Memories of the Tanzania Trip - Fall, 2002

Thoughts on our trip to Tanzania - Fall, 2002
by Kris Johnson, St. John Lutheran Church, Williston, Ohio

     As you may be aware, I was part of a delegation of 16 men and women from the Northwest Ohio Synod who were guests of the Dodoma Diocese, from Sept 26 to Oct 4 of this year. Several of us visited companion congregations and 9 of us were official guests at the annual meeting of the women of the Dodoma Diocese. What a rousing welcome we received when we arrived at the Lutheran Cathedral in Dodoma that first evening – necklaces of bougainvillea flowers for each of us and hugs all around, especially with those we had met before, including many of the women who visited Ohio last summer. Our official hosts were Bishop Mwamasika and Elizabeth Ringo, Parish Worker for Dodoma Diocese, in charge of women’s and children’s work. They came to Dar es Salaam to welcome us when our plane arrived.

     I spent that weekend with the folks of Isanga parish, St. John’s companion congregation, staying with Pastor Amanyise and his wife, Anna, in the parsonage, which was completed with much work on the part of parish members and financial help from the members of St. John. Each day I and several women from the congregation made the 10 minute trip to the Lutheran Cathedral, where the convention was held, in a battered old Toyota pick-up.

     Salaries in Tanzania are very meager by our standards, so pastors and congregations all have supplementary sources of support. Everyone has a garden to supply nourishing vegetables and fruits, and many have farm animals as well. Pastor showed me the pen in back of the parsonage where he keeps pigs – 10, including 7 baby pigs. He also has an oil pressing machine, and showed me how they press sunflower seeds to make oil which he sells in the town. The pigs, of course, make good use of the sunflower shells, as well as the household garbage. During the rainy season they grow many sunflowers on the grounds around the church. The congregation would also like to get a corn grinding machine, so they could make some money grinding corn for the community, as everyone grows corn.

     One of the qualities of the people of Tanzania that I cherish is their hospitality and generosity. I came home with gifts of colorful kitenge cloth made in Tanzania, not only for myself, but also for our pastor and other new friends met in America last summer. Two years ago we stayed with Mastidia Aligaweza and her husband, who is a psychiatrist at the mental hospital for those who have committed crimes, which is next to Isanga church. Mastidia is a nurse, and has a small clinic nearby where she sees pregnant women and young children, and also works with the young people of the area to educate them about AIDS. Mastidia showed three of us around her clinic one day and after our visit we stopped briefly at her house and she gave me gifts, – things she had made herself. In many of the houses that we visited the living room was filled with easy chairs, sofas, and large coffee tables, made by local craftsmen, and decorated with the handwork the women had created. They gather often to share meals together, with the women all helping in the kitchen to prepare the food, so all the seating space is put to good use. In the large living room of the woman who is director of the Christian Council of Tanzania Training and Conference Center, which is across from the Dodoma Cathedral, I counted 6 sofas, 4 easy chairs, and 2 large coffee tables, decorated with about 30 bright orange finely hand-crocheted doilies - they love bright colors! For a typical meal for guests the dining table is laden with insulated bowls (to keep the food warm) filled with foods such as rice, cornmeal mush (ugali – their most typical food), meat in a sauce with tomatoes, onions, peppers, vegetables such as peas, cabbage, eggplant, carrots, roasted bananas, fresh oranges or papaya, sliced cucumbers. A before meal ritual always observed is the washing of hands with water poured by one of the women from a pitcher into a bowl for each guest. Water is a precious commodity in dry Dodoma, and is often not available at a sink nearby.

     Prior to the start of the convention on Sunday,  September 29, we each received a gray T-shirt with the convention name, date, and theme on it, and a piece of fabric to use as a skirt. This fabric, called ‘kitenge’, is a standard, all purpose garment for women all over Tanzania, wrapped around and tied as a skirt. This outfit was worn by all the participants in the convention.

The occasion for all this uniformity was the Solidarity March that began the convention. Imagine for a minute 200 women all dressed alike, a dozen or so clergy in full Sunday robes, a marching band to lead us, and a big sign with the convention theme on it at the front of the procession carried by the officers.  And we then were off marching, with police escort, from the Lutheran Cathedral down the main boulevard in Dodoma, which is lined with colorful bougainvillea, around a big traffic  circle also covered with bougainvillea, past Bishop Mwamasika, in full regalia, who reviewed the procession, past the Dodoma Mosque and  then back to the Cathedral. We made quite a splash!!!

The theme of the convention was Nahum 1:9a. This is a difficult passage to translate. When I looked at several translations I found 5 different verbs used for the one verb in the original Hebrew.

Why do you plot against the LORD? (NRSV)

What do you conspire against the Lord? (NKJV)

"Why are you scheming against the Lord?" in the New Living Translation.

"What do ye imagine against the Lord?" in the King James version.

Oddly enough, the Swahili parallels the King James, but has a different feel.

"What do you imagine about the Lord?"

I puzzled about why this bit of verse had been picked for the convention theme. The barriers of language made it difficult to ask. The context is a lengthy oracle (or poem) about God’s wrath toward and judgement of Ninevah.

One of the topics covered at some length at the convention was AIDS, which has devastated many parts of Africa. The women were challenged to educate themselves and their families about this grievous disease, and to work to bring an end to the dreadful scourge. This led me to think that perhaps the meaning of the theme was something more like "Why are you grieving the Lord!?"  

[Actually, I found out later that their interpretation was something like "Where do you stand in relation to the Lord?" which makes sense for the Solidarity March.]

[ Page 2 ]