I’ve received a fair number of e-mails asking about what it’s like to live in Africa. Everything from what I eat and drink to questions about who I work with and where I work. I’ll try to answer some of the most frequent questions, but do feel free to pose others either via e-mail or leaving a comment on my blog and I’ll do my best to answer them.
I live about a 15-20 minute walk away from MacKay House, which is where the Diocesan offices are located. I just found out a few days ago that when Miriam leaves Dodoma to head home to New Zealand that I will be moving from my current apartment on the CAMS upper compound to her apartment on the CAMS lower compound. That might take a few minutes off of my morning commute, but it means that Sarah and I won’t be on the same compound anymore. I don’t need to think about that for another month, thankfully. There are a few ways to walk to the office from our compound. One way is to walk along the sealed road in the direction of the train station and then walk another two blocks to the left, cross the train tracks and walk past the Anglican Cathedral. We started out doing that walk all the time until we were introduced to the back way, which is more scenic I suppose and there are fewer cars. The roads are all dirt until you get near the train tracks again and the roads are sealed again. It’s a little faster to walk the back way and when we leave at just the right time we tend to get to one of the larger roads at the same time that a guard with a large gun is escorting three un-handcuffed prisoners in bright orange jumpsuits down the road, so really it’s a win-win situation. :-)
The Carpenter’s Kids office is on the 3rd floor of MacKay House between the Tunajali HIV/AIDS program office and Magi Griffin’s office. Magi is from the Diocese of Atlanta and is the Bishop’s Special Advisor on the MDGs. I think that’s her title anyway. She does a lot and she’s just great! We’re just down the hall from Bishop Mhogolo’s office, but I haven’t seen him in the office yet. He travels all over the diocese, so that’s not really too surprising.
The Carpenter’s Kids staff is made up of some of the kindest, most dedicated people I have ever met. I feel truly fortunate to work with them. I’ll only give a brief description of what everyone does, and believe me, it won’t do the work they do justice, but I could write a separate posting about the CK staff.
Pastor Noah is the Program Director and in addition to that job, he is also the priest of the Chadulu parish here in Dodoma, which is linked with St. Martha’s Church in the Bronx, and manages the Furaha Hostel for the diocese. Needless to say, he is a busy man.
Our Assistant Director is John Mattaya. He used to work for DCT Print, but has worked for The Carpenter’s Kids for awhile now. He’s quite the joker.
Our Program Administrator is Mmoti Sudayi, who, along with Noel Chomola, our Assistant Program Administrator, manages all of the DCT parishes who are part of The Carpenter’s Kids program. The two of them are so busy all the time, riding out to parishes on motorcycles to take pictures and measurements for uniforms, helping children who come to the office when they’re sick. The list goes on.
Daudi Mheta is our Communications Coordinator. He works with all of the parish communications coordinators to make sure that they can post messages to their linked parish in the US. He also helps kids when they come to the office to get medical attention.
Willy Saimoni is our shoe fundi, or shoe expert. He has the very important job of ensuring that all of the kids in the program have a good pair of shoes that fit their feet. He takes the measurements that Mmoti and Noel get and finds each child a pair of shoes. He also helps get other items for the kids, like socks and soap. During the New York pilgrimages, he helped by the gifts that people gave to their linked parishes. He’s also our resident comedian and keeps the mood light in the office.
John Joseph is the official driver for the Carpenter’s Kids program. He drives the screening panel to and from villages most weeks and is definitely someone you want behind the wheel when you’re driving out to remote parishes. Like all of the guys on staff, he has a great sense of humor and when he, Willy, John, Noel and Daudi get together hilarity tends to ensue. There is a lot of laughter in our office!
Stanley Magembe is our staff accountant. I don’t know him very well yet because he is only in the office for two days a week and is usually at a computer working with accounting software, but he is very nice.
Miriam Plume has been the Program Coordinator for the past two years. I can’t even begin to list everything that she does, but she’s been the one who has coordinated the logistics for all of the large visits to Dodoma from the EDNY, she writes the monthly newsletters, the quarterly reports, the annual reports, monitors online communications between parishes, etc. It’s amazing. Her last day in the office is Thursday, September 11th and we will really miss her. She’s heading home to New Zealand to work for New Zealand Aid (similar to USAID) and will, I’m sure, do amazing work there.
Callum Thirkell, Sarah Dailey and I are the newest members of the Carpenter’s Kids team. Callum is 27 years old and is from New Zealand. He and his wife Laura, who teaches at Canon Andrea Mwaka School (CAMS for short), are friends of Miriam’s and will be here for a year or two. Callum is going to be working on developing the healthcare component of the program that we are hoping to launch soon. Sarah is 22 years old (her birthday was August 22nd) and she is our resident communications guru. She just graduated from UGA with a degree in Interior Design, which she has already put to great use here by rearranging our office and painting the logo on the wall and door. It looks amazing! A main component of her job will be to take over the newsletters and reports aspect of Miriam’s job. Sarah created a new layout for the monthly newsletters that we will be debuting soon, so keep your eyes open for that!
The final member of our team is Brian Atkins. Brian is officially the Business Partner for the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, but does lots of work with The Carpenter’s Kids. He lives in England, but travels to Tanzania regularly. I haven’t yet met him, but am looking forward to doing so in October when he arrives to spend 8 weeks here.
That’s a brief description of our team, so hopefully that will help you all keep track of people when I mention them in posts.
So, I guess it would be good to go on to the more mundane things: eating, drinking, etc. Food here is great. We haven’t really experimented with too much yet, but so far I’ve liked everything I’ve tried except the liver jerky I was given in one of the villages. Sorry if there are any liver fans reading this. I would say the thing that I’ve eaten the most since I arrived is rice. Lots and lots of it. I think I eat rice almost every day during the work week because we go out to lunch every day. According to Noel, one of the guys I work with, Tanzanians don’t bring lunch to work, so we always go out. The place Sarah and I tend to go the most is called Rose’s Cafe which is an Indian cafe located about a block from the Carpenter’s Kids office. Rose is really nice and tends to tease us if we order the same thing for more than 3 days in a row. That isn’t hard to do as the menu isn’t really varied – there’s beef curry, chicken curry, beef masala, chicken masala, a fish dish and a vegetarian dish most days and on Friday’s Rose makes several different kinds of biryani – but you do get a lot of food for not a lot of money. The beef curry, for example, is only 1,500 shillings or just over a dollar. The most expensive thing on the menu is usually the vegetarian dish of the day and the chicken masala which both run in the 4,500 shilling range, or about $4.
We also go to a place called ‘Nice & Easy’ for lunch sometimes. Their menu is similar in make up. You can get beef, chicken, fish or njegere with your choice of either rice, ugali or something else. I can’t remember what. My personal favorite is njegere which is a vegetarian dish made up of tomato, peas, carrots, onions, powdered coconut milk and some spices (curry and something else). Njegere and rice costs 1,500 shillings, while a chicken dish tends to run about 3,500 shillings. We always get passion fruit juice when we’re at Nice & Easy, as opposed to the ever present soda that we drink most other places.
