Lameloki

This morning we headed south about 30 miles to the Maasai village of Lameloki. Although it is closer, it took just as much time to arrive as it did to Kimokouwa because we traveled most of the way on dirt roads. It started out in average condition for Africa and continued to get worse--more and larger ruts we had to naviage around and the last 25 minutes or so their was a deep layer of fine dirt on it. We drove in a cloud of dust literally. We were following another vehicle that was going with us to Lameloki and there were numerous times we had to stop because we couldn't see anything outside our vehicle. I have ridden on very rutted roads in East Africa before some even worse than this one in terms of ruts and enormous potholes, but never in that kind of dust. We were way back in the bush and we followed one of the men who lived there on his motorbike to find our way out. But the fine dirt was so think he was fishtailing much of the time. I was impresseed that he could stay on his motorbike, frankly. Most of the people who live here really never leave. A few people have motorbikes but most don't. It is an hours walk to get to the nearest public transportation. Here is a picture that might give you a little sense of what it was like. It actually got much worse than this picture at times.

 Our destination was an "orphanage" with 40 children. I put orphanage in quotation marks because it isn't like a normal orphange. None of the children live there, although the women are trying to raise money to build some dorms for them. Many of them live with very poor grandparents and that is where they sleep. But the two women who founded and run the "orphange" have paid for their school uniforms and they make sure the children attend school. After school they come to the "orphange" where they receive a meal and they have programs for different age groups. Some of the girls are learning to sew, for example. The two pictures below show the welcomr we received when we arrived and the two women who run the "orphanage' with George and Sayuni. Because I was giving a talk on marriage, a number of older single and married women attended as well as a few husbands.

Geroge and Sayuni had purchased some simple school supplies for the children and they asked me to hadn them out.

You might notice the purple bags the school supplies were in. Tanzania has outlawed the use of plastic bags throughout the country so they now use these cloth kind of bags.

I gave a brief talk to everyone about how we are God's beloved sons and daughters and then the children went somewhere else and I gave a shortened marrage talk, with emphasis on women being equal partners, not second class citizens. George translated for me.

Kimokouwa

 Yesterday we traveled to the Maasai village, Kimokouwa. It is approximately 50 miles due north of Arusha and we were only about 2 miles from the Kenyan border. It took us about  1 1/4 hours to get there and most of the drive was through semi-arid land. The short wet season goes from the end of October until mid-December and the rains are late in coming. My weather app says there is a 40% chance of thunderstorms on Friday, but other than that there is no rain in the forecast for the next week. 

The church we met in was constructed in 1984 and it is the only Maasai church in the area. Some of the people, mostly women, had to walk 1 1/2 hours to get there. George and Sayuni arranged for all those who had gathered--approxiamtely 100--to eat before we met. According to them the people don't have a lot of food and they thought that some might only have one meal a day: ugali (a type of stiff corn flour porridge) and milk.   

When we arrived this is the road that led to the village:

As we pulled up to the church, the children had gathered to sing and dance. We then entered the church, introductions were made, and I was invited to speak. In Maasai culture women are 3rd class citizens coming behind men and cattle (cattle are wealth). Girls are given as wives when they are 12 and 13 y.o. and a man can have as many wives as he can afford. I spent a lot of time from scripture making the case that God created men and women as equals and both men and women are beloved children of God. My hope was to instill in the wives (there were only a few men there) that they are deeply loved and of infinite worth no matter what demeaning messages they may hear from others.

Below is a picture of the church and those gathered in:

The last picture is of my translator, Lukas, who is Maasai and works part time for George and Sayuni and me. He is a great young man who is married and has an 18 month old daughter. Lukas translated my English into the Maasai language. The official language of Tanzania is Swahili.

