Ruaha Park

We are back in Iringa after a glorius two days in the game park. We saw lots of lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, cape buffalo, impala, kudu, and many more. Our bandas were wall tents the size of a large room under a thatch roof. We went out for morning safari and had breakfast in the bush. All of our dinners were served bufet style in the bush also with kerosene lanterns. We had an elephant roaming the camp who came within arms length of Karen who was reading at the edge of her banda and looked up to see a elephant head hanging above her. We also saw a lot of lions on this trip including a pride with many cubs playing together and a different pride on a cape buffalo kill. You can spot the kill site by the flock of vultures waiting in the nearby tree. We also saw a pair of hyena trailing a giraffe with a baby who was born the night before. Giraffes can run within an hour after birth, the 6 foot drop wakes them up, but they are vulnerable for several days and the mother giraffe was watching closely. It was a great time in God's creation at a most comfortable place to rest and relax after our time in the village. Back in Iringa Steve and I ran into Steve Vinton at the local fast food joint, Hasty Tasty Too. Steve is the man who started the school in Kising'a and we told him about our experience with the science project and arranged to meet him for dinner tomorrow with our group. Amazing how things have just fallen together on this trip. Someone must be guiding us.

Back from Kising'a

We are all back from a wonderful four days in Kising'a. Pastor Wihale came out to meet us on the road with a group of 10 piki piki (motor bikes) to symbolize the 10th year of our partnership. They lead us in procession with branches on their handle bars through Isele and then Kising'a with people waving to us along the way. We visited the two primary schools with school supplies and the assembled students sang for us and we met the teachers. On Monday we had a science workshop at the secondary school with 160 students and 7 teachers. They had never seen most of the science materials in their text books and the students crowded around Ben with Biology, Karen with Chemistry and Steve with Physics in three separate groups rotating. Afterwards we all went back to the school where they had turned on the generators for lights and the students performed a dance and a play on the risks of bacteria in water for us. They then gave us gifts of eggs and a live rooster that we gave to Ben to take care of. The rooster and another hen from the church came back to Iringa with us in the cars but I don't think they will make it back to St Paul. On Sunday we attended a 4.5 hour church service in Isele that seemed much shorter with lots of singing. Afterwards, I was the successful bidder on a live chicken from the offering. We visited the dispensary with prescription medications we purchased in Iringa and medical supplies from home. We met with the partnership committee to present the uniforms we purchased with the ss offerings and the sweaters purchased by the LCP women. We also added student support at the Kising'a secondary school where tuition for girls is $40 and boys is $60 per year. As we left Kising'a today, we met with the women who had been preparing all our meals and presented them with gifts of kitchen utensils, sewing supplies, candy, towels and soap. We presented Pastor Wihale and his wife with the quilt that several LCP women had made for them. We had a tearful good bye and now will be heading to Ruaha Park for safari tomorrow.

We are in Iringa

Greetings to all! We traveled by bus from 7 am to just after 5 pm yesterday from Dar to Iringa. On the way, there were numerous baboons along the road, and Ben spotted a vervet monkey, too. There were Elephants, Giraffes, Impala, Gazelle, and Zebra as well, going through the national park.
We are staying at the Lutheran Center and have met a group from New Hampshire there. We went to the Bega Kwa Bega office last night and were lucky to walk into a Masai Jewelry sale there! Today we went to the Iringa diocese and heard an update on projects throughout the diocese. We then went to the market and have ordered 40 sweaters (school uniform) at a very good price to pick up later today. The last of the hoped-for Chemistry supplies was Epsom Salts, and Dan was able to get some ... somehow...
We had a very eventful shopping after the last blog entry in Dar. We found an advertisement near the stationery store for chemicals - and were able to get great supplies for the science labs we're adding.
It's looking like we're ready for our trip up to Kising'a in the morning, and we will be there 4 days, so don't expect a new post until we're back down in Iringa.
As always, God is with us and around us, guiding our journey. We are thinking of all of you every day.
Peace, Karen

Dar Church Service and Shopping

Greetings from Dar Es Salaam!
We made it safely here Sunday afternoon, met by Vivian and Brian, who inquired as to whether Dan was having troubles again. Everything has gone smoothly, but the internet connections are really slow at best. Yesterday we attended a 6 am church service in Dar. It was packed with people attending before their work day. The pastor led the singing, which was acapella in beautiful harmony, with some drums. The tunes were vaguely familiar even if the words in Swahili were not, including What a Friend We Have in Jesus. The service was about 60% music and 40% speaking, going back and forth. It gave me goosebumps to hear the people singing so beautifully. Luther would have been proud!!! A visiting pastor, Pastor Langseth from Michigan, gave the sermon in English. He had a dramatic style.
We then did sightseeing, visiting a museum with houses from each tribal area of Tanzania. It was so cool to see the huge variation in architecture, including materials used. Each reflected the customs and natural resources available. We then visited an historic fort involved in the slave trade. We spent quite a bit of time on bus, which allowed for some napping. We picked up fresh pineapples and bananas at a stand, which made for a yummy dinner and added taste to our egg and toast breakfast. We are really enjoying the devotions written by members and friends.
We are shopping for school supplies today in Dar, and heading to Iringa town tomorrow. We are all looking forward to travelling up to Kising'a very soon. Thanks for all your prayers and support. ~Karen

Dubai Layover

We all arrived safely in Dubai after a day in NY and a 12 hour flight and all slept well on the plane. The flight now goes over Iraq which must be a sign of progress since it used to go out of the way over Iran. We are in a nice hotel compliments of the airline with meals. The blog menu is in arabic on our computer from here and typing goes from right to left so it took us a while to login. Tomorrow we leave for Dar at 10:50 and arrive in the afternoon.