There’s a very large outdoor (well, really under a canopy-like cover) market that sells fruit, vegetables and spices. I personally find it to be more than a little claustrophobic and so I don’t like to go there too often. There are also two ‘Western’ style grocery stores here – one is called Super Dealer and the other Two Sisters. They are both run by people of Indian descent who speak English and Swahili very well. This is where you can find all sorts of imported goods – usually from South Africa. Each store has a large freezer section where they keep meat (ground beef, sausage, hot dogs, chicken, fish fillets, etc) as well as butter and cheese. I’m not entirely sure where the meat comes from, but the cheese is from New Zealand and Ireland. Some of my Kiwi friends said that they can buy New Zealand cheese here for almost the exact same price as they could back in New Zealand.
You can also buy cereal, crackers, cookies, baking supplies, pasta, different kinds of fruit juice, ice cream, tea, coffee, cleaning supplies, toilet paper and liquor. Some things are not too expensive, while others are really expensive. For example, my favorite brand of fruit juice, Ceres, which is from South Africa, costs about 2,500 shillings which I think makes it cheaper here than it was back in the US. Cereal, on the other hand, costs 12,000 shillings for a medium size box – that’s about $10. Cereal is marginally cheaper in Dar es Salaam, but we don’t go there often.
So, to answer the ‘what do you drink’ question: I drink lots of water when I’m at home. In order to be able to drink the water here, I have to boil it at a rolling boil for a few minutes, let it cool and then pour it into a counter-top filter. The filter is a large two-part metal container. You pour the boiled water into the top half and there’s a stone cylinder that the water gets filtered through one drop at a time into the bottom half of the container. I’m not entirely sure what the stone is, but it looks kind of like limestone to me. Bottled water is also readily available here and sometimes if Sarah and I don’t feel like boiling water to refill our water bottles, we just buy 1.5 liter bottles at the store. Lazy, yes, but effective... I also tend to drink about 2-3 liters of fruit juice each week. When we go out to lunch I usually drink orange Fanta or ginger beer, which is great, but usually I drink Fanta. Sarah laughs at me sometimes because I always order Fanta and not Coca Cola or Sprite, but what can you do? When we were in villages with the New York group, almost all of the Carpenter’s Kids drank Fanta so if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. I also drink tea (grown in Tanzania) and hot chocolate (the mix is imported from South Africa) at home fairly regularly. I have tried coffee here, and it’s good but I don’t drink it regularly.
I guess that takes care of the food and drink questions. In terms of other things, you can find lots of items that are similar to what you’d find in the US. The quality might not be as good with some things, but that’s the case in the US as well. You just have to be patient and willing to go to three stores to get what you’re looking for instead of trying to get everything in one place. People are definitely willing to help you as well. When Sarah, Noel and I were looking for a can of blue paint last week, the owner of one store called down to another store and had some blue paint brought over. It’s a different rhythm, but you get used to it.
I promised myself that this was not going to be another long post, but apparently I don’t know how to write anything but long posts. I’ll stop writing for now even though I can think of lots of other things to tell, but in closing I would say that it’s definitely a different experience living here, but it’s been great so far. I know I’ve written this multiple times, but the people here are incredibly wonderful and as with anywhere else I’ve been, the people are what make the place interesting and worthwhile. That is definitely the case here in Tanzania.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Lukali & Babayu Distributions
On Saturday, August 30th we headed to the parishes of Lukali and Babayu to distribute uniforms, shoes, school supplies and mosquito nets to 50 kids in each parish. Unlike the majority of the distributions I’ve been on so far, this was the first distribution of uniforms, shoes, nets and school supplies in each of these parishes.
The day started pretty early – at 7:00am. Sarah and I walked down to the lower CAMS compound where Pastor Noah lives at 6:55 so we would be there on time. It turned out that we were early. We sat in Pastor Noah’s living room for a little while and chatted with him and his wife. Then we went to Magi’s apartment (next door) and sat with her and Pat Grace, a priest at St. Luke’s Church in Atlanta, who was staying with Magi for about a week before heading out to Msalato Theological College for a week. We didn’t deliberately wake them up early on a Saturday morning. They were already awake, because Pat was going to go with us.
Willy and John Joseph returned from picking up the uniforms, shoes, backpacks of school supplies and bales of mosquito nets from the office and Sarah, Pat, Pastor Noah, Willy and I piled into the Land Cruiser with Callum and Laura Thirkell. Callum is the newest member of The Carpenter’s Kids staff and Laura teaches at the international school. They’d only been in Dodoma for about a week before coming on a distribution, but as Sarah and I discovered on our first distribution, seeing the distribution is a great way to get a sense of the impact the program has. It was a pretty crowded ride out to our first parish because we had 6 people in the back of the Land Cruiser (Pat got to sit in the front seat with John Joseph) along with several boxes of school supplies. We had to stop a couple times to pick up some bags of uniforms that escaped from their place on the roof of the car. Instead of putting them back on the roof, we just put them in the back with us. We drove for what seemed like a long time, and just when I thought my knees were going to scream from staying in the same position we arrived in Babayu.
We all gratefully got out of the car and met the parish priest and some members of the parish. Pastor Noah had a brief conversation with the priest and it turned out that they were not ready for us yet. So, it was decided that we would get back in the car and go on to Lukali which was about 20 kilometers away, distribute everything there and then come back to Babayu. We were all thankful for the chance to get out and stretch, even if it was only for a few minutes. We folded ourselves back into the car and headed for Lukali.
Lukali didn’t appear to be any more ready for our visit than did Babayu, but we got out of the car and met the priest and several members of the parish committee. They took us to the church so we could wait for the kids to arrive. There wasn’t much seating available in the church, just a few benches. The few kids who had assembled at the church were seated on those, but chairs and stools from houses in the village made their way to the church for us to sit on. We waited for about an hour for more of the kids to come before we started the distribution. Even then, only about half of the children were there.
Distributions follow a particular pattern. We start with a prayer from either the parish priest or Pastor Noah and have introductions of parish representatives and our team. Sarah and I were glad that we’d memorized our introductions in Swahili so we didn’t have to read them off of a piece of paper. John Joseph and Willy hadn’t heard Sarah and I introduce ourselves in Swahili since our very first distribution (when we read them) so they were quite impressed. They both shook my hand after I finished, which was entertaining. Once the introductions were finished, Pastor Noah explained The Carpenter’s Kids program to everyone who was gathered so they’d all know what participation in the program entailed. Willy served as our Master of Ceremonies for the day which kept things lively. He also showed everyone how to use the mosquito nets properly and explained how to care for them.
Then it was time to give the kids their uniforms, nets and school supplies. Pastor Noah asked Pat to hand the children everything. Willy, John Joseph and two men from the village assembled everything and gave it to Pat who shook hands with each child and his or her guardian and then handed them their things. The order goes something like this: Willy picks a neatly folded uniform from the bag, looks at the tag and calls the name of the child. When he or she gets to the makeshift assembly line, they ask what grade the child will be going into and choose a backpack filled with grade-appropriate supplies which is placed on top of the uniform. Then two family-sized mosquito nets – one for the child and one for the guardian – are placed on top of that. All of that is then handed to whomever has been appointed to shake hands and present everything to the child – in this case, Pat.
