Looking Back.

Hello All. 

As many of you already know, Laura and I made it safely back to the United States. In fact, it was already three full weeks ago that we were checking in at the airport in Dar es Salaam. In some ways it seems like I was in Tanzania only yesterday—the memories, sights, and smells are still so vivid.  But in other ways, my time in Tanzania is already beginning to feel like a lifetime or a world away. I suppose, in some ways, it is. 

The mountain behind LJS. AKA The view I saw every day.

I’ve been thinking about Tanzania a lot over these past few days and weeks. Sometimes I share stories as they are triggered spontaneously by things that happen. Just yesterday, for example, I found myself describing the experience of eating rice with my hands. But apart from these little stories, I haven’t talked about it much. I haven’t even finished unpacking. I think a part of me dreads the closure that will come and the permission to move on—part of me doesn’t want to move on. 

Some people who are close to me have said that I am different. I can only hope they are right. I’ll admit that I’m more than a little afraid of slipping right back into exactly the way I was—the busy-ness, the constant productivity, the power walk, and the inability to simply Be. I am scared that I will begin to forget that there are places in the world where people matter more than things and more than work, where education is valued and never taken for granted, where faith is a badge of honor and a mark of identity rather just something you do. There are so many things I learned in Tanzania that I want to maintain and practice here in the U.S. 

Many people have asked me: “Did you have a good time in Tanzania?”  and I know you mean well.  I think the short answer—and the desired one—is “Yes,” but that seems like such a brief and concise answer to describe an experience that was so many things all rolled into one. While there, I was nervous, excited, scared, joyful, uncomfortable, curious, frustrated, adventurous, terrified, and awe-struck. I had moments when I thought that I could stay forever. I also had a few moments when I wondered how I could possibly make it through another three months, one month, four days.  Yes, I had an amazing experience in Tanzania. Yes, I learned a lot. Yes, I am happy I went. Yes, I would do it again. But, no, I don’t think “good” is exactly the word I would use to describe it. 

I’m not sure how Laura is coming on this front, but as for me, I’m still really struggling with being back in the U.S. It’s been wonderful to see family and friends, to take a truly clean shower, to always know what I’m eating. But, so much of this familiar place feels strange now. I had a full panic attack the night I got back because I had too many options of what to wear. Every so often now, I walk into a store, see ALL of the choices, and feel my breathing quicken with anxiety. 

Life in Tanzania, by my assessment, is not simpler than life here. There are still tasks to be done, worries to be thought about, people to take care of. But, I would say that life is more basic in Tanzania, and more focused. As a majority, the people I know in Tanzania tend to be focused mostly on necessities like food, health care if they need it, clothing, school work and fees, etc. I open a magazine now and am bombarded by ads for all of the things that I don’t need. Then I think back to the sheer quantity of rice,beans, or fresh vegetables that can be bought in Tanzania for five or ten dollars. I don’t understand it. 

I think I could go on and on about what I’ve been thinking about, but you probably get the idea. In a nutshell: I’m happy to be back with family and friends, but missing Tanzania in a lot of ways too. I’m struggling to fit back into everything that I was before, but maybe that’s okay. Maybe I am different, or perhaps I’m just beginning to realize who I actually want to be. I ask for your prayers as I continue to process my experiences in Tanzania. And, who knows, maybe I’ll actually come to a place where I want to talk about everything I saw and did and experienced and learned. We’ll have to see about that though.  I suspect that it may be a while before I’m ready to brain-dump. 

Peace, 

Ellen

villages, a baptism, Swahili... oh my!

I guess it’s my turn for the blog post… It’s been my turn and I’ve been intending to get to it for over a week. But, sadly for you, I’ve been occupied with other things as of late.  Today is the day, however, that you will get updates on our three village visits from last weekend, two from this past weekend, as well as a few comments on some in-between stuff. Here goes… 

Magole (March 4)

I think Magole was perhaps my favorite village visit (shhh. Don’t tell the others!). I’m so glad that Pastor Hafermann pulled us out of class for the day to accompany him. He was particularly anxious for us to meet the people in the village and also to hear the choirs. It didn’t take us too long to drive to the village, and the road was surprisingly good (I think I only hit my head once). The choir was rehearsing when we arrived but stopped when they heard The Beast (our beloved vehicle) pull up. They all ran out chanting “Babu! Babu!” (or for you English speakers, “Grandpa! Grandpa!”). It’s evident that he has been around for a while and holds a special place of honor here. By the time we had greeted the children, the elders had arrived, so we greeted them too. The ‘chief elder’ of the village even blessed our heads, which is still a somewhat strange experience for me. 

