The Bishop and Willy

That sounds like it could be the title of a children's book...maybe I'll have to work on that.

Searching for the Bishop

The Diocese of Central Tanganyika covers a large area and has 200 parishes. Bishop Mhogolo travels to every single parish every year to do confirmations. This means that he’s not always close by as he often spends days at a time on the road. Enter a challenge. When we need to make a transfer of US dollars to TZ shillings so we can withdraw funds for everything from health care to funds for Mama Lishes to salaries, we need to have Bishop Mhogolo sign a cheque. When he’s in town or at home in Nala, this generally isn’t too difficult to get accomplished. However, at one point during this year Scott and Noel had to drive to a village about an hour or so away from Dodoma to get a signature. They arrived in the middle of a confirmation service and were invited to go to the front of the church and introduce themselves. They were then invited to stay for the rest of the service and to the post-service lunch. It was only during lunch that they were able to explain to Bishop Mhogolo why they were there. He laughed and signed the cheque. Noel and Scott finished their lunch, thanked everyone, and returned to Dodoma to try and get to the bank before it closed.

Another time, Noel and John Joseph headed to another village to get a cheque signed only to arrive and find out that Bishop had already left and was on his way to the next village on his itinerary (he usually visits two villages a day). They headed to that village and were able to get their cheque signed.

Recently, we needed to get two USD cheques signed and because Scott, Nikki, Daudi, and I had been planning to use the CK vehicle that afternoon, we all went with Noel to the Bishop’s house in Nala to get the cheques signed. When we arrived, Irene (Bishop Mhogolo’s wife) met us outside the house and said that the Bishop was home but he was out planting. The Bishop and Irene have a fairly good-sized home farm and so while we couldn’t see the Bishop, we at least knew the general direction to go to find him. So we headed off to find the Bishop, Irene leading the way and Noel, Scott, Nikki, Daudi, and I following close behind. We walked through the papaya trees, past the rows of grapes, and after walking for a few minutes finally saw the Bishop planting cashews. He knew that Noel had been coming, but was a bit surprised to see the rest of us. We told him that we were Noel’s entourage! Bishop Mhogolo laughed, wiped the mud off of his hands (planting cashews is messy work), and signed our cheques. We chatted for a few minutes and then we headed back to the car and the Bishop returned to his cashews. I can’t quite imagine something like this happening in New York…

Willy’s New House

Willy and his family just moved into their new house in the Chang’ombe neighborhood in Dodoma. They have been living in a small rented house in the same neighborhood for quite awhile, but have been saving their money so they could build their own home. They started to do that earlier this year and now have a lovely new home right across the street from the one they’ve been renting. We visited the house a few times while it was under construction and last week we were invited back for a special house blessing service which was held the day they officially moved in.

Scott, Nikki, Daudi, Pastor Noah, John and I all attended the service – a good showing from the CK office! There were also friends of Willy and his wife Mary from their neighborhood and from their church, Chamwino Mjini. The Reverend Canon Sudayi, parish priest of Chamwino Mjini, led the service, but he asked Pastor Noah to lead parts of it as well. I’d never been to a house blessing before and I think it’s fairly safe to say that I probably won’t go to another one that will be quite like the one at Willy’s house, but I guess you never know! The service opened with a prayer and then continued with a Bible reading and a homily before ending with the singing of “My Jesus I love thee” in Swahili (of course). We did all have to introduce ourselves at one point during the service. Some things never change! After the service ended, we all had dinner together in the sitting room of Willy and Mary’s new home. Willy and Mary’s kids, Tedi, Queeni, Tumaini, Imani, and Elizabeth, are all very excited about their new home (as are Willy and Mary!). We were all delighted to be able to share the special day with them. A real blessing for all of us.



Willy and his family in front of their new home. From left to right: Martha (Willy and Mary's niece), Tumaini, Imani, Mary, Queeni, Elizabeth, Tedi, and Willy

Here are a few more photos just for fun:



Here is Noel pretending to cook dinner. He saw me taking pictures and immediately volunteered to stir...



Sometimes it's hard to get both John Joseph and Willy to smile at the same time for a picture.



See what I mean?!

And because no end-of-the-year post would be complete without pictures of kids, here are two pictures from our distribution in Gawaye:



This little boy was waiting to get his new uniform!



A Carpenter's Kid in chekechea (kindergarten) clutches her zebra socks as she waits to get her new shoes.

And, finally, a Christmas surprise: Videos!



The Carpenter's Kids in Gawaye say hi! (Literally, hello our friends)



The Carpenter's Kids in Mahoma Nyika sing about God's grace as they wait for the supplies for the distribution to be brought into the church.

Distributions, Mini-Golf, and Thanksgiving

- A welcome site on the way back to Dodoma last week. -

I’ve been back in Dodoma for three weeks now and despite the fact that we’re nearing the end of the calendar year, things show no sign of slowing down. We’ve had distributions every weekend and we’ve just decided to implement the program in 3 more villages despite the fact that the rainy season should soon be upon us. I believe we’ll be all finished with distributions by 19 December. Of course, I thought we’d be all finished with distributions by 28 November, so who knows? The exciting thing about the additional distributions is that it means we’ll finish the year with 99 DCT parishes linked and 5,725 children in school!



- Here's John Joseph just as he was heading off to do photos and mesurements in one of the parishes that is farthest away from Dodoma (about 3 hours by Cruiser). John was traveling by motorcycle and decided to be prepared in case it rained on the way. -

In the last three weeks I’ve been on 5 distributions: Hombolo Bwawani, Mahoma Nyika, Mkonze, Makanda and Mchito. I’d been to all of the parishes before except Mahoma Nyika and Mkonze, which are new parishes linked with the Cathedral of St. Phillip in Atlanta, and it was wonderful to go back and see the kids again. They are all doing well and were happy to get their new uniforms, shoes, school supplies, socks and soap.