Since many of the children were not actually at the distribution, their uniforms, supplies and nets were given to members of the parish Carpenter’s Kids committee so they could give them to the children. After the children received their uniforms, they went outside of the church and changed into them and then came back in and sat down. Then we began the process of distributing the shoes. The shoes are in a large bag and are packaged in small plastic bags to keep them together. We take them out of the small bags and place them on the table, stacked to ensure that the shoe with the child’s name on it is on top. Once all of the shoes are out, we take turns reading the names and the kids come up and get their new shoes and go back to their seats and put them on. This is generally an amusing experience for all of the Swahili speakers as some of the names give us non-Swahili speakers a hard time, but we are getting better with each distribution.
Once the kids in Lukali had their shoes on, Pastor Noah asked us if we wanted to say anything. We took turns thanking everyone for their welcome and wishing them well. Then we were invited to lunch with the priest and his wife. When we got to the priest’s house, a woman poured water over our hands before we entered the house. Then we all sat around the table and were given bowls for the rice and meat, only to discover that they only had 4 spoons. So, I got to eat with my hands for the first time. Let me just say, that it isn’t really that easy. I asked Pastor Noah to show me the proper way to eat. You are only supposed to use your right hand, so really I was eating with my hand, not hands. The process is you take some rice with your fingers and then squeeze it into a small lump/ball and eat it. It was much easier to do that with rice that didn’t have any of the sauce from the meat on it, but I stuck with it and managed to finish my lunch. I was very happy to wash my hands outside when lunch was over. Willy and John Joseph were highly entertained by my attempt as well as my telling them that it wasn’t easy. They were still laughing as we said goodbye to the priest and his family and got back into the Land Cruiser to head back to Babayu.
When we arrived in Babayu the second time, things were quite different. We were greeted by a larger group of people and ushered into a now packed church. There was singing and clapping as we made our way to the front of the church to take our seats. The distribution here followed the same pattern as the one in Lukali. We started with a prayer from the parish priest and had introductions all around. It’s kind of entertaining how surprised people are when Sarah and I can introduce ourselves in Swahili. We really each only said about 5 sentences, but people are so happy that we try that we always get a huge round of applause. It’s quite a different experience than I’ve observed that people who are learning English in the US seem to have. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve heard people in America say that someone whose English is not yet fluent, say ‘He should learn how to speak English’ or something along those lines. In every instance here, people are very patient and try to help you figure out what they’re saying as best they can, be it with gestures or using a few English words. It’s a very humbling to realize that you have to rely on others to express yourself in some situations. We are very lucky that everyone on The Carpenter’s Kids staff speaks English. Some are more fluent than others, but they are all willing to speak English so we understand what’s going on or to translate for us if need be.
Anyway, back to Babayu...so after introductions we began the process of distributing the uniforms, nets, school supplies and shoes. I also took a picture of a little boy with a cleft palate, because there is a clinic in Dar es Salaam that will repair his lip for 70,000 shillings, or about $60-65. Including transportation, food and hospital lodging costs for the little boy and his father, the operation will cost about $300. It’s just mind-boggling that this little boy can have a life-changing surgical procedure for that small amount of money. I have no idea what that operation would cost in the US, but I would guess that it would be much more than $300! We talked to the boy’s father and explained that we’d send the picture to the clinic in Dar and that he needed to bring his son to Dodoma for a HIV test and an iron test. The clinic will perform the surgery regardless of the boy’s status, but they just need to know. Needless to say, the boy’s father was very happy and made a point to shake my hand even though all I did was take a picture of his son.
Once everything was distributed, we went outside the church and took a group photo of all of the kids in their new uniforms and shoes. A woman asked me to take a picture of her with her two kids and was very happy when I took the photo and showed it to her. After that, though, I was surrounded by a group of at least 30 children – maybe more – who wanted to see the pictures I’d taken of their friends and wanted to have pictures of themselves taken as well. I’d take a picture and show it to them and they’d all try to crowd around my camera and push to get closer. I’d try to tell them to be careful – in English of course, which really didn’t help too much – but they kept pushing to get closer. I don’t know how long I was with the kids, only that at some point Pastor Noah came over and said that they wanted me to go inside the church because we were being served lunch (again!) and people were waiting for me.
We had more rice and meat of some kind in a tomato-based sauce with chapati and, of course, the ever present soda. Willy and John Joseph made a point of laughingly showing me that there were plenty of spoons here so I didn’t have to eat with my hands again. As soon as we’d finished our meal, the women brought us some baked sweet potatoes so we could have something for the road. Really, generosity here seems to know no bounds.
The drive back to Dodoma didn’t seem as long, but every time we go somewhere the last 20 minutes of the drive make me feel like I’m regressing to my toddler years. I just want to ask ‘are we there yet?’ over and over again. When I threatened to do that while the New York group was here, Miriam told me she’d throw something at me if I did. Thankfully, I didn’t ask the question (out loud that is), and we arrived back in town soon enough. We said goodbye to everyone and stopped in to see Miriam at her apartment before heading home to our compound more than ready to go to sleep.
I hadn’t thought about doing this before, but it would be interesting to track the total number of kilometers I travel while I’m here. I’m sure it would be an incredibly high number. Having now been to a total of 7 parishes, I can understand why the largest line in our administrative budget is for fuel. Gasoline runs about $8.00 a gallon here which makes me glad that I can pretty much walk anywhere I need to in Dodoma. Not that I have a driver’s license, but that’s another story. I guess I could re-learn to drive here and just get a Tanzanian license. Of course, I’d have to learn to drive on the other side of the road (the correct side as I’ve been told) and learn to use a stick shift, but I suppose it’s something to consider. We’ll see...
The day started pretty early – at 7:00am. Sarah and I walked down to the lower CAMS compound where Pastor Noah lives at 6:55 so we would be there on time. It turned out that we were early. We sat in Pastor Noah’s living room for a little while and chatted with him and his wife. Then we went to Magi’s apartment (next door) and sat with her and Pat Grace, a priest at St. Luke’s Church in Atlanta, who was staying with Magi for about a week before heading out to Msalato Theological College for a week. We didn’t deliberately wake them up early on a Saturday morning. They were already awake, because Pat was going to go with us.
Willy and John Joseph returned from picking up the uniforms, shoes, backpacks of school supplies and bales of mosquito nets from the office and Sarah, Pat, Pastor Noah, Willy and I piled into the Land Cruiser with Callum and Laura Thirkell. Callum is the newest member of The Carpenter’s Kids staff and Laura teaches at the international school. They’d only been in Dodoma for about a week before coming on a distribution, but as Sarah and I discovered on our first distribution, seeing the distribution is a great way to get a sense of the impact the program has. It was a pretty crowded ride out to our first parish because we had 6 people in the back of the Land Cruiser (Pat got to sit in the front seat with John Joseph) along with several boxes of school supplies. We had to stop a couple times to pick up some bags of uniforms that escaped from their place on the roof of the car. Instead of putting them back on the roof, we just put them in the back with us. We drove for what seemed like a long time, and just when I thought my knees were going to scream from staying in the same position we arrived in Babayu.