At this point we pulled up chairs, continued the greetings, and began to hear about the news and problems of the village. After a short while, Pastor Hafermann and Ema went to talk with one of the evangelists, Laura and I looked at one another nervously, wondering how to continue the conversation with this elder. However, he became determined to continue the conversation with us and wasn’t going to let a little language hesitation stand in his way! Although I still have a pretty limited vocabulary, I am able to understand a fair amount of Swahili, which enabled me to mostly understand and answer his questions. He asked me all sorts of things—the geography of the United States, the weather there versus in Tanzania, future plans, if there are cows or milk in the U.S., etc. He even asked me if white people practice circumcision! We compared shoe prices and he asked me the time (a test of my Swahili, I’m certain). He also told about one of his sons getting into a tussle with a crocodile and living to tell the tale! We later got to meet the boy (12-15 years old, I would say) and see his wounds and scars, which were pretty gory. This boy somehow had the peace of mind to punch out the crocodile’s eyes, which allowed him to get away. So, next time you’re in a fight with a crocodile, the proven method is to go for the eyes… 

As we sat talking, I was introduced to Lasoro, a Morani (AKA a Maasai warrior), with both legs amputated. Around 6 years ago, he discovered cancer and was dying. They amputated his legs three different times to stop the spread of the cancer. He was baptized essentially on his deathbed. But he pulled through and now the cancer is in remission. What’s more, he is married and has several children, one of whom was baptized the day we visted. His is a true “resurrection story,” which seems appropriate for a man whose name is the Swahili equivalent of Lazarus. 

We also met a young boy who has Down Syndrome. His physical and mental disabilities set him apart from the other Maasai kids his age. But it was neat to see that, rather than shun him for his differences, the whole village has stepped in to care for him. Children younger than he patiently led him around, the women all kept an eye out for him, and even the Morani seemed particularly gentle and friendly with this little boy. 

As we waited for the service to start, the conversation continued and one of the Morani even asked if I would teach him some English. Using the book he got from Pastor Hafermann to help him learn to read and write Swahili, I began to teach English. He flipped through the pages, pointing at various pictures on the pages. I would first read the word in Swahili and then say the word in English. At first it felt a little strange teaching these Maasai boys English, but they were eager students. I’m not sure if their enthusiasm came from actually wanting to learn or simply from a desire to learn from me. Soon, quite a crowd had gathered around us, mostly consisting of the other Morani and curious children. It was fun to hear them all try to imitate me in saying the English words with their Maasai accents. But, it was equally difficult for me to mimic the Maasai words.  Still, I think it was fun for everyone involved, and it made me smile to hear little Maasai children running after me later on saying “tree tree tree” or “person person.” 

Magole held many more stories and great experiences, but I think we’ll end with these for now. After all, everyone has a story, and there is only so much time for telling them. 

Laura and Ellen with some new friends at Magole

Kibangile (March 5)

The village visit on this day was one of the few villages that we’ve been to that is not Maasai. Kibangile is a Swahili village in the mountains, and to get there we drove in a completely different direction than we’ve gone before. We actually drove through part of the rainforest! The drive itself lasted around two hours, but it felt much shorter because I was so fascinated by looking out the window. When we stopped the car, we had yet to arrive in the village, so we had to walk a short way to the house of the evangelist. The setting of Kibangile was gorgeous—lots of fruit trees, paths winding along the mountain, lush vegetation. For our tea, we ate boiled bread fruit and plantains, which I’m sure were grown only steps from the house. 

The church at Kibangile is actually set on top of a hill (and was built there after a stream ran through the first church during the rainy season… but that’s another story). When it came time for the service, we walked down one hill and then up another, admiring all the interesting plants along the way (me), baking in the hot sun (Laura and me), and trying not to fall (also mostly me). As we waited for the congregation to arrive, Ema and Laura and I had a good time feeding the ant lions and watching the black and white colobus monkeys. I probably could have stood and watched those monkeys for an hour, they were that entertaining. They would swing fearlessly from branch to branch to branch, always landing gracefully. I think I saw five or six as I stood outside the church, and they must have been well-fed because they were very energetic. 

Although Kibangile is one of the older congregations in the area, they are struggling a little now—there were only 20 people in church, including us! But they were very enthusiastic and I think accurately fit the description of “small but mighty.” After the service, they auctioned off two giant bunches of bananas, as well as a bag of bread fruit, for offering money.  Afterwards, as we were waiting, we were approached by a woman wanting to sell us some gold shavings that she had mined from one of the nearby mountain rivers. Neither Laura nor I were really interested in buying gold dust, but it was pretty neat to see the tiny packet of shavings—it was so shiny! Evidently mining is pretty common in this area, and they tend to be pretty successful. When I think of mining, I think of my history books and of California. While I know these are very limited associations, it does start to explain why I was so surprised to look out the window as we drove and see people knee deep in a river, panning for gold. Like harvesting seaweed along the ocean on Zanzibar or working in a rice field in the flatlands, this seems like a very slow and tedious line of work!

