Moving On Soon

My time in Tanzania is coming to a close. Over the next two weeks I will be traveling quite a bit. I will be going by bus to Arusha (a city in northern Tanzania) to meet some friends and then to Nairobi where I will meet up with the organization I will be volunteering with. From Nairobi we will be traveling by bus to Kampala (the capital of Uganda) and then up to the northern city of Kitgum. Hopefully, we will start work in Uganda by April 15.

I don't know what the internet connection will be like in the new locations I am traveling to, but I will update the blog whenever I can.

Another AMAZING person, Dr. Nkya

My blog is working again and I would like to celebrate by introducing you to one of the most amazing people I have met during my Tanzania travels, Dr. Nkya.

The picture above shows Dr. Nkya between Karleen and myself. Dr. Lucy Nkya is a native Tanzanian and a medical doctor. She is a devout Christian and a loving wife and mother to her 4 grown children. She manages a private hospital in Morogoro that takes care of over 1,000 patients with HIV, over 100 of which are children. She has developed HIV prevention and care programs for the entire country. She is also a member of the Tanzanian Parliament. She holds the seat for HIV/AIDS and Women's Issues. She is a huge proponent of girls education and the rights of people with HIV and she has done some amazing things in Tanzania. Oh yes, and she somehow manages to find time to teach classes as well.

Several weeks ago Dr. Nkya came and gave a lecture on HIV/AIDS to our language school (once a week we have an afternoon 'orientation' that introduces us to part of Tanzanian culture). Then Karleen and I got to spend an additional day with her when she went out to visit a Maasai village. Dr. Nkya said that when Maasai girls go off to boarding school and away from the protection of their father and older brothers, the often become pregnant and infected with HIV. She was discussing with the Maasai elders about opening up a Maasai boarding school in Morogoro to prevent this problem. While we were there she also started a goat income-generation project and made plans for other HIV prevention activities.

Dr. Nkya said that the President of Tanzania (an open-minded Muslim) was in her office last week and asked Dr. Nkya to pray for him. He told Dr. Nyka that she knows him as a playboy type, but that was going to stop that behavior so he could be a good example for how his country should behave and hopefully reduce HIV transmission.

One last note: Dr. Nkya said she always needs medical staff for her hospital, but right now her most crucial need is a dentist. She has all the equipment, chairs, etc. but there is not dentist a use them. She said it is very important because children with HIV particularly have a lot of problems with their mouth and teeth. So, if any of you know a dentist who has nothing to do, tell him or her that they should volunteer their time in Dr. Nkya's hospital.

A Snake Story

Vitu vingi vimetukia hapa. Juzi tulimwona nyoka wa sumu. (Mimi namwogopa nyoka sana). Lucio, Narooma, mwalimu na mimi tulijifunza Kiswahili kwa bidii, na Narooma akisema, "Mimi nina mwona chura." Halafu yeye akasema, "Sasa mimi nimamwona nyoka pia. Nyoka nyuma ya Christine!" Halafu mimi na mwalimu tukamkimbia nyoka. Walimu wengine na watu wengi walikuja na kumpiga nyoka. Baada ya nyoka kufa, turudi na kujifunza kwa bidii tena. (Nyoka alikuwa mdogo na mweusi na wa kijani).

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Translation:
Many things have happened here. Two days ago we saw a poisonous snake. (I am very scared of snakes). Lucio, Narooma, the teacher, and I were studying Swahili [outside] with energy, and Narooma said, "I see a frog." Then she said, "Now I see a snake too. The snake is right behind Christine!" Then the teacher and I ran away from the snake. Other teachers and many people came and beat the snake. After the snake was dead, we returned to studying with effort. (The snake was small and was black and green).

Men at Work

Here is a wood-carver. We went to a wood-carving family and they showed us how they started out with a huge hunk of wood and turned it into a beautiful smooth carving. I bought a couple of things here.

This is how you deal with tall grass in Africa. Instead of having 1 lawn mower and 1 person to push/ride the lawn mower, you send about 50 of people to slash the grass with a bent machetes. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

This is a street tailor who made a dress for me. He just has his sewing machine set up at the side of the road and you drop off your fabric and tell him what you want as the cars and bikes go flying by.

Two 'Firsts'

NOTE: If you usually read this blog with your children, you might want to read this entry first and then decide if you want to share it with your children or not.