We all gratefully got out of the car and met the parish priest and some members of the parish. Pastor Noah had a brief conversation with the priest and it turned out that they were not ready for us yet. So, it was decided that we would get back in the car and go on to Lukali which was about 20 kilometers away, distribute everything there and then come back to Babayu. We were all thankful for the chance to get out and stretch, even if it was only for a few minutes. We folded ourselves back into the car and headed for Lukali.
Lukali didn’t appear to be any more ready for our visit than did Babayu, but we got out of the car and met the priest and several members of the parish committee. They took us to the church so we could wait for the kids to arrive. There wasn’t much seating available in the church, just a few benches. The few kids who had assembled at the church were seated on those, but chairs and stools from houses in the village made their way to the church for us to sit on. We waited for about an hour for more of the kids to come before we started the distribution. Even then, only about half of the children were there.
Distributions follow a particular pattern. We start with a prayer from either the parish priest or Pastor Noah and have introductions of parish representatives and our team. Sarah and I were glad that we’d memorized our introductions in Swahili so we didn’t have to read them off of a piece of paper. John Joseph and Willy hadn’t heard Sarah and I introduce ourselves in Swahili since our very first distribution (when we read them) so they were quite impressed. They both shook my hand after I finished, which was entertaining. Once the introductions were finished, Pastor Noah explained The Carpenter’s Kids program to everyone who was gathered so they’d all know what participation in the program entailed. Willy served as our Master of Ceremonies for the day which kept things lively. He also showed everyone how to use the mosquito nets properly and explained how to care for them.
Then it was time to give the kids their uniforms, nets and school supplies. Pastor Noah asked Pat to hand the children everything. Willy, John Joseph and two men from the village assembled everything and gave it to Pat who shook hands with each child and his or her guardian and then handed them their things. The order goes something like this: Willy picks a neatly folded uniform from the bag, looks at the tag and calls the name of the child. When he or she gets to the makeshift assembly line, they ask what grade the child will be going into and choose a backpack filled with grade-appropriate supplies which is placed on top of the uniform. Then two family-sized mosquito nets – one for the child and one for the guardian – are placed on top of that. All of that is then handed to whomever has been appointed to shake hands and present everything to the child – in this case, Pat.
Since many of the children were not actually at the distribution, their uniforms, supplies and nets were given to members of the parish Carpenter’s Kids committee so they could give them to the children. After the children received their uniforms, they went outside of the church and changed into them and then came back in and sat down. Then we began the process of distributing the shoes. The shoes are in a large bag and are packaged in small plastic bags to keep them together. We take them out of the small bags and place them on the table, stacked to ensure that the shoe with the child’s name on it is on top. Once all of the shoes are out, we take turns reading the names and the kids come up and get their new shoes and go back to their seats and put them on. This is generally an amusing experience for all of the Swahili speakers as some of the names give us non-Swahili speakers a hard time, but we are getting better with each distribution.
Once the kids in Lukali had their shoes on, Pastor Noah asked us if we wanted to say anything. We took turns thanking everyone for their welcome and wishing them well. Then we were invited to lunch with the priest and his wife. When we got to the priest’s house, a woman poured water over our hands before we entered the house. Then we all sat around the table and were given bowls for the rice and meat, only to discover that they only had 4 spoons. So, I got to eat with my hands for the first time. Let me just say, that it isn’t really that easy. I asked Pastor Noah to show me the proper way to eat. You are only supposed to use your right hand, so really I was eating with my hand, not hands. The process is you take some rice with your fingers and then squeeze it into a small lump/ball and eat it. It was much easier to do that with rice that didn’t have any of the sauce from the meat on it, but I stuck with it and managed to finish my lunch. I was very happy to wash my hands outside when lunch was over. Willy and John Joseph were highly entertained by my attempt as well as my telling them that it wasn’t easy. They were still laughing as we said goodbye to the priest and his family and got back into the Land Cruiser to head back to Babayu.
When we arrived in Babayu the second time, things were quite different. We were greeted by a larger group of people and ushered into a now packed church. There was singing and clapping as we made our way to the front of the church to take our seats. The distribution here followed the same pattern as the one in Lukali. We started with a prayer from the parish priest and had introductions all around. It’s kind of entertaining how surprised people are when Sarah and I can introduce ourselves in Swahili. We really each only said about 5 sentences, but people are so happy that we try that we always get a huge round of applause. It’s quite a different experience than I’ve observed that people who are learning English in the US seem to have. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve heard people in America say that someone whose English is not yet fluent, say ‘He should learn how to speak English’ or something along those lines. In every instance here, people are very patient and try to help you figure out what they’re saying as best they can, be it with gestures or using a few English words. It’s a very humbling to realize that you have to rely on others to express yourself in some situations. We are very lucky that everyone on The Carpenter’s Kids staff speaks English. Some are more fluent than others, but they are all willing to speak English so we understand what’s going on or to translate for us if need be.
Anyway, back to Babayu...so after introductions we began the process of distributing the uniforms, nets, school supplies and shoes. I also took a picture of a little boy with a cleft palate, because there is a clinic in Dar es Salaam that will repair his lip for 70,000 shillings, or about $60-65. Including transportation, food and hospital lodging costs for the little boy and his father, the operation will cost about $300. It’s just mind-boggling that this little boy can have a life-changing surgical procedure for that small amount of money. I have no idea what that operation would cost in the US, but I would guess that it would be much more than $300! We talked to the boy’s father and explained that we’d send the picture to the clinic in Dar and that he needed to bring his son to Dodoma for a HIV test and an iron test. The clinic will perform the surgery regardless of the boy’s status, but they just need to know. Needless to say, the boy’s father was very happy and made a point to shake my hand even though all I did was take a picture of his son.
Once everything was distributed, we went outside the church and took a group photo of all of the kids in their new uniforms and shoes. A woman asked me to take a picture of her with her two kids and was very happy when I took the photo and showed it to her. After that, though, I was surrounded by a group of at least 30 children – maybe more – who wanted to see the pictures I’d taken of their friends and wanted to have pictures of themselves taken as well. I’d take a picture and show it to them and they’d all try to crowd around my camera and push to get closer. I’d try to tell them to be careful – in English of course, which really didn’t help too much – but they kept pushing to get closer. I don’t know how long I was with the kids, only that at some point Pastor Noah came over and said that they wanted me to go inside the church because we were being served lunch (again!) and people were waiting for me.