Makature Shuleni (March 6)

Based on what I could understand, our village visit this day had two purposes: 1) to conduct the worship service and participate in the fundraiser auction to raise money for building the evangelist’s house, and 2) to check up on one widow of the village. 

This particular woman is a widow who has been more than able to take care of herself since the death of her husband. She has built a house, and keeps a herd of cattle which she is able to tend to herself. But a short time ago, some of her hired helpers ran off with the money they had made selling her cows at an auction, and now there are a number of villagers who are threatening her and trying to take away her cattle (AKA her livelihood and ability support herself). In a society as patriarchal as the Maasai, evidently this capable widow poses a threat. She has offered to take her herds and possessions and move to another village, but there is really nowhere she can go. Pastor Hafermann is doing what he can to ensure protection for Mama Ana, but this is tricky because although widows usually have respect in Maasai society, the people giving her problems are also respected. 

After checking in with this widow and her cattle, we went to have tea with the men. Pastor Hafermann had briefed us ahead of time on the lawsuits this village is enmeshed in. One of the elders of the village had spent some time in jail over a land dispute after an Arab man contested his claim to land that he had rightfully purchased. The Arab changed the border line, and, when the Maasai challenged this, told law enforcement that this Maasai man had threatened his life. So they went to court. The Maasai banded together to get enough money to hire a lawyer, but the Arab paid off the same lawyer to get the Maasai man put in jail, which he did. It’s really no wonder the Maasai tend to dislike the Swahili people—their very justice system seems so prejudiced against the Maasai. Even when they attempt to operate within rules of government (in this case, by actually buying the land and having documentation of it), they somehow still get the shaft (here, spending two years in jail and this man never getting his name cleared). 

Apart from these two particular situations, the visit followed our normal routine. We had tea, then the service, an auction following the service (chicken, goat, fabric, soap, etc.), extra prayers and blessings for people and households, then the meal, and off we went. 

Pastor Herb and some boys headed to church at Makature Shuleni

A sunset we saw driving home from our village visit... 
I wanted to share the beauty. 

Mlandizi (March 12)

The village congregation that we worshipped with this Saturday was made up of primarily widows and children. I saw only a few men—one an elderly man, one the evangelist, another a visitor, and only one in Morani attire. It turns out, however, that this young Morani is actually an “outsider” to the Maasai. He was an orphan from a Cushitic tribe that has been adopted into the Maasai and now looks after their cattle. I wasn’t very surprised to learn that he wasn’t actually Maasai because I thought he looked very different from than other young Maasai men I have met. I’m very curious about his story—his background, ancestry, future plans, etc.—though I will likely never hear it

I think the other notable thing about this village was the fighter ants! These ants, originally from Brazil, were introduced to African syso plantations to help control the snake population. But, as always seems to happen with introducing non-native species, it backfired. So now there are fighter ants everywhere! We sat and had tea in an area outside just swarming with them. They began crawling over our feet (which tickled and was slightly annoying), latching on as soon as we would make any sort of movement. If they felt threatened, they would bite—HARD! Then, when we tried to swat them away, if we accidentally crushed one, it would emit some sort of scent that brought his friends running. Thankfully we all drank our tea fairly quickly and moved out of the war zone. 

Maseyu (March 13)

Today was the baptismal day of Baby Herbert, the young son of the late evangelist and builder Luka.  Luka, who passed away last summer, was Pastor Hafermann’s right-hand man and had became like a son to him. Baby Herbert Luka was born in January, and is the namesake of two great men: Pastor Herbert Hafermann and his father, Luka. Today was a very special day for all involved, and we were happy to be included in the celebrations. We got to meet many members of the family and share a meal with family and close friends.  Even the location, Maseyu, held special significance because the church was built by Luka and was the very same church in which Luka married his wife.   

Baby Herbert and Babu

Misc. Other Updates

The weather continues to be very warm, as one might expect. The locals tell us that the rainy season ought to be upon us by now, but seems to be delayed this year. We’ll have to take their word for it. I know that I am looking forward to experiencing more Tanzanian rainstorms—the ones we’ve seen so far have been amazing!  The thunder literally shakes your entire body, and the lighting is phenomenal. Furthermore, after a rain shower here, everything gets so green!

We finished up our Swahili lessons last week and are reviewing materials this week. On Friday (we think) we will take our final exam--yikes! This leaves us with two weeks free to travel before we’re on our way back to the U.S. Yes, you read that correctly--only three weeks (plus a few days) left! 

