Taking it Easy on Veteran's Day

11-11-15

The cooking school

Veteran's Day. We kind of took it easy today. We had breakfast with Bo & Juli, then went with Juli & Michelle to the cooking school, which was about a 20 minute walk. It is a convent where they have a daycare on one side and a cooking school on the other. They cook in the morning, then in the afternoon, another building holds a sewing or embroidery class. Juli likes to buy some things there – we got somosas, potato chips, and peanut bars.  All are very delicious.

From there, we walked another 10 minutes or so to a store where we picked up some souvenirs. Juli knows all the hot spots to shop. :) Then we went to the Diocese to meet a couple people. One is a pastor who is trying to help women start up businesses. She had a couple baskets on hand from Ihemi so I bought some.

War cemetery in Iringa

Then we met another friend of the Skillman's, Bonito before we had to leave for an Armistice Day celebration at the War Cemetery.

We had lunch at the apartment, then went to the market with Juli & Michelle. There was a beggar who followed us from the Lutheran Center to the market and then some. It was kind of disturbing, but not unusual, I guess. The market was interesting: any kind of food, lying on tables to buy. There was fish, grains, beans, spices, candy, fruit, vegetables, etc., etc., etc. Juli bought some groceries and then we went on a hunt for more souvenirs.

After the market, we rested. We had supper with Bo, Juli, and Michelle at a wonderful restaurant called The Haven. It was a pretty good day!

The Haven

Hospital & another School

11-10-2015

The pharmacy

We were up and gone with Bo, Juli, and Michelle at 9am to go to the Ilula Hospital.  We met a doctor and got a tour around the hospital grounds from a man named Alamu Kikoti.  We saw admin offices, a pharmacy, clinic, and general ward.  We walked by the operating room, but did not go in.  We also saw a maternity ward and I saw a newborn baby.  Alamu said to me, "When the babies are born, they look wuzungu."  Wuzungu means "white" and I guess as they get older, that's when their skin darkens.  I thought that was pretty interesting, especially since I remember that when Ellie was born, she had dark - almost an olive color - skin, and she lightened up as she aged.

The lab

While a woman would be put on bed rest in the US, they get admitted into a waiting ward here.  There they sit for a few days up to a few months waiting for their baby.  I have also heard that when a person is in the hospital here, his/her family will stay nearby because it is the family that takes care of the patient.  Feeding and washing patients is apparently not the job of the doctors or nurses here.
We did see some private rooms, which were quite nice.  They weren't quite completed, but when they are, they will cost around 20,000 Tanzanian Schillings (about $10 a day) to stay there.

The holding tank

We walked through the new nursing school, which just opened yesterday, and peeked through windows of some of the classes.  Then we walked down to where the volunteer nurses from elsewhere (like the US) would have their quarters.  They also have dorms for the nurses, which weren't completed quite yet either.  There were nine dorm rooms, each with six beds in them.  There are 15 students currently enrolled this first year.
Adam, Julie, Michelle & I peeked into the church on site while Bo talked with the guys about the problem they're having with their water.  Their holding tank is contaminated, and the pump cuts out.  While we sat there and had lunch, Bo was communicating with someone to get their problem fixed.  It's amazing that in this area of the world, he could have a constant connection with someone back in the States (or wherever) and get moving on the problem in real time.
After the hospital, we went to Image to look at the boarding school there.  The headmaster there has great vision for that school, and while it is very much farther along than the school we saw yesterday, there is still a lot work to be done.

The children at Image school dancing for us

As we drove up to the school, the students were standing outside singing and clapping for us.  We got out of the car and they grabbed us to sing and dance with them.  This went on for about 25 minutes!  We couldn't stop smiling - and neither could they.  They were so welcoming, I couldn't believe it.
We introduced ourselves, and then we went to have lunch (again).  We had a nice visit with headmaster Ngogo and a couple of the teachers, then they took us on a tour of the school.  I think he said he had something like 700 children at that school.

