OutreachMillennium Development Goals

Visit to Diocese of Shinyanga and with Bishop Charles Ngusa

On Tuesday, 10/23, we flew to Shinyanga, and met up again with Buck, Steve and John.

Shinyanga is in the north west of Tanzania and is a mining town with population of just over 90,000.  It is on a rail line and has paved roads leading to it.  It also has electricity and a semblance of running water, thus it is a more technologically and economically advanced community than Mwitikira.  Our hotel was comfortable but suffered from intermittent running water.

The Diocese of Shinyanga was created in 2005 and has its offices in Shinyanga.  The first and present bishop is Bishop Charles Ngusa, whom we met.  Another link with this diocese is Rev. Yohana Mazaguni, a classmate of John’s at Virginia Theological Seminary.  Yohana leads a parish in Shinyanga, St. Margaret’s, and is the principal of St. John’s Bible College.  One of the difficulties African dioceses face is getting trained leaders in their parishes. For a diocese to be viable, it must have a college to train local leaders.  Typically the leaders receive 2 years of training and are qualified as “catechistis” and will lead in small churches under the supervision of an ordained priest.  Bishop Charles was not provided with such a college when the diocese was created and one of his top priorities is to create one.  It is St. John’s College and it is in its formative stage.  Bishop Charles and Yohana drove us to it, a 1½-hour drive over even more bone jarring unpaved roads.

The college is an abandoned World Vision building about the size of a typical Richmond Suburban house (say 2000 sq. ft.).  In it, they are training and boarding 40 students.  We did not see the 40 students in residence but it was easy to conjure up the sight of 3 per bed and standing-room-only class conditions.  Fortunately the site has foundations for more space and the students are recruited to participate in construction.  John West’s church is helping with funding for building materials.  So far they have constructed a new latrine (10 ft. deep!), a biogas generator and a classroom and 4-room dormitory on the old foundations.  To speed things along, Suzanne, Roger, Steve and Buck made a small contribution to buy roofing materials so that the new facilities may be ready when the new class arrives in January.  As we have come to know, the college has no electricity, no running water and cooking is done on an open fire.  John’s church is collecting funds for a cistern to collect and store rainwater during the rainy season for use during the dry season.

On Wednesday, we had a chance to see the difference money can make to living circumstances in Shinyanga.  Bishop Charles’s wife is the matron of a hospital serving the employees of a diamond mine just outside Shinyanga.  As such, she is provided with a house in which she and the bishop live.  The mine company – DeBeers/Williamson – has built a roughly 5000 acre walled compound around the mine in which the employees live.  The contrast in the ambiance between the world inside the wall and that outside is striking – paved streets, planned and solidly built housing, flower gardens, shade trees, shops, schools and of course the hospital vs. the more haphazard, poorly constructed buildings of the outside.  The bishop took us to his house and while his furnishings and paint are well worn, one could sense a former grandeur.  The compound is a testament to concentration of wealth.

Earlier in the day we attended a midday, midweek service at Yohana’s church in Shinyanga.  It included the dedication of the foundation stones of a new church he is building.  As in Mwitikira, the church was packed and the service was joyous with lots of singing and dancing.  Here, however, because of electricity, they played recorded music and the scene was reminiscent of what we might find in an African-American church service here in the US.  We were surprised to see children there at midday but it was explained to us that because of insufficient classroom space, the schools offer a day and evening sitting for each class.  The kids we saw were the ones who attend evening school.  We were told that the same teacher teaches day and evening classes!!

On Thursday, Yohana took us on a tour of the commercial district of Shinyanga.  It is a busy, mostly unpaved area of small shops and businesses.  There is a large bustling market selling fish (mostly from Lake Victoria), grains, produce and clothing.  We were left with the sensation of stepping back to a time when nothing was packaged and small businesses were dominant.

That afternoon we flew back to Dar es Salaam, staying in the very well appointed Movenpick Hotel.  We were, at last, able to get a hot bath and sleep in a bed without a mosquito net.  Mwitikira seemed a long way away but we could not forget their hospitality and grace, all in the face of very straightened circumstances.

Overall Conclusions and Recommendations

We concluded that the Carpenter’s Kids Program is well conceived and well run.  We recommend our continuing support and recommend building a relationship with the village of Mwitikira.

The Diocese of Virginia is a minor partner in a program initiated by and receiving most of its support and energy from the Diocese of New York.  The Diocese of New York (DONY) welcomes our (i.e. Diocese of VA) support of 2 of the 200 projected parishes, however we can expect that program wide policy and initiatives will be led by DONY.  Thus, unless we can initiate and resource program wide initiatives, we should plan on any further support to be to Mwitikira.  We recommend that we (St. Paul’s) establish an on-going excellent communication with the leadership of Carpenter’s Kids in Dodoma.

We found significant opportunity to provide further support to the village and its institutions.  The village church, schools and local officials invited our support and gave us well-considered and prioritized proposals for additional help.  We recommend inviting the vestry and parish to participate in meeting their needs.  Some of the opportunities are shown in Attachment 5.

The faith of the people of Mwitikira is very important to them and they wished to embrace us as partners in Christ.  We recommend that we honor this expression of unity by praying for them each Sunday.

In the interests of honoring the relationship between St. Paul’s and the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, we recommend that Peter send a letter to Bishop Mdimi expressing gratitude for his diocese’s welcome and hopes for the new relationship.

The group that traveled to Tanzania has met overnight at Roslyn to share their thoughts and conclusions of their experiences.