Thank you to all who continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. 

Wasalaam, 

Ellen

Bila shaka...

(Without doubt)...we are horrible at regularly updating our blog. For this, Ellen and I are both very sorry. However, the time has (finally) come and an update is here. I apologize ahead of time for any rambling that might occur... a lot has happened in the past 2 weeks!

On Saturday, February 12th, we were given the opportunity to climb one of the Uluguru mountains. We went with two of our teachers, Kadeghe and Eliah, and we were given two options: either climb to the peak, or climb to the waterfalls near the peak. Ellen and I chose to hike to the waterfalls, and we were very glad that we did! We began our journey on Saturday morning around 8 a.m. by hopping on a Dahla Dahla that took us into the center of Morogoro. From there, we walked to the base of the mountain and began our ascent. On our way up, the weather consisted of heavy clouds and misty rain, so we were thankful for the cool temperature. It was truly an amazing experience to observe Tanzanian women carrying baskets bigger than their upper bodies on their heads, walking barefoot, and passing us as they climbed the mountain to their villages. Needless to say, Ellen and I felt like wimps. After about two hours, we reached the entrance to the waterfall. To get to the waterfall, however, we had to descend an incredibly steep slope of slippery mud. We made it, and any dirt that we had obtained on our ascent of the mountain and descent down the cliff to the waterfall was quickly washed off. The water was very cool and refreshing, and the four of us had fun swimming and playing in it. After about an hour, Ellen and I heard thunder. We looked around and realized, "Hmmm. Thunder means lightning...and we are currently standing under a tree, in the middle of a pool of water. Maybe it's time to go." It started to rain, except it was not rain like Ellen and I are used to…it was more like a monsoon. We quickly informed Eliah and Kadeghe of our possible disastrous lightning situation and we began our ascent up the slope, which had turned completely smooth from all of the water rushing down its side. Using roots as leverage, we slowly made our way up the slope and reached the top muddy, but safe. After that, we descended the mountain as fast as we could without being unsafe, seeing as how the trail has turned to complete mud and there was a stream of water rushing over the tops of our feet. We reached the base of the mountain safe and sound, but tired, hungry, and muddy. However, we were very happy and had fun laughing about the big adventure we had just had.

The next day, Sunday, we traveled to a village called Msoga (the President of Tanzania's home village) to attend a church dedication ceremony. A beautiful church had just been completed and it could not be used by the village as a church until it was dedicated by the Bishop. It was another rainy day, which made for some interesting moments as the ceremony was held outside the church. All of the people attending were able to fit under a couple of canopies, so everyone stayed fairly dry. Approximately ten local pastors were present in addition to the Bishop, and seven choirs attended as well. Right after we arrived, we were served tea in the new church with the church leaders and elders, and then waited on our bench for the service to start. The service itself took about four hours long, which is the longest one we have attended thus far. It was great to hear all of the choirs sing and to observe the differences between them. Following the service, a big meal was served in the new church once again, but because of all of the people, we sat on the steps of the church and enjoyed the food. Actually, the food that was served in the church was specifically for honored guests, and there was an additional buffet line outside the church under the canopies for the choirs, village people, etc. Once again, it was very difficult to be separated from the people as honored guests, but we realize that it is the Tanzanian way of showing the utmost hospitality and respect. Following the meal, we climbed back into the car, and headed back to LJS.

On Monday we visited a Barabaig village called Sanga Sanga. The Barabaig are the other cattle raising tribe in this area, and for centuries, they had been the enemy of the Maasai. It was fascinating to observe their different styles of dress and to get a sense of the way in which they lived, and how it differed from the Maasai. We did not attend a service and we were actually only at the village for a couple of hours, but the sole purpose of the visit was for Pastor Hafermann to help the village elders settle a major issue involving thievery. Before we left, we were served rice tea, which tasted like rice krispies in pudding form; it was definitely different than anything we had ever eaten, but it tasted good! While we drank/ate our tea, the warriors and young women began a traditional dance for us (unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the entire dance) which was very cool to watch. The warriors were gathered around a tree a couple feet away, while the girls were gathered around another tree right in front of us. The warriors began to sing and after awhile, one or two girls would come out from behind the tree, face the warriors, and begin to jump in time to the music. As they did this, a couple of the warriors would jump in time with them. The girls would stop after 5-10 jumps and go back behind the tree; after they stopped, so did the warriors. Another girl would come out, jump, and two or three different warriors would jump in time with her. This continued on until we had to leave and both Ellen and I thought it would have been so awesome to watch the entire dance. After tea, we headed back to LJS and began our packing for our trip to Zanzibar!

ZANZIBAR!