We had an unexpected delay at Mahoma Nyika. After we finished the distribution, we were invited to lunch at the priest’s house so Pastor Noah decided to move the Cruiser so we didn’t have to walk back to the church after lunch. Well, you know what they say about good intentions…The recent rains had created a rather foul-smelling mud pit and unfortunately the Cruiser got stuck in it. It took over an hour and, at one point, about 15 people from Mahoma Nyika, plus Pastor Noah and Willy to get the Cruiser free, but they managed. Talk about team work! Magi, Margaret (a visitor) and I had been directed to stay out of the way and a bench had been brought from the church so we could sit and watch. Apparently people decided that we wouldn’t really be that much help…fair enough.











Mini-Golf

Magi Griffin (Bp. Mhogolo’s Partnership and Project Advisor) and Martin McCann (Head of DCT Pathology Lab), both appointed missionaries from Atlanta, organized a combination welcome back for me/farewell to Callum, Laura, Scott and Nikki on Saturday, 14 November. It was held at Leone L’Africano which is the pizzeria/mini-golf course here in Dodoma – a favorite place of many of our visitors this year. The course consists of 12 holes which are actually a bit challenging because of the fact that they are made of concrete and the ground is not really flat, so something that you think should be simple is not actually all that simple (especially if you are mini-golf challenged, as I apparently am). Anyway, it was fun to get everyone together in a relaxed environment and have a mini-farewell party for our four Kiwis. Scott and Josh had finally taken their much-talked-about motorcycle trip together and made it back from Kigoma to arrive literally just in time for pizza on Saturday evening. That wasn’t their original plan, but I think they were both pleased with how it turned out!



- Callum gets ready to swing, cheered on by Nikki and Laura. He went on to win the tournament. -

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner this year was quite different from last year when Sarah, Magi and I had Chinese food at the Dodoma Hotel. This year Magi, Peter, Jane, Linda, and I had dinner together at Peter’s house. Jane and Linda, who are from Australia and England respectively, decided that they had been invited so they could learn more about the holiday, though Linda, who is a history teacher, gave a far more detailed description of Thanksgiving that I think I could have. We had chicken instead of turkey because turkey is a bit pricy here and despite a lack of pumpkin pie, it was pretty much like a lot of Thanksgiving dinners I’ve attended in the past. There was one major difference, though: Magi’s ugali turkey! Ugali is a staple of the Tanzanian diet. It’s made from corn flour and when fully cooked kind of looks like a combination of mashed potatoes and homemade playdough and has about the same consistency. Magi said she thinks that she’s found her medium. Ugali. You can see from the pictures below that the finished product was nothing short of a masterpiece and it was really a shame that the unfortunate 'ugalurkey' had to meet its end.



- The great unveiling of the mystery guest. -



- Magi, Peter, and the ugalurkey. -



- The ugalurkey in all its glory! -

Just for fun: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but Jack obviously doesn't work for The Carpenter's Kids!



- All Callum needs now is a white shirt and a backpack! -



- Willy thought that a blanket left over from one of the pilgrimages made a good outfit. Why? Why not? -



- Scott and Callum take five. -



- John Joseph and Willy decided to get in on the photo opp fun, but Scott was too tired to smile. -

A 4-Month Recap

Sunset in Nala












Time. It can fly, it can crawl and it can simply pass by at a leisurely pace. No matter how hard we try to change that, to add extra hours to the work day by forgoing sleep in favor of checking off one more thing on our ‘to-do’ lists or putting one task off for another day or week to prioritize the completion of another task, the minutes, hours and days still pass. We can’t change it. And despite being constantly guilty of wanting to add a minimum of 8 additional hours to the day, I think there’s something comforting in the fact that time simply marches on.

I have to apologize to those of you who have been waiting for an update from Tanzania for several months now. I’ve been deprioritizing updating my blog in favor of getting other work done. That isn’t really fair, but I hope you’ll understand. Below is a brief summary of what’s been going on in the last few months – well, it’s as brief as anything I ever write is and as brief as a summary of four months’ worth of news can be!

Easter

This year I spent Easter at Ipagala parish here in Dodoma. The parish priest is the Reverend Canon Mary Kanyamala who has the distinction of not only being the first female priest in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, but the first female priest in the whole Anglican Church of Tanzania! She’s also the first female Canon and Archdeacon in Tanzania. An amazing woman! Mama Kanyamala invited Magi and me to attend Easter service at her church and to come to her house after the service to have lunch with her family. Needless to say, we were thrilled to receive and accept the invitation. The service took place in her parish’s new church building which doesn’t have a roof yet so we got a fair amount of sun but we had a great time. The service opened with a familiar Easter hymn, Christ the Lord is Risen Today (or Bwana Amefufuka in Swahili) which was sung to the same tune we use back home so Magi and I could sing along fairly easily. It also helped that there weren’t any really long words in the lyrics!

The service was liturgically very similar to Easter services back home but with a few more choir performances. Magi and I had to get up and introduce ourselves (of course!) which was highly entertaining for everyone because Mama Kanyamala insisted that we start off by giving the traditional Easter greeting of Bwana Yesu Amefufuka (the Swahili equivalent of He is Risen). Well, we didn’t quite say it together – the fufu part of amefufuka threw us off, I think we may have said one too many fu’s – and so we started laughing and it kind of came out as amefufu(fu)ka-ha-ha-ha which made everyone laugh. Maybe you had to be there but Magi and I and the 500 or so people at the service thought it was funny.

After the service, we went to the Catechist’s house for tea and then we went to Mama Kanyamala’s house for lunch. We didn’t get home until almost 5pm but I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend the day with new friends. Mama Kanyamala said that I should consider Ipagala to be my home here in Dodoma and that I was welcome back at any time. I’m looking forward to going back again.

Visitors!

The months between March and November are a busy time for The Carpenter’s Kids program. During this time period we go to villages every week to distribute school uniforms, shoes and school supplies – sometimes two villages in a day and sometimes up to five or six – to the children in the program. For obvious reasons, this is also a good time for people who are supporters of the program or are interested in learning more about it to come and visit us. Our first visitors came in April and we’ve had a steady stream of visitors since then.

