Grow where you are planted

One of my all-time favorite movies is Out of Africa.  We recently watched it again.  At the beginning of the movie, just before the music crescendos, Meryl Streep, as Karen Blixen, aka Isack Dinnesen, says, “I had a farm in Africa”.  These words came to me as Tom and I were busily digging the soil next to our house.

Mama Mdemu, the Director of the home, graciously offered us the use of the land for a shamba, a farm. Two weeks ago, we started the work.  First, we stopped by the Home and borrowed two hoes from the students.  By the time we got changed into work clothes and went outside, two of the girls, Paulina and Asha, were there to help us get started.  They wanted to be sure Bibi and Babu were not working too hard.  

We measured out a good sized plot to start with.  Paulina and Asha started digging up the ground, which is a deep orangish brown.  The area had been planted last season with potatoes, beans and corn.  The crops are intermingled in order to get as much as possible out of each square foot.  As we dug, we found potatoes that were left from the previous harvest.  Paulina told us to set these aside and they would be used as “seeds” for the next crop.  After finishing a few rows, we thanked Asha and Paulina and manned the hoes.  The work was hard, but very rewarding.  The soil here is unlike any we have dug before.  The clay content is very high and the ground is hard.  Digging turns over large clumps that almost look like broken bricks.  These need to be broken up with the hoe.  Also, we have only seen two earthworms after digging an area of about 60 by 100 feet.

Once the ground is completely turned, the area is mounded into “terraces” with a trench between each one.  Paulina instructed us on how to form the terrace and then showed that we would then dig holes in the terraces, put in some manure, cover this lightly and then put in a handful of potato “seeds” in each hole.  The work is very strenuous.  

In Tanzania, most people have at least a small shamba either at their home, or on land some distance away.  The students here and also our neighbors find it incredible that this is our first attempt at growing vegetables.  We showed them a postcard we received of the Philadelphia skyline and explained that there are very few farms in the city.  Even at our home in New Jersey, we always planted flowers.  With produce being so available, there is no need to grow anything.  

In America we have the blessing of fresh or frozen food at any season.  Here, they have the advantage of having weather that makes it possible to grow things year-round.  Anything that is not used by the family can be sold in order to buy the items they cannot grow.  Most of the corn grown at the Home is taken to Lushoto to be ground into corn meal.  String beans are left on the vine until the beans inside are very large and the plants are dried.  They are taken into a small area and beaten with large sticks.  The beans fall to the bottom and are dried.  The remains of the plants are used for compost.

We are blessed to be here and to be experiencing the life of the people around us.  Like our neighbors, we will be growing carrots, onions, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes and beans.  Unlike them, we have also planted zucchini and cauliflower.  

As the saying goes, “Grow where you are planted”.  

Easter in Arusha

After much consideration, we decided to travel to Arusha for the Holy Week and Easter services.  We had been invited to a get-together for mission personnel at the home of Barbara and Andy Hinderlie.  Barbara is the ELCA representative to Tanzania and her husband is a pastor and representative to Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and two other countries in East Africa.  They planned a combined BBQ and Super Bowl party.  

On Thursday, we left very early in the morning.  Of course, this was the day that the “rainy season” started in our area.  It rained all of the six and one half hours to Arusha.  Last time we drove there, we could see Mt Kilimanjaro for several hours.  This time the clouds were low and heavy.  The road to Arusha is one long two lane highway.  It passes though some very beautiful areas, as well as dry flat plains.  This trip, we mostly saw the windshield wipers smearing the rain and mud.

We arrived in Arusha at about 12:30 pm and checked into the Impala Hotel.  We had decided to stay there this time because of its “high speed” internet, four restaurants,  swimming pool, and best of all.....bathtubs!  We parked the truck and left it there for the whole five days.  Driving in Arusha is stressful and dangerous.  The traffic is crazy.  We decided to use taxis instead of trying to drive.  This was a good decision, since the driver we used for the whole weekend was excellent and knew where we could shop for the items we wanted.