We had more rice and meat of some kind in a tomato-based sauce with chapati and, of course, the ever present soda. Willy and John Joseph made a point of laughingly showing me that there were plenty of spoons here so I didn’t have to eat with my hands again. As soon as we’d finished our meal, the women brought us some baked sweet potatoes so we could have something for the road. Really, generosity here seems to know no bounds.
The drive back to Dodoma didn’t seem as long, but every time we go somewhere the last 20 minutes of the drive make me feel like I’m regressing to my toddler years. I just want to ask ‘are we there yet?’ over and over again. When I threatened to do that while the New York group was here, Miriam told me she’d throw something at me if I did. Thankfully, I didn’t ask the question (out loud that is), and we arrived back in town soon enough. We said goodbye to everyone and stopped in to see Miriam at her apartment before heading home to our compound more than ready to go to sleep.
I hadn’t thought about doing this before, but it would be interesting to track the total number of kilometers I travel while I’m here. I’m sure it would be an incredibly high number. Having now been to a total of 7 parishes, I can understand why the largest line in our administrative budget is for fuel. Gasoline runs about $8.00 a gallon here which makes me glad that I can pretty much walk anywhere I need to in Dodoma. Not that I have a driver’s license, but that’s another story. I guess I could re-learn to drive here and just get a Tanzanian license. Of course, I’d have to learn to drive on the other side of the road (the correct side as I’ve been told) and learn to use a stick shift, but I suppose it’s something to consider. We’ll see...
EDNY August Pilgrimage Group
It’s actually quite difficult to describe in words what the experiences of the last few weeks have been like. On Wednesday, August 13th a group of 16 people from the Episcopal Diocese of New York arrived in Dodoma to go to their linked parishes and visit their kids. Three of the four villages I went to during the visit were linked to parishes in New York and the fourth was a parish that is new to The Carpenter’s Kids program and we were able to participate in the first ever distribution in the village.
I think if I tried to describe everything that happened during the almost two weeks that the New York group was here, this blog posting might rival War and Peace in terms of length (it may do that anyway!). The one thing that has remained consistent throughout all of these experiences – and really my entire time here in Tanzania - has been the incredible warmth and generosity that has been extended to everyone in our group. It’s really quite amazing.
On Friday August 15th, I went to the parish of Ntyuka which is just outside of Dodoma – about a 20 minute drive or so. Ntyuka is one of the three parishes in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika that is supported by St. Luke’s Church in the Bronx. Pastor Noah and I were the staff members for the group and we went with Donald, Francilla and Corey (all from St. Luke’s) and Brian, Judy and Sue (all from St. Bart’s in Manhattan).We were met about half a mile outside of the village by a group of kids who proceeded to run behind the car as we drove into the village. We were a little concerned that some of them were getting too close to the car and tried to wave at them to not run so close, but really all that did was get them to run faster. We finally got close enough to the priest’s house to get out and walk, which we did and we were greeted by multiple handshakes and karibu’s (welcome) and habari’s (hi/how are you). The priest, Rev. Alfa, greeted us all in English and invited us into his home for breakfast. We had tea and mandaazi, which are kind of like donuts only much, much better.
After we finished breakfast, we went to the church to start the festivities. There were lots of people in the church - the choir, a mother’s group, children of all ages. The music was amazing. To start things off, Rev. Alfa made some remarks and introduced some members of the community who are involved in The Carpenter’s Kids program. Then it was our turn for introductions. Pastor Noah and Frank, one of the translators who was helping us while the New York group was here, ably translated everything into Swahili. After introductions and some parish reports, we all helped Donald, Francilla and Corey unpack the gifts they brought for their Kids and everyone who helps with the program. It was quite the party as things were handed out. Everyone in our group was given gifts as well – everything from bowls made out of sun-dried gourds to necklaces and woven bags. Donald was given the chief’s treatment though and was wrapped in a bright red piece of cloth and given sandals, a staff, a long machete-like knife, a belt and a carving of Joseph leading Mary holding baby Jesus on a donkey. When I can post pictures, I’ll be sure to put up my photo of Donald all decked out in his Ntyuka gear. When the distribution of gifts was over, we took a short stretching break and then went back into the church to have lunch. There was so much food I literally cannot remember everything. There was lots of rice and there were multiple meat options and vegetables- just lots of stuff. We were given our choice of soda – Coke, Sprite or orange Fanta (my personal favorite) and a bottle of water. After lunch we reluctantly said our goodbyes and headed back to Dodoma.
On Saturday August 16th, I went to Chali Isangha, which is the westernmost parish in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. It took a good 2-2.5 hours to get there on some really bumpy dirt roads. Needless to say, we were all thrilled to get out of the Land Cruiser! Chali Isangha seemed more remote than any of the other parishes I’ve been to and I suppose given that it was the furthest I’ve traveled in Tanzania with the exception of the Dar-Dodoma trip that shouldn’t be too surprising. It just really felt like we were far away from anything familiar. Again, though, the welcome was as warm as we’ve come to expect. We arrived in the village a little after 10am and were greeted by Father Alexander and invited into his house for breakfast – tea, mandaazi, and sweet potatoes (white sweet potatoes, not yams).
After breakfast, we walked over to a small clearing sheltered by some trees that provided us with some shade and the festivities began again. Unlike Ntyuka or Mwitikira, Chali Isangha is a parish that is new to The Carpenter’s Kids program and this was the first distribution. You can really see a difference in the way the children who’ve been a part of the program for at least a year act when you see children who are new to the program. These children were very quiet, reluctant to wave or smile back at you. They did sing us a very nice song, though, with the words ‘karibuni wageni wetu, karibuni,’ which means ‘welcome our visitors, welcome.’ The day here was similar to other village visits, but it contained a short description of The Carpenter’s Kids program and a demonstration on how to use mosquito nets. After that, we got to help hand out uniforms, school supplies, mosquito nets and shoes to all of the kids. After each child received their items, they went to change into their new uniforms. We had to help some of the kids tie their shoes because they didn’t know what to do with the laces. Once all of the kids were in their uniforms and shoes, they reassembled for a group photo before we officially broke for the day. They looked wonderful.
Before we went back to Father Alexander’s house for lunch, he took us to their church for a tour. At first I thought that they were in the middle of construction because there are walls, but no roof. However, Father Alexander explained that they had used the wrong kind of soil in the mixture for the bricks and the rain had washed the roof and the upper part of the walls away. There was a small shelter made out of wood that was in the middle of the church, but that was the only thing that would protect anyone from the rain. We took some pictures of some of the Carpenter’s Kids in the church as they’d followed us into the building and were watching us listen to their priest. Then we headed back to Father Alexander’s house for lunch. I have never seem so much cooked rice in one place outside of a restaurant. After a quick bathroom break, we all piled back into the Land Cruiser and began the long journey back to Dodoma.
