4 Months

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is the 30^th, which means that it’ll be 4 months to the day that we arrived in Tanzania. On the one hand, it feels like we’ve been here forever. But at the same time, America seems less far away now than it did 4 months ago. I think that’s probably because things are just now evening out and feeling quasi-normal. So, I figure that if things are less alien, then I’m feeling more at-home.

That’s not to say that we’ve moved in our home yet. We’re still squatting in a house of other missioners. But we hope to sign the rental agreement to our place in the next few days. Then we’ll slowly move in after that. We’ve actually already acquired a good amount of the most essential things we’ll need to survive in our house. Water filter, stove, fridge, plates and silverware, bed, water buckets, towels, sheets. The hubby and I spent 2 days in the big outdoor market last week, pricing things, bartering to lower the price, and eventually buying a bunch of this stuff. We were very proud of our successes because we’re not big on shopping in general, let alone in a place where we’re not fluent in the language, where you have to barter for pricing, and where people are yelling out to you to buy, buy, buy!

But still, it’s a lot harder here to move into a house than it is back in the States. There has to be a lot of things in place that we wouldn’t even think about otherwise. Here we have to have an evening guard hired. And we need to supply the guard with a flashlight, thermos of hot tea, and an outdoor chair. Then, we need to have padlocks for all the gates and doors, plus the gas canisters, and other things. We need the water filter hooked up. The stove and fridge also have to get hooked up because houses here don’t come with appliances. The fridge needs a special outlet called a “fridge guard” because we have power spikes here and it’ll fry the fridge without this outlet. Houses in Tanzania also don’t have kitchens with counters, so we need to order and have them made. These are just to name a few things. It’s all a really interesting process and I’m super glad that we’re not in a pinch and need to move in in a rush.

So, needless to say, four months along and things are moving “polepole” as we say here (slowly). But I’m grateful that it is, indeed, moving along. I’m also super grateful to all the MK folks here who have helped us in countless ways.

Here’s a quick snapshot of our future house. 

*

*And, as an fyi to those who are wondering, we won't be using that satellite dish. It was just on the house from the previous renter.

9 Years

Today is Chris and my 9 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married that long, but at the same time, it feels like we've always been together. We've had quite a journey so far and I'm so glad to be on our current adventure together.

Happy Anniversary, babe.*



Christmas a few years ago. Giving me his grandmother's engagement ring.


Our first trip to Africa together.


An anniversary vacation in Puerto Rico. 


Anniversary trip to Myrtle Beach. Rocking out before a Social Distortion concert! 


Halloween a few years ago.


At a friend's house in Musoma, Tanzania, just a few weeks ago.

*Too bad we got married so long ago that I don't actually have any electronic copies of pictures from our wedding.**

**UPDATE: My brother uploaded some of our pictures from our wedding, so here are a few shots:

Reflections on My First Week at Work

I started work on Wednesday of this week. Just like first weeks of work anywhere, my first week has been quite slow, consisting mostly of looking through material in the office and getting my bearings. I can't really say I've "learned" anything exactly and I'm still not quite sure how I'll make a contribution, but I'm confident that things will start unfolding in their own time.

Here are a few observations from my first week:

1) It's really difficult to understand context or gain any concept of what people are doing in the office when they're speaking in a language that I barely understand and within a cultural context that's completely different from my own. People come in and out of the office. I don't know who most of the people are and why they've come to the office. Do they work in the building? Are they seeking services? No clue. I also have no idea where my colleagues are going whenever they leave the office, which is constant throughout the day. Are they doing work stuff? If so, I would like to tag along to get an idea of the kind of work being done out in the field. Or, if not, is it just okay to pick up and leave the office to run errands or take care of personal business? I get the feeling that it's the latter of these two things, but there's no way to be certain without constantly asking someone "Where's so-and-so going?" And I know that can be annoying, plus, at some point I figure it's probably not even my business.

2) Time is structured very differently here. Things just move slowly. I may have a meeting on a given day, but I come into the office and the person I'm supposed to meet with isn't even in town, so the meeting gets put off to another day, only to be reschedule again and again into the future. This is not uncommon.

