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.