In April we were visited by people from all over the United States. Rev. Patrick Ward, the Interim Rector at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Granite Springs, NY, arrived in Dodoma on the 15th for a week-long visit. He visited his current parish link of Izava and returned to Ng’hong’hona, linked with St. Mary’s Church In Scarborough, NY where he was previously rector, to participate in the 2009 distribution of uniforms, shoes and school supplies there and preached at their Sunday service. We greatly enjoyed having Rev. Ward here and we look forward to welcoming him back for his 4th visit to Tanzania next year.


Rev. Patrick Ward with the current and retired parish priests of Izava










On Saturday the 18th, the Friends from Colorado (Buck, Darryl, Rick, Scott and Steve) arrived in Dodoma for just under a week. They visited four DCT parishes including Chadulu (where Pastor Noah is parish priest), Chilonwa, Mwitikira and Mleche. The guys endeared themselves to children of all ages in Chilonwa by shouting woohoo at the drop of a hat, giving lots of rides on their shoulders and bumping fists, the local equivalent to a ‘high five.’ They actually did that in all of the parishes they visited, but it was especially evident in Chilonwa that the woohoo sound had caught on. I’m sure the parents, guardians and teachers of the parish will be eternally grateful! :-) The guys said they want to come back next year and bring their families, to which we all say ‘woohoo!’


The Friends from Colorado in Chilonwa










On Friday, 24 April Suzanne Johnson, Roger Whitfield and Amy Millican from the Diocese of Virginia arrived in Dodoma to visit Suzanne and Roger’s link parish, Mwitikira. Suzanne and Amy spent most of their time here in Mwitikira, though they went on two Carpenter’s Kids distributions and took a special trip to Manyoni, the seat of the Diocese of the Rift Valley, so Amy could meet with people there to discuss the possibility of her working in Tanzania. Roger spent his time in Dodoma and Mwitikira working on getting a new water pump sorted out for Mwitikira, so we saw him more often than we saw Suzanne and Amy. Magi, Noel and I went with the Virginia group to the Sunday church service in Mwitikira on April 26th and we enjoyed seeing the very strong friendships that have been built between Suzanne and Roger and the people of Mwitikira.


Suzanne and Roger with Father Erasto in Mwitikira










Language School

In May, I headed off to language school in Iringa (south of Dodoma) with Magi. Despite being in Tanzania for nine months, prior to language school my Swahili left a great deal to be desired. I could only have very basic conversations and buy things at the market. So, we headed off to Iringa for two weeks of language classes. The bus ride to Iringa took about 8 hours, but we made it there suffering from nothing more than a little NBS (numb bum syndrome). Once there, we moved into our tents (the school is located at a campsite) and met our new classmates. The teachers were great and I learned more in the first week of classes than I’d learned in the previous nine months of my time here. In fact, even though we’d only planned to stay for two weeks, Magi and I were having such a good time and learning so much that we decided to stay for a third week. So we were away from our respective offices for a little longer than anticipated, but it was well worth it. I can actually have whole conversations in Swahili now! Very exciting.

More Visitors!

In June we were very happy to welcome Suzanne and Roger back to Dodoma along with some of their fellow St. Paul’s parishioners Cindy and Si Wofford and Natalie Davis. We were also happy to welcome Suzanne’s daughter Rebecca, a pediatrician, to the DCT so she could share the experience of visiting Mwitikira with her mother. It was a special visit for everyone involved. The St. Paul’s crew, sans Roger, went on two distributions with us to Manda and Huzi which are quite a long ways from Dodoma. A good three hours’ drive one way! While in Manda we were all thrilled to meet Willy’s mother as well as distribute new uniforms, shoes and school supplies to the 50 Carpenter’s Kids in the parish.


Willy and his mom!











The St. Paul’s crew also visited several medical facilities to get a better sense of the status of health care in the area. The main purpose of the trip for the St. Paul’s crew was to spend 2 weeks in their link parish of Mwitikira teaching English, which from all reports they all enjoyed a great deal. The group headed to Zanzibar for a little R&R on 23 June, but Suzanne returned to Dodoma on 28 June with Caroline Gottwald and Amy Millican. Amy was on her way back to Manyoni to attend the Diocese of the Rift Valley synod (like a diocesan convention), but we were very happy to see here again and have an opportunity to catch up on what had happened in the month and a half since we’d last seen one another. Suzanne and Caroline headed to Mwitikira to continue teaching English.

While Suzanne, Cindy, Si and Natalie were teaching in Mwitikira, Roger was stuck in Dar es Salaam waiting for the new water pump that St. Paul’s purchased to clear customs. He had a bit of a long wait and ended up spending 12 days in Dar! However, his patience paid off and the pump was delivered to Dodoma and has now been successfully installed in Mwitikira!

In June we also welcomed Leslie Steffensen from St. Andrew’s Church in Burke, VA to Dodoma. Leslie works at the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) and was a missionary here in the DCT several years ago. She is also a big supporter of The Carpenter’s Kids and we were very excited to have her here in Dodoma and thrilled that she was able to participate in the first distribution in Chololo, which is St. Andrew’s new link.

Later in the month, the Very Reverend Dr. Ian Markham, also known as the Dean and President of VTS, visited Dodoma to participate in a conference at Msalato Theological College and deliver the keynote address at Msalato’s graduation ceremony. VTS recently committed to joining The Carpenter’s Kids program and is linked with Mgunga. Rev. Markham was able to attend the first distribution in the parish on 26 June and elicited a great cheer from the parish when he told them he’d like to come back and bring his family. The Very Reverend Rich Martindale, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus, GA, was also in Dodoma for the theological conference and graduation and was able to attend and participate in the distribution in Mgunga as well.


Ian and the Carpenter's Kids from Mgunga










Robin Newman from the Diocese of New York, more specifically St. Martha’s Church in the Bronx, arrived in Dodoma on Friday, 26 June. Robin has been to the DCT several times and we were happy to have her back with us and happy that she could spend some extra time with us before the July pilgrimage, for which she was the administrative lead. On Sunday, 28 June we went to the Msalato Theological College graduation (and got to have a mini-reunion with Ian and Rich) so Robin could attend the event on behalf of Bishop Roskam. The diocesan (EDNY) Global Women’s Fund has supported a theology student named Tumaini (Hope) during her years studying for a degree in Applied Theology at Msalato, so it was a very special for her to have a representative from New York attend the graduation. In the weeks that followed the graduation ceremony, Robin spent lots of time with the Carpenter’s Kids staff and helped prepare for the arrival of our NY and UK pilgrims.