Today was an interesting and exciting day. Perhaps one of the most interesting since I have arrived in Tanzania. It was a day where I experienced 2 things for the first time: 1) It was the first time I was in a vehicle got stuck in the mud on a bad road and 2) It was the first time I have witnessed a person being possessed.

A couple of days ago Pastor Hofferman invited Karleen and I to go with him to a new preaching place. Two Tanzanians went with us as well. During the drive Pastor Hofferman gave us some background on both the history of the relationship between the Christians and the Maasai as well as the background the village we are going to. Over the last several decades a Christian group Hofferman calls the 'Pentecostals' tried to convert the Maasai. They came in and told the Maasai that they were all going to Hell and that they need to stop wearing traditional clothes and start wearing European clothes, that the women couldn't wear beads or earrings, that the Maasai men should divorce their additional wives, that they had to stop their nomadic lifestyle and give up their cows because according to the Pentecostals "God doesn't like people with too many cows." Well, you can imagine how well that went over. It resulted in a lot of negative sentiment towards the Christians among the Maasai.

Pastor Hofferman started working as the pastor for this region in 1993. Pastor Hofferman has a completly different approach to interacting with the Maasai (and all people for that manner) than the Pentecostal groups. He has a gentle and kind personality and he respects the Maasai as equals. He also respects their culture and traditions and acts as their advocate. Because of their nomadic lifestyle, the Maasai do not have as much access to education and social services as the Swahili populations. Often the Maasai are discriminated against in the court (when a farmer wants the Maasai's grazing land). They are also frequently refused medical care because they are looked down on as 'backwards' by some of the educated parts of society. Pastor Hofferman tries to make sure the Maasai get fair treatment in the courts and he has gone to great extents to make sure that they get access to medical care. The result is that the Maasai respect and love Pastor Hofferman and respond to his message. In 1993 when he became pastor for the region, there were about 1,000 members in the church, not there are over 10,000. There are 95 churches spread out in the area and each has a Tanzanian lay pastor who has attended 2 years of Bible school that hold weekly services. Hover, they can't perform weddings, baptisms or marriages.

The head of the village that we were traveling towrads had some very negative experiences with the Pentecostal Christians and had even chased them away when they had tried to come to his village. By “village” I mean one huge family: the head man, his wives, the head man's younger brothers and their wives, countless children and in-laws. However, recently this man had a change of heart. Several weeks ago when we were at the Maasai cattle market he came up to Pastor Hofferman and asked if he would come to his house and baptism his family. The next time we were at the cattle market the man came and asked the same thing. The last time we were at the cattle market he sent a messenger to find us and tell us that he had even started to build a church for his village and that he wanted a lay pastor to be assigned to him as well.

Back to driving... on our 3 hour drive to this location we went over a muddy spot in the "road" and we got stuck in the mud. It only took 1/2 an hour and two men pushing on the car to get us out, so I have been told this actually wasn't too bad of a 'getting stuck' experience.

When we arrived we were greeted by the whole family and served tea. Then the head man took us out to see his cattle. You can see his hand in the above picture. I told him in Swahili that his cows were very nice and he said that I must be a true Maasai at heart if I could appreciate good cows.

This is the head man of the village. He was actually very young. He was also very happy. He smiled the whole day and kept telling us how happy he was that we had come.

After we had been there for a while I asked if it would be OK if took some pictures. The Maasai men really liked my digital camera and pretty soon they were taking all sorts of blurry pictures and laughing at the images of themselves. (I had over 100 pictures taken on my camera that day). It was really fun.

Later I started to show the Maasai men some of the pictures I had taken at other locations. For example, pictures of elephants and other animals I had taken at Mikumi National Park. While I was showing them all the pictures on my camera I came across the above picture that I had taken right before leaving Washington State. I explained that this was a picture of two of my younger brothers cooking Ethiopian food and I was startled by a unified *GASP* and shouts of surprise among all the Maasai men. They said in Swahili, "These are your brothers?!" I answered "yes" and I thought that they were surprised because my brothers are black and I was white. I was about to try to figure out how to explain adoption in Swahili, but the Maasai men said (in Swahili), "In America boys cook?!!! That is so strange!" I turns out that a white person having black siblings didn't seem strange at all, but you couldn't shock them with anything stranger than boys cooking!

