few hours from the seminary. Had to love the ‘DANGER Wild Animals Next 50 KM’ sign shortly before seeing a baboon walking in the opposite lane on the highway and discovering that the big gray ‘rocks’ near the side of the road were elephants. A tour guide joined us on our bus once we entered the park and was able to fill us in on all sorts of interesting facts about the animals we were seeing. Plenty of impala, buffalo, zebras, elephants, giraffes, warthogs, hippos, crocodiles, jackals, wildebeests, and some of the most colorful birds and butterflies we’d ever seen.

We were served mango juice immediately upon our arrival and had a fabulous dinner later in the evening. The lodge at which we stayed is in the midst of the park where all the animals roam, so a nearby parade of elephants silhouetted in the dark as we enjoyed our sautéed bananas for desert was nothing out of the ordinary there! We enjoyed gazing at all the stars visible on this side of the globe and our fun accommodations for the night. Alarms went off at 5:30 the next morning in hopes of seeing some animals early in the day, but we were still unsuccessful at spotting a simba (lion)—it’s very rare to see them unfortunately. Not that our adventures were dampened at all; it was a wonderful trip to the animal kingdom before entering the human world again.

Village visit #1

First village visit: one great experience! Just getting to the village was an adventure- driving in a mini-bus on “roads” with major bumps and mud holes made for a ride far more extreme than anything we’d ever ridden at Disney World. The Tanzanian hospitality we received in Lubaya was wonderful—we were honored guests simply because we came with Pastor Hafermann. Since there are now 101 congregations in his district (all started within the last eight years), it is a very special occasion when he visits! The day’s events included 45 baptisms and three weddings.

260 people were in attendance for the service in this village where a church didn’t even exist a few years ago. 34 of the newly-baptized were local Bantu people (formerly Muslim); the other 11 were Maasai (tribal) people. We found it interesting that the village chairman spoke to those about to be baptized about the seriousness of their commitment to follow Jesus and how he wanted to see them going to church each week…and he himself was a Muslim who prays five times a day. We also witnessed two marriages that were blessed now that both spouses were Christian. The husband of one couple was 89—pretty significant in a country where the average man lives to age 43.

Besides the offering taken during the service, there was also an auction following where specific items are brought forward (fruit, cloth, a live chicken…) and auctioned off. Dr. Strickert donated a soccer ball he then purchased and gave to the village evangelist for the local boys. They have a soccer team, but their field is overgrown because they haven’t had a ball to play with. While in the village, we also got to see the school buildings where 8 classrooms (some without desks) accommodate the 5 teachers and 360 students. The rains came hard in the evening, but thankfully did not create mud holes too deep to traverse—and two rainbows made a nice touch to the end of our day!

Uluguru Adventure picture 2

Uluguru Adventure

This weekend’s feat = climbing a mountain! Chickens, corn, and fresh wafts of cow…similar to Iowa except for the red clay, goats, small waterfalls, and women with small children on their backs and buckets on their heads. We were constantly saying hello to all the local people, especially the young children who were delighted when we responded in Swahili. Our language teachers led us on a shortcut off the beaten path where we wove among houses and alongside farm animals. Many of us reached the top of Morningside peak by afternoon, where we found a quaint church with God is Love written above the altar and a man who gave us an entire branch of mini (2 inch) bananas-- the sweetest tasting bananas we had ever had. Because our group had separated, we were thankful that local residents farming on top of a distant hill pointed us in the direction of the rest of the group waiting at a beautiful old German missionary home covered in orange flowers (President Ohle’s vacation home?!?) We were amazed that people live so high up in the mountains and that they make the long journey to town and back, all while carrying heavy loads on their heads. TIA…this is Africa!

Habari gani, ndugu, kaka, dada, mama, mabwana, na rafiki?

How are you, comrades, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and friends?
We are well (sisi ni vizuri!) here in Tanzania. After 10 hours of class, our Swahili is progressing. Can you tell?

Yesterday afternoon was our first trip to the orphanage. We thoroughly enjoyed the half hour walk there…probably a highlight of our trip so far. We walk through villages and among goats, roosters, children playing, women washing clothes, boys swimming in the stream, everyone yelling hello and how are you—even a man from up in a coconut tree! (and those trees are REALLY tall…at least 40 feet or more?)

Our time at the orphanage was just as rewarding as the walk there. We arrived to find many more children than there were hands to care for them, and a great time was had by all. Not sure if the kids know how to use the bathroom, and they do not have diapers either. So many of us left, um…wet. But happy.

Usiku mwema (for us, 8 hours ahead of Waverly time) and mchana mwema to you!

The Eucharist service last night was really something—we loved listening to the singing! We all sang some hymns but the students (high school age) had many more songs prepared and could sing some amazing harmony. At the end of the service, our class presented them with the first 10 of 180 hymnals that St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Waverly is sending to them to replace their very, very old and tattered hymnals from the 1950s.

Today was our first day of Swahili class. We are split up into small groups, 3-4 of us with a teacher, and the morning flew by. We are still learning basic greetings and phrases but also starting to learn more of the language structure. Pretty exciting! We’ll be back in class shortly for the afternoon.

Day 1

We’re here!! All travels went smoothly and we spent last night in Dar es Salaam, a large city on the coast of Tanzania. We stayed at a hostel at the Lutheran center, and this morning traveled to Morogoro by bus to the Lutheran Junior Seminary where we will spend the next 3 weeks. We laughed when hearing the farm animals outside our house for the first time and shrieked when first seeing the large gecko run across the wall in our bedroom. We’re all in awe of the beautiful landscape and many sorts of vegetation, with the mountains all set beautifully in the background. The people here are incredibly friendly and patient with our limited Swahili. We start Swahili class tomorrow and are anxious to learn more. The food has been good and I had my first ever green orange at dinner! Also had my first night sleeping under a mosquito net and first time eating some little fruit off a tree. TIA (this is Africa)! Would write more now but we’re heading to the weekly Eucharist service. Later!