When you see the women, you see the heart of the church

These are the words of Canon Sudayi, the pastor of Chamwino parish on the day I met with his UWAKI group -- similar to our ECW in the Episcopal Church. The women truly are amazing - full of joy and faith -- yet live lives of great hardship. I met a doctor last night that told me that it costs $2000Tsh (Tanzanian shillings) to have a baby in a hospital -- about $1.80US -- but this is often way too expensive for TZ moms -- so many women die in childbirth and TZ ranks about 13th in infant mortality. Babies who are deformed or born with other defects (like a cleft palate) are often killed at birth. Women must walk hours to get water and tote it back -- all with a baby on the back and little ones at their feet. It seems to me that the women of TZ are among the most beautiful I have seen -- and their children as well. From the tall and elegant Masai people, and the more sturdy Wagogo people -- and a host of other tribes that have found there way here -- the people are good looking and so friendly and hospitable.

Today I spent time in two villages - way out of town. We drove for about three hours and ran out of paved road about twenty minutes into the trip. Bone jarring -- and my teeth just unclenched an hour ago. I attended two distributions of gifts for the Carpenter's Kids -- children who have been orphaned (mostly due to AIDS) who do not go to school, because their guardians cannot afford uniforms, books, shoes or a daily breakfast. The Diocese of New York USA spearheads this program -- and provides these things for 50 kids per village -- but there are lots more that need the help. The kids receive their supplies, go and change into their uniforms and return for a prayer and singing. It was very cool -- and I shook every one of their little hands -- some of them curtseyed -- some just gave me a very shy smile. Today they also got huge mosquiot nets and a lesson on how and why to use them. Some of the kids are orphans due to untreated malaria...

At UWAKI and during the meetings today, when I was introduced as a woman priest - "Mama Kasisi" -- the women burst into a beautiful song -- "mama barikia, mama barikia, mama barikia, mama! " they sang -- "bless you, mother" ... it was a song of blessing, a prayer -- truly inpiring and touching. Some of you know that I have a hard time with being called "Mother" -- but the sincerity, love and respect of these women in their song, somehow made it really special to be called "mama." The other words I heard over and over again, are "Bwana aisfiwe" --Praise the Lord. They use this like we say "the Lord be with you" -- to signal the start of a prayer or a sentence -- and everyone in the place responds "Amen!"

We ate lunch in both vilages -- chicken and goat and rice -- and the ubiquitous soda pop...you Atlantans will all be glad to hear that things go better with Coke in TZ, too.... these villlages are very very poor -- and hardly anyone speaks English -- and they are really far from anything -- but the portions were generous and filling -- and seemingly unending -- such amazing hospitality -- it is a blessing to be here.

My favorite memory of today - a very old woman came up to one of the young people on the staff at Carpenter's Kids -- a fair haired young woman, who was standing in the sun. This grandmother - bibi- took off her bandana - and offered it to the young woman all the while she was chattering in kiswahili. When we got a translation, it seems she was concerned that the young woman would get sunburned, so she was giving her a hat to wear.... everyone needs a grandma like that!

Tomorrow, I preach at the church of the first woman ordained in Tanzania - Mama Mary Kanyamala -- it will be a whole day affair. Monday, I spend with all the ordained women of TZ -- for a roundtable, tea and lunch. Then this portion of my trip will be over-- and I go to Msalato College of Theology to teach and to learn more, for sure.

New word for today: shikamoo -- which, losely translated is a greeting of great respect, it means something like, "I kiss your feet" -- and the response is "marahaba" -- which I think means, "back at ya" -- losely translated, of course!

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you)

P.S Another favorite memory -- Canon Sudayi encouraged me to dance with the women of the parish when I was invited to do so, in order to be "emptifying my stomach" so that I could eat more when the luncheon was served. Right on!

Mnara we kangele

That's bell tower in Kiswahili - one of my abiding images from the last two days. Yesterday, we visited Meriba, the sight of the dream of Irene Mhogolo- the wife of the Bishop of Central Tanganyika. This is to be a training center for women - a residential facility for 32 women who will learn about health care, child rearing, and gender equity. The bell tower is an old structure -- as are the many buildings on this former mission site -- but as Magi Griffin suggests, it would make a good logo for the project -- a bell calling out to folks to be a part of this very ambitious project, a bell that will call to women to come and find ways to change their lives. When I get to the seminary next week, I will post the pictures of the site and explain more about the project --seeing is better than being told. We then went to visit with Mr. Hosea, who runs the Buigiri School for the blind -- which ranks 1st-3rd in local primary schools and 56th in the nation, out of 13,000 primary schools. (All schools, not just schools for children who are visually impaired). The bell tower was again, a symbol for me -- as the children sang, in beautiful harmonies -- and not a note out of place -- their voices were clear as bells -- and their joy and enthusiasm, a clarion call to me as well. There is too much to tell about the program and how they manage to educate kids under extremely tough circumstances, with few resources - including water and electrical power most of the time -- but what is most telling is the amazing dedication and faith of the teachers and the mwalimu kuu -- the head teacher, Mr. Hosea. When I begin to complain about obstacles in the future -- you need only remind me of his successes and his attitude --inspiring!

