Memories
of the Tanzania Trip - Fall, 2005
Part 2
That afternoon we endured a 4 hour bumpy ride from AYA to the city of Dodoma. We passed through many villages and saw much of the very dry countryside. Masai homes are made of mud, sticks, and dung walls with thatched roofs. Other homes are usually made of brick (which is officially encouraged by the government), with tin roofs. Most houses are very small. In the villages homes are mostly just for sleeping and protection from the rain and critters. City homes have running water and kitchens but in the villages, cooking is done with wood or charcoal outside. In the villages people must make the trip to the spring or well for water.
Dodoma is the new capital city of Tanzania instead of Dar Es Salaam, a city of 3 million on the Indian Ocean. Dodoma is more centrally located but most government officials do not want to move there. There are only a few paved streets in the whole city of Dodoma.
Humble House was to be our home for the next several nights, and a lovely place it was. It was built mainly to provide temporary housing to people who are working on the big new medical complex being donated by a wealthy Minnesotan (who owns the company that makes most pacemakers). Our guest house had 9 rooms and the building next door had 4 apartments and a conference room. The first phase of the medical project costs 2 million (It would cost 10 times that to build it in the states) and has a dental clinic, public health building, and about 10 houses for doctors and administrators.
We also visited the Hekima Project, which is a job training program for women in the areas of computers, sewing, and weaving. They presented African dresses that they had made to the women in our group. This project has made over 600 loans to women to start their own businesses.
Another stop brought us to the Martin Luther Elementary School. This is not a project directly supported by the church. A wealthy local Tanzanian businessman built the school so his own children and others would have a quality religious based education. With Dodoma now the capital, he figured there would be a great demand for good schools. . .
Then we had two relaxing days at Humble House which had a nice little library so I managed to read 4 books while we were there. The men were busy working on their presentations and sermons. I did get off one e-mail and hoped to do more but either the Internet was off, phone service was out, or the electricity was off. When I inquired, they said, "Hey! This is Africa!" Humble House was on the outskirts of town so we really couldn't walk into town to shop. We did walk around the neighborhood to see many new homes being built. When people get a plot of land, they have 10 years to complete their house and they do it a brick at a time as they get money. One house had stalled out and had significant trees growing out of it. Toward the end of our walk, we felt like the pied piper with about 25 children following us. Down the road some people had dug down to the water pipe and put a hole in it so that the water would run out for their cattle. It had been repaired several times but they kept doing it.
We did make a trip to the bank to cash travelers' cheques, which turned out to be a real ordeal. I had planned to use an ATM like I always do but we didn't find one that would take Master Card until the last day in the city of Dar. Cashing the checks took more time (2 hours) and paperwork than when I got a home loan several years ago.
On Saturday we spent the day at the cathedral. Bishop Lohrmann did three presentations on "What the Reformation Means to Us Today." Pr. Maurer did a workshop on preparation for sermon writing. Ladies from the cathedral cooked lunch and dinner outside for 200 people. Each person brought his own table service in a plastic bag and there were some big tubs to wash them.
Sunday
morning started off quite early. Pro Maurer and I went to the Arusha Rd.
church where he preached and I brought greetings to over 200 people for
the 7 AM service. The choir processed wearing uniforms and singing to the
rhythm of a bass drum. The music was beautiful as always. They sing in
harmony with no musical accompaniment. One of the hymns was "In the
Sweet By and By". Pro Munisi told me that last week their second
offering was for the poor and they collected over $1200. This is in a
country where the average family income is $1200 a year. Through the heavy
concrete walls we could hear the children, who were gathered in another
part of the building, singing together during Sunday School. How many
children would we have in Sunday School at 7 in the morning? During this
service Pro Maurer and I were presented with kangi (the colorful cotton
wraps). Mine fortunately was purple so it would go with the purple African
dress I was wearing that the Hekima folks gave me.
After church we were invited into the "Rest House", a building with a lounge and a few rooms, where people can stay, for tea and kuku (chicken). The people were very friendly and gracious as always.