On 29 June Danielle Tirello Givens, the Program Associate for Africa and the Middle East from Episcopal Relief and Development, arrived in Dodoma to spend time with The Carpenter’s Kids program and the DCT Development Department both of which are supported by ERD. On Thursday 2 July we took Danielle to Chitelela which is a CK parish and it is also one of the two parishes in which we are launching a community health care education program. The visit allowed Danielle to get a sense of how the Carpenter’s Kids program is going in Chitelela and also to learn more about the parish’s health care needs and their hopes for the health care education program. On Friday we spent a day learning about monitoring and evaluation techniques and getting Danielle’s advice on the best way to move forward with that for our overall education program and for the community health care education program.

In July, a group from St. David’s Episcopal Church in Roswell, GA and Solar Lights for Africa arrived in Dodoma to install solar panels on the dining hall and library at Msalato Theological College. They also wanted to participate in a Carpenter’s Kids distribution and so on Saturday, 11 July they traveled to Dabalo with us. Dabalo is a good two hour drive away from Dodoma on roads that if you called them rough it would be an enormous understatement. The group then headed out to Msalato and installed 10 solar panels in 4 days! Not an easy feat. The results will allow Msalato to save money on their electricity bills and have a more reliable power supply!


Allison from St. David's with new friends in Dabalo










On 14 July we welcomed what I like to call our super-transatlantic pilgrimage. I’m the only one who likes to call it that, but I’ve accepted that. The Diocese of New York has pilgrimages in July and August of each year and this year Pam Stone, Fran Jenkins and John Teare, who are all from England and are affectionately known as the UK3, joined the July group. Though their churches are not linked with DCT parishes, they support our health care (urgent care) program and we were very happy to have them here in the DCT to visit parishes and meet many Carpenter’s Kids who’ve benefited from the program. Together with Robin Newman and Deacon Eliza Davies from St. Martha’s Church, Bronx, Marsha Nelson, the Head of the Cathedral School, Kate Ross, a student at the Cathedral School and her father David Ross, Ruth Anne Cary and the Reverend Elizabeth Garnsey from the Church of the Heavenly Rest, Manhattan, the Reverend Duncan Burns from St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingston and Christina Hing from the Church of the Good Shepherd, Manhattan, they made up our 12-person group.


L-R: Bishop Mhogolo, John, Christina, Pam, Ruth Anne, Robin, Pastor Noah, Elizabeth, Duncan, Eliza, Fran, Marsha and Brian



In just four days the group visited nine DCT parishes, all but one of which are linked with the home parishes of the pilgrims. They also toured two DCT-run schools and a government primary school, attended the confirmation service at the Cathedral in Dodoma, toured Msalato Theological College, had dinner at Bishop Mhogolo’s house and went on a day safari at Mikumi National Park. All of this in less than two weeks! I hope they’re all taking a well-deserved break back home. We look forward to seeing them back in the DCT in the future. Check out www.thecarpenterskids.org in the next week to read more about the July Pilgrims’ adventures in our July newsletter.

Looking Ahead

In August, we’ll be welcoming a group of 18 pilgrims from New York. We’re very excited to have so many people come to visit The Carpenter’s Kids. I’ll have to write more about their trip after they’ve actually been here!

In September, Suzanne Johnson will be back for her third trip to the DCT this year and will bring another group of Virginians with her. I won’t be here for that trip, so be sure to check out the September Carpenter’s Kids newsletter to read about their time here in the Diocese.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a Carpenter’s Kids distribution

Anyone who’s been on a Carpenter’s Kids distribution knows that they’re generally all-day affairs (with a good portion of the day spent in a Land Cruiser). When we leave at 8:00am we generally don’t get back home until 4:00pm-ish…emphasis on the –ish. So, that’s why Sarah and I would randomly look at each other on Saturday, March 14th (when we had not one but two distributions) and laugh and shake our heads in amazement. We left Dodoma at 8:05am and got back at 1:35pm. While it’s true that the two parishes we visited, Iringa Mvumi and Mvumi Makulu, are closer to Dodoma than most, 40-50 kilometers away, we were finished so quickly that I still can’t quite believe it.

As with so many situations here, some background information would undoubtedly be helpful. First of all, the promised Land Cruiser roof rack update: we did end up getting a new roof rack and this one’s not made out of aluminum! We didn’t actually use it this week, though. The wife of Bishop Madinda, the bishop of the Diocese of Central Tanganyika before Bishop Mhogolo, passed away this week. She lived in Morogoro, about 300+ kilometers from Dodoma. Her funeral was to be held in Dodoma and she was to be buried in the Cathedral grounds, also in Dodoma. As the funeral was being planned, the diocesan administration asked Pastor Noah if they could use the Land Cruiser to bring Mama Madinda’s body home from Morogoro as it was the only vehicle that was large enough to hold the coffin. Pastor Noah asked all of us if we thought that it was ok to use the Cruiser for this purpose and we all agreed that it was fine, so John Joseph got to drive to Morogoro on Thursday afternoon. Willy ended up going with John so he didn’t have to drive by himself.

Pastor Noah told us that John Joseph and the Cruiser would be back on Friday evening, so we didn’t really think anything more about it. At about 6:45am on Saturday morning, I heard an engine start and a vehicle drive off. I figured it was John Joseph and Willy taking the Cruiser to MacKay House to load for the distributions. At 8:00am, I heard a car engine again and looked out the window. Instead of seeing our Land Cruiser loaded with everything we were taking with us, I saw our Prado loaded instead. The Prado is smaller than the Cruiser, but it’s actually much more comfortable to ride in as all of the seats face forward and not sideways. However, considering the amount of stuff we were taking with us, I was a bit surprised that we were taking a smaller vehicle. It turned out that the Cruiser was still needed for the funeral, so that’s why we were taking the Prado. It was more than capable to holding everything that we needed to bring with us; however, it was a good thing that there were only four of us going on the distributions: Pastor Noah, Willy, Sarah and me.