Lunch was chicken curry at a wonderful little place in Dodoma --dinner, rice and beans and home grown tomatoes -- and homemade rolls - made by the beautiful Naomi, Magi's house keeper and laundress and cook! (She only comes once a week, but it is a wonderful experience!)

I'm here

Tuesday, August 26th

I arrived safely last night and was met by missionary Magi Griffin and Martin McCann. We stayed at a hostel of the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania -- in sight of the Indian Ocean. Today was spent on the road to Dodoma -- long trip but full of wondrous sights and smells - fires burning and food cooking, lovely, tall Masai people tending their cattle, breathtaking Uruguru Moutains -- death defying bicyclists on the edge of the highway... an overturned bus (thanks, Martin for pikcing me up!) -- huge banana palms and unfamiliar and ever changing vegetaton, as we went from sea level to mountains to valleys. Dodoma has only one rainy season per year - and that is not enough to sustain good agriculture, so there is also a lot of dust!

Best memories, so far? Our cab driver, Frank, giving me a little wooden statue of a monkey with a hat on.... sitting next to newlyweds on the 9 hour trip to Dar es salaam ... breakfast in Amsterdam, lunch over Addis Ababa and dinner in Kilimanjaro and it is truly karibuni (welcome) everywhere. The biggest surprise was to eat dinner at a Chinese restaurant!!!

Magi tells me an African proverb is "seeing is far better than being told" - already I have learned so much about this new place and the amazing work of the Diocese of Central Tanganyika (DCT).

Bed time is calling -- and I don't think I will need Ambien tonight!

This is the day

The day of departure has finally arrived - hard to believe I have been thinking and talking about this trip since Dan Matthews returned last July- 2007. My neighbor left a sweet note -- thanking me for being so willing to go so far to spread the Good News. One of my parishioners sent me off with the words, do good unto others! It dawned on me this morning, that, while I am certainly going to be all about spreading the Good News, and will try to do good unto others, that that I will also be in the receiving of Good News position, and that I have already received good done unto me by so many - in preparation for this trip, and throughout my whole life. One of the authors I have been reading, Phil Cousineau, says that one of the many gifts of pilgrimage is the sensation, again and again, of gratitude for the mysterious and numinous in our lives. If so, then my pilgrimage is already a success -- as I sat Asante sana (thank you very much) to all of you who have made this trip possible - through gifts of money, advice, time, prayer - and being willing to shoulder the reins while I am gone - asante sana again and again to Dan and Gene Paradise, the clergy who will hold down the fort; to Katherine, Heather and Andrew; to Beth McDonald, who is Christian ed director for the day on Sept. 7th! As St. Paul says, I cannot give enough thanks for all of you -- I am thanking God for you continuously!

Pray for me and that God will continue to be in this trip! Mungu akubariki! (God bless you)

Pat

The moment of truth is near!

This morning I began assembling the items I want to take to Tanzania -- all my stuff plus the many little things I have been asked to bring for several people -- the moment of truth has indeed arrived! I am a notorious over packer -- taking enough for a weekend just in case the borders between Georgia and the other states are closed and I might need supplies for a long siege! So the first thing this trip is teaching me, among other things, is to assess what is enough. The irony of me taking too much to a place where people have too little has not escaped me -- in fact, it strikes me as somewhat obscene. So the process of shopping, choosing, culling -- determining how much I really need (when I can have my laundry hand done each day if I need to...wow!) has been more of a spiritual practice than a logistical one. Part of this process has also brought home how fortunate we are in America -- the things I have been asked to bring, for the most part, are things that are so readily available, we hardly notice them -- stand up tubes of toothpaste, Parmesan cheese in a can, over the counter medicines for someone who suffers from a chronic congestion problem - a solution for dry mouth. As Dan, my Rector said, we often go away, thinking, "if I forget something, I can easily find it when I get there..." not so, with Africa, for the most part. So another thing this trip has impressed upon me is gratitude -- for the abundance of life here in these United States. Finally, it is so clear to me how much the community of ministers in Tanzania rely on one another -- and on us here back home. Because things are hard, different, foreign -- and stuff is really hard to get, they hang together -- and I have been introduced to a whole new community of folks that support life in TZ for these wonderful folks -- a friend of Sandy's in North Carolina, who owns a clothing shop and sends, not only things for Sandy, but donates beautiful things to the women in Dodoma; a doctor in Columbus, GA, who gathers samples of nasal spray for one of the folks there; people at the Diocese and at St. Thomas Church who handle the complicated finances of the mission - making sure that those of us here who want to donate can send the money locally, rather than through wires or snail mail. It truly does take a whole village -- and it has been a surprising and wonderful aspect of this junket to meet (mostly over the phone and Internet), so many kindred spirits!