3) I am more comfortable when I have my own space. I was amazed at my good fortune when, on my second day of work I was given an office and a working computer! Up until that point any time I went into the office I sat in my colleague's office across the desk from her, which got really uncomfortable when we exhausted my Swahili vocabulary and had nothing else to talk about and no work to do.

4) It's extremely difficult here to do any work without resources. There's just no infrastructure in place to help out. From what I can gather, my office is currently working with limited or no funds. No money to put gas in the car to get out to the villages where programs are running. Heck, there's no car. No money to pay salaries for staff. Etc. We're really fortunate that we have pretty good computers, but there is no internet unless you personally shell out the cash for a portable modem (which plugs into your thumbdrive. It's how most people get internet here) and service. There is no land-line office phone. So when an intern came to me the other day and said she had nothing to do and was going home, I asked her if it was normal for there to be nothing to do. She said yes, they have no money so there's nothing to do.

I could go on and on, but I guess I'll stop here. I've got much to learn and I don't want to make too many sweeping generalizations yet. I will say that I've read a fair amount of the material that's in the Women's Desk office and it looks like we've done some good work in the past--started micro-enterprise and micro-lending opportunities for women, acquired wheelchairs and crutches for the disabled/handicapped children, trained village and local leaders on gender equality, etc. And there are some really cool national and regional organizations (many of which are faith-based) that have been working on gender equality issues in Eastern Africa for over the past two decades.

So, I have every hope that if we can get some funding we'll be able to become active again and accomplish a host of really great initiatives. I'm sure that will be on my list of job duties-to secure funding. But I've got a ways to go yet before I can really feel confident to do any work anyway, so until then I'll keep going in, practicing my 1st grade Kiswahili and trying to glean little bits and pieces as I'm able.

Best. Meal. Ever.

Since we've been in language school and staying as guests in other people's houses, I've not had much opportunity to cook for the past few months. And I loves me some cookin'. So tonight, the hubby and I had the run of the house and I broke loose. I made homemade tortillas, guacamole, and veggie fajitas.

That's what I'm talkin' about, folks!

SERIOUSLY?

My taste buds just needed some tortillas. It was my first attempt at homemade tortillas (and Chris helped!) and we were not disappointed. And I finished it off with a few spoonfuls of Nutella (birthday gift courtesy of the Rossers). Heck yeah.

Holy Week

It's been the better part of a week and I guess I should post something and start pushing my birthday posts further down the page before someone begins to think that I'm leaving them up there to get more attention. No, although I do like the attention, I've actually just been super busy here and I've not had much time for blogging.

On Thursday we finished our studies at language school, packed our bags and headed back to Mwanza, where we'll be living from here on out. Or at least the indefinite future. Although we're still far fluent in Swahili, we've got a great foundation and I'm super excited to start work next week. It's hard to imagine doing a 9-5 again because I've been out of it for so long. But we're supposed to ease back in for the first three months and focus a lot on specific language and vocabulary acquisition, as opposed to "accomplishing" anything.

We've not secured housing yet, so we are staying with fellow MKLMers until we can finalize that, but we've seen a house we like and hope to move in sometime this month.

Here's hoping everyone out there in cyber-land had a blessed Holy Week and has a Happy Easter. We'll be headed to 7AM Easter Sunday Mass in Swahili. We'll see how much of that I understand. Even on a good day the ratio of comprehension is relatively low!

Picts from my birthday

I already said I had an amazing birthday, but I didn't really say what I did.


Since we were not going to be at dinner at the language school on my actual birthday, we celebrated with cake and ice cream on the night before. Sweets are a rarity here* so we didn't want to deprive everyone (including ourselves) of the opportunity!

Liz and Marion threw a wonderful party for me at their house. We invited some folks from the MK community and the language school and had an excellent blow-out! They cooked delicious food, we sang songs, laughed, and a great time was had by all.


I wore my new dress, courtesy of my thoughtful husband.


Mike made it in from the village, despite the rain.


Big thanks to Liz and Marion for their generosity and hard work!


The cake was To. Die. For.


