DCT Synod

One of the unexpected things that I’ve done recently was attend the DCT Synod. For the Episcopalians in the reading crowd, this is essentially like a diocesan convention. It’s supposed to happen every three years, but it had been five years since the last DCT Synod took place. We were given some time to talk about The Carpenter’s Kids at this year’s synod, so we all piled into our Land Cruiser (seriously, the entire staff: John, Noel, Mmoti, Daudi, Callum, Sarah, John Joseph and me-Pastor Noah was already there) on Wednesday, 17 September and made the hour-long drive to Mvumi Secondary School. If anyone from St. Bart’s reads this, it’s about 15 minutes past Mvumi Makulu.

We didn’t know what time our presentation would be, so we decided to leave at 4pm so that we’d arrive around 5, thinking that maybe we’d get to talk to everyone before they had dinner. When we pulled up to the gates of the school grounds, we were greeted by several people we knew, including Noel’s father George who’s the head of Uwaze (the men’s department of the diocese). We parked the vehicle and got out so Callum could change from his shorts to some long pants-more appropriate attire for a diocesan conference – which the rest of the guys on staff thought was hilarious and made a point of oo-ing and ah-ing when Callum emerged from the Land Cruiser.

We saw Pastor Noah relatively soon after we arrived and he said that we needed to wait for awhile because there were meetings still going on. So, we decided to walk around the campus for a bit. Daudi actually attended secondary school at Mvumi, so we had an expert tour guide. The priests were all staying in the school’s dormitories, so we ended up running into people we knew as we were walking around. Sarah and I saw several priests we’d met during the month and a half or so we’d been in Tanzania. They seemed quite surprised that we remembered them. We saw Mmoti’s father, the parish priest at Chamwino, and chatted with him for awhile. He speaks English very well, so that made saying more than just a few sentences much easier!

After we’d seen the entire school, we found out that we were given ten minutes to talk to the entire group later in the evening at about 8:00pm. So, we decided to wait around until then. Since we had several hours to wait, we decided to do some exploring and drove to a nearby development center to look at the grounds. For the Montanans reading this, the development center is run by Fr. John Nauman who was formerly the rector at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Billings. He wasn’t there, but we were able to look around and get a sense of what kind of work goes on at the center. There was an impressive drip irrigation system set up and there were some vineyards and fruit trees as well.

After we’d wandered around a bit, we drove back to the Mvumi campus and had dinner at a local restaurant. Our only choices for dinner were beans and rice or chips mayai. Beans and rice is fairly self explanatory, but I think chips mayai deserves a bit of an explanation. It’s quite popular here in Tanzania and it consists of a plate of French fries with an omelette on top. I’ve seen it with the fries actually cooked into the omelette as well. At this restaurant people who ordered chips mayai were given toothpicks to eat with. We finished our meal with some hot tea that tasted like it contained equal parts of tea and sugar.
Once we’d finished dinner, we walked over to the large hall where the evening meeting was to take place. We greeted Bishop Mhogolo, who was setting up the computer and projector, and took our seats. It took another 45 minutes or so for everyone to file into the building, but once they were all in there were over 600 people there. The Bishop made some remarks and then turned the floor over to Pastor Noah who gave a brief report about recent happenings in The Carpenter’s Kids before having each staff member get up and introduce themselves - in Swahili of course. Members of the congregations at St. John the Divine in New York and St. John the Baptist in Seattle will be happy to know that you all sent greetings to the DCT Synod this year.

I’ve gotten used to giving my little introduction in Swahili, but I find it rather nerve-wracking to say it into a microphone. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I know everyone will hear me if I use a microphone. After we’d all introduced ourselves, the Bishop said a few words about The Carpenter’s Kids program. An hour later, our “ten minute” presentation was over and we all got back in the car to go home. Sarah and I were the first to be dropped off and we got home at about 10:45pm. John Joseph dropped everyone else off at home and didn’t get home himself until midnight. It was a rather different timeline than we’d been expecting, but a worthwhile adventure nonetheless!