Today the conference was supposed to begin at 9:00 am and go to 5:00 pm. I wasn't really expecting it to begin on time because in this culture beginning and ending on time isn't a priority. So at 9:00 am there was one person in the room. At 9:15 there were two people in the room, at 9:30 there were three people in the room and at 10:00 we were back down to two. Daniel said to me "We need patience like a donkey."George Mngodo, my WVT translator whom I mentioned in a previous email, got in touch with the pastor who was supposed to be bringing 8-10 couples from a nearby ADP thought the conference was Wednesday and Thursday, not Tuesday and Wednesday. At 10:30, it was time for coffee and tea break, so Daniel, George, myself and maybe four others had coffee break. Daniel and George decided that we would start at 11:15 no matter who was present. So we actually began at 11:20 with 6 couples and 2 men whose wives were not able to attend today but are planning on coming tomorrow. It's the first time that I have had a coffee break before the conference actually started. Below is a picture of the conference room around 8:50 a.m.
It turned out that a number of those attending did not speak any English and many of the others were not very proficient in English so we decided that George would translate for me. It was definitely the right thing to do and George did an outstanding job as translator. He was smooth and my fear of it being overly disjointed was not an issue. The main problem was that my handouts were in English and he needed to translate them for the attendees. After the day was over, I gave him copies of my handouts for tomorrow and he planned to translate them into Swahili and print them off for tomorrow morning. The picture below shows George translating for me.
I had asked George to find someone to lead some singing before we began and Thekla, Pastor Orestes wife, led the singing. Africans' ability to make music without instruments but by clapping rhythms never ceases to amaze me. It was joyous singing and all the attendees got into it.
The picture above is of Pastor Orestes and his wife, Thekla. After the singing was finished, Daniel talked about this being sponsored by WVT and why they were holding this seminar and then introduced me. I gave some opening background about myself and why I was in Tanzania and began teaching. We were originally going to break for lunch at noon, but Daniel changed the time to 1:30 pm so we had a decent amount of time engage the topic. I used scripture to make a case for the equality of women and was uncertain how they would receive it. But it actually went quite well. Then I began the next topic which was "communication," but we broke for lunch before long. We returned and continued the topic around 2:30 and finished up around 4:30.
As it turns out the smaller group lent itself to more openness and trust and I was thrilled with the level of honesty and sharing that occurred in the room. I wasn't sure how comfortable they would be with me and uncertain if they would interact with me, but they started sharing comments and asking questions almost from the beginning, and in the session after lunch, the trust level deepened. The one thing that I felt most gratified about was the response of the wives. I spent time explaining to their husbands general differences between the way men and women deal especially with feelings, and as I was speaking, they were all nodding "yes" and smiling. I think they felt validated and to the husbands credits, they were enlightened and seemed genuinely appreciative of learning this about their wives.
After today's seminar was over, Daniel, George, and I met and they were excited about the response those attending had. They said that frequently when presenters come, especially from the West, they don't connect. I want to thank you for your prayers because I do believe that they helped create a climate of trust and openness today. Please keep tomorrow in your prayers.
Daniel told me at the end of the debrief that tomorrow there would be an additional 10-15 couples attending. If that actually happens, I am sad that they weren't able to attend this first day but hope that the dynamic of trust that we established today isn't diluted. We shall see...
It turned out that a number of those attending did not speak any English and many of the others were not very proficient in English so we decided that George would translate for me. It was definitely the right thing to do and George did an outstanding job as translator. He was smooth and my fear of it being overly disjointed was not an issue. The main problem was that my handouts were in English and he needed to translate them for the attendees. After the day was over, I gave him copies of my handouts for tomorrow and he planned to translate them into Swahili and print them off for tomorrow morning. The picture below shows George translating for me.
I had asked George to find someone to lead some singing before we began and Thekla, Pastor Orestes wife, led the singing. Africans' ability to make music without instruments but by clapping rhythms never ceases to amaze me. It was joyous singing and all the attendees got into it.
The picture above is of Pastor Orestes and his wife, Thekla. After the singing was finished, Daniel talked about this being sponsored by WVT and why they were holding this seminar and then introduced me. I gave some opening background about myself and why I was in Tanzania and began teaching. We were originally going to break for lunch at noon, but Daniel changed the time to 1:30 pm so we had a decent amount of time engage the topic. I used scripture to make a case for the equality of women and was uncertain how they would receive it. But it actually went quite well. Then I began the next topic which was "communication," but we broke for lunch before long. We returned and continued the topic around 2:30 and finished up around 4:30.
As it turns out the smaller group lent itself to more openness and trust and I was thrilled with the level of honesty and sharing that occurred in the room. I wasn't sure how comfortable they would be with me and uncertain if they would interact with me, but they started sharing comments and asking questions almost from the beginning, and in the session after lunch, the trust level deepened. The one thing that I felt most gratified about was the response of the wives. I spent time explaining to their husbands general differences between the way men and women deal especially with feelings, and as I was speaking, they were all nodding "yes" and smiling. I think they felt validated and to the husbands credits, they were enlightened and seemed genuinely appreciative of learning this about their wives.
After today's seminar was over, Daniel, George, and I met and they were excited about the response those attending had. They said that frequently when presenters come, especially from the West, they don't connect. I want to thank you for your prayers because I do believe that they helped create a climate of trust and openness today. Please keep tomorrow in your prayers.
Daniel told me at the end of the debrief that tomorrow there would be an additional 10-15 couples attending. If that actually happens, I am sad that they weren't able to attend this first day but hope that the dynamic of trust that we established today isn't diluted. We shall see...
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