And they even found chocolate ice cream! (It's not that common here.)


Everyone was so generous and gave me way more gifts than I expected (or deserved!).


We finished off the party with some goofy and fun songs.


My family couldn't make the party, so they had one in my stead at home and we Skyped together to celebrate. My parents made coffee ice cream and cupcakes!


The Waldie family band made a rare Skype-based appearance.

Thank you again, everyone, for helping to make my day super-special.


*Unless you have amazing family and friends who spend ridiculous amounts of money to send you packages that keep you well-stocked in sugary treats. ;)

Couldn't ask for more. At 34.

I'll tell you what, over the past few weeks I have been continually amazed and humbled at the kindness and generosity of friends and family at home and here in Tanzania. This weekend it reached its pinnacle with a fantastic birthday.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, messages and well-wishes. I seriously couldn't ask for a better life. I've imagined living in Africa since I was a little girl. But I never could have prepared for or imagined such a great community supporting me. There is no doubt that I am loved. And for that I am truly grateful.

Thank you.

Charity Home in Kigera

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit a village called Kigera where a Maryknoll priest, Mike Bassano, works. Fr. Mike assists at the House of Compassion, which is a home for people with physical and mental disabilities as well as orphaned children. This home only serves those people who are destitute or otherwise abandoned by all family. It's quite a unique type of place in this country, as families are the main caregivers of the sick. People come from all over Tanzania to live here.



Words cannot describe the experience of visiting this place. For sure, it's a really tough place to live. Mike offhandedly mentioned that the water pipes had been broken and they'd been without water all week*. There is little privacy because all 70+ people (plus chickens, ducks, cats) share a compound. It's dusty and hot and the accommodations are spartan, at best. And the stories of how people ended up here are heart-wrenching.


Fr. Mike gives a tour of the compound and the dispensary, which is open to residents of the home as well as people from the surrounding remote village.

But at the same time, it's a beautiful place with smiling faces and a lively spirit. There are few places I've been where I can say I actually "felt" the presence of God, but this was surely one of them. Fr. Mike exudes such a lively spirit, flitting around, picking up kids, kissing them on the cheeks, making rapid-fire jokes in Swahili. The residents play music all day so the courtyard is filled with the sounds of song. And people sit or mill about the courtyard, sometimes singing, sometimes dancing, sometimes chatting with friends. The kids are passed around from resident to resident, everyone taking a hand at helping one another.

It was such an amazing experience!


The kids don't get much affection because many of them are without parents, so we took turns carrying or holding hands with the kids.


They think this boy is 12 or 13 years old. He doesn't speak.


A windmill pumps water from Lake Victoria to the compound.


David shows a man, named "Baba Yo" (because those are the only words he can say), how to work his camera. Baba Yo LOVED taking pictures and took any opportunity to do so. He wasn't too bad either! In the background Caitlin and I tickle a little girl.


One of our guests from America talks to a resident. This woman is blind and crippled. She crawls on the floor to get anywhere.

The people were trilled that we had come out to visit them. Visitors in Tanzania are considered a blessing, and certainly there are few visitors that come out to the Charity Home. But, honestly, I feel like I was the one who received the blessings yesterday. Any difficulties that I may encounter in life vastly pales in comparison to anything these folks have experienced. And yet, they see the blessings in their life and are grateful.

It was truly an amazing day.

Our fellow MKLMers wrote a blog post about the day too and posted some pictures. Feel free to visit their site to read about their thoughts on the visit.

*It's quite common for people to cut pipes to either steal water or the pipe itself.

Celebrations

Folks may be happy to know that Chris and I got out this weekend to belatedly celebrate our dating anniversary. We had a great time just sitting and relaxing at a cafe. And we ate a cupcake. So. Good. If we had more money on us I'd have gotten a *real* coffee too. I've really got to get better about dealing with an all-cash economy.

(I'm going to post this picture, even though I look like a wobbly-eyed freak show.)



We took several pictures like this and I looked wobbly-eyed in all of them. So then we took another where I could hide my deformity.




