May 1: News from the Pilgrimage to Tanzania

Letter sent by Suzanne Johnson on May 1, 2009

Dear Family and Friends—

Roger, Amy, and I have been in Tanzania now for a little over a week.  It has been a productive and wonderful time.

For those of you Episcopalians, today, May 1st, in Forward Day by Day, the prayer request is for right here, the Diocese of Central Tanganyika.  Sunday the prayer request is for the Diocese of the Rift Valley, where Amy and I visited Wednesday (and where she plans to return for a six month missionary tour probably early next year.).  I have given up explaining away such things as coincidences.  This week has been filled with wonderful coincidences to which we are learning to respond simply by thanking God.  Your prayers are needed and welcome here.  The rainy season is at an end and the rains have been very limited.  Hunger, severe hunger, is real here and will be for the next 9-10 months at least until the next rainy season.

I am here with two friends, Roger Whitfield, a retired engineer from St. Paul’s Richmond, who came on our first trip here in October 2007.  He is in charge of the water project for our partner village, Mwitikira., and Amy Millican, from St. Paul’s Church, Alexandria.  Last year on a trip to South Africa, Amy, who is 42, felt a call to return to Africa for short-term mission work.  She thought that meant South Africa, but at Council this year, she heard from me about Tanzania and decided to come.to explore possibilities.  Things definitely clicked for her when we visited Bishop Lupaa in the Diocese of the Rift Valley.

The trip here was remarkably easy.  It takes about 24 hours to get to Dar es Salaam but the Emirates flights were lightly booked and all of us got to stretch out and sleep across 3 or 4 seats (what a luxury!) which made a huge difference.  We stayed at a very basic, but welcoming hostel on the coast of the Indian Ocean about an hour from the Dar es Salaam airport and had a seafood dinner  at a beach restaurant I had visited last year.  We had some interesting adventures with taxis (nothing sinister just comic with language barriers galore—not a good time for me to confuse right and left, old and new, etc.).  We had a lovely flight to Dodoma on a 4-seater thanks to a dear friend’s gift (rather than an arduous 6-8 hour bus ride) and we were greeted by friends at the airport.  I felt like I was home again—it was so joyful to arrive.

Carpenter’s Kids staff had bought some supplies we would need in Mwitikira (mattresses, sheets, nets) and Father Erasto, the priest from Mwitikira had been in Dodoma buying food for our visit.  We picked up the nicely balanced twosome (big water jugs and toilet paper) and prepared for an early Sunday morning trip to Mwitikira.

Well before the village itself, we were greeted by one of the village leaders on a motorcycle with a sign welcoming Roger, Amy and Dr. Susannah and a scattering of children.  Every few yards there were more people joining our parade.  I loved seeing faces of familiar children from my classes last summer as well as familiar adults.  Before long we came to a large group, primarily women, with their drums, flowers, and whistles—clearly the time for us to get out of the Land Cruiser and join the dancing, walking celebration.  As Father Erasto later commented, last year I was greeted with warm handshakes, this year with embraces.  Roger and Amy were warmly welcomed as well.  We passed by the new church—a beautiful building to which we would return soon for worship.  Father Erasto, his wife Rebecca and others had prepared  “my room” for me, spotless with new curtains and embroidered linens on the table.  Erasto and Rebecca had moved their own bed to my room for me to use (despite my protests) and had my portable toilet from last summer discreetly waiting for me in the corner.  Amy’s room was down the hall, also equipped with a lovely wooden bedstead, given by someone else.  (Roger was not spending the night on this visit.)  We had “chai”, tea and chapati (a fried tortilla-like bread) and then went to the church for worship.  The new church was packed, and indeed overflowing.  Metal struts arched over us but the wooden roof had not yet been added so we were open to the sunshine (and even a little bit of rain—the first I had ever experienced in Mwitikira).  Several members of the Carpenter’s Kids staff had accompanied us to Mwitikira so there were lots of welcomes all around.  The people of Mwitikira made this a huge celebration—in addition to the regular congregation, those from the two smaller churches in Mwitikira were there, as well as the Muslim sheik, village government officials, a group of soldiers, teachers from both the primary and secondary school, the wonderful headmistress from the primary school (notably not the headmaster of the secondary school!), and all 136 of The Carpenter’s Kids sitting together, including several Muslim children with their lovely white headscarves.  The headmistress of the primary school, Irimina, had left to journey back to her home village to observe the 20th anniversary of her father’s death.  When she heard that I was coming, she stopped her journey and returned to Mwitikira to be there for worship, delaying her journey until late Sunday afternoon.  The church is fan-shaped bringing the congregation much closer to the altar than a long rectangle as in the old church.  It is quite an achievement for Father Erasto and the people of Mwitikira.