The Ways of God

 After meeting with George and Sayuni in Africafe yesterday, we were walking back to the hotel when we ran into some of their friends. They introduced me to Joseph and his wife (whose name I didn't get) who is a pastor and on staff with World Vision Tanzania in charge of "Faith and Development" for the whole country. As we talked, I asked him if he knew Daniel, the World Vision Staff person from Tanzania who sponsored the first pilot Marriage Workshop in 2015. Daniel moved to work at World Vision Kenya in Nairobi and I haven't seen him since about 2017. I discovered that not only does he know him, they are good friends and Daniel is in charge of "Faith and Development" for all of East Africa. Joseph told me that Daniel had just spent time in Arusha but had just left the day before. He called him on the spot and gave the phone to me and I was able to say "hi" and have a brief conversation with him. Sayuni then talked with him (in Swahili of course) and after we had said our good-byes to Joseph and his wife she told me that Daniel really wants us to come to Nairobi to do a pastors and wives marriage workshop--he is willing to set everything up. From what Sayuni reported, he sounded highly motivated for this to happen. It also turns out that Joseph is passionate about supporting marriages and in fact held a marriage workshop with some pastors from Florida in August, and was very interested to learn about what George, Sayuni, and I are doing. He lives in Dar es Salaam and wants us to come to Dar to offer some marriage workshops there. 

What is so amazing about this is that we have been trying to get some traction and support for our work here but so far it has been just us doing this ministry. World Vision Tanzania sponsored the first pilot workshop as I mentioned, but World Vision's funding decreased the next year and they decided not to support financially the workshops. But in a chance encounter--George and Sayuni didn't know they were in Arusha and hadn't seem them for a while--it suddently looks as though a door is opening for us to expand these workshops. The three of us were pretty excited about this! I would appreciate your prayers that God would guide us in these potentially new opportunities.

These are two pictures from the pilot marriage workshop we gave in Arusha in 2015. This is where I met George who worked for World Vision Tanzania at the time and was my translator.

Getting Acclimated

 Arusha is approximately 4500 feet above sea level, so even though it is located about 3 degrees south latitude, the temperature is pleasant. The forecast for every day that I am here is highs in the mid 80's and lows in the low to mid 60's and there isn't high humidity.  

I am meeting with George and Sayuni for dinner and planning in a few hours. Tomorrow we will travel to the Maasai village in Kimokouwa and do a couples session. Kimokouwa is about 50 miles north of Arusha and very close to the border wth Kenya. At this point I don't know how many couples will attend the session nor exactly what we will present, but will find that out this evening when I meet with George and Sayuni. 

Below are pictures of the front of the New Safari Hotel and my favorite hangout when I stay in Arusha, Africafe. It is located on the same block as the hotel and probably no more that 50 yards door to door. They have great coffee and food and this is where George and Sayuni and I will meet to discuss tomorrow's plans.

Back At Last!!

It has been thtree years and three months since I last left Tanzania. I never expected that the hiatus would last so long and I have honestly missed spending time in East Africa. I have been traveling to East Africa long enough that I am aware of changes in procedures over time. Ever since my first visit in 2014, before they would let you into the Kilimanjaro terminal you had to show that you had a yellow fever vacination. I actually have stapled my yellow international shot record to the back side of my passport so I didn't always have to go fishing for it. They checked your shot record outside the building. This evening when I arrived, they didn't ask for proof of a yellow fever vaccine but you had to show proof that you had had the COVID vaccinations. Interesting. I understand why they wanted to see proof of COVID vaccines, but yellow fever is a far deadlier disease and I am suprised that they jettisoned that procedure.

We flew in an enormous aircraft--there were a bizillion people on it and the vast majority were Europeans heading for Kilimanjaro to either trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro or visit safarfi parks. The parking lot was filled with safari vehicles waiting to pick up the guests and take them to varying safari parks across Tanzania--there are many, many fine safarai parks here. The Serengeti is located in Tanzania. The destination for my flight was Dar es Salaam and only about 10% of the passangers stayed on the aircraft. Some passangers would board from Kilimanjaro, but it wouldn't be that many. 