We are now in the new Dubai terminal with free wireless waiting for the plane to Dar. We will be in Dar and having dinner by the time church starts in St Paul.

Bega Kwa Bega Video

Bega kwa bega is the name of the partnership between the St Paul Synod and the Iringa Diocese and means Shoulder to Shoulder in Swahili. Ruthie, who has been to Tanzania twice and is going again on this trip, put together a beautiful video that captures the meaning of Bega kwa Bega. In spite of some visual differences in our country, homes, and selves, we really are the same in so many ways and are equal partners together. We have brought many pictures and videos back home from Kising'a and we are looking forward to showing this video many times in the village to give them a glimpse of our church and how we worship like they do as one in God.

Tunmaini University

Tumaini means hope in Swahili and that is what brings students to Tumaini university in Iringa. The university is operated by the Diocese in Iringa and founded with the help of St Paul Synod in 1994. Tumaini now has about 3000 students and offers degrees in Theology, Law, Business, Journalism, Community Development, Cultural Anthropology and Tourism, Mathematics Education, and Information Technology. The campus is in the hills outside of Iringa with beautiful buildings, a good library, and computer labs with almost 400 computers. Learn more at their recently updated web site. (A little slow because it is hosted in Tanzania and everything has to go out by satelite.) On the site is a link to an essay from a student with thoughts on Development in Tanzania and the future. It is interesting reading in the British influenced style of African English.

Solar Cooking

Kising'a has no electricity so all cooking must be done over wood fires. Women must spend a lot of time gathering wood and then work over a smokey fire, often with a small child on their back breathing the smoke. We are bringing a couple solar cookers to the village on this trip that are made right here in the Twin Cities at the Solar Oven Society. We used them to cook rice, potatoes, and carrots and they work great. They cook at lower temperatures (> 200F) and are kind of like a solar crock pot that does not have to be watched. They can also be used to pasteurize water and we are bringing 100 Water Pasteurization Indicators to tell when the water is safe. WAPI are a reusable tube with a wax plug that melts at 65 C (150 F) which is hot enough to kill all bacteria. Not having to heat to a full boil cuts the energy usage in half. We will be staying with our friends in Kising'a for four nights and will have fun using these things with them and learning how well they work and what they think of them. They treat us as special guests but hopefully this time they will let us help with the cooking.

Kising'a Time

Kising'a is 8 or 9 hours ahead of us depending on where we are with daylight savings time. Near the equator every day is about 12 hours long all year with the sun setting around 6 PM so they do not need to shift their clocks. In a village with no electricity, this means the only light in the evening is a dim and smelly kerosene lamp which is very hard to study or even eat by. Because the sun always rises around 6 in the morning and sets around 6 in the evening, Swahili time starts the day at our 6 AM and calls that 12. If you ask a Tanzanian what time the store opens, they might say moja, one in Swahili, meaning that the store opens at 1 AM which is 7 AM to us (This really happened to me). This kind of makes sense since the daylight counts hours from 1 to 12. Their clocks are positioned like ours but they read the opposite end of the hour hand to get the current hour. Generally, if they tell you the time in English, it will be our time and in Swahili, it will be Tanzania time. It definitely makes you pause sometimes, but fortunately, they know how we count time and usually use that for us.

Kising'a Secondary School

Kising'a now has it's own Secondary school which started with students in Form I in 2006. The new school is run by Village Schools and accepts all new primary school graduates. Having a school right in Kising'a means that students can live at home with their families. Kising'a Secondary is adding a grade level each year and now has Forms I - III. Secondary students can graduate after form IV with a type O diploma or continue to Form VI for a type A diploma. Part of our mission on this trip is to bring materials for conducting Physics and Chemistry experiments. Teachers from two other VSI schools will be coming to Kising'a with us and we will hold a 1 day workshop with them and the Kising'a students where we will demonstrate many of the experiments with the teachers. Science is a difficult subject to teach and make interesting in Tanzania because of the lack of resources and cursory textbooks. This is a self perpetuating problem because few students specialize in science and often science will be taught by non majors. We hope to learn with this experiment of experiments how this can be improved and expand to other VST and Diocese schools. You can see what we are bringing and the Tanzania ciriculum topics at our web page.

Sponsored students with Pastor Wihale at Kising'a Secondary School

Secondary Education

Attending secondary school is a privilege in Tanzania. Only 5-10 % of children that complete primary school continue because space is very limited and student fees are prohibitive for most families. Pastor Wihale tells us that student scholarships for education are the most important thing we can do to help them. We have supported many students over the years of our partnership. One early student, Elias, is graduating from Tumaini seminary this year. Another graduate is attending university in Dar and a third is headmaster at a school south of Kising'a. Most of the students we have supported have attended boarding schools run by the Lutheran Diocese. The language of instruction in Primary School is Swahili but in Secondary school it is English. Students must study in English as they learn the language.

Students at Pomerin Diocese School - Jan 2006

Anniversary

2009 is the 10 year anniversary of Lutheran Church of Peace's partnership with Kising'a and in June a group from LCP will be travelling to Kising'a to celebrate with our friends in Kising'a parish. Several people from the June 2007 trip will be returning on this trip. This blog will tell about Kising'a and post updates during our trip.

Kising'a Parish welcoming us June 2007