Amy joined me in adjusting wonderfully to life in the village (she, bravely, without benefit of a porta-potty!).  Monday we went to the elementary school, visiting every classroom.  The seventy desks  which were a gift from many at St. Paul’s as well as friends elsewhere have made a huge difference.  Except for the kindergarten class, almost all children were seated at desks, although many of the younger children were crammed four to a desk meant for three—still better than being on the floor.  It was an amazing sight to walk into a classroom and see every child having an English language textbook in front of them in the two classrooms we have provided for so far.  Because of the textbooks, the teacher of Standard 2 (like Grade 2) whose English is very limited was still able to conduct a class teaching the names of the parts of the body.  Amy and I taught the kids “Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes” and then they taught Amy a Swahili version of that.  Last year the Standard 3 classroom had about 100 children sprawled wall to wall on the floor with maybe one or two desks in the far back corner.  What a difference this year!  Every child at a desk in orderly rows.  The headmistress and teachers and child keep their school quite clean and neat.  The desks and textbooks have further transformed the place.  I was overcome at the sight and so grateful to you for your generosity.  (And let me remind you that St. Paul’s has set May 13th to June 4th as the designated time for 2009 to raise funds for The Carpenter’s Kids—part of those funds will be used to buy the remaining 70 desks that are needed to provide every child with a proper desks—3 children to a desk—total cost about $2500 and English language textbooks for every child in Standard 4 since we did Standards 2 & 3 this year—about $550 for 135 students. 

In each class we sang the “Hello” song I had taught last year—the children all remembered it well.  The teachers were most welcoming and said they were looking forward to their intensive English language classes I will lead during their June holiday.  

On Tuesday, Amy, Erasto and I went to the secondary school.  I was thrilled to learn that 46 of about 90 of last year’s Standard 7 students had passed the entrance exam for secondary school, an exceptionally high percentage.  I think the usual pass rate is closer to 20%.  Certainly the hard work of the teachers and students at the primary school deserve most of the credit.  I hope my teaching last summer contributed a bit.  Anyway it was good to see so many familiar faces in the Form 1 class and be able to congratulate them on their accomplishment. 

The headmaster was not at the school and indeed only one teacher was there.  He was most gracious in taking us around (and had been at the worship service on Sunday even though he is Muslim.)  Counting the headmaster, they have only 4 teachers now.  The number of students is down a bit too—to around 300.  There is a critical shortage of secondary school teachers throughout Tanzania, especially in rural areas like Mwitikira without electricity and water.  The situation at Mwitikira is compounded by the very weak headmaster.  Perhaps as a result of some of my advocacy last summer and Erasto’s continued advocacy, a key government official is well aware of the situation.  He tried unsuccessfully to have the headmaster replaced but is monitoring him closely and trying for improvement. 

I was very pleased to learn that the Form 4 students had already read some of the required reading for their national exams.  By July last year, they had not been given any of the books.  They had to read and discuss them on their own without a teacher but at least they had read them.  The teacher and staff could only find one copy of one of the two books required for Form 2 on their national exam.  I hope they will have found another copy by my return next week because the two students from St. Paul’s who will go with me in June (Si Wofford and Natalie Davis) plan to hold classes on those books.  One outstanding Form 3 student that we at St.Paul’s are especially trying to help was in the Form 1 class, trying to teach science to them since there was no teacher in her own class either.

The school looked better than last year, fewer broken desks and generally more orderly.  The students all seemed glad (and surprised) to see me.