Ellen and I with Ema at Forohane Park, waiting to experience our first meal of VERY fresh fish!

Right side of the table from which we each made our fish selections

Left side of the table

Fishermen bringing in the catch of the morning

Ellen and I with our green coconuts on the spice tour

Sunset over the Indian Ocean

Our trip to Zanzibar went very well and we both extremely enjoyed every minute of our time there! Unfortunately, I’ll only be able to give you an overview of what we did and saw due to there being SO much that we experienced! We woke up at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning so that we could be one the road by 6 a.m. and get to Dar es Salaam in time to catch the ferry that would take us to Zanzibar. Traveling went smoothly except for some slow traffic in Dar, but we were happy for the lack of complications. The ferry ride took about two hours and before we knew it, we were stepping on the island. We made it to our hotel and put our things away. After that, we went exploring. Pastor Hafermann showed us where all of the little shops were and we became very excited to shop there the next day. During our three days in Stone Town (the harbor town), we went on a spice tour, shopped A LOT, ate extremely fresh fish in the harbor park, and spent relaxing evenings on the hotel roof. The Muslim community was fascinating to learn about and observe, and it was very interesting to learn about the history of the island and the slave trade that occurred there for centuries. We were sad to leave Stone Town, but at the same time, we were very excited to spend our last day on a secluded beach along the Indian Ocean. We enjoyed snorkeling while Pastor Hafermann took a well-deserved nap, ate fresh fish and pilau (spiced rice) for dinner, and spent the evening interacting with and being entertained by a group of young local boys who were hanging out on the beach. The next morning (Friday), we walked out onto the beach and watched the sunrise, as well as searched for some more seashells. We enjoyed a nice breakfast on the patio of our rooms and then headed back to Stone Town. We ate some lunch and then shopped a little more before having to board the ferry to take us back to the mainland. The traffic in Dar made the trip back take a little longer than expected, but we arrived back at LJS happy, exhausted, safe, and sound.

The very next day we traveled to a village called Mailo Ishirini. This was the home village of one our teachers, so he and some friends came with us, which was a lot of fun. The choir that sang during the service was, in both my and Ellen’s opinion, our favorite choir so far. They all had beautiful voices and sang with an incredible amount of passion. The interesting thing about this village was that it was made up of an entire family, or at least, they are all related even if it is a distant relation. We enjoyed the service and the meal that was served to us before we left, as well as learning about the Arobaini tree that the Maasai use for forty different medicines. We got back to LJS earlier than usual and enjoyed time to relax and sleep.

On Sunday, we traveled to another village called Mesela that was quite a ways into the bush. It had rained the night before, so the roads were very muddy, but it made for a great adventure! The church in this village had just been built and Pastor Hafermann showed us the place in the bush where the first worship service took place, and the tree nearby that got struck by lightning right after Pastor Hafermann baptized one of the church elders! There were MANY kids in this village, so Ellen and I had instant friends for the entire day. Pastor Hafermann had the opportunity to pray for a young girl who, the next day, was leaving her home village to move to another village and get married. The thought of such a major life step at such a young age (she was probably around the age of 15 or 16) was hard for Ellen and I to imagine, and we had the utmost respect for her as this was clearly an uncertain and scary time.

This past week was filled with Swahili lessons and catching up on Wartburg homework. This weekend we were supposed to travel to villages like usual, but Pastor Hafermann had to leave for a conference in Dar es Salaam at the last minute. Despite how much Ellen and I enjoy village visits, we were glad for some free time this weekend to finish homework, sleep, and to take some moments to relax and breathe. We are looking forward to another week and we are keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers!

Peace,

Laura

Pole Sana!

Hello all!

Pole sana = We are very sorry for the vast amount of time that has surpassed since our last post (in not so many words).

Events that have happened since our last post:
1. Village visits to Kiegea (Sat. Feb. 5) and Kambara Marorowe (Sun. Feb. 6)
2. 2 visits to a nearby orphanage run by Catholic sisters
3. Listening in on and participating in rehearsals of a young adult choir on campus
4. Power outages sporadically throughout each day
5. 10 new students at the language school, studying in the "long course"
6. Making friends and practicing our Swahili with several of the language school teachers


