Friday, 8/7/2009

On Friday, 8/7/2009 we started our day out visiting SEKUCo.
We met with some of the head's of the university and then were given a tour. It was really nice to be able to actually see the university that we had heard so much about at home. We had a lengthy conversation with some of those who work for the University. They told us many things about SEKUCo, how it functions, some of the programs, etc. The said something that sent us all scrambling for our journals to write down:

Gather Knowledge, Serve Compassionately.

This is a motto that they function by, and upon our tour of the campus, it became clear that this is truly fitting and what is happening here. The university was started just a few years ago, much in part to Mama Munga's passion for Special Needs Education. One of their main focuses, is on special needs education. Both for those wishing to be special needs teachers, and for those with special needs attending the university. They also have other programs, including a program that is partnered with Penn State University. It was very interesting to be all the way across the world, and realize what a small world it actually is when they said they were partnered with Penn State. We were around the world, but found a connection that is very close to home for us.

We were given a full tour of the university.

We saw the dorms...

We saw many of the classrooms at the university...

The library...

We saw the computer lab...

We saw the Special needs education center...

With brail type-writers...

And brail that had been printed on paper...

We saw the way brail is printed...

We saw classrooms with widened doorways, and the outside of dorms that are especially equipped for those with special needs.

It was really inspiring to see all of this. In a country where having a disability has essentially meant that your life is worthless and you have nothing to offer the world, it was amazing to see an institution set up such as SEKUCo, that clearly sends the message that having a disability just means you are differently abled, not unable. SEKUCo gives an incredible opportunity to those with dissabilities and is helping Tanzania to see the value of a person with a special need.

Once we finished at SEKUCo, we went to the school for blind children and were met by Mama Rubin, who is the headmaster here. Mama Rubin is an incredible woman. She attempted to retire 9 years ago after being at the school for more than 30 years. Pastor Sharon remembered her from her first visit to Tanzania 9 years ago. Pastor Sharon mentioned to her that she thought she was getting ready to retire. Mama Rubin noted that she had, in fact, retired.

How'd that work out for you?!

Shortly after she attempted to retire, she received a call. From Bishop Munga. He was requesting her return to the school. She obliged. It is truly where she belongs. So today, she has been working with these blind children for more than 40 years. She is remarkable. She told us so many stories. She talked about how rewarding it is to see people who were completely shunned because they had low vision or were blind who went on to be teachers, or business professionals, some even leaving Tanzania for their career. Some are now teachers themselves at the Irente School for the Blind. As she talked about this school it became clear that this school has changed lives, and has begun to change the perception that people have of blind individuals in Tanzania. The school has actually gone in search of children who are blind and brought them to the school. The fact that this school is even here gives parents a huge sense of worth for their child. Even their child, the blind child who is deemed useless, has value and is worthy of an education. The blind school has several blind albino children. Being blind is common among albino individuals. Being born albino in Tanzania automatically means that your life is in danger. Their is the thought that these people are associated with witch craft, and are very often killed. If you kill someone who is albino, praise is given to you. It is a horrible practice and we were stunned to learn this. However, there are many working in Tanzania, including Mama Rubin, Mama Munga, and all those working at the school for the blind, who are working tirelessly to not only spread awareness and end this practice, but they are also speaking out and standing up for the rights of all those who are blind. It is not an understatement to say that the school for blind children is more than a school, it does more than educate children, it saves lives.

The children were so loving and we were met with beautiful songs that they had prepared for us, complete with hand motions. Once they were finished singing, Pastor Sharon offered a word of prayer, and we presented the school with gifts. We gave many of the institutions a wooden cross or plaque with our scripture on it that was our theme for the trip That they may be one as we are one. We also gave a bag of toys to Mama Rubin to hand out to each of the children. One of the toys included in the bag was a noise maker toy, that was plastic hands, which when shaken sounded like hands being clapped together. Because they cannot see, we thought something that made noise would be better for the blind children. We would venture to guess that the teachers at the blind school did not feel the same after a few days :) Days later when we were walking around at Irente we could hear the familiar clapping of those toys. Sorry, teachers :)

The school is a residential school, so the children reside there except when they are home on break or for the summer. We got to tour the classrooms and see where and how the children learn. We saw how the write brail, read it and type it.

