Our visitor season officially began in May when Buck Blanchard, the Director of Mission and Outreach for the Diocese of Virginia, and a group from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ivy, VA came to visit us. They spent almost a week in the DCT visiting Nzali, which is the parish with which their church is linked, and really had an opportunity to get to know their new friends and learn about the joys and challenges of life in Nzali.
Carolyn, Sarah, Chris, David, Miller, Carol, and Debbie with the Carpenter's Kids from Nzali.
One of my favorite moments was watching the group play, you guessed it, head, shoulders, knees, and toes with the kindergarteners at Nzali Primary School. After the kids learned the English version, they (with a little help from Noel) demonstrated the Swahili version for the St. Paul’s folks.
Not quite two weeks after the St. Paul’s, Ivy folks went back to the US, we welcomed Buck back to Dodoma for the 3rd time in 2010! This time he was accompanied by the Browner and Gottwald families. During their visit, the two families visited Mphangwe, Chadulu, and Chonde parishes and helped paint some classrooms at the Mphangwe Primary School. They also played the hokey pokey with a large group of kids and adults and introduced American football to the parish.
Christine, Jack, and Kaki make some new friends at Mphangwe Primary School.
Kimmee, Kim, Jack, and Hays show the kids in Mphangwe how to play American football.
Buck and John watch the hokey pokey action from a safe distance.
Suzanne Johnson, the CK Coordinator from the Diocese of Virginia, also returned to the DCT in early June with a group of people from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. The group spent most of its time in Mwitikira working with the Standard 4 and Standard 7 students as they prepared for their National Exams later this year. The group was also able to attend a special service for the laying of the foundation stone at the main parish church in Mwitikira, which is linked with St. Paul’s. Towards the end of their trip the group visited Chamwino Ikulu parish and participated in the distribution of uniforms, shoes, and school supplies for the Carpenter’s Kids there.
Pastor Noah and Suzanne catch up on CK-VA matters in Mwitikira
In mid-June a group of nine students and two teachers from St. Christopher’s School in Richmond arrived in the DCT to visit the parish of Nhyinila, which is linked with St. Christopher’s. The group spent 6 days with the people of Nhyinila doing everything from teaching ‘Happy Birthday’ to playing soccer to carrying water to painting classrooms in the primary school and pretty much everything in between.
Ben, Foster, and friends return from their water expedition
The St. Christopher's group, Buck, Pastor Noah, John and people from Nhyinila who worked on the school painting project.
We had a short break at the beginning of July which was used to get ready for two groups who arrived within days of one another in the middle of the month. We welcomed Suzanne Johnson back to the DCT and were happy to meet Janet Edumundson from St. Paul’s, Richmond and Jim Huffman and his daughter Katharine from the Church of the Redeemer in Midlothian, VA for a visit. Jim and Katharine were the first people from Redeemer to visit their link parish of Veyula and they were welcomed with open arms – Jim was even made an elder of the church (like being on the vestry)! Suzanne and Janet spent most of their time in Mwitikira, with Suzanne teaching English and Janet working in the library.
Jim in Veyula parish. The priest had just announced that Jim was officially a 'mzee wa kanisa' (church elder).
Several days after the Virginia folks arrived, Pastor Noah, John Joseph, and I headed to Dar es Salaam to pick up 14 of the 15 members of the Diocese of New York and Diocese of Rochester group who came to visit the parishes with which their churches are linked. One member of the group, Robin Newman, arrived in Dodoma at the beginning of July and worked in the office with us for two weeks before the rest of the group arrived. When we got back to Dodoma, the group hit the ground running and visited the parishes of Kigwe, Swaswa, Chimuli, Nala, Nghonghonha, Membe, Hombolo Makulu, Nhinhi, Mbalawala, Isangha, Chadulu, Mita, Lufuto, Izava, and Manda (that’s 15 parishes if you’re counting) over 5 days before heading to Mikumi National Park for a day safari and then on to Dar es Salaam to fly back to the US.
L-R: Jim, Caren, Jan, Lynn, Sara, Dahn, Katherine, Allyson, and Tom heading off to visit Holy Trinity Primary School. Notice the antiphonal seating!
All four of our VA friends joined the NY/Rochester group for various parts of the trip. It was a great opportunity for people from different dioceses to come together and exchange ideas about The Carpenter’s Kids program – and hopefully make some new friends while they were at it! I can also confirm that both head, shoulder, knees, and toes and the hokey pokey were played more times than I can count in multiple villages.
Sara and Katharine learn the Swahili version of head, shoulders, knees, and toes from the second graders at Nala Primary School
In late September, we’ll host our last group of the year (that we know of!) when some of the members of the Friends from Colorado group come to visit Mleche and Chilonwa. Until then, we’re back to business as usual in the office and we’re starting to look ahead to 2011 and what that may hold for the program. Despite the humorous t-shirts that say “No hurry in Africa,” or simply “pole, pole” (slowly, slowly), or “Haraka, haraka haina baraka” (literally: hurry, hurry has no blessing), time, it seems, does indeed fly!
P.S. If you’d like a Swahili translation of the hokey pokey, I’d be more than happy to e-mail it you!