Saturday afternoon we went to Lisa's Pride for the last time before we're finished with language school. It was a fairly hot day, so we treated the kids to water balloons. Man! It's amazing what a fun time you can have with toys that cost less than $1.

What we *thought* was for lunch today

One traditional Tanzanian dish, daga, consists of small fish stewed together and then eaten with rice or ugali. When we saw these drying out back today we thought that was for lunch today. Thursday lunches are usually traditional Tanzanian fare here at language school. So why not?





But that's not what was served today. I won't completely miss out on this meal, though, because I hear that the employees at my office in Mwanza cook and eat daga together quite often.

Pictures of language school

I decided today that I'd not taken enough pictures lately, so today I carried my camera around at school and grabed a few shots of teachers. I uploaded them on my Flickr account, but here are a few:


Chris says "Welcome to Darasa (Classroom) G!"


Mwalimu Sylvester teaches us "hadithi" (or stories). He is what the Tanzanians call "Mzee" (older person) and they mean that with a high level of respect.


Mwalimu Stephano teaches us "sarufi" (or grammar). He is recently engaged and will be married in August.


Mwalimu Joseph is one of 2 "mazoezi" (exercise) teachers. He also works with me 2 afternoons a week on one-on-one dialogue. He always has lots of questions about America and American culture.


Mwalimu Daniel is our 2nd "mazoezi" teacher. He often likes to ask us pronunciation questions about American English.

What's life like at language school?

The first stack are the vocab words that I know backwards and forwards; the second stack are the words I know but not all-too-well; and the third stack are the words I don't know at all. I'm glad that the first stack has consistently remained bigger than the other two. Of course, that third stack gets bigger every day as we are constantly starting new chapters with tons of new vocab words.

Sigh.

Sorry, Dear. Happy Anniversary Anyway.

Today, St. Patty's Day, is the hubby and my 11 year dating anniversary. We had sweet plans to steal away for the afternoon and have some alone time out on the town. But, alas, my body had other plans, namely for me to be sick and lay like a slug for 2 days on our bed. I can't even rotate from bed to couch like I would have in our house in SC because all we have here is the bed. So I'm hogging it all for my sick self, vegging out to episodes of LA Ink*, wasting time on the internet, and sleeping. I've never been known for my romantic side, but I seriously blew it this time.

And, don't worry, folks, it's not malaria. Just a head cold and I seem to be on the mend. I should be up and mobile again by tomorrow.

*Thanks again, Erica and Fuzzy, for sending the DVDs!

What’s in an Identity?

Let me start out this blog post by saying that I am in no way claiming to be the slightest bit cool or hip. I am quite aware of the fact that I’m a pretty big dork and on a good day I can barely get myself dressed. I’m okay with that. But I think most of us can agree that in order to survive and be happy with who we are as people, everyone has to have some illusion that they think themselves interesting or cool. We all shape our identities in different ways, whether it’s comprised by the way we dress, who our friends are, what we do for a living, where we live, hobbies, etc, or all of the above. Or, maybe it’s a sense of what we want and strive to be. Whatever, you get my drift.

At 33 (almost 34!) years old I feel like I’ve gained a pretty good sense of my own identity. Or, at least I thought I did. But recently since I’ve given up most every possession I owned, moved away from all my friends and family, quit my job, etc., I find myself sort of in a new identity crisis. I mean, what makes me me? And, this hit me in the oddest of ways. I find myself watching burned copies of TV shows and I do what many people probably do, I pick out the things I see that I like and could see myself doing, wearing, buying, etc. Even if in reality I’ll never own any of the things I see, I always enjoy looking at stuff and picking out what I like. “Oh, I like that shirt,” I think. Or “that’s a cute haircut.” So I’m doing this the other night while watching a show and then I remember that I’m living in Tanzania and I don’t have access to pretty much any of those things. I can’t just go to Target and pick up a new outfit or go online and find a great sale to update my wardrobe. And not only that, even if I had access to these things I like, I might not even be able to wear that shirt or have that certain style because it’s too low-cut for this culture or it would be seen as totally inappropriate here. And it all just kind of makes me sad, like I can’t be who I want to be. But then I think, well that’s really stupid and superficial. The way I dress or my style (more accurately, my lack of style) doesn’t make me me. So, what gives?