The children themselves are just amazing. You very often see one child leading another. Some of the children have low vision and the rest are completely blind. It is common to see one child with another by the arm leading them in the right direction. Even for being blind the children do so amazingly well. They run around the premesis without a care. I would watch them run by and be absolutely certain that when they attempted to turn a corner they were going to run into the building. Never once did that happen. I would cringe when they ran by me and there was a stone that stuck up on the pathway. They never tripped and fell, they know where they are. I wanted to close my eyes when they were on the staircases. No need. No one fell, no one tripped. The eight of us on the trip have our vision and we even had trouble with this :)

We had FULL days when we were in Tanzania and this Friday was no different. After we went to the school for the blind we went to another subparish. It was a wonderful time, again.

We played outside with the children, visited with the adults, and spent time eating homemade snacks and drinking tea. We saw here how resourceful these people are, including the children. They had soccer balls made out of trashbags and rubberbands.

They had pull toys made out of empty plastic cartons. What is our trash, they used to make toys. Later in the trip, as we were packing to leave Tumaini we were throwing away plastic bags and someone noted that we were throwing away plastic bags, toys to the children here.

We felt guilty that what was our trash, was there treasure, and we wished we could do more, we wished we had more to offer.

After this subparish (yes, we're still going) we went to a beautiful viewpoint near Irente. It was a shorter hike and what was at the top was beautiful!

When we were ableto see things like this we were just left in complete awe at the beauty God has created.

Pastor Joyce had her little boy with us at this view point, and the only thing that was a ledge at the cliff was a stone wall, about up to my knees. So, to keep him occupied and away from this ledge, I put him in this huge flower pot to play in the dirt. And, it worked.

And Alfred also thought it was a good idea :)

After this we attempted to visit another subparish. What I mean by attempt is that the walk to get to this sub-parish was on the edge of a cliff, and the path was not more than 12 inches wide. Pastor Sharon was first in the line of us and when she and the person guiding us came to a spot on the path that was literally a 5 foot drop off, Pastor Sharon insisted that were not going to attempt this (and we all thanked her for this later on.) Remember the part about Tanzanian's not liking to give bad news. Well, we were not aware of the walking on the edge of a cliff part before we embarked on this journey. I didn't add any pictures of this because most of them were of the back's of someone's head and you really can't see the path, or the cliff on the edge. I think we were all much more concentrated on walking and not falling than we were on capturing the moment :)

Thursday, 8/6/2009

On the morning of Thursday, 8/26, Pastor Joyce picked us up and took us on our first shopping experience in Tanzania. We went to a market down the road from our hostel. It was pretty much an all inclusive market. It re-defined "one stop shopping." You could get anything from food, to cleaning supplies, to clothing, jewelry, accessories and fabric. The market was very crowded, and a little bit overwhelming.

I should be clear that what I mean by shopping is that anytime we stopped walking we had like 9 people all around putting things in our faces that we could buy. It was certainly an adventure! One of the things we all bought was pieces of fabric. Fabric is pretty popular in Tanzania and it was all very beautiful.

Many pieces of the fabric have swahili sayings on them. Often times in Tanzania, this fabric is given as a gift. Rather than a greeting card, fabric, with a special saying on it can be given. We all bought some and I know it is a piece of Tanzania we will treasure. Most of us also bought fabric to have dresses made out of. Our plan was to then wear our African dresses to worship on Sunday, which you will hear more about when I get to that post.

After the market we were picked up by our favorite driver, Kiondo. I swear the man was magic. Anytime we were done doing any activity and it was time to go Kiondo was already there to pick us up. It was like he just appeared wherever we needed him to be. Even sometimes if we were visiting a village or something where we came back a different way, there he was just waiting to pick us up. Many times after hiking those mountains we were SO excited to climb into the back of the car, even if we did have to fit way more people than there were seats. Market day was no diferent. We come out of the market and there is Kiondo.