On Sunday we split up into several different groups to go to church services. I went with the group that went to the Cathedral here in Dodoma. Instead of going to the English service, though, we all got up early and went to the 7:00am Swahili service. It was great! It was actually much more like services at my home church than I thought it would be. It was in Swahili of course, but it still felt like home. We were asked to sit right up front with the choir and the priests and in about the middle of the service we had to introduce ourselves to the entire church – easily about 350-400 people. After the service we headed to Msalato Theological College to have a tour of the campus and have lunch with the staff. Everyone there was wonderful and very happy to have us there. The staff gave Miriam a lovely knitted shawl as a going away present to thank her for her friendship and her work here in Dodoma.
After we finished lunch, we headed to Jubilee High School where 4 groups of Carpenter’s Kids had gathered to participate in a Sports Day. I finally got to meet some of the kids from the Cathedral parish which is linked with my home parish, St. John the Divine in NYC. They were excited to see someone else from their linked parish and were thrilled when I told them that Canon Alan (ask he’s referred to here) and Matthew said to say ‘hello’ to them. Some of the kids were wearing their I (heart) NY t-shirts and New York caps and pointed them out to me several times just to make sure I saw them. We were treated to some great soccer games, netball games and several tug-of-war matches with Willie from The Carpenter’s Kids staff providing commentary over the loudspeaker. Noel and Daudi did a great job serving as referees during all of the matches. Readers from St. John the Divine will be happy to know that the Cathedral boys won a well-played soccer game and the Cathedral girls won the first netball game in the tournament! We headed back home around 5pm so everyone had time to rest before the parish visits started again on Monday morning.
On Monday August 18th, I headed to Mvumi Makulu with Pastor Noah and the St. Bartians, which is the great name for the 5 members of St. Bart’s in the pilgrimage group – Brian, Sue, Judy, Robin and Lucia. St. Bart’s is linked with Mvumi Makulu and supports a group of 100 children there. I got to be a videographer for the day, as I used Brian’s video camera to record the day’s happenings so Brian could be an active part of the day at his parish. After a quick lesson, I was ready (for the most part) to start. We drove the hour or so from Dodoma to Mvumi Makulu through some beautiful country and arrived at Mvumi to see a large group of people waiting for us singing. All 100 of the Carpenter’s Kids were there leading the singing of a song that translates to ‘welcome, welcome our visitors, welcome to Makulu parish.’ Some of the kids were wearing their I (heart) NY t-shirts they’d received from last year’s St. Bart’s group. We stayed outside to listen to the kids for a little while before going into the parish priest’s (Father Ashery) house for breakfast – tea and mandaazi.
After breakfast, we walked around the village to see some of the kids’ homes and meet their guardians. The St. Bartians even tried their hand at making flour for ugali! It was impressive. After we saw several of the kids’ homes – houses made of mud and wood – that were surprisingly cool given the heat of the day, we headed back to the church and started the now familiar pattern of village visits. There were introductions all around, followed by gifts from the parish to all of us, gifts from the St. Bart’s group – including some great gifts that Sue made by hand – and parish reports. The group also brought pencils for all of the non-Carpenter’s Kids children in the village so everyone got something which was really nice. One of my favorite gifts of the day was a beautiful stole for Father Ashery that a member of the St. Bart’s parish had made with an inscription commemorating the day and the partnership between St. Bart’s and Mvumi Makulu. There was lots of singing and dancing, with a group of Carpenter’s Kids giving several performances. As we were waiting for lunch, we got to spend some time with the kids. It was great to see all of the St. Bartians playing with their kids. There were fist bumps, high fives and peace signs all over the place – that goes over really well with kids here. Lucia was even teaching some of the kids a clapping game. It was fun.
We went in to the church to have lunch and were happy to see the Carpenter’s Kids sitting inside having lunch with us. I got a great picture of the St. Bartians with the little girl who led the singing and dancing as well. We were escorted to our car by almost all of the parish Carpenter’s Kids who all wanted to shake hands and say goodbye even if their hands were still covered with the remnants of their lunch. It took awhile, but we finally said goodbye to everyone – I think there were a few kids whose hands I shook at least 5 times, but they kept getting back in line to say goodbye. We headed back to Dodoma with hearts lighter than they were when we arrived.
That evening we had dinner as a group with Bishop Mhogolo and then after dinner those of us on staff here in Dodoma and in New York had a separate meeting with him to discuss the program.
Tuesday, August 19th, was our final day of parish visits with the New York group. I went with Patti Welch, who is the chaplain of the Cathedral School in New York to her linked parish, Ilindi. The parish is linked with the Cathedral School and the 50 Carpenter’s Kids in Ilindi are supported by children at the school in New York. I wasn’t initially scheduled to go to Ilindi, but I asked if I could switch groups because I wanted to be with Patti when she went to her linked parish. Patti is actually the first priest I met at St. John the Divine back in 2005 when I first visited the church before joining the congregation, so I thought it would be great to go with her when she visited Ilindi for the first time.
We arrived in Ilindi a little early, so we sat outside of the chuch and listened to the Mother’s Union and the Carpenter’s Kids sing for awhile before going into the church for a breakfast of tea, chapati (a tortilla-like flatbread) and some dried liver. I did try to liver because I didn’t want to be rude. I only ate one piece – enough to convince me that liver jerky was not really my thing – and gave the rest to Noel who was eating it like candy and happily took it off of my hands. After breakfast, we went to visit 3 of the Carpenter’s Kids’ homes and meet their guardians. Patti had a great time and really connected with the guardians. She had her picture taken with each family and was even given a handmade broom from one of the grandmothers of the kids. One of the most moving moments of the morning for me was meeting the grandfather of one of the kids. His left leg had been amputated above the knee because he’d developed cancer in the late 1960’s. He had to use 2 canes to get around, but he was in the group that met us at the church when we first arrived, he’d gone back home to see welcome us there and went back to the church for the rest of the day. It wasn’t a short walk between the two places either.
When we’d finished our tour, we went back to the church and went through introductions, parish reports and the giving and receiving of gifts. The kids all really liked their Carpenter’s Kids t-shirts, but the best gifts were the pictures the kids in New York had drawn for the kids in Ilindi. Each picture was mounted on a piece of construction paper and each of the 50 kids received one. After the gifts were given, the Carpenter’s Kids sang us several songs and presented Patti with copies of the lyrics that they’d written out. Patti also taught everyone the prayer that they say at the Cathedral School and with the help of Noel, translated it into Swahili so everyone could understand and say it along with her.
We had lunch in the church – again so much food! – and then went outside for some pictures. Patti and I were each given chickens earlier in the day. I held mine for about 4 seconds before they took it to put it in a plastic bag for me. Before we left, Patti and I left our chickens in the care of the priest before we left so he could take care of them until someone else from the Cathedral School visits Ilindi next summer. We arrived back in Dodoma in the late afternoon and had a short time to rest before heading to the farewell dinner during which everyone in the New York group was given a gift from the Carpenter’s Kids staff and each staff member was given a gift from the New York group. I was especially happy because Tyson and David, whom I met when we all went to Mikumi National Park during my first week in Tanzania, were at the dinner too. Their father, Peter, works as a driver for the Diocese and all of our drivers and their families were invited to come. The boys were easily the best dressed attendees and looked sharp in their suits.