After five months of services in Kiswahili, we needed some English services.  The Maundy Thursday service alone was worth every minute of the drive there.  Located on the grounds of Arusha Lutheran Medical Center is Arusha Community Church.  It is a non-denominational church founded through the auspices of the Lutheran Church.  The congregation is made up of people from all over East Africa, Europe, and America.  We had the pleasure of listening to the Passion read by teenagers with Irish, British, and American accents.  The leader of the service was a German Moravian gentleman.

Good Friday was observed much as it is in our home congregation, St John’s Lutheran Church in Philadelphia.  The rough wooden cross was laid at the foot of the altar with votive candles lit by those attending the service.  The readings and time for meditation were solemn and filled with the Holy Spirit.  

The Easter Sunday service was filled with great joy.  We sang some favorite Easter hymns and we were asked to assist with the distribution of Communion.  The music and choir were wonderful, but the best was the sermon.  Pastor Hinderlie was the preacher that day and delivered a great sermon.  The church was packed.  With a few dozen people still in the aisle, the bread almost ran out.  Tom and Pastor Hinderlie broke the remaining bread into smaller pieces.   The pre-poured wine and juice also ran out, and they were served common cup.  It was a joyous occasion.

At the meeting on Monday, we met people who are serving all over the area.  Besides the Lutherans present, we met people from other denominations including Mennonite, Presbyterians, and Catholics.  It was a wonderful chance to share our faith stories with each other.  We also learned about the many types of work that is being done.  It reminded us of the expression, “God’s work, our hands”.  We left there filled with the Holy Spirit as well as barbecued chicken and potato salad.  

On Tuesday morning, we left Arusha at 6 am, anxious to get home.  Our trip was just over five hours.  After we passed Moshi, we saw Mt Kilimanjaro in our rear window, shining in the sunlight.  As we climbed the mountain from Mambo to Lushoto and the temperature dropped, we were glad to return to our home.  We arrived home refreshed, rejuvenated, and thankful for our time away. 

(And for those who are wondering, the Super Bowl was sent to the Hinderlies on a disk from home.  Someone from the church brought a big screen and projector and the game was played from a computer.  Even though those who watched knew the outcome of the game, there was still a lot of cheering going on.  We left in order to be back at our hotel before dark.)

We wish all of you "Pasaka Njema" ....Happy Easter

Easter shoe shopping

Most people in America are familiar with the television show Sex and the City, even if they never watched it on HBO or the less risque version on another channel.  The show follows the lives of four women in New York City.  One of the results of the program was a sudden fashion emphasis on shoes.  We heard constantly about the outrageous prices Carrie paid for her shoes.  One whole episode dealt with a thief who steals her Manolo Blanco “strappy sandals”.  In Carrie’s life this was a disaster.

One evening this week, Tom and I took our evening walk and ended up as usual in the kitchen area of the Home.  Two women were there waiting for the students.  They had a very large black plastic bag with them.  It was about the size you might put in a thirty gallon trash can.  The women had walked up from Lushoto in hopes of selling what was in the bag.

When the students arrived from evening devotions, the contents of the bag were spilled on the ground.  It was filled with many pairs of used shoes.  It was like Christmas.  Like young women shopping anywhere, the girls all had to look at, touch, model, and dance in various pairs of shoes.  Most of the shoes were high heels.  Many were very fancy, with rhinestones, bows or gold buckles.  Some were made of satin, like bridesmaids shoes.  All of the shoes were in good condition, some looked like they had never been worn.  We have all bought a pair at one time or another that we never wore once we got them home.  The shopping continued until it was too dark to see, at which point one of the sellers brought out her flashlight.  Several pairs of shoes were sold that evening.  We look forward to seeing the new high heels walking down our dirt road to church on Sunday morning.

In Lushoto, there are no new shoe stores.  Most of the items of pre-made clothing are second hand, with the exception of underwear and socks.  The highest quality items are sold in shops hung on hangers, like at home.  On Thursday and Sunday, market day, there are vendors who lay out large mats or tarps and spread huge piles of clothing for shoppers to go through.  Great bargains can be found on market day.  Some items still have the original price tags from stores in Europe or the U.S.  

