Lala Salama

Its half past noon Central Standard time.  Only about 8:30 p.m. for me, but definitely bed time.  We've had two long days and both my bones and my brain are tired.

Yesterday we walked about an hour in the morning to go to Uraa Vocational school.  The lovely Apaufoo Ndosa, is a teacher there, she met us at Uswaa and walked with us.  She teaches tailoring and has made both John and I new garments.  It was a great day - I think I shall write more on that later.

Today we went to the Hai District pastor's meeting.  It was like a synod gathering or something, so in some small way I feel like I sat through the synod assembly that I am soon to be missing out on.  They had a seminar on stewardship that was actually quite interesting.

Just a few funny stories for you before my head hits the pillow:

• Yesterday this guy Eric was taking us on a hike around the school.  At one point he said, I just need to take a break and he ducked into the woods.  John followed right after him and very quickly turned back to the road.  Check out the post "potty talk" from a few days ago to find out about the figurative language "take a break."  oops!
• One night during dinner John said to me "this chicken is good."  To which I responded "I think its fish."  Then he said "oh, I thought it tasted like fish."  (Maybe that's another one where you had to be there.)
• On Saturday night I was getting ready for bed and finishing up some writing when I noticed that my room was feeling like a battle zone.  The bugs outside were bombarding the window trying to chase the light, the few that got in were buzzing around here like helicopters.  Seriously those were the craziest looking bugs ever - I've described them as part dragonfly and part worm.  Finally I decided it was just time to surrender the battle and turn out the lights.

And it is time to do just that now.  Enjoy your afternoon, and I shall sleep in peace!  (Lala salama)

I love and miss you.

Sara

The Greatest Words

With a title like this, you would think I was going to have some eloquent quote from scripture. But, no, another post about food.

The food here is good, I've already written about that. (Ask me again later, I do wonder if I will stand by this sentence after a month has passed.)

I think my only complaints are that it is a bit monotonous and you get so much. I mean they start serving and then dish after dish after dish appears before you. You should not load up too much on rice when the first serving plate comes around, because there will be more, there will certainly be more. Then, you eat a whole plate of food and they offer you more. How, do you politely say no more?

Today I was trying to turn down one more helping of something and Pastor Mmanga said: "Sara, Pastor Greg gave me instructions to send you back to Southwood a big mama." Then he opened his arms wide to demonstrate such girth. John and I laughed so hard about that one!

But I have discovered a way. I have now learned these two amazing words:

Asante inatosha

This means “thank you, I’ve had enough.”

And it works, I say them and no one is offended. They just say “thank you” back to me and move on to the next person. I love knowing this phrase.

Now I’ve started my lesson on the opposite idea.

Niongezee kidogo tafadhali

This means “can I have a little more please.”

I’m fairly certain that I won’t use this one nearly as much, except when the avocados pass my way. Yes please!

Better Late Than Never

7:00 a.m. Wednesday, May 18 – Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport  (I found this post I wrote 10 days ago which feels like ages now - its old news, but I'm posting it anyway.)

It feels like midnight, but it’s the crack of dawn on Wednesday morning in Amsterdam. On a very smooth flight from Minneapolis I read a little, ate a little, slept a little (too little) and watched one sad sad movie (Rabbit Hole).

Of course it was also fun to think back over the last 24 hours, I can’t think ahead too much just yet or I’ll break into anxious sweats, I guess I’ll save that for the next flight!

Monday was such a great day, fun and productive all at the same time. Dad worked on the garage door opener all day long, seriously, all day long. What a dad I have. Martha cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, what a sister I have. Charlie helped trim some bushes and kept us searching for acceptable answers to his myriad of “why” questions. Charlie and I made time for a nice bike ride to Holmes Lake, while Martha, Dad and Arne made a trip to the hardware store.

Tuesday morning brought about final preparations of the house and luggage. Mom called, I cried. Ed called, I cried. I said good bye to dad, he stayed back to finish the garage door, I cried. Martha, Charlie and Arne brought me to the airport. We gazed at planes for a while, answered more questions, and finally decided we best say good bye. I cried. Charlie told me to stop crying. I was unsuccessful.

One last call from Martha before boarding the plane, the report is that I have a working garage door. How great is that?

Mary and I decided to try to meet for an hour in the Minneapolis airport. She brought Punch Pizza, brownies with walnuts, and her sweet Ray and Anna. It was a bit of an ordeal for her to get to the airport, parking at the other terminal and taking two trains, but she did it. I cried. She also gave me Green Jasmine tea from the Tea Source and some tea bags, it shouldn’t be too hard to find hot water in Africa right?

Finally I boarded the plane bound for Amsterdam. There was some kind of senior citizen’s tour group on the plane and the Drake University football team (also headed for Kilimanjaro), as we boarded one of the senior citizen’s knocked on the outside of the plane just before he stepped in (a good luck gesture?) while one of the football players wolfed down some Chinese food. I kind of love watching the world travel.

No internet access for me here. So I’ll post this sometime, by then it will be late and there will be much more worthwhile things to say, but for now it just feels good to have been sent off well and to finally be on the way. I miss you already.