Then it was off to the cathedral for the main event. This was the 5 hour service of ordination of 7 pastors and the commissioning of about 170 lay evangelists presided over by Bishop Mwamasika and bishop Lohrmann. Laura did the greeting for this service because her church had provided over $10,000 toward the training. About 600 were present for this joyous occasion. The cathedral choir and a village choir provided the special music. At the end of the service all of the students gathered in the chancel to sing for us a German canon, directed by Ursula. She told them that she had to speak to them in Swahili for 3 years and the least they could do for her was to sing a song in German that she had taught them. And she had taught them well. Their pronunciation was impeccable and they sounded like angels. She gave me the music so I hope I can teach it to our choir. We again had a meal outside on the grounds, while the dignitaries rushed off to lay a cornerstone for a new church.
On the way back to Humble House the Brandt’s showed us a decorated cake that they were given. It was brought as an offering to the church where he preached that morning and then auctioned off. Someone bought it and presented it to them. "Psalm 133, v. 1 & 2" was written on it in frosting. One of us asked if anyone knew what those verses were and Pro Maurer answered that he thought it was, "Let them eat cake." Bob said that Marie Antoinette had said that but Pr. Maurer replied that she was most likely quoting scripture. (It must have been an obscure French translation.) (All right, you had to be there. After a long, tiring but incredible day, the humor was greatly appreciated.) That evening instead of supper we just had that cake. [Actual translation of verse 1 – "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!"]
On Monday we flew for a little over an hour in a small chartered plane to Dar Es Salaam. Our pilots were German and before we took off one of them asked us to bow our heads for a few words of prayer. This was a new experience. Although in Tanzania we always prayed whenever we set off in the car, even if it was only for a few blocks. We joined in prayer even when we were just having something to drink or a snack.
Someone from the church met us in Dar and drove us over an hour to a small resort at Bagamoya on the Indian Ocean. The Friedrich's drove over in the land rover with our luggage because it was too heavy for the plane. Here we spent two days in beautiful cottages right on the beach. This area is where many slaves were once shipped to the island of Zanzibar to be sold by and to Arabs. We visited a museum about the slave trade and the early Catholic missionary endeavors. Reinhard also drove us to the old German section which has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and will hopefully soon be restored.
We enjoyed walking
the beach and some went swimming. The view was beautiful but there was
much seaweed that had washed up on the beach. There was a hired guard on
the beach all day. Watching the fishing boats go out at sunrise and come
back in late in the day was an interesting sight. They have been doing
this here in much the same way for hundreds of years.
The food at the resort was very good and the food on the whole trip was much better than I expected. The ones in our group who had been in Serbia on the way to Africa said that they thought most people's diets in Tanzania were much better than in Serbia. We didn't see the Masai eat much besides goat but most people eat much fruit and vegetables besides chicken, beef and goat. However, their diet would be an Atkins nightmare, often having three starches at one meal, potatoes, rice, and ugali-made out of corn meal. Several times we had a mixture of ground beef, carrots, and green peppers. They drink a juice made out of flowers. Soft drinks are quite prevalent - remember Ursula said that first comes Coke and then the missionaries.
We almost had a very bad experience on the way to the airport, stopping in the city because some of us needed another shoppertunity. We parked about a block away, Laura and I deciding to stay in the car. This area along the coast was very humid so we had to leave the windows open. Several young men came up to the car trying to sell us things. One man walked to the front of the car and started beating on the hood. Just as I turned to look at him, I saw another man reaching in the window on the other side of the van to get Laura's purse off the seat. Those of you that have seen me play softball or volleyball know that my reflexes are not very good which is why I walk around mostly black and blue all summer, but I'm so thankful that they were fast enough this time. I lunged across the van toward the window with both my arms outstretched. I grabbed the purse just as it was going out the window. My excess weight finally came in handy for something. The purse (with her passport) came back in the window as I fell to the floor and seat of the van. Bwana Asifiwe!!!!
Tanzania is not my favorite country and this was not my most fun trip, but, next to the Holy Land, it was the most inspiring. The Masai live about the hardest life of anybody I've seen, but they seem to be a happy people. The enthusiasm and faith of the people at the churches we visited was so uplifting and unforgettable. I can see why we want to bring some of the evangelists to visit us here next year. [See Injili Tour] They have much to teach us.
Judy Pfaffenberger