I have given up so many little and big things to do this one gigantic thing that is living and working in Tanzania. And yes, I’m sure my “Tanzania experience” will certainly add to my sense of self and identity. But because of all the things I’ve given up to be here, to have this one big identity marker, I find myself rattling around in the emptiness. I feel a little anchor-less.

I’m sure that in time, as I get used to my new life, I’ll solidify my “Tanzanian identity” and I’ll move right along as if nothing ever changed. But for now I’m trying to embrace the emptiness, as difficult as that is, and listen to its messages for me.

Nine to Five (part 2)

Yesterday was technically my second day visiting my work site this week, but it was actually my first day literally in the office, since I spent the previous day out in the rural areas.

I pretty much worked from 9:00-3:30 and a large majority of my day was done in Swahili. Sheesh! What a tough day! I spent a lot of the day with a woman who works in the Women's Desk, Hilda. She is the first staff in my department that I've met. (The woman I mentioned meeting on my first day at the job site, Emelia, is a college intern and she has only worked in the office for 1 month, so I'm not really counting her.) Hilda speaks almost no English, so our conversations were mostly done in Swahili. I managed to meet with her for a good hour before we reached a point where I felt concerned I might be either missing parts of what she was saying or misunderstanding some of the finer details. Once we reached that point we called in Emilia to help translate whenever I felt I needed it.

I am really proud of the fact that I survived a day like this. Not that the women weren't totally helpful and really understanding. I mean, I keep imagining what it would be like if the roles were reversed and a foreigner came into my office at my previous employment in the States saying she didn't speak the language but she wanted to help. We would've said "Thanks, but no thanks" and that would be that. Instead of kicking me out or making me feel like an idiot for not speaking the language, these ladies welcomed me with open arms and really helped me out. They spoke slowly and simply so that I could understand what they were saying. They patiently waited while I pulled my new vocabulary words out of the recesses of my brain. And, when we had nothing else to talk about, we sat down to tea! I would've had lunch with them as well, but my boss, Paul, wanted to take me out to lunch, which was also really sweet.

All things considered, I think the day was a success. I learned a little about the office and the work they do. I got to know the staff a bit. And I confirmed my belief that I have a long way to go in my Swahili before I can really do much more than "survive" a day in the office!

P.S. Here are some pictures from my trip out to the village on Tuesday.


Here is a dam that was built by the Caritas Office using Food for Work Funds


Here are two of my colleges, both named George, standing in front of the dam. This area was so beautiful, but there's just no way to capture the beauty on camera.*

*Have you noticed that black spot in the bottom left side of all our pictures for the past little while? Yeah, what a pain! A piece of sediment or something has gotten into our camera lens and is showing up in all our pictures. Luckily, some family of our fellow MKLMer are coming to TZ in April. So, we've ordered a new camera and had it shipped to them in the US so they can bring it to us when they come. Not really what I thought would happen 2 months into our journey. But we're rolling with it.

Nine to Five (part 1)

Okay, so I'm not quite working a nine to five job yet*, but this week I've had the opportunity to spend 2 days in my future work site. We're on midterm break from language school and we're back in Mwanza to take care of some biashara (that is, business), including not just visiting our work sites, but also house hunting, learning to drive a manual car on the left-hand side of the road**, and getting our drivers license. Needless to say, it's been a jam-packed week!

Yesterday I joined forces with George O. (a fellow MKLMer/civil engineer who works in my office), Tanzanian George (our coworker), and a colleague from the women's desk (my future office). George-squared had to go out into the rural area to check on some dams that they were having constructed/maintained with help from the Food for Work Program. While out there, they also wanted to visit a priest who has opened a boarding school for unwed teen mothers. The school has no water, so the priest wanted a consult from the Georges on how he could engineer a water system for the school and dorms. George O. thought it would be interesting if my colleague and I tagged along to see the school and talk with the girls. Plus, I could see some of the rural area, as well as get a glimpse of the work they do in the other divisions of my office.