On Wednesday, we had a roundtable discussion with the New York group and the priests from their linked parishes that was moderated by Bishop Mhogolo. This gave everyone a chance to share what the experience meant to them and to say goodbye or see you next year, as the case may be. After we had lunch with the priests, we piled into a bus and drove to Morogoro so the New York group could go to Mikumi National Park. Sarah and I were excited because our hotel rooms had large beds (we have twin beds in our apartments) and televisions. We were able to catch up on some news – Russia and Georgia had a war and no one told me! – and watch some South African soap operas on the one English channel available. It might not seem that exciting to anyone else, but we were thrilled.
We drove the New York group to the airport in Dar es Salaam on Friday, August 22nd so they could fly home. It was sad to see them go, as we all enjoyed having them here, but we know that they are going to go back to New York and spread the word about The Carpenter’s Kids program. We hope to see some of them back next summer!
I think if I tried to describe everything that happened during the almost two weeks that the New York group was here, this blog posting might rival War and Peace in terms of length (it may do that anyway!). The one thing that has remained consistent throughout all of these experiences – and really my entire time here in Tanzania - has been the incredible warmth and generosity that has been extended to everyone in our group. It’s really quite amazing.
On Friday August 15th, I went to the parish of Ntyuka which is just outside of Dodoma – about a 20 minute drive or so. Ntyuka is one of the three parishes in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika that is supported by St. Luke’s Church in the Bronx. Pastor Noah and I were the staff members for the group and we went with Donald, Francilla and Corey (all from St. Luke’s) and Brian, Judy and Sue (all from St. Bart’s in Manhattan).We were met about half a mile outside of the village by a group of kids who proceeded to run behind the car as we drove into the village. We were a little concerned that some of them were getting too close to the car and tried to wave at them to not run so close, but really all that did was get them to run faster. We finally got close enough to the priest’s house to get out and walk, which we did and we were greeted by multiple handshakes and karibu’s (welcome) and habari’s (hi/how are you). The priest, Rev. Alfa, greeted us all in English and invited us into his home for breakfast. We had tea and mandaazi, which are kind of like donuts only much, much better.
After we finished breakfast, we went to the church to start the festivities. There were lots of people in the church - the choir, a mother’s group, children of all ages. The music was amazing. To start things off, Rev. Alfa made some remarks and introduced some members of the community who are involved in The Carpenter’s Kids program. Then it was our turn for introductions. Pastor Noah and Frank, one of the translators who was helping us while the New York group was here, ably translated everything into Swahili. After introductions and some parish reports, we all helped Donald, Francilla and Corey unpack the gifts they brought for their Kids and everyone who helps with the program. It was quite the party as things were handed out. Everyone in our group was given gifts as well – everything from bowls made out of sun-dried gourds to necklaces and woven bags. Donald was given the chief’s treatment though and was wrapped in a bright red piece of cloth and given sandals, a staff, a long machete-like knife, a belt and a carving of Joseph leading Mary holding baby Jesus on a donkey. When I can post pictures, I’ll be sure to put up my photo of Donald all decked out in his Ntyuka gear. When the distribution of gifts was over, we took a short stretching break and then went back into the church to have lunch. There was so much food I literally cannot remember everything. There was lots of rice and there were multiple meat options and vegetables- just lots of stuff. We were given our choice of soda – Coke, Sprite or orange Fanta (my personal favorite) and a bottle of water. After lunch we reluctantly said our goodbyes and headed back to Dodoma.
On Saturday August 16th, I went to Chali Isangha, which is the westernmost parish in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. It took a good 2-2.5 hours to get there on some really bumpy dirt roads. Needless to say, we were all thrilled to get out of the Land Cruiser! Chali Isangha seemed more remote than any of the other parishes I’ve been to and I suppose given that it was the furthest I’ve traveled in Tanzania with the exception of the Dar-Dodoma trip that shouldn’t be too surprising. It just really felt like we were far away from anything familiar. Again, though, the welcome was as warm as we’ve come to expect. We arrived in the village a little after 10am and were greeted by Father Alexander and invited into his house for breakfast – tea, mandaazi, and sweet potatoes (white sweet potatoes, not yams).
After breakfast, we walked over to a small clearing sheltered by some trees that provided us with some shade and the festivities began again. Unlike Ntyuka or Mwitikira, Chali Isangha is a parish that is new to The Carpenter’s Kids program and this was the first distribution. You can really see a difference in the way the children who’ve been a part of the program for at least a year act when you see children who are new to the program. These children were very quiet, reluctant to wave or smile back at you. They did sing us a very nice song, though, with the words ‘karibuni wageni wetu, karibuni,’ which means ‘welcome our visitors, welcome.’ The day here was similar to other village visits, but it contained a short description of The Carpenter’s Kids program and a demonstration on how to use mosquito nets. After that, we got to help hand out uniforms, school supplies, mosquito nets and shoes to all of the kids. After each child received their items, they went to change into their new uniforms. We had to help some of the kids tie their shoes because they didn’t know what to do with the laces. Once all of the kids were in their uniforms and shoes, they reassembled for a group photo before we officially broke for the day. They looked wonderful.
Before we went back to Father Alexander’s house for lunch, he took us to their church for a tour. At first I thought that they were in the middle of construction because there are walls, but no roof. However, Father Alexander explained that they had used the wrong kind of soil in the mixture for the bricks and the rain had washed the roof and the upper part of the walls away. There was a small shelter made out of wood that was in the middle of the church, but that was the only thing that would protect anyone from the rain. We took some pictures of some of the Carpenter’s Kids in the church as they’d followed us into the building and were watching us listen to their priest. Then we headed back to Father Alexander’s house for lunch. I have never seem so much cooked rice in one place outside of a restaurant. After a quick bathroom break, we all piled back into the Land Cruiser and began the long journey back to Dodoma.
On Sunday we split up into several different groups to go to church services. I went with the group that went to the Cathedral here in Dodoma. Instead of going to the English service, though, we all got up early and went to the 7:00am Swahili service. It was great! It was actually much more like services at my home church than I thought it would be. It was in Swahili of course, but it still felt like home. We were asked to sit right up front with the choir and the priests and in about the middle of the service we had to introduce ourselves to the entire church – easily about 350-400 people. After the service we headed to Msalato Theological College to have a tour of the campus and have lunch with the staff. Everyone there was wonderful and very happy to have us there. The staff gave Miriam a lovely knitted shawl as a going away present to thank her for her friendship and her work here in Dodoma.
After we finished lunch, we headed to Jubilee High School where 4 groups of Carpenter’s Kids had gathered to participate in a Sports Day. I finally got to meet some of the kids from the Cathedral parish which is linked with my home parish, St. John the Divine in NYC. They were excited to see someone else from their linked parish and were thrilled when I told them that Canon Alan (ask he’s referred to here) and Matthew said to say ‘hello’ to them. Some of the kids were wearing their I (heart) NY t-shirts and New York caps and pointed them out to me several times just to make sure I saw them. We were treated to some great soccer games, netball games and several tug-of-war matches with Willie from The Carpenter’s Kids staff providing commentary over the loudspeaker. Noel and Daudi did a great job serving as referees during all of the matches. Readers from St. John the Divine will be happy to know that the Cathedral boys won a well-played soccer game and the Cathedral girls won the first netball game in the tournament! We headed back home around 5pm so everyone had time to rest before the parish visits started again on Monday morning.