Our visit to the secondary school was fairly short because Roger, Reverend Noah (director of The Carpenter’s Kids), and Brian Polkinghorne, an Australian missionary specializing in agriculture and knowledgeable on water issues, had arrived for an important meeting of the water committee, the village council, and Roger representing St. Paul’s partnership on the water project.    The story is Roger’s to tell.  Let me say that Roger is a perfect fit for this job—even sharing a “Commonwealth” background with Brian, a gentlemen only a few years older than Roger.  It is essential that the village water committee is a strong, honest, effective organization.  As a result of our involvement, Father Erasto is now the chair of the water committee and he was able to appoint 4 members of the parish to the water board.  With new village leaders as well, this important aspect of ongoing management seems much improved.  The people seem extremely grateful for what St. Paul’s is making possible.  (Another blantant request for support—the water project apparently will have two major phases.  For the first, replacing the pump and motor and other components of the present bore hole, we believe we have sufficient funds.  In fact, Roger hopes to have that finished before he returns to the states later this month.  We will wait until September to pursue Stage 2, extending the piping to improve the distribution system so people will not have to walk so very far for water.  We want to be sure there is good management of and care of Stage 1 before proceeding with stage 2.  A generous group of donors from St. Paul’s have stepped forward with an $8000 matching grant for the water project.  If we can succeed in matching that grant during our fundraising period, we should have enough funds to proceed with Stage 2 in September.)

We all returned to Dodoma Tuesday afternoon.  While Roger spent the rest of the week dealing with vendors and learning more about our water project (telephoning all over Tanzania and emailing all over the world and walking all over Dodoma), Amy and I went to visit Bishop Lupaa of the Diocese of the Rift Valley, about 2 hours northwest of Dodoma and on the southern edge of the Great Rift Valley.  The drive up there was breathtaking!  Frankly, the drive from Dodoma to Mwitikira is not one of great landscapes (although the wildflowers in bloom now are indeed beautiful).  Much of the way to Manyoni in the Diocese of the Rift Valley has these enormous outcroppings of giant stone shafts, poking out of the ground at various angles.  Many of these stones are multi-hued.  I kept thinking “Ancient of Days” in seeing them.  Amy said they looked like a Star Wars landscape.  Certainly other worldly and somehow evocative of the ancient, mysterious and powerful geologic history of this continent. 

When we arrived at the cathedral, a tall, young man in a white shirt and tie greeted us along with an older, rounder gentleman with a suit and collar.  Even the CK staff with us, thought the bishop was the older, rounder man.  Fortunately we picked up on “Askufu” (bishop) being applied to the younger man before we made fools of ourselves.  Bishop John Lupaa is a charming, handsome 44 year old bishop, three years into his service as bishop.  He and his staff were so hospitable in greeting us while sharing with us the story and needs of the diocese, which Bishop Lupaa calls the poorest in Tanzania.  He has about 47 parishes and a lovely stone Cathedral.  The diocese runs a hospital and nursing/midwife school, a secondary school, a theological college, and is in the process of developing a pharmacy and a hostel, the latter two in part as income producing projects for the diocese since the churches are much too poor to contribute to supporting the diocese.  We visted them all.  The schools and the hospital seemed very well run (there were 11 teachers actually teaching in the classrooms at the secondary school); we dropped in on dorm rooms which were so much straighter than any dorm room I have seen in the US, although very basic.  At the hospital, we went into the birthing wards and saw several mothers and their hours-old babies.  Women with at-risk pregnancies from   the villages must come to the hospital to await delivery.  One lady was lying in her bed with her preschool age child lying beside her awaiting labor.  Although I would have punched a group of people disturbing me right after delivery (including two women who had had C-sections that day) the women were welcoming as we wished them well and admired their babies.  I was pleasantly surprised at the conditions in the hospital.  The walkway to the hospital was lined with assorted family members with mats and food and stoves.  Patients’ families must supply food for the patients while they are in the hospital.

I was very impressed with the very capable seeming Tanzanian staff in the diocese.  They all seemed very devoted to Bishop Lupaa, and he to them.  In the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, most of the staff I have met are internationals.  Different and impressive in the Rift Valley.

More discouraging though were the two projects, the pharmacy and the hostel, that Bishop Lupaa inherited without strong plans, and financial means, for bringing them to an operational level.  Here is where Amy’s background in planning, development, and business can be a great help.