Here Karleen and I are sitting with the men in white plastic lawn chairs (yes, Andy you are right - plastic lawn chairs really are everywhere). We were 'honorary men' for the day (usually women sit on mats on the ground away from the men) and so most or our conversations were with the men. I wanted to go sit with the women for a while, but Pastor Hofferman told me that would be very rude as it would be seen as refusing their hospitality and the honor we had been given.

This is the mother of the head man. She sat on a mat on the ground the whole time, but she was given the utmost respect and status in the village. She was baptized first, even before the head man, and was served by his wives. I didn't get to talk to her, but she smiled all the time and seemed like a very happy person.

The baptism registration took so long that the church service didn't start until 3 in the afternoon. We had the service under a huge tree. Here one of the Maasai men is getting baptized.

The women werebaptiized after the men. This was one of the first women to be baptized. All the baptisms were going along normally until it was the second to the last woman. She was a very nice looking woman of about 20 who had a baby tied on her back. She came forward and kneeled down on the little cushion. However, when Pastor Hofferman touched her head she started to scream and thrash around violently. One of the other wives ran forward and grabbed the baby before it fell. The woman continued to scream and then she started to growl and make really strange noises that didn't sound like her voice at all. She was crawling around on the ground and moving almost like a dog. A lay pastor and some of the wives went to her and started praying for her and holding her down. Pastor Hofferman finished the last baptism and then went over to the woman. He joined the other people praying for her and some of the other wives were holding her down (it took about 6 people) so she wouldn't injure herself. After about 1/2 an hour of praying and singing, she calmed down and her growling and screaming turned into crying. The head man's mother told Pastor Hofferman that the woman had said in Kimaasai that she wanted him to continue with the baptism. After they baptized her she became completely calm and she took communion with everyone else.

A picture of the Maasai wives taking communion. When I asked Pastor Hofferman to explain what happened, he said that the woman had been possessed by an evil spirit. He said that the woman came from a family that practiced sorcery and that she had been given the evil spirit by a witch doctor. (Important note, witch doctor does not equal tradtional healer who uses herbs and natural remedies to cure illnesses). He said that women usually go to a witch doctor when something bad happens such as a sick child or an inability to get pregnant with the hopes that he can cure the problem. The witch doctor will write some verses on a piece of paper and then put the paper in a jar of water. The witch doctor then makes the person drink the water while performing some sort-of sacrifice and the spirit will then inhabit the individual. Pastor Hofferman said this is very hard to believe for many people in the US and Europe because they don't think sort-of things exist, but here in Africa they are part of everyday life.

"I've got antelope liver stuck between my teeth"

Last Sunday I went with Pastor Hofferman and Karleen to a Swahili church (i.e. non-Maasai church) and it was really fun. Here are some pictures that tell about my day.

We drove for at least 2 hours to get there. Here is picture our the windshield of the car. The road here was unusually smooth and flat. I tried to take some pictures where the road was bad, but the pictures are so blurry you can't see anything. It is common to see people walking or biking at the side of the road. As you can see, it is very green at this time of year.

The road we drove on over-looked a town. I thought you all might enjoy seeing a Tanzanian town from above. This was also taken out of the car window. After this picture was taken we went through a rain forest and crossed a very scary bridge.

After we parked the car we had a 10 minute hike to get to the church. The above picture shows us walking to the church. The church is the little building to the left of the picture. Pastor Hofferman is the white man in the blue shirt.

After we arrived at the church we were invited into the lay pastor's house for tea. (Lay Pastors are Tanzanian and go to 2 years of Bible college, but can't give communion, baptize individuals, or perform marriages). Once we are sitting in the small dark room, the lay pastor's wife comes and pours water over our hands (this is in the place of hand-washing because there is no running water). Then she brings out some already sweetened tea and pours it into mugs. After that we are each given a little saucer of doughnut type times (unsweetened) and pieces of meat. I was sitting across for Pastor Hofferman and after the lay pastor's wife left he quietly says in English, "One of my greatest pleasures I get from my biology degree in Africa (his BS degree is in biology) is being able to identify the organs I am eating." He holds up a organ and asks me what it is. I say, "It's a kidney!" and then I look at my plate and say "Oh look, I've got the other one." We speculate which animal the kidneys in question have come from, and and we agree that they are too small to have come from a goat. Pastor Hofferman is informed by the Lay Pastor we are eating a small antelope called a swala. Pastor Hofferman and I both consume our antelope kidneys with great pleasure. Then Karleen whispers in my ear, "You won't be interested in slightly burned hunk of antelope liver, would you?" It doesn't look very appetizing, but I tell Karleen that if she takes two of my huge greasy unsweetened doughnuts I will eat the liver for her. The liver tasted about how you would expect it to taste. I realized after I had finished that I could say for the first time in my life, "I've got antelope liver stuck between my teeth." I don't know when I will be able to say this again, but it was pretty cool.