1.  It seems that our village visits are beginning to fall into a routine, with a few variations which differentiate the villages from one another. The visit to Kiegea was "different" because the service was only two hours long (no baptisms), we got to experience (AKA watch) the cooking of the meal with the Maasai women, and sit in on a village meeting about the village school.  A couple of notes on how to succeed in Maasai cooking... 1) boil everything--meat, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, rice, milk for tea, and anything else you desire to eat, 2) do not be afraid of fire or very large knives, 3) perfect the art of sword fighting so as to gracefully dismember and--for lack of a better word--hack the goat meat from the bones, 4) know the difference between edible and inedible greens, 5) remain limber, agile, and patient so that you are able to quickly and effectively remove tiny rocks from 10 lbs. of rice every day, 6) keep your head up and your neck muscles strong because you will be balancing buckets and baskets and other implements on your head while carrying a small child on your back and keeping an eye on several others.  If you can successfully complete all of these suggestions, then you will be a "top chef" in the eyes of the Maasai. Sadly, Laura and I struggled a bit. ;^)
In Kambara Marorowe, we were met with hugs from the women as well as the more customary greetings of handshakes and blessings. The hugs surprised us, as it was our first time experiencing this kind of affection from unknown adults.  The whole village was clearly excited to have us (and Pastor Hafermann) there--"passionate hospitality" is how one might describe their actions. The congregation is a branch of the oldest Lutheran Maasai congregation in the area. At this service, there were two amazing choirs. One, the customary Maasai children's choir, and the other was a visiting Swahili adult choir from the Pare Diocese.  It was interesting for us to learn that most of the members of the adult choir were converts from Islam and one man was a very recent Christian convert--until only a few months ago, he was a pagan sorcerer/medicine man. When he accepted Christ, he made a public display of burning all of his sorcery tools and implements in front of his home congregation. He also accepted the name "Emmanuel."

2. The orphanage that we have visited is only about two miles from LJS, so it makes for a nice post-class walk. We have enjoyed our time there playing with the kids so much that we anticipate making the trek several times each week in the future. In summary, the kids are starved for attention and human contact--even our 30-45 minutes that we can spend with them clearly makes a difference. As soon as we arrive, they hug our legs and chant "bebe" (Swahili kid-talk for "hold me"). It's always difficult to leave, but we are glad that we will have so many opportunities to go back.

3. Although we feel wholly inadequate singing in the midst of the youth choir, it has been a fun experience so far. The songs are very catchy, but have many words. Everyone seems welcoming of us, and it is a fun opportunity to learn some more Swahili. The director of the choir is a young man with a beautiful Bass voice but miraculously has the capability to sing in every voice part in the correct octave and even in key! We learn the songs by listening to and mimicking him.

4. Until now, we have had a power outage schedule (well, mostly). Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we could count on having no power. It seems as if this schedule is about to be changed. Now we have been told to expect outages nearly every day. So be prepared.

5. It's strange to have more people on campus and eating in the dining hall with us, but it's nice to have to have new faces too. There are students from Germany, Canada, South Korea, and the U.S. They are all planning on living in Tanzania for varying amounts of time following graduation from the language school.

6. We have noticed that we can read and interpret Swahili relatively well, but when it comes to carrying a conversation, we struggle. It has been a wonderful, fun, and learning experience to spend more and more time with some of our new Tanzanian friends. It is certainly a challenge sometimes to express ourselves in Swahili, but we are getting better.


We are looking forward to a number of exciting upcoming adventures. This weekend on Saturday (provided it doesn't rain), we plan to climb the mountain near the seminary with some of our Tanzanian friends. We heard that there are waterfalls near the peak, as well as beautiful views everywhere. We can't wait to get out and stretch our legs a little. Sunday and Monday we will visit villages. Then, we are taking next week off from classes and heading to the island of Zanzibar for four days.  This excursion will include immersion into Muslim culture, exploration of the island and town, snorkeling, and other things that we have not yet been told to expect. We look forward to updating you post-adventure.

Hope all is well in the States. Your prayers and good thoughts are always appreciated and certainly reciprocated.  We will write again soon, but no promises as to when.

Much love,

Ellen and Laura

Safari nzuri sana!

Hello all!

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Laura and I got the opportunity to visit Mikumi National Park and go on safari! Safari literally means "journey" in Swahili, and what a journey it was--safari nzuri sana. A very good journey.

Although we went to Swahili classes on Tuesday morning, we left for Mikumi just after lunch and arrived around 2 P.M. We entered the park (and "park" is a relative term--Mikumi is something like 2000 square miles!) and drove around scouting out various flora and fauna until the park closed at 7 P.M.  Although five hours might sound like a long time to be driving around looking at animals, it certainly didn't feel like it! Tuesday afternoon and evening we were lucky enough to see more than a dozen elephants crossing the road right in front of us, two female lions, lots of zebra and giraffes, hippos staying cool in the water, herds of antelope and water buffalo and wildebeest, cranes, baboons, and much more!