Joice, Dennis, and Desidelia

Three students are sponsored by our church back home so we got to visit with them.  They were very sweet kids and they told us what courses they liked best in school:  one girl, Desidelia, is in Form 6 (like a senior in high school to us) was interested in geography and history, the boy, Dennis - also Form 6 - was interested in accounting and economics, and the other girl, Joice - Form 2 - likes chemistry and biology.  They seemed very bright.  Desidelia and Joice are from Ihemi, and Dennis is from Sadoni.  We are going to those preaching points this weekend.  Dennis asked if we could send a message to his sponsors; he wants them to know that he is working hard at his studies and that he is doing well.  It was very sweet.

House built around a boulder

After the school, we went to visit some friends of Bo & Juli's.  These friends have a compound that is just amazing to see, including two homes that are spectacular.  The guy's mother lives in one of the houses and it was unlike anything I have ever seen - it was built around a huge boulder!  I made Adam take a picture of it.
After that, we went to the home of the district pastor of Ihemi, Donald Kiwanga.  He and his wife fed us supper fit for a king.  She is a caterer, so really knows how to cook.  He told us of all of their children - it seemed like he had five sons - but at least a couple were adopted.  They're all going to school and he explained some of the problems they're having getting loans and covering the fees.
We got back at 9pm and tried getting online, but the internet is not 100% reliable, and since we couldn't get on, we put off communication til the morning and turned in.

I wanted to add more pictures, but the connection is too slow -- it's already taken me two days to upload these.

Children's ward at the hospital

Gecko at the hospital

Head Master Ngogo, Desidelia, Juli, Bo, Dennis, Joice, Rachel, Adam, and two of the teachers

Dennis is an acrobat!

New library at Image school

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Schools

11-09-2015

We got up and had breakfast with Tom, Beth & Julia and visited about each other's weekends. Breakfast is good here – usually fruit and coffee or tea, then toast, an egg omelet, and juice.

We were to be at the apartment at 10 to meet Winston Mdegela, a man who was going to take us to a school he owns with his wife and children. Julie, Adam and I rode with him out to the school, which is about 20 minutes outside of Iringa near an out of the way village on another bumpy road.

The school compound is very large; it is called Wendyrayna. They are completing their first year in operation and they currently have about 25 students, but when it is fully up and running, it will be able to accommodate 540 students at full capacity. It is a boarding school, so the kids stay there mid-January until early December, with a couple weeks off in June.

The well at Wendyrayna

The reason we were there was to talk about Winston's vision and need to provide enough water for his school while also providing water for the surrounding village. Currently they have just barely enough water, but as the school grows, he is faced with the possibility of restricting water for the village, and he is not anxious to do that. Bo made some suggestions, including having Winston get in contact with a project called H2O For Life out of White Bear Lake, which can partner US schools with Tanzanian schools to provide help with things like what Winston needs. It was incredibly interesting.

One of the students washing our hands before tea

Winston gave us a comprehensive tour of the school, including the dorms, teacher's quarters, bathrooms & showers, kitchen, and classrooms, and they also served us tea and fruit. One of the teachers had chickens and pigs, and they are growing fruit trees there.  Most buildings were in some sort of construction, as they first complete what they absolutely need, and add finishing touches, doors, windows, and other buildings as they have money to do so.  

Children eating their lunch

We went into the kitchen area - which was like an open log shed, with dirt floors and open places for windows but no glass - where the students were eating their lunch of beans and ugali, which is made with maize (corn) flower. The students will roll up the ugali into a ball and use that to sop up the beans. We tasted it and it wasn't bad, but these kids eat it for every meal. Juli says they like it and it's comfort food for them. Much better than going without, I'd imagine, but I would bet Charlie would not have tried it if he were with us.

Future lab

Next, Winston showed us his vision of the laboratory. It's foundation has been laid out, and he pointed out where all of the rooms will be, including two labs, an office, storage and prep areas, and bathrooms. He has very specific ideas of what and where everything will be, and we were all impressed with his ambition and what he's been able to accomplish so far of his dream.

