EASTER IN TANZANIA

THE LORD HAS RISEN, ALLELUIA!! 

My first Easter in Tanzania was memorable. Now that I have lived here for over a year, I've come to know that very little in Tanzania is like it is back home. Our Easter celebration began Saturday evening at 8pm with the Vigil. The electricity was out, as it often is, so it was very dark at the school where we celebrate mass until our new church is built. A fire was started outside the building and the Easter candle was lit. We processed into the classroom with the choir singing and those who had candles lit them, as well. The first three readings were read by candlelight. Between the third and fourth readings, the power was restored. After the homily, Fr. Janusz, our SMA Regional Superior, baptized five young adults. Baptisms and weddings are generally celebrated during the Christmas and Easter Seasons. There were many more baptisms celebrated at our two larger SMA churches. The adults are baptized during the Vigil, while the babies are baptized during the Sunday morning masses. We were very happy the electricity continued to work through the end of the mass. With all the singing, dancing and preaching, the mass ended at 11:30pm. In spite of the few challenges we experienced, it was a beautiful celebration!

Venant, our Catechist, reads

Corine, SMA Dutch lay missionary, reads

Fr. Janusz baptizes one of the candidates

The Easter morning mass began at 9am. There were only two babies baptized at this mass. The choir performed beautifully and at the end of mass they continued to sing as they processed outdoors. They also did a special little performance outdoors. The small children played with the drum, adding their part to the festivities.

Klemente, Juvi & Ana

Following the Easter morning mass, Corine, Mara and I drove to the village of Malimbe to celebrate with another lay missionary, Marga, and her boys. Marga is a Dutch lay missionary who has been running a project, with her husband, for street boys called Upendo Daima (Unconditional love) for the past 15 years. Approximately 60 of these boys live at a 4-acre center called Malimbe Family, where they are given food, shelter, an education and, most importantly, love. 25 boys are currently staying at the Back Home House, where the Upendo Daima staff try to reunite the boys with family. The boys are taught acrobatics, dance and other activities. These young boys have had more hardships in their short lives than most people have in a lifetime. It's great to see the work that Marga, her husband and the staff are doing to try to improve the lives of these kids. On Easter, all 85 boys performed for a group of about 40 guests, including staff members and visitors. After the boys performed, the staff served a meal to everyone. Following the meal, the boys and some of the visitors colored approximately 150 eggs with felt-tip markers. Then the eggs were hidden outdoors for all of the boys to find and eat. We also did some dancing. Everyone seemed to have a great time!

An acrobatic performance-very well done!

Some of the boys perform a dance

David, a German volunteer, distributes eggs to be colored

Mara and the boys dancing

HOLY WEEK RETREAT

Since we closed Shaloom for Holy Week, I thought that would be a good time to get away from Mwanza for a short time. I decided Epheta Center in Makoko would be a great place to relax, visit a few friends and spend some quiet time with the Lord, so Monday morning I began my 3 ½ hour bus ride to Musoma. I arrived early afternoon and was greeted by Br. Jerome as I walked from the bus stand to the retreat center. Br. Jerome is one of the Capuchin friars who lives and takes care of the center. It felt so good to be back in Makoko, where I had studied Kiswahili for four months last year. I was glad that during this visit I wouldn't be burdened with language studies, and I could spend as much time as I wanted at the lake! I was given a very nice room overlooking the gardens with a view of the lake. The room contained a bathroom with a warm shower... quite a luxury in this country! 

My room

Since the center has a small library, I found a good spiritual book and spent most of my time reading on the lake front. The mass was celebrated each morning in the little chapel, located very close to my room. 

Windows behind the altar overlook the lake.

Outside of the chapel, overlooking the lake.

Brother Jerome working in the tomato garden

Workers in the corn field

The four friars at Epheta Center work very hard keeping pigs, cows, goats and chickens, as well as huge gardens containing field corn, tomatoes, cabbage and more. Everything is planted and cared for by hand. People from the nearby village come to Epheta to purchase eggs, vegetables and chickens at a very low cost. The friars employee workers from the nearby village, as well, to assist with the work in the gardens, the kitchen and the housekeeping.

Sr. Rosana & Br. Bernadine

While in Makoko, I visited with the teachers, students and staff at the language school. It was nice to see everyone again and meet a few new students. Sr. Rosana, from Peru, is a student at the language school but stays at Epheta Center. It was interesting to hear about her journey and the work she is doing. Br. Bernadine is one of the four friars living at Epheta. He is originally from Switzerland but has lived in Tanzania for 56 years.

Mapesa family (friends living near Makoko)

Br. Jerome with his new computer from generous US donor

A TYPICAL DAY AT SHALOOM

Some of you have asked what a typical school day at Shaloom is like, so I'll try to give you a glimpse. Of course, no two days are ever the same, and the only thing predictable is "nothing is predictable"! When I arrive at the school around 8:45am, most of the children are already playing in the outside play area. I open the school and the classroom, and tidy up a bit. The children play with toys inside the building after washing their hands outside. We try to start class by 9am, but some of the children arrive late because they all have to walk, and some of them live far from the school.

Kasi & Justina play with the babies

Most of the children don't have toys at home so they enjoy this time very much. It doesn't usually matter which toys they play with, as long as they get some time to use their imagination. The girls generally like to play with the baby dolls, and I get a kick out of the way they try to carry the babies on their backs, the way the woman do here. Building blocks and Legos are a favorite for most of the boys. They also like to play with the hundreds of bottle caps that have been collected over the years. Some of the children count them, and others make designs on the floor.