Pastor Noah, Willy and I got into the Prado and set off for Sarah’s compound to pick her up and then headed out of town on the Mvumi road. Before I go any further, it’s important for you to know that it was raining. Pouring, actually. On any other day I’ve been thrilled as the rain makes things much cooler, but it really doesn’t make driving on dirt roads much fun. It’s also not the best weather for driving in when you have boxes and bags of supplies loaded on the roof covered by a thin tarp…

As we drove out to Mvumi, I looked out the window and marveled at the difference rain makes. The landscape that I remembered being dry and brown was incredibly green as we made our way to Mvumi Makulu. When we do more than one distribution in a day we always go to the parish that is the farthest away first. Today was no different, we were planning to start in Iringa Mvumi and then go back to Mvumi Makulu. However, since the Prado was so full, we stopped at Mvumi Makulu and unloaded their supplies first. Unloading 50 boxes of soap and 100 kids’ worth of uniforms, shoes, school supplies and socks eased the strain on the Prado considerably. Because it was still raining and the roads were full of puddles, we took the long way to Iringa Mvumi. I’ve never taken the ‘short route’ to Iringa Mvumi, but I would hope that it’s faster. We definitely got a scenic tour of the Mvumi region!

We arrived in Iringa Mvumi and were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of Carpenter’s Kids and guardians. Everyone assisted with the unloading of the Prado - everyone that is except Sarah and me. As soon as I tried to unload something from the vehicle, it was taken from my hands by a member of Iringa Mvumi parish. I tried about three times and then gave up and watched. Pastor Noah just laughed and ushered me into the church. The parish priest greeted everyone and then introduced Pastor Noah. As he spoke, I could get bits and pieces of what he was saying. He told everyone that Mama Madinda had passed away and that we’d have to do the distribution quickly so he could get back to Dodoma for the funeral. Then Sarah, Willy and I introduced ourselves and then we got the distribution started. I kid you not; we were done in an hour. Now, part of the reason we were finished so quickly was that the children didn’t go change into their uniforms after they’d received them. Apparently, there is not a place near the church that the kids can use to change. Or maybe there is and they just didn’t want to get wet. I’m not sure. Anyway, once all the kids had their uniforms, school supplies, socks and soap, we distributed the shoes and took our leave. I was able to tell everyone that two members of their link parish in New York would be visiting them in August, so I didn’t feel as bad that we weren’t staying long.

As we got into the Prado to head back to Mvumi Makulu for their distribution, the parish committee came up to the driver’s window and handed us some chapati and a bowl of meat of some kind. They’d prepared tea for us as well, but we couldn’t take it with us. This only served to make Sarah and I feel a bit guilty that we had to leave right after the distribution, but everyone seemed to understand. Sarah and I decided that we’d probably just experienced the only Tanzanian version of a ‘drive through’ that we know of.

The rain hadn’t let up at all, so we took the long way back to Mvumi Makulu. Pastor Noah said that we had to do this or we’d just end up getting stuck somewhere. At one point, as we approached a large puddle (seriously it looked like a small lake), Pastor Noah glanced back at Sarah and I and said ‘Be prepared.’ We looked at each other and laughed as Pastor Noah put the Prado into gear and powered through the puddle. This prompted Sarah to break out into song. Which song, you ask? Fans of The Lion King will recognize it: ‘Be prepared.’ Appropriate.

We made it back to Mvumi Makulu with no trouble and walked into the church to find that the distribution was already in progress. When we’d unloaded the supplies for Mvumi Makulu earlier I’d heard Pastor Noah explaining that the kids got 5 pairs of socks and 5 bars of soap in addition to the uniforms, shoes and school supplies. I’d obviously missed the part where he’d suggested that they start the distribution as soon as all of the kids arrived. Sarah went about taking pictures of the photo gallery for St. Bart’s in Manhattan, Mvumi Makulu’s link parish, and Willy and I helped distribute everything as best we could. Once all of the kids had their uniforms, shoes, supplies and soap, Pastor Noah explained that the reason the distribution was a bit unorthodox was that we had to get back to Dodoma for a funeral. Of course we still had to introduce ourselves – some things never change! I was able to share some messages from a few members of St. Bart’s who’d been to Mvumi Makulu last August which made everyone very happy. They were even happier to hear that there are going to be two groups of visitors from St. Bart’s coming in July and August.

As soon as I finished reading the messages from St. Bart’s we said our goodbyes and headed back to Dodoma. We pulled into Sarah’s compound at 1:35pm, about 2-3 hours earlier than expected. The funeral had started at 12:00pm so Pastor Noah was a bit late, but we found out later that he was still able to be there for the majority of the service. It didn’t end until after 5:00pm.

Have soap will travel

We set off for Zejele and Mbabala a bit later than we anticipated. To understand why, takes a bit of background information. Most parishes in the program have a group of 50 kids that are supported by their link parish in the US. So that means we take a large bag of 50 pairs of shoes, a bag of 50 uniforms and several boxes full of backpacks of school supplies that have been sorted by grade level. It’s not a small amount of stuff. When you consider that we usually have 2 parishes worth of uniforms, shoes and school supplies, things can get crowded quickly. That is especially the case when we also have a year’s worth of socks and soap to distribute in addition to the uniforms, shoes and school supplies.

The socks don’t really take up a lot of space, but the soap does because the ‘bars’ are about 1.5 – 2 feet long. A year’s worth of socks and soap is 5 pairs of socks and 5 bars of soap. So, for a parish of 50 kids we need 250 bars of soap which is an additional 25 boxes to add to our already packed Land Cruiser.