Before we left, the children all gathered to sing for us and we introduced ourselves. They were all wonderfully behaved and they seemed to really enjoy our visit. We took group photos and were on our way.

SACCOS building

Our next stop was to the Iringa University. The semester has just started this week, but the students have a couple weeks to actually arrive at school, so it was not very busy. We walked over to the SACCOS building, but all offices were locked up, as most people had already gone for the day. We took photos of the building and Bo took us on a tour of the rest of the campus. He took us to the classroom Christiania built and we got a photo of that and saw the stained glass gift from our church. The room looked very nicely kept up, and Juli mentioned that the seats/desks were new.
We actually had a bit of the afternoon free! We went back to the hotel to catch up on emails, but the internet was down so instead we went to the restaurant for coffee and made friends with a Swedish couple, Toolive and Britt, who were staying here at the Lutheran Center. It didn't take long for me to figure out they were Swedes, as we were the only people drinking coffee at 4:30 in the afternoon. :)

We met Bo, Juli, and Michelle at a pub next door for a drink and then went to their apartment for relaxation, supper, and devotions. It was a lovely relaxing evening.

That night when we returned to the Center and Adam went to bed, I went into the lobby to do some writing and met the man who works the desk at night. His name is Francis. He is a native who speaks very good English and when he learned that I was from Minnesota, he went on and on about how much he loves people from Minnesota. He says that must be God's country, and he prays every night that nothing bad ever comes to MN or people from MN. He spoke for at least five minutes about how much he loves us and just was unable to stop praising people from MN. I just about cried, his admiration was so strong. Apparently once a woman from MN gave him money to fix his motorcycle, and he felt that all of us were as compassionate, generous, and helpful as she. It's a lot to live up to, and I was almost embarrassed, but I thanked him and told him I would pray for him too.

The students, staff, and visitors at Wendyrayna

A dorm room at Wendyrayna

Stained glass windows in the Christiania classroom

In the Christiania classroom at the University

Church and heading off the Mountian

11-08-2015
Since we went to bed early last night, of course I woke up early - about 6am.  It seemed to be a good time to catch up on my knitting.  Breakfast was at 8am: breads, jam, watermelon and coffee.
We left for church at 9:30.  As we walked in, there was a man playing an electric keyboard and there were lots of people (I made a point of counting during the offering and I counted 311 men, women, and children).  Church started "promptly" (we were told) at 10am.  At about 10:10, the choirs entered, followed by the pastors and the bishops of both the Southwest Diocese and their sister South Carolina synod.  Today is ordination day of two new pastors from the area.

The front of the church - the Bishops are all dressed up for this official ceremony.

The bishops were all decked out in their holy robes and big hats - Bishop Yoos looked like the Pope.  It was kind of cool to see, as I'd never seen a Lutheran bishop in official dress before.
Many pastors from the villages around the synod were there.  I think there were 23 - 22 men and one woman pastor.
The church service consisted of several choirs singing various songs - all very beautiful.  The electric keyboard assisted on at least one song (it had a bit of a Caribbean sound) but most choirs sang with no accompaniment.  Sometimes random people would join the choirs singing and dancing - some would move toward the choir, and some would sing and dance from their own seats.
Bishop Yoos did the sermon.  Oh yeah -- of course at the beginning of the service, we all had to get up and introduce ourselves.  Everything in English was translated to Swahili.  Then it was time to ordain the two new pastors.  Each of the 21 other pastors had to say their own prayer, and there were pages of something that also had to be said.  All was in Swahili, so I listened for a while, but mostly looked around to all the people that were there.  We hadn't done the offering yet, so I was probably trying to count how many people were there, because I'm no good at guessing.
At one point, the local bishop said, "Ok, now we start on the second ordination," to which everyone laughed.  I believed him and the fact that we were in for an additional 21 pastor's prayers, pages of ordination stuff, and what probably amounted to another hour of straight Swahili, so I started a letter to my mom.  (I had been writing notes on my experience the whole time anyway, so nobody could tell I had thrown in the towel on this service.)  :)

The two new pastors.  Each were given one of these tools.