Buseleke & Omari, and Jeremia in the background

Kasi, Tobiasi & Jeremia

Once the toys are all cleaned up, the children and I meet in the smaller classroom to work on English. We practice greetings and I have them identify familiar objects in English. We also work on songs in English, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Head, shoulders, knees and toes". I brought my computer into the classroom a couple of times and played these songs for them on You Tube. Check out our You Tube video below! We've been practicing without the video each day since we recorded our little video, so I don't think it will be too long and they'll have it down pat!

Practicing "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes"

While the children and I are working in the classroom, Rehema is preparing uji, a nutritious type of porridge. After an hour in the classroom, the children move out into the larger area for their breakfast. The children usually don't get breakfast at home before coming to class, so this period is very important. They drink their uji and have fruit, hard boiled eggs or mandazi (a type of sweet bread). We give the children uji every day but try to give a variety of the other foods. They don't ever complain about what they're given. They appreciate it all.

Following breakfast, we have a half hour session on learning numbers and counting in Kiswahili. It was a little challenging, at first, for me to teach all of the numbers in Kiswahili because they are so different than English. But I've finally learned them well enough that I can stay ahead of the children and catch when they say a number incorrectly. Most of them can already count to one hundred but recognizing the numbers will come later. That's what we work on most of the time. I'm impressed with how far the children have come after only a month in class. They don't get much help at home because many of their caregivers are illiterate, or poorly educated, at best.         Next on our schedule is outside playtime...

 

Following a half an hour of outside play, we move back into the classroom. We work on Kiswahili letters next, which unlike English, are taught by sound only. I find this a bit more challenging because the sounds of the vowels are different than in English. The "a" sounds like "ah", as in bah humbug. When I teach the letter "e", I have to say the long "a" sound, as in hay. The "i" sound is like our "ee" sound, as in beet. Luckily, "o" is the same as in English. The "u" sounds like our long "u", as in Luke, but isn't called "you", as we say, it's simply "ooh". The consonants are taught by their sounds, as well. On a positive note, there are no silent letters in Kiswahili words. This makes pronouncing the words a bit easier. The letters always have the same sound, and every letter is heard.

The last period of the day is spent on being creative, coloring, learning colors and shapes, or learning a little something about Tanzania. It was during this period we made our little huts and Valentine's Day cards.

We had a group picture taken at the end of the day, recently. A new student named Dollos, joined our class this week, so now we have 13 students. A couple of the parents had come to pick up their children so they were invited to get in the picture, too. The parents are the adults in the center of the back row. Rehema and I are also in the back row, as if you didn't already know that. James, my language helper, is the one who took the picture. He works in the office at Shaloom Center, and has been helping me with Kiswahili for the past couple of weeks. What a blessing he is!  THANKS FOR VISITING OUR CLASS!! See you again, soon.

DANI'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!

Dani, (pronounced Donny), the son of one of our watchman, had his first birthday on February 7, 2014. His mother wanted to celebrate his special day but wasn't sure how she would be able to have a party or bake a cake. Birthdays in Tanzania aren't usually celebrated this way, but western traditions are becoming better known throughout the country. As you can tell in the picture, Dani is trying to figure out what is going on!

Dani's house

Dani's birthday cake 

The family lives on the property where the new S.M.A. church is going to be built. Their house is very small and Mama Dani doesn't have a kitchen, let alone an oven. I was visiting one day and the discussion came up, so I offered to bake the cake. I had only tried to bake a cake from scratch one other time while I've been in Tanzania, and that was a disaster! Now that I know my little oven better, and am becoming more familiar with the ingredients that are available here, I was successful in baking Dani's birthday cake.

Since their house is so small, Dani's father, Dionis, opened up the 40 foot container on the property, which will be used for storing building supplies once construction is underway. We used the back end of the container for a table and a few chairs. It was a little tricky walking around in the container because it's set on an incline, so nothing was level. But we made the best of it and Mama Dani invited a couple of the neighbor women and their children. Mama Dani's 14 year old niece, Stella, is also staying with the family for awhile since she lost her mother last summer. Dionis wasn't able to join us for the party because he was on duty back at the S.M.A. compound, but we saved him some of the birthday cake. We lit all of the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" in English! One of the woman knew the song, and everyone else tried to sing along. Once I explained, in Kiswahili, that now it was time to blow out the candles, Dani was really confused, so everyone helped him out.

Make a wish & blow out the candles!

I had found some plastic, disposable plates and forks in one of the stores in town so I brought them along. We served up the cake and everyone seemed to enjoy it...especially Dani! First, he tried to eat with a fork, but then decided that his hands worked better and he ate the whole piece!

Dani even tolerated the birthday hat and traditional lei he was coaxed to wear. 

We had our little party about 4:30 in the afternoon so I thought we would just eat cake and drink tea or water, and that would be all, but I should have known better. No matter what time of the day, when you visit a family in Tanzania, you are served a meal. The women filled my plate for me and they gave me a "mound" of rice, covered with chicken, vegetables, sauce and avocados. The plate didn't look very appetizing to me, and I was already full from the cake, but I did my best to eat almost have of the food. I don't like to be rude or disappoint the host. I know a meal like that was a luxury for them and cost more than they could afford. After the meal, we took a few more photos but Dani wasn't in the mood for that so we walked to the S.M.A. compound to visit Dionis. By the time we arrived there, Dani was in a better mood and we took a few photos next to the concrete giraffe on our compound.