For our trip to Zejele and Mbabala, parishes that are both larger than the usual 50 kids, we had a total of 59 boxes of soap. It was so much soap that Willy and John Joseph decided that they didn’t want to go pick up the soap and carry it up to the Carpenter’s Kids office on the third floor of MacKay House only to have to carry it back downstairs on Saturday morning when they loaded the rest of the supplies into the Land Cruiser. Fair enough, Sarah and I don't even like having to drag ourselves up those stairs let alone carry other stuff with us...

So, on Friday afternoon Willy and John Joseph took the Cruiser to the shop where Willy had purchased the soap and loaded it into the back of the Cruiser. When they got back to MacKay House, John Joseph started to bind the boxes together in groups of 8 using some twine so it could be loaded onto the top of the Cruiser easier.



At about 4:15pm, after most of the soap had been loaded on the top of the Cruiser and the rest had been packed under the benches in the back of the Cruiser, Callum, Sarah and I hopped into the Cruiser to go pick up Scott at the bus station. As we headed to the bus station, we could hear a loud banging noise coming from the roof of the Cruiser. We figured it was the roof rack hitting the top of the vehicle. After we’d picked up Scott and then dropped him and Sarah off at their compound, Callum and I headed back to MacKay House to talk to John Joseph and Willy about the roof rack (which is made out of aluminum and was bending under the weight of about 35 boxes of soap).

At MacKay House, Callum explained the situation to John Joseph and Willy and then the three of them got in to take the Cruiser on a drive around the block so John Joseph and Willy could hear the sound that the roof rack was making. After they got back, they both shook their heads and said that it was not good. We decided that we could just take the soap that we were able to fit under the benches of the Cruiser (enough for 2 bars per child) and then, as both Zejele and Mbabala are on the same road as some of our other parishes, take the rest of the soap when we were in the area again. Willy and John Joseph said that Callum and I shouldn’t worry about the soap and that they’d deal with unloading it on Saturday morning when they were loading the shoes, uniforms and school supplies.

So our 8:00am departure time on Saturday came and went with no sign of the Cruiser or any of our fellow staff members also going to Zejele and Mbabala (John, John Joseph, Willy and Noel) at Callum and my housing compound. Finally at about 8:35, we heard the low rumbling of the Cruiser’s engine as it came through the gate of the compound. We headed out to get into the vehicle and saw that the soap was no longer on the roof and that the shoes and uniforms had taken its place. As we got to the back door to climb into the Cruiser, we found the soap: it was in the back of the Cruiser (all 59 boxes!) along with the boxes of school supplies for both parishes. Willy and John Joseph had figured out a way to pack it all into the Cruiser. It made for a slightly cramped trip to our first parish of the day, but it ended up being worth it.

After picking up Sarah, whose eyes got very big when she saw how much stuff was in the back of the Cruiser, we headed off to Zejele and arrived at just after 10:00am. As usual, everyone was very gracious and welcoming and we were invited to have tea and chapati in the home of the Carpenter’s Kids Committee Chairman. As we walked from the church to the house, we could see that the rainfall this year has left a great deal to be desired. The leaves on the corn had started to brown and the sunflowers were drooping from lack of water. John informed us that there is no water source in the parish of Zejele. People have to walk or bicycle to another village to get water. That water is a murky brown color and as I used it to wash my hands, I tried to imagine drinking it.

After we’d finished our tea and chapati, we headed back to the church to distribute the uniforms, shoes, school supplies, socks and soap. When John announced that each child would be receiving 5 pairs of socks and 5 bars of soap the applause from everyone in the church was thunderous. It made me very glad that Willy and John Joseph had decided to pack all of the soap even though the ride up to Zejele was less than comfortable.

The distribution itself went very quickly as we all knew exactly what to do and had our own little assembly line going. After the distribution and the group photos of the kids, their parents/guardians and the parish committee, we were again invited to the Committee Chair’s home, for lunch this time.

After eating far more food than we should have - this is after we all put about 1/3 of the rice we were originally given back into a large bowl – we set off for Mbabala to do the second distribution of the day. It was significantly less crowded in the Cruiser on the way to Mbabala which made the ride more pleasant. We arrived in Mbabala to find everyone already assembled for the distribution and waiting for us. Once again I was struck by how excited everyone was when John told the kids that they’d be getting 5 pairs of socks and 5 bars of soap. John was very happy with our work today as we got the actual distribution of uniforms, supplies, socks, soap and shoes done in a very organized and efficient manner.

As Sarah and Willy got all of the kids to pose for group photos, Noel and Callum went about some important business: buying some chickens. Callum and Scott have their own mini ‘shamba’ (farm) up at the CAMS upper housing compound where Sarah and Scott live and where Scott and Callum keep some chickens and a rooster. So, Callum and Scott have decided that they want to try to stock their shamba by purchasing a chicken every weekend from one of the CK parishes. We’ll see how long they decide to keep this up...

As Noel went to see a man about a chicken, the rest of us were shown to the priest’s house for, you guessed it, lunch. Tanzanian hospitality is amazing for lack of a better word and so despite the fact that the crops didn’t appear to be doing well in Mbabala either, we were invited to a generous lunch with the parish priest. Noel made it back in plenty of time to join us and we all ate a second lunch of rice, greens and meat. After we’d finished, we went outside climb back into the Land Cruiser and met our newest traveling companions: two roosters and a hen. The two roosters made the trip home interesting as they attempted to fight with one another in the confines of the cardboard box they were in for most of the way home. It would be quiet for a few minutes and then there’d be a squawk a small cloud of dust/dirt would fly into the air, and the box would move. Good times.

We arrived back in Dodoma and inspected the damage to the roof rack. It’s seen better days. The aluminum version is obviously more of a decoration than anything else. We’ll need to get a new one as soon as possible as one of the parishes we’re visiting next week has 100 Carpenter’s Kids and we’ll need 50 boxes of soap for that parish alone. Stay tuned!

The Carpenter's Kids of Zejele




The Carpenter's Kids of Mbabala

Stone Town and the Road to Bwejuu

December 23rd, our first full day in Zanzibar, started very early. 4:51am to be exact. We didn’t mean to wake up that early, but it was hard not to wake up when the call to prayer from the nearest mosque began. It literally sounded as though the man calling everyone to pray was standing in our room. He wasn’t, of course, but it sounded like it. Sarah and I looked at each other, waited for the call to prayer to be over and went back to sleep for another three hours.