Kiondo took us to Irente where we shared lunch and then Pastor Joyce told us we would be going to visit one of the subparishes. Incase I have not explained it yet, a subparish is a group of people who live in an area and may have difficulty getting to church, many times due to the location of their village. We visited several of these while we were in Tanzania. We would go to the home of the elder of that particular subparish. This is where we were invited into people's homes and lives and where and when we experienced more true hospitality. Each subparish is visited by Pastor Joyce and also Stephano, the Evangelist, on many occassions. Each subparish also holds bible studies regularly. On Thursday, 8/6, we visited the first of several subparishes, and this one was called Kivumbe (I know I spelled this wrong, so if someone from the team has the correct spelling, please let me know) We were told ahead of time that what we would see in this subparish would constitute extreme poverty. This subparish is located high up in the mountains. We were told a little bit about the difficult life these people live. We were also told that for some people in this parish, this would be the first time in their lives they had ever seen a white person.

Now, understand that in Tanzania, it is not customary to give bad news. So, they simply don't do it. They really sugar coat things for you...

Oh yes, we are almost there. And 4 hours later you actually arrive.

Oh, no, the flight was only delayed a little while. 2 hours later you board.

Oh we are just stopping in to say hello. After dinner and conversation, you leave an hour later.

Oh your meal will be ready very soon. An hour later you eat.

So, Pastor Joyce tells us that Kivumbe is only a short walk.

Do you see where this is going?

Apparntly the definition of "short" in Tanzania differs from the one we use in the US.

Oh it's only a short walk. And 1 and a 1/2 miles later we were there.

Oh, and not 1 and 1/2 miles through a field or a paved road. Oh no, it was 1 and 1/2 miles up a mountain. However, there is a quote by Edward Abbey that reads "May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into, and above the clouds." That's Kivumbe. The climb up was more than worth what awaited us at the top, and not just for the view. Kivumbe is home to some people in Tanzania who left a huge impression on all of our hearts.

This was one of the days we started off in layers of clothing and then spent the rest of the day shedding them. As we were walking up the mountain, our group became staggered, as we walked at different paces. At one point Pastor Joyce, Barb and myself (Kara) were walking together. We noticed two little boys, maybe 8ish and 6ish following us. As they got closer, we waved and said "Jambo" (hello) to them. Barb was carrying a stash of Beanie Babies in her bag to give out and Pastor Joyce indicated it would be OK to give a toy to them. I handed each one a tiny little Beanie Baby and they looked at it like and I do what with these?

Very quickly they warmed up, and they followed us for quite a while after receiving this small gift. They eventually dissappeared though, heading home with their new toy as we continued up the mountain. It was sweet to see them staring at it, and excited over this new little toy.

As we were walking, we were met by the people of Kivumbe who hiked about a 1/4 of the way down to greet us. We were met again with singing, dancing, flowers and many hugs and handshakes. We began to hike the rest of the way with them. Some of us noted that at several points we thought we were at the top.

Nope. Not there yet.

It is easy for us to laugh and joke about the fact that this day we truly realized how out of shape we felt. In all actuality we didn't mind the walk. And we certainly didn't mind it when Pastor Joyce told us that these people walk all way to Lushoto for food. Barefoot. Lushoto is the small town where our hostel was located, and this was about another 1-2 miles from Irente, so they walk anywhere from 3-4 miles one way for food. Remember, barefoot.

Yes, we're still hiking.

I am going to have a hard time putting into words what it was like to meet the beautiful people of Kivumbe, and the pictures might really just speak for themselves, but I will try. When we first got there, they sang a few songs and danced for us, and then we sang a few songs for them as well. We introduced ourselves, telling our new friends our names and our jobs back in the US. Pastor Joyce said a few words to all of us and Pastor Sharon prayed before we went inside one of the homes to eat. During all of this, there was an adorable little boy who was maybe 2 who continually would slide down a dirt hill yelling "Beep Beep!"