On Monday August 18th, I headed to Mvumi Makulu with Pastor Noah and the St. Bartians, which is the great name for the 5 members of St. Bart’s in the pilgrimage group – Brian, Sue, Judy, Robin and Lucia. St. Bart’s is linked with Mvumi Makulu and supports a group of 100 children there. I got to be a videographer for the day, as I used Brian’s video camera to record the day’s happenings so Brian could be an active part of the day at his parish. After a quick lesson, I was ready (for the most part) to start. We drove the hour or so from Dodoma to Mvumi Makulu through some beautiful country and arrived at Mvumi to see a large group of people waiting for us singing. All 100 of the Carpenter’s Kids were there leading the singing of a song that translates to ‘welcome, welcome our visitors, welcome to Makulu parish.’ Some of the kids were wearing their I (heart) NY t-shirts they’d received from last year’s St. Bart’s group. We stayed outside to listen to the kids for a little while before going into the parish priest’s (Father Ashery) house for breakfast – tea and mandaazi.
After breakfast, we walked around the village to see some of the kids’ homes and meet their guardians. The St. Bartians even tried their hand at making flour for ugali! It was impressive. After we saw several of the kids’ homes – houses made of mud and wood – that were surprisingly cool given the heat of the day, we headed back to the church and started the now familiar pattern of village visits. There were introductions all around, followed by gifts from the parish to all of us, gifts from the St. Bart’s group – including some great gifts that Sue made by hand – and parish reports. The group also brought pencils for all of the non-Carpenter’s Kids children in the village so everyone got something which was really nice. One of my favorite gifts of the day was a beautiful stole for Father Ashery that a member of the St. Bart’s parish had made with an inscription commemorating the day and the partnership between St. Bart’s and Mvumi Makulu. There was lots of singing and dancing, with a group of Carpenter’s Kids giving several performances. As we were waiting for lunch, we got to spend some time with the kids. It was great to see all of the St. Bartians playing with their kids. There were fist bumps, high fives and peace signs all over the place – that goes over really well with kids here. Lucia was even teaching some of the kids a clapping game. It was fun.
We went in to the church to have lunch and were happy to see the Carpenter’s Kids sitting inside having lunch with us. I got a great picture of the St. Bartians with the little girl who led the singing and dancing as well. We were escorted to our car by almost all of the parish Carpenter’s Kids who all wanted to shake hands and say goodbye even if their hands were still covered with the remnants of their lunch. It took awhile, but we finally said goodbye to everyone – I think there were a few kids whose hands I shook at least 5 times, but they kept getting back in line to say goodbye. We headed back to Dodoma with hearts lighter than they were when we arrived.
That evening we had dinner as a group with Bishop Mhogolo and then after dinner those of us on staff here in Dodoma and in New York had a separate meeting with him to discuss the program.
Tuesday, August 19th, was our final day of parish visits with the New York group. I went with Patti Welch, who is the chaplain of the Cathedral School in New York to her linked parish, Ilindi. The parish is linked with the Cathedral School and the 50 Carpenter’s Kids in Ilindi are supported by children at the school in New York. I wasn’t initially scheduled to go to Ilindi, but I asked if I could switch groups because I wanted to be with Patti when she went to her linked parish. Patti is actually the first priest I met at St. John the Divine back in 2005 when I first visited the church before joining the congregation, so I thought it would be great to go with her when she visited Ilindi for the first time.
We arrived in Ilindi a little early, so we sat outside of the chuch and listened to the Mother’s Union and the Carpenter’s Kids sing for awhile before going into the church for a breakfast of tea, chapati (a tortilla-like flatbread) and some dried liver. I did try to liver because I didn’t want to be rude. I only ate one piece – enough to convince me that liver jerky was not really my thing – and gave the rest to Noel who was eating it like candy and happily took it off of my hands. After breakfast, we went to visit 3 of the Carpenter’s Kids’ homes and meet their guardians. Patti had a great time and really connected with the guardians. She had her picture taken with each family and was even given a handmade broom from one of the grandmothers of the kids. One of the most moving moments of the morning for me was meeting the grandfather of one of the kids. His left leg had been amputated above the knee because he’d developed cancer in the late 1960’s. He had to use 2 canes to get around, but he was in the group that met us at the church when we first arrived, he’d gone back home to see welcome us there and went back to the church for the rest of the day. It wasn’t a short walk between the two places either.
When we’d finished our tour, we went back to the church and went through introductions, parish reports and the giving and receiving of gifts. The kids all really liked their Carpenter’s Kids t-shirts, but the best gifts were the pictures the kids in New York had drawn for the kids in Ilindi. Each picture was mounted on a piece of construction paper and each of the 50 kids received one. After the gifts were given, the Carpenter’s Kids sang us several songs and presented Patti with copies of the lyrics that they’d written out. Patti also taught everyone the prayer that they say at the Cathedral School and with the help of Noel, translated it into Swahili so everyone could understand and say it along with her.
We had lunch in the church – again so much food! – and then went outside for some pictures. Patti and I were each given chickens earlier in the day. I held mine for about 4 seconds before they took it to put it in a plastic bag for me. Before we left, Patti and I left our chickens in the care of the priest before we left so he could take care of them until someone else from the Cathedral School visits Ilindi next summer. We arrived back in Dodoma in the late afternoon and had a short time to rest before heading to the farewell dinner during which everyone in the New York group was given a gift from the Carpenter’s Kids staff and each staff member was given a gift from the New York group. I was especially happy because Tyson and David, whom I met when we all went to Mikumi National Park during my first week in Tanzania, were at the dinner too. Their father, Peter, works as a driver for the Diocese and all of our drivers and their families were invited to come. The boys were easily the best dressed attendees and looked sharp in their suits.
On Wednesday, we had a roundtable discussion with the New York group and the priests from their linked parishes that was moderated by Bishop Mhogolo. This gave everyone a chance to share what the experience meant to them and to say goodbye or see you next year, as the case may be. After we had lunch with the priests, we piled into a bus and drove to Morogoro so the New York group could go to Mikumi National Park. Sarah and I were excited because our hotel rooms had large beds (we have twin beds in our apartments) and televisions. We were able to catch up on some news – Russia and Georgia had a war and no one told me! – and watch some South African soap operas on the one English channel available. It might not seem that exciting to anyone else, but we were thrilled.
We drove the New York group to the airport in Dar es Salaam on Friday, August 22nd so they could fly home. It was sad to see them go, as we all enjoyed having them here, but we know that they are going to go back to New York and spread the word about The Carpenter’s Kids program. We hope to see some of them back next summer!
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