Okay, time to sit on my suitcase and see if it will close.....

"Who's on first?"

Today seems right to introduce some of the cast of characters I will be meeting in TZ. My hosts for the journey will be the Rev. Sandra McCann and her husband, Martin. Sandy is a classmate of mine - graduated from Virginia Seminary in 2003. She is a physician, as is Martin -- and they have been missionaries since her graduation: one year in Kenya, then four in TZ. Sandy is the communications officer of Msalato Theological Seminary -- in addition to her duties as priest, pastor and teacher. Martin is a pathologist and works in Dodoma. Both are deeply committed, fun to be with, and seem to be filled with limitless energy and optimism! From all reports, they keep a very full schedule -- so I am excited to just come along with them and learn all I can about their work and the needs of the folks in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika.

The first week I will be there, I will be the guest of Magi Griffin, who is a missionary of the Episcopal Church -- her official title is Partnership and Project Advisor to the Bishop: MDG focus. MDG's are the Millenium Development Goals -- goals proposed by the UN to improve the lives of people worldwide -- many have to do with ending global poverty -- but Magi is specifically focusing on the betterment of life for women and children. Many Episcopal Dioceses have made official commitments to address the MDG's -- and our work in TZ and in South America reflects that commitment. Magi has put together a wonderful itinerary for the time I will be with her -- plus she is meeting me at the airport and getting me to what sounds to be truly wonderful accommodations that night in Dar es Salaam. We'll be traveling to Dodoma together the next day -- with Sandy and Martin -- an incredibly wonderful alternative to the six hour bus ride I was planning on taking (via the "luxury" bus -- $11 US and has air conditioning!)

Perhaps the most exciting thing for me is that I have been invited to preach and worship with Rev. Mary Kanyamala, the first woman ordained in the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. They call their women priests "Mama" over there -- some of you who know me know that I will struggle with that -- but, as it often is here, the title is a sign of respect and affection -- so I will be taking it that way! Beth Palmer, another of Sandy's classmates from VTS '03, just returned from TZ last Friday. She called today to share information and suggestions -- and just casually noted, that Sunday church services routinely take up to 3 hours --- I wonder how our St. Lukers would go for that????

Getting ready

It's now ten days until I board the airplane to Tanzania. Preparations are more than underway -- I've gotten my shots (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, polio, yellow fever and Hepatitis A), filled my prescriptions for Cipro (antibiotic in case of Montezuma's revenge), typhoid and malaria vaccines (I have to remember, typhoid, on an empty stomach, malaria, with food...). I've got enough Ambien to sleep for two weeks - and have figured out my sleep schedule for the trip over and back. My passport is up to date, I have the required number of US bills, dated after 2000 to purchase a visa when I get to TZ -- and I've borrowed a phone from one of our parishioners -- that gets activated with something called a SIM card - to be purchased in the Dar es salaam airport on my arrival. Deacon, my dog, gets transferred to my sister's care at Exit 90 on Route 85 - we figured out Gaffney, SC is about half way for us both. Whew! I still have some adapters to buy -- a few gifts for the folks I'll be staying with, and some items requested by Rev. Sandy McCann, my classmate, who is one of the priests working at Msalato Seminary. Did you know, for example - that it's hard to get Parmesan cheese in TZ?

I budgeted some time today to have a little panic attack - just had to get that out of my system, followed by a brief prayer that I will get done everything I have to do before I leave -- so now I have lots of room for excitement and joy!

One of the really cool things that has been happening, is that I am being contacted by many of the folks working in Dodoma -- the main reason is to request that I bring some stuff along - so far, some t-shirts, a bottle of shampoo, a laptop for the computer "fundi" (instructor) at the Seminary -- and some gifts for Sandy and Martin McCann from Rev. Eddie Ard - who just returned from 30 days there, on his sabbatical. I already have a wonderful sense of "karibuni" -- which means welcome -- and a small idea of who and what I will be interacting with! More on that later!

What has also been very wonderful is the interest of St. Luke's people in the trip and the many offers of help and support I have received. There's a group working on getting a laptop for me to take, which will be donated on my leaving -- the VBS kids raised $150 for carepnter's Kids -- and I have an additional $200 from some other donors -- $50 per year will buy clothes, shoes, books and breakfast each day for a kid who has been orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. MANY of our folks have already expressed an interest in developing a mission trip for next year. I feel blessed and excited about this venture --which God seems to be in, at every step!