We finally got up and had breakfast at our hotel’s rooftop restaurant before setting off to explore Stone Town for the day. We spent most of the day shopping. I won’t go into too much detail about that because this post would be ridiculously long if I did. Let’s just say that the stores in Stone Town are definitely designed to appeal to tourists. They are huge and have lots of stuff in them. We’d gotten used to shopping in Dodoma and found the stores in Stone Town with all of their choices to be a bit overwhelming. There were even stores that accepted credit cards. You can’t pay for anything with a credit card in Dodoma. I’m serious, there is not one place that accepts cards. We found at least 5 places on the same street in Stone Town.
Another thing that stood out was the sheer number of tourists. It was a bit mindboggling. We’ve gotten used to being the only non-Tanzanians when we walk down the streets or walk into a store. Not in Stone Town. There you could go to a restaurant or a shop and the only Tanzanians would be the ones who worked there. It was pretty odd.

We had lunch at a great place called the Stone Town Café. We liked it so much that we had lunch there every day we were in Stone Town and even stopped by on our way back to Dar es Salaam on December 29th. After lunch, we decided to go to the Anglican Cathedral to find out when the English Christmas service would be and to take a tour of the Cathedral and the grounds.

The Anglican Cathedral in Stone Town is built on the site of an old slave market. When the market was still running, there were 17 slave caves where thousands of men, women and children were imprisoned as they waited to be sold to slave ship captains who would take them to various places around the world. Only two of the 17 original rooms are still in existence today. The others have been destroyed. It was a bit jarring to go on the tour, as you might expect. We bought our tickets and followed our guide into a building that is now part of the hostel that the Cathedral runs. We went down some stairs and turned a corner and found ourselves in a room where 75 women and children were kept as they waited to be put up for sale. The room was not big at all. It was dark and musty, despite the three small windows, two of which were added after the market was no longer operational. The room had a raised platform about three and a half feet tall that went around the perimeter of the room leaving a small area in the middle. As we sat on the edge of the platform, our guide explained that we were sitting on the same place that the women and children who were kept in the room sat and slept. Our feet were hanging in the part of the room that served as the toilet.

After he’d given us some background information on the slave trade and we’d looked in a room across the hall where 50 men were kept while they waited to be sold to slavers, we went back outside to look at a memorial. The memorial consisted of five statues of people with chains around their necks. The chain and collars used in the memorial were actually used on people who’d been imprisoned in the caves on the Cathedral grounds. Our final stop on the tour was the Cathedral itself. It’s an impressive building in its own right, but its history and what’s been done to commemorate that history is quite moving. Our guide gave us a short history of the Cathedral and of the religious make up of Zanzibar. The island is 96% Muslim and 4% Christian. There are 15 mosques in Stone Town and 2 churches, one Anglican and the other Catholic.

The history of the Cathedral grounds permeates the interior of the Cathedral as well. There’s a cross in the Cathedral that was carved out of the tree under which Livingstone’s heart was buried in Zambia. Given Livingstone’s abhorrence of slavery, that seems entirely appropriate. What was the most striking and moving for me though was actually a small circle of white marble in the floor directly in front of the altar. The circle marks the spot where a tree that was used as a whipping post used to stand. Slaves were tied to the tree and whipped to see how strong they were. If a slave could be whipped and get up on their own, their price went up. If they were not able to get up, their price went down. The white marble circle is surrounded by red marble to symbolize the blood of the slaves. Imagine having that history present with you every time you went to church.

After we finished our tour, we made our way back to our hotel to wait for our friends to arrive. Maaike and Lianne, who both teach at the Dodoma Deaf School, Leane and Jo, who both teach at CAMS, and Josiah (Leane’s son) and Gwen (Jo’s daughter), who were both visiting for the holidays, arrived at about 6:45 and checked into their rooms at the Garden Lodge. After they’d had a chance to shower and rest a bit, we headed off to Livingstone’s, a beachside restaurant, for dinner. After dinner, Leane took us to an alley where there are about 20 tables of seafood shish kabobs set up. You can order any of them and they’ll be cooked for you on a little charcoal grill. We’d just eaten, so all we did was look, much to the disappointment of all the vendors. It was quite late when we were finished looking, so we caught a taxi back to our hotel.

On the 24th, Leane, Jo, Josiah and Gwen headed off to Paje (a beach on the eastern coast of Zanzibar) and Sarah, Maaike, Lianne and I stayed in Stone Town to explore. We took a small boat out to Prison Island to see the old prison and the enormous population of tortoises. I should say here that I had a bit of trouble getting out of the boat when we arrived at the island. The boats pull up to the shore, but not so that they’re on the ground. You still have to wade through a bit of water to get to the sand which means that the boats go up and down with the tide. There are obviously times when multitasking is not something I do well and trying to climb out of a boat that is going up and down in the waves while trying to hold up my skirt so it doesn’t get wet was definitely one of those times. The left side of my skirt and my t-shirt got a bit of a soaking much to the amusement of Sarah, Maaike and Lianne-I think Sarah enjoyed it the most. Actually, I know that Sarah enjoyed it the most!

The prison itself was rather unremarkable. The tortoises were another story, though. After we bought our tickets, we were each given a handful of some kind of vegetation to feed to the tortoises. They were only too happy to come right over and eat everything we gave them. We walked around the enclosure alternately feeding and watching the tortoises – and taking lots of pictures of course! Sarah’s green skirt was very popular with the tortoises. Several of them tried to bite it because it was about the same color as the vegetation we were feeding them. None of them had any luck, although one came close. After we’d looked at the tortoises, we went down to the beach to wait for our boat to come back.