In Lushoto there are many Dukas (shops) where you can buy custom made clothing.  There you can pick the material you like and the fundi (craftsman) will make any thing you want from skirts and shirts to men’s suits.  The colors and patterns of the material are beautiful.  The result is wonderfully made clothing stitched on treadle sewing machines.  Women’s skirts are primarily at ankle length or just above.  Sitting at the hostel on Saturday mornings, we can watch a fashion show of women passing by on their way to market. 

Give us this day....

For us it is a good day when we wake up to electricity and see that the water filter has processed some water.  Not everyday is like that, unfortunately.  When we get together with our Peace Corps friends or meet other foreign volunteers, the topic of conversation always turns to food.  What do you miss the most from home?  Have you tried making this or that?  Do you have any favorite ways of preparing left over white rice?  (Our favorite is to turn it into fried rice, with onions, egg and soy sauce, which we found in a store in Lushoto).  Jonas, a volunteer from Germany at Rainbow School, told us where we could get popcorn!  On our way home from Pangani, we were given directions to a “supermarket” in Tanga.  We were very excited to find cheddar cheese, Ragu sauce and Raman noodles.

This fixation on the food we miss brings us to the realization of how fortunate the minority of people in the world are.  In our training in Toronto, we were given a new outlook on how to describe the people of the world...not “Third World” but “Majority World”.  The minority people, the “First World” have the luxury of money and the availability of many kinds of foods in all seasons.  In the US, we can buy tropical fruits all year round.  Grapes come from Chile and bananas from Costa Rica.  We can buy Maine lobsters, Alaskan crabs, imported cheeses from France, England or Italy.  

What is your daily menu?   As a child, my mother continued the schedule established by her mother-in law.  Chicken on Monday; fish on Friday; pork, sauerkraut and hot dogs on Saturday, and of course we had the weekly roast beef on Sunday.  And don’t forget that Wednesday was “Prince spaghetti day” ( you need to be of a certain age to get that.)  

Here, our main dishes rotate through white rice, brown rice (pilau), and chipsi’s (French fries).  These are accompanied by mixed vegetables, carrots, beans or fried cabbage.  We also enjoy fruit with every meal, mangoes, pineapple, oranges, or bananas.  Compared to home, it is difficult not to complain or feel deprived.  But we are among the few blessed people who have a choice.

At the home, the children eat ugi (porridge) for breakfast, milk at 10 am, lunch of ugali or rice with vegetables, juice at 4pm, and dinner of ugali or rice with vegetables.  The health care workers have something called Makande for dinner every night.  It is like a bean stew.  Sometimes the type of bean varies, but the dish stays mostly the same.  Back in the 70’s, I used to watch Julia Child on television and had one of her cookbooks.  Once, I made Cassoulet, a bean dish with pork, sausage and many seasonings.  The Makanda is like a Cassoulet without the meat and only basic seasoning.  It is very tasty, but would you want it every day?  People in many places are surprised to learn that in other countries, our meals vary from day to day.  

Lunch for the girls does change somewhat.  Some days they have ugali (think Italian polenta) with vegetables.  Sometimes the vegetables include daga (small dried fish) or powdered daga added for protein.  Some meals include mchicha, a spinach-like green, but bitter.

Our Pastor Patricia Neale, recently represented the Southern Pennsylvania Synod at an ELCA World Hunger Leaders gathering.  The focus of the program was the ELCA initiatives for World Hunger and Domestic Hunger programs.  In these difficult economic times, the need is great and the finances are hard to come by.  Feast of Justice is such a food program, located at St John’s Lutheran Church in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia.  It is supported by many congregations and denominations in the area. In our area of New Jersey there is the South Jersey Food Bank, which is a non-denominational program.  I am sure programs like these can be found all over. 

At each meal, we thank God for our white rice or brown rice, and for the hands that have prepared it.  We are grateful for what we have, even though we really miss many things.  As you prepare your meals, or decide what to order at the restaurant, please give some thought to those who are in need.  What can we do to help?

God bless you,

Susan and Tom

Blessed are they...

