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.
Monday, March 16, 2009
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
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
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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!
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.
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.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
So long, farewell...
Sorry, I couldn’t resist the Sound of Music reference. Sorry again if the song is now stuck in your head!
On Sunday, 14 December, Sarah and I went to our friend Andrew Russell’s sending service at his church, Chang’ombe. Andrew is a USPG missionary (www.uspg.org.uk) from England who’s been here in Tanzania for the last three years working for the Anglican Church of Tanzania as the Project Officer for the Tanzania Anglican Youth Organization (TAYO). We actually met Andrew on our very first full day in Dodoma and we’ve been happy to have him as a friend since then.
The morning actually started in a rather entertaining way. Andrew’s church is not the easiest place to find. Andrew had told me that he had to be shown how to get to the church about three times before he was actually able to find it on his own and I can definitely understand why! We arranged to meet Andrew on the side of the road and then follow him to the church building. The last text message I had from Andrew giving me directions to the meeting point ended with the words “look for my bright blue beetle.” It felt vaguely spy-movie-esque. Vaguely. Work with me here.
Callum and Laura agreed to drop Sarah and I off at Andrew’s church before they had to get to the Cathedral to lead the music for the English service. We made it to the meeting place and saw the blue beetle (VW) with no trouble. We could actually see the beetle from quite a distance away. We then proceeded to follow Andrew’s car through more twists and turns than I could have imagined and we were glad that we were following him and not trying to make it to church on our own. We might still be trying to find it. We finally arrived at Chang’ombe just as the service was starting and were ushered over to the church door by an elder of the congregation. Callum and Laura tried to get the Land Cruiser to start again so they could get to church but the vehicle didn’t want to cooperate. We were led into the church before they got the Cruiser started again, so we tried to listen for the motor from where we were sitting, which was, of course, the front of the church. We finally saw Callum and Laura driving away about 10 minutes or so after we arrived. They made it to the Cathedral, but were about 10 minutes late for the service. According to a friend who was at the service, Laura went straight up to the front of the church and led the congregation in the first song! That's dedication.
Meanwhile back at Chang’ombe, we enjoyed a service that felt very much like an Episcopal service back in the US with one obvious difference of course - it was in Swahili. (Ok, two obvious differences, there were multiple dancing choirs at this service as well.) Thankfully, I’d remembered to bring my Swahili prayer book and hymnal with me so I could follow along. I had to listen carefully, but I could actually understand enough Swahili that I could pick up on the readings for the day so I could follow along in my English Bible. Aside from Sarah and me, some of Andrew’s other friends came to the service as well: Josh, an American who works for the Mennonite Church, Andy, from Switzerland (I can’t remember where he works) and Lianne, our friend who works at the Dodoma Deaf School and lives at the same housing compound as Sarah. Bernard, Andrew’s successor at work, was also there. We were happy to see him again as we’d met him during his first week on the job several months ago. He was the official photographer for the day and also helped translate for us.
Andrew was the preacher for the day and spoke in Swahili for a good 20 minutes with no problem. I can only hope that I’ll be able to speak Swahili that well at some point. I manage about a minute and a half now if I speak slowly. I didn’t catch much of what Andrew said which was unfortunate as he used on of my favorite passages as the basis for his remarks (Philippians 4:4-9 in case you’re interested), but I could get a few words and phrases here and there. I was even able to understand one complete sentence at one point. It was an exciting moment! The most entertaining moment of the service came when we had to introduce ourselves. We were all sitting at the front of the church and literally just as Lianne stood up to introduce herself it started pouring outside. The church has an iron roof which is held up by wooden beams. There is no insulation or anything between the roof and the ground other than the beams and air, so, as you can imagine, it was a bit loud. Poor Lianne got all the way through her introduction only to be told that no one could hear her! She tried again with a microphone, but between the static from the microphone, the noise of the rain and her rather quiet voice, no one was able to hear her. The rest of us where just told to shout our introductions. That seemed to work.
After the service was over (it was about 2.5 hours long), we moved to a room in a building next to the church and sat with the priest and his family, Frederik, the former priest of Chang’ombe (who had introduced Andrew to the church) and his family, and some other members of the congregation. Frederik had me move across the room away from Sarah, Lianne, Josh and Andy to sit by Bernard so we could sort of mix things up and not have all of the visitors just sitting together. So, Bernard and I chatted about where he’s from, the Diocese of Mara, his work and living in Dodoma. We also chatted about Barack Obama and the United States. It turns out that Bernard’s home diocese is actually linked with Andrew’s diocese back in the UK. It’s a small world.