Then Wednesday morning we got up early (the park opens at 6 A.M.) and were at it again. Because you pay for a 24-hour pass, we had until 2 P.M. on Wednesday to be in the park and we wanted to make the most of it! Some of the exciting moments on Wednesday included seeing a lion (very closely!) with its water buffalo lunch, finding many more zebras and giraffes and antelope, watching baby baboons play in a tree, and discovering four lion cubs lying with their mother in a culvert to stay cool during the hot day.  All of these things sound nice, but it's another thing entirely to see them for yourself. I've attached a few pictures from my collection (I took more than 200 while at Mikumi!), but even photos cannot do justice to the spectacular sights that we saw.

tembo 

twiga

punda milia

chui

simba

simba--check out the silhouette of the lion cub!

simba na "rafiki" (friend)

sunset on Tuesday evening in Mikumi

sunrise Wednesday morning--because Tanzania is so close to the equator, you can literally watch the sun move into the sky! As we watched, it took less than two minutes from when the sun peaked up above the mountain until it had fully emerged.

As we were getting ready to leave the park, the car broke down and we (Ema, Laura, and I) had to push it several times to get it started up again. Even then it would spontaneously stop running, which meant we had to push it again. Once on the highway, it continued to give us problems and eventually we had to be pulled to the nearest town and mechanic by someone who had stopped to help. We found it interesting that even our "good Samaritan" wouldn't help us for any less than 90,000 Tsh! Still, the car got fixed within a couple of hours and we were on our way back to Morogoro again. All's well that ends well. Granted, this is quite a gloss of the situation and the frustrations that always go with car troubles, but I think you get the idea. ;^)

Ema taking a look at the problem... 

Well, although there's always more to say, I think I'll stop there for now. 

Hope all is well in the Midwest--stay cool. ;^) 

All the best, 

Ellen

Village visits

Mambo!

Yesterday and today were spent traveling to Maasai villages. Ellen and I really enjoyed our time at both villages; here are some details of each.

Saturday's visit was good, but long. We left LJS around 8:00 a.m. to travel to a village with Pastor Hafermann. Along the way, we had to stop in town to do some shopping for a friend of P. Hafermann's. So by the time we got to the village, it was around 11:00 a.m. The Maasai don't have a sense of time like we do, so the worship service that was supposed to start at 11:30 a.m. actually started around 1:30 p.m. Once we arrived, we were served tea and then given a tour of the village, as well as the thirty-foot deep well that had just recently been finished. The construction of the well sounded pretty spectacular; apparently the men would drop down into the well to lay each brick and then be lifted back out at the end of each day. This was all done with a rope and pure human power. Amazing! It was also very interesting to see how progressive the village is...they own about one hundred acres of land and lots of cattle. The service didn't get done until about 4:30 p.m., mostly because there were sixteen baptisms that took place. We were then served dinner following the service which included the usual rice, cow liver, and gravy. One of the observations that Ellen and I made was that if we had been born and raised in a Maasai village, we would most likely be married with three children by now. There were new mothers that were middle school and high school age; that is something that neither of us can imagine!

Today we visited another village and the worship service took place in a church, which was complete with a cement altar that had finished tile all along the sides. It was very nice compared to what we've seen so far and it is mostly due to the pastor/church elder of that church being very wealthy. We ate outside of his house following the service and were served the usual meal (rice, cow liver, and gravy) by the warriors. We never get to eat with the women because they eat separately from the men. And the children eat last because they get what the adults don't eat. After our visit we stopped by another village to pray for a woman's daughter who was being taken away that day to be married to a warrior of another village. After praying for the daughter, we made one last stop at another village to pay respects to a family who had lost a loved one. Unfortunately, because the family was so grateful that we came, they served us another full meal of rice, cow liver, and gravy. We didn't want to be rude, so we ate what was given to us, and I don't think I could have taken in one more grain of rice following the meal. It was very cool, however, to see how generous the Maasai people are and how meaningful it is to them to treat each guest as best as they can.

We had a great weekend that was full of wonderful experiences and many chances to meet awesome people. Tomorrow we have a day of classes at LJS and then on Tuesday and Wednesday we are off to Mikumi National Park to go on a safari!

Hoping you all are well,

Laura

Karibu Tanzania!

Note: this blog entry was actually written on Jan. 18, but due to the aforementioned technology difficulties, it was a bit delayed in its publishing... 

“Habari za leo!”

“Nzuri. Hujambo?”

“Sijambo.” 

“Asante sana.”

Which is rather literally translated:

“What is your news of the day?”

“Only good news. Any problems?”

“No problems.”

“Thank you very much.” 

These were some of the first Kiswahili words we learned here in Tanzania, and we’ve found them to be very useful. We’ve found it particularly refreshing that there is only good news in Tanzania, and there are never any problems either—negatives are simply not part of the common language.  We have been trying to keep this positive perspective in spite of the large negative of not having internet upon arrival at the Lutheran Junior Seminary, a status which continued for a longer period of time than we would have liked. In addition, the electricity here is very temperamental—we have learned that the power companies will often shut off the electricity to an entire town for an unpredictable and undesignated amount of time. 