Yesterday, when we returned from Pangani, Mama Marianna took us in to see the new baby who had just arrived that morning.  His name was Hussein and he weighed 1.5 kg.  This comes to about 3 pounds.  He was premature, born at home, and his mother had died during the birth.  I had never seen such a small baby.  Tom had seen some even smaller, but in the NICU unit at Cooper Hospital in an incubator.

The staff of the home did everything they could for little Hussein, but at about 1am last night, he died.  Everyone here was devastated by the loss of this small baby.  It was a very quiet morning.  Everyone spoke in low voices.  The children played in the indoor areas and even they were quieter than normal.  When we arrived this morning, Mama Marianna took us to see Hussein.  He was in a little crib in an extra room, wrapped in a blanket, with ice packs around him, and covered by a sheet and a small bouquet of flowers.  

Mama Marianna asked Tom if he would help with the trip to the church.  Tom washed the truck which was caked in mud from our return trip yesterday.  We would wait for the arrival of Hussein’s grandmother and family members.  

At about 12:30, the family arrived.  Most of the girls were waiting too, wrapped in their kangas.  As we started to get into the car, one of the men who works here came out of the reception room carrying a small wooden coffin.  The grandmother and two other women got into the back seat.  The employees of the home all got into the back of the pick-up truck with the coffin and the girls began to sing quietly.  Tom drove slowly to the church and followed a dirt road into the bush.  After only a hundred yards, we saw the burial site in a small area to the side of the road.  The grave had been dug by the men who work at the home.  The man who cuts the grass carried the small coffin and laid it gently in the grave.  The girls continued to sing quietly.  When the song ended, Mr Kipingu, the Evangelist, began the graveside service.  There was a hymn, a reading from the Gospel of Mark, and some prayers.  Mr. Kipingu spoke very gently and then there was some noise from behind us in the brush.  An unsuspecting farmer was bringing his cows down the dirt road to another field.  Because our truck was parked int the one lane road, the cows were coming through the cemetery.  There were about twenty cows and they were moving very quickly.  The men from the home picked up some sticks keep the cows from the grave site and to move them back to the road.

At the end of his message, Mr. Kipingu led us in Baba Yetu, the Lord’s Prayer.  The grandmother, family members, and Mama Marianna each put a handful of dirt on the coffin.  Then we were all invited to do the same.  The grave was filled by the four men and then one of the men used the shovel handle to make an impression of a cross on the top of the grave.  Hussein’s grandmother and Rocathe, one of the child care workers, each put a small bouquet of flowers on the top.  The other girls then added loose flowers and cut folliage on top of the grave.  

Blessed are they who die in the name of the Lord.

A recharge weekend

February has flown by.  We have been in Tanzania for almost four months now.  Looking at the calendar last weekend we realized that Thursday was our wedding anniversary.  We decided that maybe we were due for a little break.  Because of our internet problems, we had planned to drive to Tanga during the week anyway.  We were given a recommendation to visit Pangani on the Indian Ocean by our friend Amanda from the states and also by some Peace Corps Volunteers who serve near Lushoto.  So, after a few phone calls and a trip to the bank for money from our savings, our plans were set.  We would leave on Thursday, travel to Tanga to buy a new modem stick, and then continue on to Pangani.

Thursday, a group of visitors arrived from the United States, so we delayed our start until after noon.  By the time we reached Tanga, it was too late to make the drive to Pangani.  So, Friday morning we continued on to Pangani.  The place we chose to stay was Mkoma Bay Tented Camping Resort.  A friend from the Peace Corps and our guide book recommended it and told that they serve “Western food”.  That was all we needed to know.  Upon arrival, we changed into bathing suits and went to the pool.  We ordered Cheeseburgers with french fries and Coke with ice.  It was wonderful!

The resort is owned and operated by an American/Danish couple.  Lisa is originally from California and met Orek when she was serving with the Peace Corps and he was with Lutheran World Relief.  They are very warm and welcoming.  They have a wonderful staff.  The accommodations were fantastic and the food was out of this world.  

Pangani is a small town where the Pangani River flows into the Indian Ocean.  Sadly, its  history goes back to the days when it served as a slave trading port.  There are some old buildings dating back to that time.  There are beach resorts north and south of the town.  Mkoma Bay Tented Camping Resort is certainly unlike any camp ground we have seen in the US.  The tents are huge and decorated with antique furniture.  They are on raised platforms with parquet flooring, thatched roofs above,  and full bathrooms attached.  Think high end “Out of Africa” tents.  