The ride out into the rural area was so beautiful! Words cannot capture the beauty. Nor could my camera. It's the rainy season, so everything is green and lush. There are beautiful rocks and boulders littering the landscape. Kids walk cows, goats, and sheep down the road and through the fields. Women in brightly colored cloths work in the fields along the horizon.

I posted some pictures over at Flickr of the scenery and the dams we visited, but the website's being weird and I can't grab them to paste on the blog. So I'll have to do do that later.

The school we visited yesterday was really interesting. The priest who started it is young, having been ordained in 2009. He's in charge of 2 rural parishes, each with over a dozen outstations. Yet he's managed to open this school for 48 teen girls. He's partway through the process of expanding the school and constructing new buildings. His vision is for the school to house several hundred students. This is quite a unique concept in this country. Unwed teens often are forced to drop out of school either because of the shame or because they don't have the time to go to school anymore. School is only required*** up to grade 7 here, so kids often drop out after that anyway. And girls are expected to do a large brunt of the housework. So having a child on top of that is usually a guarantee that it's the end of schooling for a teen mom.

My colleague and I visited a classroom and briefly met the girls. They were all about 17-20 years old. They were very interested in having us come out and speak to them in the future and do programming on gender equality for women. I'm not sure if I will end up doing any projects out there in the future, but it certainly was an educational experience just to go out and see what's being done.

Okay, I'm super exhausted and this is a long enough post as it is. More on day 2 at the job site later!


*Other than learning the language, which in and of itself is a 24 hour job!

**...while navigating in traffic with tons of pedestrians in/around the road, bikes, pikipiki (motorcycles) w/ passengers riding on the back, dalla dalla (buses) with people hanging out the window yelling, etc...

***I say "required" but there's no enforcement, so it is quite common for kids, especially in rural areas and on farms, to not be enrolled in school.

Long Rains

The long rains have started here in northern Tanzania. The change in weather was kind of sudden. Just one day, or evening, I think, the sky got cloudy, a wind picked up, and it rained for about an hour or 2. Then, almost even day or evening since then, we've had at least a little bit of rain. On some occasions the rain has been quite hard. Today as I type this, it's probably in the upper 60's and totally cloudy. It reminds me of a nice Fall day in Columbia. I LOVE it! Makes me want to curl up on the bed and watch movies/sleep.

Here's a little video to show you the rain and the view over Lake Victoria. It's not uncommon to see lighting coming through the clouds in that direction over the lake.



It usually doesn't stay cloudy and rainy all day. The sun will usually poke through the clouds and it will warm up to the 80's again. And then it starts again the next day.

Also, the Rossers (our fellow MKLMers here at language school) posted a fairly in-depth blog post about life in language school. I thought I'd share the link here since our life is pretty similar to theirs right now. In the post, they have a video of David talking to my favorite teacher, Dismas. I love me some Dismas! He and his wife just had a baby in December and in early February Chris and I went to his house to visit with them and hold the baby.

Preparation

Today marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a time of preparation and anticipation. I find it interesting and poignant that both Lent and Advent this year have been times of great preparation and anticipation for me, as I prepared to leave the country in December and am now preparing for work and cultural immersion in Tanzania.

This morning, as I sat in church listening to the readings, I was struck in a new way by those same readings I hear every year at this time.

"When you are fasting, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret."(Matt 6:16-18)

Most years I sit in church, hungry from eating little all day and thinking about how my hunger in my stomach relates to my hunger for something bigger and better than this life. But today, I was struck by the call to be quiet. To not be "showy".

I got to thinking about this blog, and my Facebook page, and the newsletters that I send home to friends, family, and supporters. And honestly, I became a little embarrassed at how ostentatious I am about the work I'm doing here. To give myself a little credit, there's practical reasons for keeping these methods of communication. I think it's important that we share our work so those at home are more aware of the issues and conditions of people in other places around the world. And, I know that a lot of people just want to know how we're doing and these are easy* ways to communicate. But I have to wonder how much of my writing is to "tout my own greatness."

So, maybe this is a good reminder to me that I need to look at myself a bit less and look at the greater work that's being done, as well as the One responsible for me being here.


