Wednesday 8/5/2009: A visit with the Munga's and the Women of Irente

On Wednesday morning we had the honor and pleasure of visiting with Mama Askofu (the Bishop's wife) at her home. She was so warm and welcoming and her home is beautiful. She welcomed us with open arms and we joined her inside her home for tea and snacks. We discussed many things, including the success of SEKUCo, the Lutheran University. Mama Munga was the pilot behind this project. The Munga's have three children, two of which have special needs. As they were raising their children in Tanzania it became obvious that there was a lacking in the training for professionals dealing with special needs individuals. So, to rememdy that, Mama Munga started working to open the university, specialing in special needs education. She is an amazing women, working tirelessly for justice and human rights. She has a heart as big as God's world, and is so humble and genuine.

Bishop Stephen Munga, or Baba Askofu, is just as humble. It was really a pleasure to meet with him as well and share lunch with him. Bishop Munga was actually living in Sweden at the time of his call. He was asked to return from Sweden to Tanzania to take the call as Bishop. It speaks volumes to the person he is, and how much he was wanted for this position. Both Baba and Mama Askofu are champions for social justice and are truly God's hands and feet in our world. It was an honor to spend time with them. Please keep Mama Munga in your prayers, as she is currently suffering from back pain.

When we were meeting with the Bishop we were all still a little bit jet-lagged. We had not even been in the country for 48 hours, so we were still adjusting to the time and our bodies were trying to figure where we were and why we were not sleeping. Needless to say, we were not exactly as "on" as we maybe would have liked to be for a meeting with the Bishop's wife, followed by the Bishop himself. Thank God for Barbara Spencer, and her role on Synod council because she was able to fire question after question and saved the meeting! Thanks, Barb! We owe for the gift of being able to make conversation!

Later that afternoon we went to Irente and met with the women's group. They are truly an amazing group of people! They had prepared a lunch for us and welcomed us with song and dance (yes, we had already eaten with Mama Munga, yes, we had already had lunch with the Bishop. Note the trend, when you meet someone new in Tanzania, you WILL be eating with them). This was our first meal time experience at Irente. It is tradition in Tanzania that the guests sit at a head table and eat, while those host(s) sit and watch, not usually eating. This was SO hard for us. We wanted to share with them. We wanted them seated at the table with us. We wanted to eat with them. This was a hard lesson for us, but with Irente, we came to find a comfortable balance. By the end of our time there, our friends at Irente would eat with us, but we were always still seated at the table. Sometimes some of them would pull their chairs up to the table, sometimes sitting around us and eating. It was kind of a comprimise between what we were each used to.

We had a wonderful meeting with the women of Irente. They have amazing talent and make so many things including food, kitchen utensils, beautiful table clothes and napkins and many other things. They demonstrated for us all the things they have made and they were very proud of their work-and they should be!

Most of the nights we were in Tanzania, we would meet for group time after day. It was always a nice time to wind down, discuss things about the day, and we always shared laughter. We used a model called G.R.I.P and it worked well for us. We used this to guide our conversation, talking about our gratitude from the day, any regrets, what inspired us and what our purpose was. One of the things we discussed that evening was what our image of beauty is in America. I think we all could feel like none of us was ever judged by our appearance when we were in Tanzania. The standards are just so different. It never mattered what we were wearing--or if it matched! It didn't matter what brand things were, how old they were, what store it came from. It is such an unmaterialistic society and it was very refreshing to be in.