Our time there was been great.  It took a full day to finally relax.  We spent Saturday walking on the beach and swimming in the pool.  Since February is considered low season, there were only a handful of guests.  We met a couple from England and another from Denmark.  On Sunday, they had an “all you can eat” pizza lunch and many “ex-pat” people living locally came.  There were people from Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the UK, and the US.

We thank God for the opportunity to travel, relax, and meet new friends.  During the last week when we were without internet, we learned of the death of four friends.  Please pray for the families of Mike Gallo, Chuck Myers, Florence Bentzel and Dot Norris.  

God bless,

Tom and Susan

Irente Flurries

Greetings and blessings to you from Irente Children’s Home.  We are enjoying summer here, while the Philadelphia area has so far been spared too cold a winter.  We heard that there was a bit of snow on Saturday.  We had some amazing flurries here too, but they were butterflies, not snow.  The air for the past few days has been filled with clouds of small white butterflies.  They are all moving southwards, as if some big migration is going on.  Close examination shows that they are white with pale tan lines on the top of their wings.  Very beautiful!

These past two weeks have been a bit tough for us.  Besides dealing with Tom’s knee problem, we have also suffered from a dead Airtel stick, the modem that connects us to the internet.  Until we drove into Lushoto on Saturday, we did not know who had won the Super Bowl. We had not heard any news from any of our family or friends.  We were stranded here on the mountain.  It has been a big challenge to our spirits.  Our daily life continued as before.  We enjoyed playing with the children, English classes continued, our routine was the same.  Without the connection to home, it was very difficult.  We are so fortunate to have each other and our friends here, but we were lonely for our family and friends at home.

Since our last blog entry, two more boys have gone home.  Ramadan “Rama” went home with his baba (father) and auntie.  He had been here since he was a baby, but his family is now ready to care for him on their own.  We had met his father before on one of his visits to see Rama.  Rama is around 18 months old.  

The other boy was Baraka, who left last Friday morning.  He was adopted by a very nice couple from the area.  Baraka is somewhere between two and three years old.  He was an orphan and had been here his whole life.  He is a very handsome and smart boy.  He loves to sing “If you’re happy and you know it”.  Last week when Tom was at home and Baraka saw me arrive without him, he said, “Babu analala?”  Is Babu sleeping?  We miss them both, but especially Baraka.  Please keep these children and their families in your prayers.

We also received a new baby, a newborn girl named Rukia.  Her mother died in childbirth.  Please pray for her as well.

The big news of the week is that I drove down to town last Saturday!  The big word in that sentence is “down”.  We are talking 20 to 30 minutes of dirt road with 50 to 60% grade in some areas.  I must say I did okay.  So did Tom.  He seemed pretty calm for the most part.  Of course, there were a couple of times when he put his head out the passenger window to tell me how close I was to the edge.  The funny thing was that when Tom drives, many people walking give him the signal for a lift.  When they saw that I was driving...no one wanted a ride.  We parked at Tumaini Hostel as usual and when it was time to go home, Tom got us out of the parking lot and through the crowd of the main street.  At the Diocese office, we switched places.  Again, no one wanted a ride, which was fine with me.  The return trip means that the car is on the outside lane.  There are no guard rails here and the drop in some places could be ten stories high.  We arrived home safe, sound, and still married.  By the way, I was the hero of the girls at the home.  Not many women drive here.  

We hope to have the internet problem resolved this week.  If the stick cannot be fixed, we will need to drive to Tanga to buy a new one.  We are posting this from SEKUCo University.  Mama Munga has kindly allowed us to use their internet connection whenever we need it.  This morning we met Frank Martin of SEKUCo in Lushoto.  He rode here with us and got us set up.  Then someone brought us tea, samosas (fried meat-filled pastries) and maandani (think Dunkin Donuts munchies) for a snack.  What hospitality!

God bless.  Please keep us in your prayers as you are in ours.

Amani,

Tom and Susan