After all of this, we went inside to eat. They had prepared so much food for us. We were so appreciative, and we also felt guilty. We realized it took them nearly all day to walk to Lushoto to shop for food and then come back up again. Here we were being offered the best of what they could give to us. When we were finished eating there were still many leftovers. There was some popcorn left, and another type of food that we all referred to as Tanzanian donuts, although I am sure this is not the official name. Lisa asked if we could take what was left and share it with those outside. They said it was fine to do this, so Lisa, Liz and myself took the leftover food outside. We began breaking off pieces of "donuts" and handing them out to each child. We filled little hands with pieces of popcorn. One little girl even picked up the bottom of her skirt and held it out so that Liz could fill her skirt with popcorn. It is my guess that not one of these children that we were handing food out to had ever eaten any kind of lavish meal. Who knows if, or what, they had even eaten yet that day. Yet there was no fighting over anything. No grabbing at the basket of food on the ground in front of us. No fighting that someone else's piece was bigger than what they were given. Just gratitude. We were a little nervous that we were going to run out, but we just kept breaking off small pieces of "donuts" and handing them out and there was enough for each child.

All of us also spent time outside with the people from Kivumbe, and they LOVED-LOVED-LOVED having their picture taken. Especially the children. They were just enamored over the digital camera and when they would have their picture taken and then turn the camera around to look at the picture on the back they would erupt in laughter. Lisa used the video feature on her camera and would record them and then play it back for them. They had never seen such a thing and were just in awe. I am pretty sure we could have stood there and done that for days and they never would have gotten bored.

Barbara and Donna traveled with a bag of tricks and had stashed some small toys in their backpacks to give out during our trip. At Kivumbe, Barbara gave the children a frisbe to play with and they had a ball throwing it back and forth to each other and to us. They were so filled with joy.

Before we left, Kivumbe presented us each with a gift. They had heard that we had been writing things down as we traveled, and we were. Each of us traveled with a journal and would note things in our journals that were important to us throughout the day. Because of this the people at Kivumbe gave us each a brand new, unsharpened pencil. It may not seem like a big deal but a few of us were brought to tears by the thoughtfulness behind this. For people who hardly have anything in the way of material items, to be so thoughtful and gracious to us was so moving to us and touched each of us.

Thursday was definitely a day that made an impact on all of us. As I said, many of the people in this area had never before seen a white person. The simple fact that we chose to get on a plane, leave all that we know and the luxuries of America, come to Africa, and then hike all the way up this mountain to see them meant so much to them. We were not coming bearing gifts (that they knew of). We didn't have food to give to them. We didn't have any money with us. Essentially, we had nothing with us that was going to necessarily make their lives easier or better. Except ourselves and our stories. And, as it turns out, that was enough. Their homes were made out of bricks that they made out of clay, and their roof was made from pieces of metal. They were so proud to have us in their homes eating food they had prepared. We were so honored to be there. I think it sent the message to them that they matter and that they are important. We cared enough to come, and that was all they wanted.

This was a big day for us also in the sense of reality sinking in for how absolutely blessed we are in our country. That night one of us commented that they could not imagine living up there in all of that dirt and never getting to take an actual shower. Being in their home, and having a glimpse of the simplicity in which they live really made us each realize just how much we take for granted and just how blessed we each are.

Pastor Joyce explained to us what a hard life it is to live up in Kivumbe, and despite this, these were some of the most faithfilled, Christ-centered people we had ever met. This was just the begining of what became a pattern to us in Tanzania. These people who have so little in the way of material things have so much faith in God. If you heard Pastor Sharon's sermon this last Sunday, you heard her say that these are people who talk about God. He shows up in everyday conversation. Their lives are centered in Christ. For us, Kivumbe was really one of the first real glimpses we had of how strong their faith us. It was the first time it became really apparant, that maybe all the "stuff" we have here actually has a tendency to get in the way of what really and truly matters.

We had much to learn from the people of Kivumbe and it was a day and an experience that none of us will ever forget.

When we left Kivumbe, the people there insisted on walking us back down to where they had met us on the trek up. They danced and sang all the way down, us following them. Children ran after us, and held our hands as we walked. Kivumbe also wanted to give us another gift and that was a basket of potatoes, as is seen being balanced delicately on the woman's head below. We don't know exactly where the potatoes came from, but we know it was a huge sacrifice for them.