It turned out the bishop had been joking, and the service only lasted another 45 minutes or so (three and a half hours in total).  We sang a song, and it was about time to go.  We had to rush out of there too, as we had a long trip ahead of us to get down that mountain and back to Iringa.  Bo was hoping to not have to drive in the dark, and I don't blame him.
We took dinner on the go (the goat was being prepared for Bishop Yoos and his party for supper, so it was for them to enjoy later).  We headed down the bumpy mountain and around the more than 61 switchbacks and took in the gorgeous scenery we'd missed out on in the dark Friday night, and headed "home."

Adam at the JD dealership just outside of Iringa

We had reservations for supper at Kisolanza, which is an old farmstead and very cool place with wonderful food.  I'm sure the place has signs on the road, but what Adam and I noticed was that at the turnoff was a John Deere dealer, so we begged Bo to stop.  Juli humored us by taking our photo with some tractors.  We Fausch's love our tractors!
We got back to Iringa very late - the gate was locked at the Lutheran Center and I thought we were going to have to sleep in the street.  Bo, with his magic Swahili, managed to rouse the guard and get him awake enough to let us in.  Bedtime was way past 11pm tonight!

Well Dedications part two

This photo was taken at Nhungu. That is a child carrying that bucket of water.
And look at the very little one with her sibling on her back!

11-07-2015 afternoon
The sun was hot and I had gotten pretty burnt standing out in it for more than two hours.  I put on some sun screen, but it was too late.  I am toast.

Juli & Bo receiving their conga

At the next village, Matamba, there was another big presentation, speeches, introductions, and walk to the well.  A woman on the water committee spoke - she seemed very emotional.  They pumped clear water again.  Another success!  The Skillmans and Bishop Yoos and his wife from South Carolina were each presented with congas.
We left that village and were on our way to a secondary school.  First we stopped at a government building where they had made a meal for us of rice, meat, and "Chinese" which looked like cooked collared greens.
I did not participate as much at the third well dedication because I wanted to stay in the shade due to my sunburn.  While standing there by myself, some boys from one building were hollering hello to me in English so I walked over to say hi back and I asked them their names.  One was a name that was not familiar to me, so I can't remember it.  The other boy was named Omega.  I think they were surprised that I came over to talk to them, and once I was there, they didn't have much to say.  When thinking back on it now, it was probably not proper for me to go over there.
That third well was not quite as successful, as the water ran brown.  But, while it may not have looked like a success, the fact that the water did not run clear was an indication that the pump had not been running as often as maybe it should have been.  Hopefully it was a lesson learned and the water will run clear with enough consistent use.

The goat offering is being tied into the back of the truck.

This school well was the last of our dedications.  We returned to our home base where I was lucky enough to nap while the girls went for a walk and the men went to check the remaining seven wells.  They had to take some photos, as was a requirement from the donors, and Bo wanted to assess the contractor's work in the area.
We had supper of rice, vegetables, watermelon, and meat of some sort.  Some were thinking it was the goat from the offering from Nhungu (the first well site) but I asked the local pastor who was dining with us and he said that goat was going to be tomorrow's meal.  Apparently tonight's meat was beef - and it was quite good.
After the meal and devotions, an early bedtime of 9pm was welcomed.

Well Dedications

11-07-2015

I did not sleep great. Because of the altitude, I was told, we would not have to worry about mosquitoes and that's why there were no nets over the beds. I heard one buzzing around my ear at least twice.

I got up about 7am and walked around the house. It was very beautiful there on top of that mountain. Once Adam woke up we did another walk about. After breakfast, we went out to dedicate two or three wells.

The first stop was the longest – about two hours – at a village called Nhungu. We sat all in a row while the villagers sat on a hill and watched us. I counted 65 men and 20 women & children. The men all sat in one area while the women & children sat in another area. There was only one group of three that was mixed sexes. They must have been the rebels.