After tea we went back to church and listened to the singing for about an hour until church started. Everything is in Swahili, but we are able to understand a little bit more now, so we can sort-of follow the service. However, we usually don't understand the sermon.

After we had the baptisms and communion we had the offering. Now they had a basket for people to give money, but some people brought other things and just put them at the front of the church - for example goats a case of soda, huge bunches of bananas, etc.

After the offering we have some closing hymn. Then everyone files out of the church while singing and shakes hands with everyone else and then we stand in a big circle.

After we are all standing in a circle we have the 'offering auction.' Some people go in and bring the offering outside and then a church elder auctions off everything. The goats are auctioned first because they were really irritating and kept trying to eat the bananas. The goats went for about 40,000 Tanzania shillings each ( a little under $40 US). Last week during the offering auction I bought a clump of bananas. This week I was more confident with my Swahili skills and bid a little more aggressively. I bought some more fruit to take back to the language school and a piece for fabric for the lay pastor's wife.

After the offering we are invited back into the church and they give us each a huge pile or rice with another piece of meat perched on the top. This time I got part of the antelope's vertebral column. I am pretty sure it was from the lumbar section, but I wasn't completely sure.

The Children's Home

At least once a week I go with other language school students to the Children's Home that is just a couple kilometers from the Language School. The Children's Home is run by Tanzanian Catholic church and is staffed mostly by Tanzanian nuns. It is not called an orphanage because a large portion of the children still have a living father. In Tanzania if a mother dies and leaves a baby behind the baby usually also dies (especially if the child is less than a year old) so the Children's Home will keep babies after their mothers die and the fathers come and pick them up when they are about 3 years old. The fathers and family usually come and visit the children, but they leave the daily feeding and care up to the nuns. Apparently the system works well. Many of the mothers have died from AIDS. The children are routinely tested and if they are found to be positive they are sent to another HIV positive orphanage. Some of the children have lost both parents and they will stay in the orphanage until the become adults. The Children's home is connected to both a primary and secondary school that serves the surrounding area so the orphans do get a good education.

I have not put up a post about the Children's Home before because I didn't have any pictures. The nuns generally don't like people taking pictures of the kids, but this week we received permission to take a couple of pictures.

When you arrive at the Children's Home you are immediately surrounded by about 15 children all yelling "wageni!" (guests). Some of the more outgoing/aggressive children grab your legs and beg you to pick them up. It is really fun to play with the children, give then piggy back rides and just hold them. I also try to seek out and pay attention to some of the more shy children who usually don't get as much attention as the more outgoing children. In the picture above I am holding one girl and getting my hair unbraided (for the second time that day) by another.

Maasai Market Again

Armed with my new found ability to say all the numbers, “how much money does this cost”, and “that’s too much!” in Swahili, I went returned to the Maasai Cattle Market this Saturday. This time I actually bought some items and had several (very simple conversations in Swahili). The Maasai are a very forgiving audience for Swahili language learners because Swahili is a second language for them as well.



Here I am with a woman after I had purchased several pieces of fabric from her. We only had to write one number in the dirt during our bargaining process. In addition to the fabric I also purchased a handmade Maasai knife with a goat skin sheath for about $2.50.

This is a Maasai man who was witnessing our bargaining process. Unfortunately, you can't see his teeth in the picture. Since the Maasai work with animals I guess they are prone to tetanus (or so I am told) so when a child reaches about 6 years old, they knock out the two bottom front teeth so that if the child gets tetanus and the resulting lockjaw he/she can be fed through a straw. ( I commented that is sounds like the Maasai would be a good market for the tetanus vaccine as getting a shot every 10 years sounds a lot more pleasant that getting adult teeth pulled without anesthetic. However, I was told that it has now become a deep set tradition to knock out the front teeth and they usually do it even if there is no risk of tetanus).

A picture of myself in a huge "tree"