My driver whom I always use is Mr. Mwanga. He met me a the airport with a big smile and a hug. He was a friend of one of the World Vision leaders in Tanzania, Daniel, who first hired him for me and I have been using him ever since. He is a Muslim man who has three sons. A number of years ago he took me to his home to meet his wife and two of his three sons who were there, and took me to visit his sons school on another visit. He is a friendly person, but he doesn't speak much English and I don't speak Swahili, so it's tough to communicate somtimes. The picture below is of the visit I made to visit Mr. Mwanga's son 6 years ago.

The next two nights I will be staying at the New Safari Hotel. It is a hotel owned by the Lutheran Church, and George and Sayuni are friends with the bishop and they get a discount for my room. (Tanzania was a German colony called Tanganyika until the end of WWI and so the Lutheran church is the largest protestant church here.) But it was so great to arrive after 3 years and the employee at the desk recognized me and greeted me warmly, He said it had really been tough with COVID but this past year things are going better. I asked him if had been laid off, and he said he wasn't but everyone had to work one less day.  

In any case, I have arrived, will spend Saturday trying to deal with jetlag and reorient myself to the various workshops we will be doing.

Getting Close

 I have a list of things to do about as long as an arm in preparation for my flight to Tanzania. I have to pack more things than I normally would because I can't just run out to the drugstore to purchase something. My backpack is going to be like a mini-medicine cabinet. If I catch a cold or cut myself or something else, I can't just run over to CVS and pick up what I need. So I bring cold medicine, Advil, medicine for other things that I might get. I bring some sleeping pills for the long flights: one is 7 hours and the other is 8 hours and I can't sleep on airplanes for some reason. If I can time when I sleep, it can help me to adjust to the jetlag. I am schudled to arrive at Kilimanjaro Friday evening at 8:10 pm. That means if everything is on time I will arrive at my hotel in Arusha somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00 pm. I had George and Sayuni not schedule anything for Saturday so I can begin to adjust to Tanzanian time. 

They sent me the poster below to show how they are advertising our marriage workshop:

Zeroing In

 It's hard to believe that I will be leaving for Tanzania in three days! Since 2008 I have travelled to East Africa at least once a year and sometimes twice a year and that ended with the onset of COVID. My last trip occurred in August of 2019. So I am excited about going there again after a three year hiatus.

George and Sayuni sent me the itinerary for my trip:

If you look on the far right of the schedule you will see the dates of the events. In Africa they put the day followed by the month followed by the year instead of month, day, and year as we do. The trip from Arusha to Dodoma takes about five hours by car. Dodoma is the capital city and is in the center of Tanzania. I first visited Dodoma in 2019 where we did a marriage workshop. The one thing I will do that is not on the schedule is some couples counseling in Arusha later in the day on 11/5/2022 after we return from Dodoma. On Sunday I will worship at George and Sayuni's church and on Monday I will start my trek back to Boston. I would greatly apprciate your prayers for this trip, for safe travels, and an effective ministry!

Preparations for Tanzania

 It has been about seven years since I have had an entry on my blog. But I thought I would bring it back to life in preparation for my trip to Tanzania next week. I am heading out on Thursday evening, October 27th and returning early afternoon on Tuesday, November 8th. I fly from Boston to Amsterdam where I have a several hour layover and then head out for Kilimanjaro airport, Tanzania, and arrive in the evening of October 28th. They are seven hours ahead of EDT. 

I have probably been to Tanzania about eight times, but I have never been able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro in broad daylight because it is always socked in with clouds. One time at dusk I was heading to the airport and I was able to make it out in the distance, but it was fairly dark and hard to see. Maybe on this trip I will see it in broad daylight. There have been a few occasions that after taking off, Mt. Kilimanjaro has been visible above the clouds. Here is a picture I took from the aircraft as I was leaving Tanzania in 2016 .

I plan to discuss more of the trip before I head out and I hope to keep it up to date while I am in Tanzania.