As we drove to the Rift Valley, we commented that we didn’t know what we were going for or what we would do once there.  Buck Blanchard, the Director of Global Missions for the Diocese of Virginia, had asked me to go and take Amy “just to see” what might happen.  So literally we just went up there to see what God would do.  Coming back to Dodoma, we felt that God had been in our midst.  Indeed, Amy returned to a wonderfully warm email from Bishop Lupaa encouraging her to return and work in Manyoni.  We thanked God for that and also for our safety.  Most of the road to Manyoni is paved (a rare experience in Tanzania) but we also drove on some very rutted roads.  On the way back, going about 80 mph down this mountain our front left tire blew out.  Our sturdy driver, John Joseph, maintained control of the vehicle despite a great deal of shaking and safely brought us to a stop with about 10 feet left on the shoulder before a rather sudden drop off. 

Thursday Amy and I went to the Msalato Bible College just a short distance out from Dodoma.  The college has a partner relationship with Virginia Theological Seminary.  We attended morning prayer led by the students in Swahili and then an African Theology class taught by the Principal in English (fascinating—how does traditional African belief in ancestors’ spirits fit with Jesus and the Holy Spirit?)

A CK staff member suggested we stop by a small non-profit connected with Books for Africa.  Last summer when I realized that there were literally no books in homes in Mwitikira, I wanted us to start a library.  Friends from St. Paul’s with leadership of the youth group (as well as work friends of Amy’s) contributed a number of books—we were able to bring about half on this trip and will bring the rest in June.  It was very inspiring to see the incredibly eager response of children and adults to those books during out days in Mwitikira.  Although we had not made an appointment, a lovely gentlemen greeted us, showed us around his projects, and listened as we talked about Mwitikira.  Then he pointed to a stack of about 40 odd boxes, most about  2 cubic feet filled with English language books appropriate for primary school.  He said we could have them for Mwitikira.  I was so dumbfounded that I asked Amy and Elizabeth Boe, from the CK staff, what he had said—I couldn’t believe it.  He said they have been carefully inventoried and are intended to be a rather complete primary school library!  We think we can get them in two loads of our big Toyota Land Cruiser.  We will take half or more when Roger and I return to Mwitikira in time for worship on Sunday.  We all have talked about what their faces will be like.  I cannot explain such a serendipitous event.  To bring hundreds of books to a village that had none is amazing.

Some of you may remember my speaking of Theodora, one of the Carpenter’s Kids.  Her grandmother waters my tree in Mwitikira every day and Theodora is a very bright student in Standard 4.  We have had a special bond since that first October trip.  She stood by my chair and read the Dr.Seuss book “Are you my mother?” out loud with other children gathered around.  It was the first book other than a textbook she had every held!  I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar to a Standard 7 class, enthralled by the pictures.  Father Erasto “read” it in Swahili to a Standard 1 class—I have some beautiful pictures of children almost leaping out of their desks in sheer delight.  Think what these books will mean!!!  It may be that the June pilgrims will help build shelves as well as organize and inventory the library!

Today May 1st is a holiday here.  The CK staff had offered to take us to visit some villages but we did not want them to use their time and gas to take us since they did not have a need to go themselves.  So I am preparing my sermon in Swahili for Sunday (on Jesus as the living water, appropriate given Roger’s work—thank you EFM class for our discussion of that passage!) and writing this long email to you.

Amy leaves tomorrow by bus to Dar, overnight with a US embassy connection, and then the long 24 hour trip home by herself.  Please pray for her safety and discernment as she and her husband Jeff make decisions about her response to God’s call in Manyoni. 

Roger will return to Dodoma Sunday afternoon, making final decisions about purchasing the equipment for the well, and then he expects to come to Mwitikira to be the hands on supervisor of the work.

I will stay in Mwitikira until May 11th, working on the books, teaching in the primary school, making arrangements for our June teaching, and soaking up the enjoyment and love of being there.

Folks are very excited about the pilgrims who will come in June (Cindy, Si, Natalie and Rebecca) as well as those in September.

Please continue to pray for the people of Mwitikira and the Diocese of Central Tanganyika.  I hope you will join me in praying for Bishop Lupaa and the people of the  Rift Valley.  I also hope you will want to help with the good work here by contributing financially—c/o John Hirschman, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, with The Carpenter’s Kids in the memo line.  If you want to designate further (books, desks, water—please just add a note.)  Literally every dollar will go directly to those projects—none for administration or travel.

I know this is very long but this is my only epistle on this particular trip.  Thank you for your interest, your support, and your prayers.  Roger, Amy, and I are the lucky ones to be here.  I hope many of you will join us in September or perhaps next year.

Peace,
Suzanne