I didn’t have any trouble getting on the boat, but getting off once we were back in Stone Town was another story. This time it wasn’t my fault though! Our boat driver, captain I guess, had obviously seen that I had some trouble getting out of the boat the last time. So, he decided that he was going to help me. I was actually doing pretty well climbing down the short ladder despite feeling very unsteady due to the waves when he tried to help me off the ladder. This caused me to slip and drop the hem of my skirt into the water and get wet again - much to Sarah’s entertainment. We walked back to our hotel so I could shower and change and so Maaike, who’d gone swimming by choice at Prison Island, could do the same. Then we went to lunch at our favorite café and spent the rest of the day wandering around the shops to Maaike and Lianne could see them. We decided to have dinner at the same restaurant that we’d gone to the night before. This time we didn’t have a reservation, but the waiter we’d had the night before actually bumped some people from a table for us. As we sat on the beach listening to the waves, none of us could really believe that it was actually Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day began the same way that our other two morning in Stone Town did-with the call to prayer from the local mosque. We got up, though not at 5:00am, and went to the English service at the Cathedral. We thought that we’d get to sit in the main sanctuary for the service, but that was not to be. We were stuffed into a side chapel instead. The chapel filled up quickly and our pew which comfortably sat five ended up with seven people on it for most of the service. We used the Church of England liturgy and sang familiar Christmas hymns, but it just wasn’t the same as being home.

After the service we had some time before our taxi was supposed to come, so we stopped at an ATM to get cash for our stay in Bwejuu (no ATMs there) and stopped at the Stone Town Café to get something to drink-did I mention that we liked that place? We went back to the hotel, picked up our bags and set off for our hotel in Bwejuu on the eastern coast of the island. On the way, we stopped in the Jozani forest to look at the Red Colobus Monkeys. It was pretty amazing. They are not shy at all and we were able to get really close to them. The only challenges proved to be not stepping in monkey poo and not getting peed on. I’m happy to say that I was able to avoid both of those things!

You’ll have to wait to hear about the Bwejuu stay and the Dar es Salaam adventure another time!

Off to Zanzibar…

Despite the fact that I was looking forward to going on vacation, I have to say that I wasn’t really looking forward to the beginning of it. Why you ask, well in order to get to Zanzibar I had to spend 7 hours on a bus and another 2 plus hours on a ferry boat. All in the same day. Not really all that fun.

Sarah and I left Dodoma on 22 December on the 7:00am bus to Dar es Salaam. We chose to leave that early for two main reasons: 1) it wouldn’t be as hot if we left early in the day and 2) we wanted to make the last ferry to Zanzibar. The bus ride itself was rather uneventful. We both read for most of it. The only really noteworthy thing was our stop in Morogoro, the unofficial halfway point between Dodoma and Dar es Salaam. The last time I made the bus trip, there were a lot of women on the bus and so the line for the bathroom was long. This time, there were significantly more men on the bus and so the wait for the restroom was minimal and we were soon back on the bus again. Once we left Morogoro, it started to get warm. By the time we reached Dar es Salaam and hit the inevitable traffic jam, Sarah and I were both sweating a lot, but the adventure was just beginning.

We had sent a text message to Frank, the taxi driver who picked us up in August when we arrived from the US, to see if he could meet us at the bus station. He didn’t respond, so I sent another text. Still nothing. I finally called him and it turned out that he was not going to be able to meet us. However, he sent his younger brother Allan to pick us up. So far, so good. We needed to make a stop at Luther House Hostel, which is near the ferry terminal, to see if we could book some rooms for our return trip to Dar at the end of December. As we were making our way to the hostel, Allan told us that he had a friend who worked for the Zanzibar ferries office and said that it would be good to have him meet us at Luther House and then go with us to get our tickets. Never having purchased ferry tickets we agreed, even though we thought it seemed a bit sketchy.

We made it to Luther House, but they didn’t have enough room for us. As we waited for Allan’s friend to arrive so we could go to the ferry terminal, we learned that Allan had to be somewhere else so he’d called a friend of his to take us to the ferry. Our new driver and the ferry guy arrived at about the same time and we transferred our bags from one car to the other and headed off to the terminal. Once we were there, we got to wait in the hot sun while a guy who worked with Allan’s friend took our money and the photocopies of our residence permits to go get our tickets. We ended up paying for first class tickets, which came out to 60,000TSH for the round trip. They kept trying to tell us that we’d gotten some sort of a deal, but by that point we didn’t really care. We just wanted to get on the ferry. We were told that our tickets were for the 3:30 ferry and so we had to hurry to get in line. An old man took our bags and off we went. I should admit at this point that neither Sarah nor I are light packers, so it was actually quite impressive that the man was able to carry both of our bags with no trouble. It was actually a bit difficult for us to keep up with him.

We made it to the line with no problem. The old man pushed his way to the front and left our bags at the front of the line. We were stuck about halfway back. We waited for the passengers to get off of the ferry which had just arrived from Zanzibar and was definitely not leaving at 3:30. I think we started boarding at 3:30, but the boat didn’t leave port until at least 4:00. When we were finally reunited with our bags, the old man showed up again and took them down to the boat for us. The bags sat on the main deck of the boat and we were directed up to the first class cabin, which was just up a short flight of stairs. Sarah and I gratefully sank into some relatively comfortable chairs and enjoyed the air conditioning. The ride itself was a bit bumpy, but otherwise just fine. They did hand out sick bags just in case anyone needed them. We spent most of the trip watching the movie ‘The Fugitive’ and wondering why they chose that particular movie to show.

After about two and a half hours, we arrived in Zanzibar. A porter grabbed our bags and we went up to the customs window. There was already a long line to go through the port, but when a customs official would have directed us to the end of that line we pulled out our residence permits and were able to bypass the line completely. We found a taxi driver and set off to our Stone Town hotel, the Garden Lodge. We checked in and got up to our room at 6:40pm-12 hours and 25 minutes after we’d left our apartments that morning.

We went to dinner at a restaurant called Spices Rendezvous which was about 2 blocks from our hotel. The name sounds French, but the food was not. It was an Indian restaurant that had been previously called Maharaja, though why it was renamed is anyone’s guess. After dinner we headed back to our hotel and tried to stay cool for the rest of the evening.