Still, despite these setbacks, our time here has been very good thus far. We have only just begun our Kiswahili lessons, but are finding them to be enjoyable and also challenging. The primary method of instruction is oral repetition and constant conversation, which is definitely a shift from the American mode of language learning. The plus to living “on campus” is that we are surrounded by native Kiswahili speakers, so we are constantly called upon to use what little we already know. Overall, everyone is encouraging of our slow progress. 

Last Saturday (January 15), we had our first trip with Pastor Hafermann: a visit to the Maasai cattle market.  The Maasai people are known for their cattle herding; without cattle, they have nothing. In general, they are kind and welcoming people, but this can be difficult to perceive at first glance. The warriors in particular appear very fierce with their traditional garb, long knives hanging from their belts, and wooden prodding sticks to control the cattle. It was a very good experience, though we found it a little unnerving to be the center of attention wherever we went.  Maasai warriors were everywhere and approached us with curiosity.  We found our personal space to be severely encroached upon, Pastor Hafermann was asked if we were for sale, and Emmanuel (Pastor Hafermann’s right hand man) provided the security we wished for to feel protected. While there, we got to try many new things—green coconuts, both meat and milk (which has the same chemical composition as human plasma, in case you wanted to know), and also goat thigh and liver.  We won’t go into the gory details of our lunch, except to say that we were accepted as honorary men for the day and allowed to eat with the Maasai friends of Pastor Hafermann, which meant that we were drawn into all of their customs of dining (read into that what you will). 

On Sunday, we got the opportunity to witness a Maasai wedding, the first in this particular village’s church.  Upon arriving at the village after a VERY bumpy car ride, we were immediately invited to share tea with some of the Maasai elders. This included receiving a blessing from each of the men.  They drink their tea out of little plastic cups with lots of milk and sugar, and they also eat chapatas (which we estimate to be like really thick lefse). After tea, we got a tour of the village, which included their new projects of a water pump and solar panels (which were installed by a tobacco company who has taken an interest in this village). Then it was time for the wedding service (which started more than an hour after it was scheduled to begin). 

We were seated at the very front of the congregation, next to the elders and directly in front of all the Maasai men. The concept of personal space is VERY different in Tanzania, which we experienced firsthand throughout this three-hour service. It was nearly 100 degrees outside, therefore, with more than 500 people crammed into this tiny church, it was a bit warm and, dare we say it, uncomfortable. Still, we greatly enjoyed the service, particularly the Maasai children’s choirs and watching all of the women dance and bless both the choirs and wedding couple. 

Although there were many similarities to weddings we have attended in the past—namely, communion, Lutheran liturgy, a sermon, Scripture readings, hymns, etc.—there were some notable differences. In particular, the couple are prohibited from openly showing emotion so as to fully convey the seriousness of their commitment and this big step in their lives. Along the same lines, the children in the choirs also appeared expressionless, but openly conveyed joy through their voices. Gifts were also presented as part of the service. 

An interesting fact to note: This village is still divided between Lutherans and pagans. As such, half of the people in attendance were pagans who came to see what this service was all about.  Startlingly, a pagan woman was possessed by an evil spirit in the middle of the service and needed to be carried out. We found out later that she was unable to be cured because she refused to allow her charms to be removed. Another Maasai woman told us that this was silly because she and others had become free from the power of evil spirits after beginning to come to church as believers. 

After the wedding, we exited the church and greeted every single member of the congregation, including the wedding party. This was overwhelming, as touching our skin held some particular fascination for the people. The children would walk up to us and timidly touch our arms and hands—for some reason, they think our skin is incredibly soft and are curious to see if it will break when they touch it.  Once the greetings were finished, we ate cow liver and lots of rice with the church leaders and other evangelists in attendance. 

The combination of these two days, plus residual jet lag, frustration with the absence of internet, and the major temperature adjustment left us utterly exhausted. Sunday night we went to bed around 7:30 P.M. and slept straight through until around 5:30 A.M. 

Overall, we are definitely enjoying our stay here, but it is still taking some adjustment. We are looking forward to visiting Mikumi National Park next Tuesday and Wednesday with Pastor Hafermann. Also, we are hoping to have more reliable internet access in the future, enabling us to be more regular in our blog posting. 

We wish you all the best and hope that you are not freezing in the frigid Midwestern weather. We are enjoying 90-100 degree heat and VERY HIGH humidity every day. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, as you are in ours. 

Much love, 

Ellen and Laura