*One could read that as "lazy" ways to communicate, I admit.

Video from Sunday's Mass

Here's a video from the drumming circle that was after Sunday's Centennial Mass.

MK Sister’s Centennial Celebration

This year marks the 100th anniversary the Foreign Mission Sisters of St. Dominic, more commonly referred to as the Maryknoll Sisters. Last year the MK Fathers and Brothers celebrated their centennial and this year they’ve passed the baton to the sisters. All throughout the year there will be celebrations in the various countries that has a MK presence.

About 15-20 MK sisters from across Tanzania and even some from the US and Kenya are all gathering this week for a variety of celebrations. This weekend we were fortunate to be able to attend the first half of the celebrations, which were held in our neck of the woods. We took a “pilgrimage” of sorts to the first Maryknoll parish in a small village about a ½ hour’s drive from the language school where we currently live. The Maryknolls first established the parish in Nyegina in 1951. And, what was cool about yesterday’s celebration was that there was one sister with us who was in Nyegina during that time. Sister Ann still lives in Tanzania, though she is about to retire in just a few weeks and return to the States.

The parish has since been taken over by the local diocese, but boy did they put on a show to recognize and celebrate the centennial. We were first greeted by a parade of children singing and dancing as the bus pulled into the church.



Then, we attended a very long, very hot, very crowded Mass. There must have been over 400 people jammed into the church. No windows, no air circulation. It was insanely hot. And the Mass lasted over 2 hours. But, it was such a great celebration that I hardly cared it was so hot. There was a ton of singing and dancing by both a children and adult choir. The Mass was all in Swahili so I only understood about 10% of what was being said. But it was abundantly clear that the priest and the community were singing the praises of the MK sisters. Maryknoll has a major presence in this entire area of the country. They started many schools, founded parishes, opened churches, promoted the education of women, etc. So all of that was recognized and discussed during Mass. All of the sisters and even the lay missioners were invited to stand on the alter and introduce ourselves in Swahili! Luckily, one of the long-term missioners took pity on us and introduced ourselves so we didn’t have to bumble through our elementary Swahili in front of the whole congregation. Several of the community leaders gave speeches and at the end of Mass the 2 longest serving MK sisters in TZ got up and were presented with gifts of cloth from a variety of community members. The people would approach the sisters who were standing on the alter, hold up their fabric, wrap it around the two sisters’ shoulders and then give them a joint hug and kiss. Then the next person would come up and do the same. They must’ve been presented with about 20 different pieces of fabric, each one more beautiful then the next.*

At the end of Mass we were ushered out of the church by a chorus of rambunctious children who we had to hold back for fear of them knocking over the elderly nuns. When we got outside there was a singing and drumming circle. The sister’s didn’t waste a second; by the time I got out there they were already dancing and waving their newly acquired cloth. The whole congregation flooded outside; kids climbed trees just to get a look at the circle. It was awesome. Then, we paraded down the road via drumbeat and dancing to the convent where the MK sisters were planting a commemorative tree.


The drum and dance circle outside the church.


The sisters dancing in the circle.


The procession to the treeplanting.


The sisters plant the tree.

After the tree was planted most of the congregation dispersed and we were served a fabulous meal by the sisters who now run the parish. They had tables and chairs setup under the trees and it was quite an idyllic spot to sit and enjoy the breeze after being cooped up in the hot church for so long.


Enjoying a rest under the tree before lunch.

Yesterday’s celebration was such a tribute not only to the MK sisters and their history, but also to the Tanzanian people. It was everything I love about this country. Celebration. Beauty. Faith. Music. Dance. Community. So lovely!

It should also be noted that the drive to Nyegina was absolutely beautiful! As we wound our way around Lake Victoria, we drove through some of the lushest farms in the country. The lake was to our right and the farms to our left as we passed small huts and family compounds. People stopped to look at the bus full of wazungu (Westerners) as we drove by and kids waved and yelled hello. Absolutely spectacular.



*The sisters were generous enough to give us lay missioners some fabric. So I got a bolt of pretty purple fabric that I hope to get made into a dress or shirt.