During the course of the hour or so we all spent sitting and chatting together, we were asked some questions about Barack Obama by several people. It was an interesting experience, as so far everyone here has been very excited about Obama’s election. That didn’t really seem to be the case here. Basically, several people wanted to know if we thought Obama would do a good job and if we thought we could trust him. The trust question was specifically related to press about Obama and his relationship with Muslims. It was a bit awkward, but our responses seemed to be good enough. We were told, though, that if Obama does a good job we can rejoice, but if he does not, it’s our fault for electing him. So there you go!
After we’d chatted for a bit and everyone drank a bottle of soda, we went back into the church for the second part of the send off. The church had been redecorated and a table set up at the front for Andrew, the two priests and their families to sit at. This second part of the send off was a bit less formal than the church service, though really still quite formal all things considered. There were more speeches and opportunities for people who hadn’t spoken at the service to talk. I should also mention that the send-off was also for Pastor Frederik and his family as he is now working or studying (I can’t remember which) at St. John’s University in Dodoma.
The church women had prepared lunch for everyone-no small feat as there were about 100 people there! One of the women had baked Andrew a heart-shaped cake which was presented to him before lunch and then cut up into small pieces so everyone could have some. After lunch was finished, it was picture time. I have no idea how many pictures were taken, but believe me, it was a lot.
Despite the fact that the day was a bit longer than we’d anticipated (we didn’t get home until almost 4pm), I really enjoyed going to the service. It’s always great to meet new people and visit new churches here in Dodoma. Everyone was very welcoming and told us we should come back. It was also really great to see the relationship that Andrew has built with the congregation at Chang’ombe. Everyone wanted to say goodbye to him with a handshake, a hug or a picture-often all three. He’ll obviously be missed!
While it was great to be a part of Andrew’s send-off, it was also sad. Andrew was one of the first people we met here in Dodoma and will soon be gone. We certainly didn’t see each other every day, but it was nice to run into each other around town and have lunch together occasionally. According to my mother, I haven't liked saying goodbye to people since I was little. Obviously, I haven’t grown out of that.
I’ll have to figure out a way to convince Sarah to stay…
On Sunday, 14 December, Sarah and I went to our friend Andrew Russell’s sending service at his church, Chang’ombe. Andrew is a USPG missionary (www.uspg.org.uk) from England who’s been here in Tanzania for the last three years working for the Anglican Church of Tanzania as the Project Officer for the Tanzania Anglican Youth Organization (TAYO). We actually met Andrew on our very first full day in Dodoma and we’ve been happy to have him as a friend since then.
The morning actually started in a rather entertaining way. Andrew’s church is not the easiest place to find. Andrew had told me that he had to be shown how to get to the church about three times before he was actually able to find it on his own and I can definitely understand why! We arranged to meet Andrew on the side of the road and then follow him to the church building. The last text message I had from Andrew giving me directions to the meeting point ended with the words “look for my bright blue beetle.” It felt vaguely spy-movie-esque. Vaguely. Work with me here.
Callum and Laura agreed to drop Sarah and I off at Andrew’s church before they had to get to the Cathedral to lead the music for the English service. We made it to the meeting place and saw the blue beetle (VW) with no trouble. We could actually see the beetle from quite a distance away. We then proceeded to follow Andrew’s car through more twists and turns than I could have imagined and we were glad that we were following him and not trying to make it to church on our own. We might still be trying to find it. We finally arrived at Chang’ombe just as the service was starting and were ushered over to the church door by an elder of the congregation. Callum and Laura tried to get the Land Cruiser to start again so they could get to church but the vehicle didn’t want to cooperate. We were led into the church before they got the Cruiser started again, so we tried to listen for the motor from where we were sitting, which was, of course, the front of the church. We finally saw Callum and Laura driving away about 10 minutes or so after we arrived. They made it to the Cathedral, but were about 10 minutes late for the service. According to a friend who was at the service, Laura went straight up to the front of the church and led the congregation in the first song! That's dedication.