We all had to get up and introduce ourselves to the people there. They gave us all cokes and waters. By the end of the presentation, there were 78 men and 41 women/children. Then we all walked toward the well. On the way, many people wanted to shake our hands and smile and say something to us. Their hands were rough and dry – well worked. Their feet were dry and cracked, and many did not wear shoes. Many that did have shoes were wearing flip flops.

There was one woman who had let her child down for a moment so one of the men in our group could photograph him. I asked her if I could hold the baby; he was just learning to walk, so about a year old. I was missing my kids, as it had been many days since I'd held Wyatt. She agreed happily and let me hold her son. She had him put his hand on my head and then on my chest – apparently a sign of respect to someone older. I tried to communicate to the mother that I had three children by rounding my hand over my belly and holding up three fingers. She then pointed at each of her breasts and put up two fingers to say she'd nursed two babies. I gave the baby back to his mother and as we continued to walk toward the well, I played peek-a-boo with him while he looked over his mother's shoulder. He smiled and giggled at me.

We arrived at the well to have it blessed. The pastor started singing a song and everyone clapped along and joined in. The villagers insisted on us all being inside the gate of the well for the dedication while everyone else circled around. We were presented with a goat. The well was pumped and nice clear water came out into a bucket. Success!

After the ceremony, I tried again to talk to the woman with the baby. She grabbed the general secretary of the southwest diocese to translate. He said her name was Scola Chenelo and that she was his younger sister. She asked Adam to take a photo of us together like we were old friends. I then showed her a picture of Adam & I and our kids from my cousin's wedding a couple months ago and she asked if she could have it. She said whenever she looked at it she would remember me and think of this day. It was so sweet.

I have more to write and I want to add pictures, but it's late and I want to go to bed. Goodnight!

Weekend Getaway

11-06-2015

Adam & I both slept in until 8am – finally a good night's sleep after all of those travels! We checked out of the Lutheran Center because we were heading out for the weekend. We stopped in town for a bit of souvenir shopping before we had to leave.

Our weekend getaway was in a town called Magoye, about 5½ hours away, up in the mountains. We're going as part of the St. Paul Partners to help dedicate some of ten wells that were constructed with sponsorship from the South Carolina Synod and help from St. Paul Partners. I didn't know any of this while on our way there – I just knew we were in for a long ride, and that the mountains were really beautiful.

You know the saying, “Getting there is half the fun”? Well,.... First of all, we had to fix a tire before even leaving Iringa. We got stopped for speeding, then again for passing someone, I guess. I think the police lady just wanted to yell or something. When they stop a car for a traffic violation, they make you pay right there. I thought that was interesting. Luckily, the yelling lady let us go, because she didn't seem to want to write the ticket, just to get the money. Another thing we learned was that if they don't issue a ticket, you shouldn't pay a fine. So we didn't pay. Oh yeah, one other thing – the first guy who issued a ticket and got the 30,000 Tschillings fine (like $15), he said, “God bless you” when he let us go. I thought that was nice. Much better than the yelling lady who demanded Bo answer whether he was a Christian or a Muslim.

There was an enormous line of trucks stopped on the road for a weigh station. We slipped into a little village to bypass some of it. Once that was behind us, we stopped at a hotel for a drink and a potty break and to wait for Peter and Andrew from SPP to catch up. We waited there for like an hour in the traffic jam.

Then we were on our way up the mountain. I think it's like a mile up, and we started our ascent at dusk. It was very VERY rough roads. There were engine scrapes and gasps from us ladies in the back seat for the next hour. I heard it was about 11 miles and it takes an hour to get up to the village. I also heard it's over 40 switchbacks (Juli and I counted over 60 on our way down).

We got to the diocese where we were going to sleep at about 8pm. We met the people from the South Carolina Synod and they had supper for us, which we immediately sat down and ate. Then they wanted to talk! After talking, they wanted us to do devotions. FINALLY after devotions (actually, during) I got to get out of there to use the restroom. That's another fun story. Anyway, we finally did get to our room at about 10pm. I sure was tired!