Meanwhile back at Chang’ombe, we enjoyed a service that felt very much like an Episcopal service back in the US with one obvious difference of course - it was in Swahili. (Ok, two obvious differences, there were multiple dancing choirs at this service as well.) Thankfully, I’d remembered to bring my Swahili prayer book and hymnal with me so I could follow along. I had to listen carefully, but I could actually understand enough Swahili that I could pick up on the readings for the day so I could follow along in my English Bible. Aside from Sarah and me, some of Andrew’s other friends came to the service as well: Josh, an American who works for the Mennonite Church, Andy, from Switzerland (I can’t remember where he works) and Lianne, our friend who works at the Dodoma Deaf School and lives at the same housing compound as Sarah. Bernard, Andrew’s successor at work, was also there. We were happy to see him again as we’d met him during his first week on the job several months ago. He was the official photographer for the day and also helped translate for us.
Andrew was the preacher for the day and spoke in Swahili for a good 20 minutes with no problem. I can only hope that I’ll be able to speak Swahili that well at some point. I manage about a minute and a half now if I speak slowly. I didn’t catch much of what Andrew said which was unfortunate as he used on of my favorite passages as the basis for his remarks (Philippians 4:4-9 in case you’re interested), but I could get a few words and phrases here and there. I was even able to understand one complete sentence at one point. It was an exciting moment! The most entertaining moment of the service came when we had to introduce ourselves. We were all sitting at the front of the church and literally just as Lianne stood up to introduce herself it started pouring outside. The church has an iron roof which is held up by wooden beams. There is no insulation or anything between the roof and the ground other than the beams and air, so, as you can imagine, it was a bit loud. Poor Lianne got all the way through her introduction only to be told that no one could hear her! She tried again with a microphone, but between the static from the microphone, the noise of the rain and her rather quiet voice, no one was able to hear her. The rest of us where just told to shout our introductions. That seemed to work.
After the service was over (it was about 2.5 hours long), we moved to a room in a building next to the church and sat with the priest and his family, Frederik, the former priest of Chang’ombe (who had introduced Andrew to the church) and his family, and some other members of the congregation. Frederik had me move across the room away from Sarah, Lianne, Josh and Andy to sit by Bernard so we could sort of mix things up and not have all of the visitors just sitting together. So, Bernard and I chatted about where he’s from, the Diocese of Mara, his work and living in Dodoma. We also chatted about Barack Obama and the United States. It turns out that Bernard’s home diocese is actually linked with Andrew’s diocese back in the UK. It’s a small world.
During the course of the hour or so we all spent sitting and chatting together, we were asked some questions about Barack Obama by several people. It was an interesting experience, as so far everyone here has been very excited about Obama’s election. That didn’t really seem to be the case here. Basically, several people wanted to know if we thought Obama would do a good job and if we thought we could trust him. The trust question was specifically related to press about Obama and his relationship with Muslims. It was a bit awkward, but our responses seemed to be good enough. We were told, though, that if Obama does a good job we can rejoice, but if he does not, it’s our fault for electing him. So there you go!
After we’d chatted for a bit and everyone drank a bottle of soda, we went back into the church for the second part of the send off. The church had been redecorated and a table set up at the front for Andrew, the two priests and their families to sit at. This second part of the send off was a bit less formal than the church service, though really still quite formal all things considered. There were more speeches and opportunities for people who hadn’t spoken at the service to talk. I should also mention that the send-off was also for Pastor Frederik and his family as he is now working or studying (I can’t remember which) at St. John’s University in Dodoma.
The church women had prepared lunch for everyone-no small feat as there were about 100 people there! One of the women had baked Andrew a heart-shaped cake which was presented to him before lunch and then cut up into small pieces so everyone could have some. After lunch was finished, it was picture time. I have no idea how many pictures were taken, but believe me, it was a lot.
Despite the fact that the day was a bit longer than we’d anticipated (we didn’t get home until almost 4pm), I really enjoyed going to the service. It’s always great to meet new people and visit new churches here in Dodoma. Everyone was very welcoming and told us we should come back. It was also really great to see the relationship that Andrew has built with the congregation at Chang’ombe. Everyone wanted to say goodbye to him with a handshake, a hug or a picture-often all three. He’ll obviously be missed!
While it was great to be a part of Andrew’s send-off, it was also sad. Andrew was one of the first people we met here in Dodoma and will soon be gone. We certainly didn’t see each other every day, but it was nice to run into each other around town and have lunch together occasionally. According to my mother, I haven't liked saying goodbye to people since I was little. Obviously, I haven’t grown out of that.
I’ll have to figure out a way to convince Sarah to stay…
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