Just Call Me Boo!

The children here are so interested in me. When I walk over to church and pass by the primary school, they all run over, get as close as they can and yell out Mzungu (white person) or they ask for money or candy.

At Confirmation and Sunday school they just stare at me. They just stare. It’s kind of crazy, I am really not that interesting.

Saturday at the wedding, there were about 4 boys who came and sat down on the end of the pew that I was sitting in. Every time I would glance their way I noticed that they had edged closer and closer to me. Then all of a sudden they were sitting right next to me. Touching me. When I would try to look their way and smile at them, they would quickly turn their heads away, so shy and embarrassed.

I’m starting to empathize with how Boo Radley must have felt when Scout, Jem and Dill tried to see just how close they could get to Boo and his house and then run away.

Of course at the end of Mockingbird, Scout finally understands that Boo is a good caring person and not scary at all.

So, perhaps there is hope for this Mzungu too!

Potty Talk

Little by little I'm trying to learn a bit of Swahili.  Of course most of the time I learn by making mistakes!

Today we were sitting in the pastor's office and I thought I would impress everyone by saying "we'll go drink tea now."  What I said was "we'll go to the bathroom now."  I'm sure that I don't have to tell you that everyone erupted in laughter about that.  Everyone left the office, and Mama Kweka very solemnly shut the door and informed me of my mistake.

And in an equally embarrassing move - yesterday after we had had tea, we were going to go back to the office and I said, "I'll be there in a minute, I'm just going to the bathroom."  Pastor Shao pulled me aside later and said:  "in your country is it okay to say that you're going to the bathroom?"  Right away I knew that in Tanzania this is not okay.  He advised me to use figurative language to do this.  He said to say something like "i'm going to wash my hands" or "I'm just going down the hall for a moment."  So now I know.  I'm sure that they would be mortified to know that in the Spohr household most people anounce #1 or #2.  I'm just saying.

So now I've mortified the Tanzanians and my mother!

Habari za mchanga  (Good afternoon!)

Cough Drops and a Pep Talk

John arrived last night and delivered some cough drops that were much needed.  I've been dealing with a cough/cold since day two. 

I had a few during the night last night, but it was this morning that I was noticing how encouraging these particular cough drops are.  Do you know how the Dove Chocolates give you a message inside the wrapper?  Well, Halls must have lifted this idea because their wrappers give you a "pep talk."

Each wrapper has a series of encouraging messages on it that must be meant to lift the sick and coughing soul.  Here are a few examples that have had me laughing:

• Hi-five yourself.
• Flex your "can do" muscle.
• Bet on yourself.
• Put your game face on.
• Fire up those engines.
• Be resilient.
• Don't give up on yourself.

Seriously - isn't that awesome??  I feel better already.

Each time I get out a cough drop I say to myself (or John) - "time for a pep talk" (I know, I crack myself up!) But the wrapper actually says "a pep talk in every drop."

Even more fun has been explaining this humor to Pastor Mmanga and Pastor Shao.  First explaining what a pep talk is, then a hi-five, then a "game face."  I love it!

I use American slang so often and then I see the looks on their faces and I have to think about what I said and then go back and explain it.  I remember two years ago when we were explaining the phrase "kinda" to our driver.  Yesterday I was trying to explain "bummer."

So its kind of a bummer that I have a cough, but I am going to fire up my engines and keep plugging away!

A Food Update

I raved about the food just two days ago.

So you knew this was coming didn't you!  Yesterday I had an experience that made me want to vomit.

When the avocados were placed on the table there was a pink creamy sauce in the middle of them.  Mama knows that I love avocados and she also noticed that I wasn't taking one.  She said:  "you leave your friend sit, don't you want one."

I asked what the substance was.  It was what I suspected: ketchup mixed with mayonnaise.

"Don't you want to try it?" she said.

Truthfully, I did not want to try it.  But (shocking) I did, and as mentioned above I very nearly vomited.

I just decided to tell her the truth.  "I do not like it."  She said she appreciated my honesty and that there were some things that she doesn't like too.  A fresh clean "plain jane" avocado was summoned and all was well again.  Although I cannot get the image of that tainted fruit out of my head.  (could be worse.)

Also - today I cracked the jar of peanut butter.  Not because I was desperate for some food from home, but because we were served these fluffy pancake things that I just thought would be good with peanut butter.  I was right.  That is when I discovered that John doesn't like peanut butter, but I also decided not to hold it against him.

3 Weddings and a Funeral

I have been excited to see a Tanzanian wedding as I have heard they are extravagant affairs here. So I was excited even late Wednesday night when I arrived to find out that there would be a wedding on Saturday. I also found out yesterday that there would also be a funeral on Saturday.

At breakfast I related the information to Bishop and Mama Kweka, there will be a funeral at Nkiraawanga today at 1 pm and then a Wedding at Uswaa at 3 pm. They shook their heads with wonder about how this would be accomplished. I was skeptical myself, but this was the plan that was reported to me.

Here’s what actually happened.
11:30 a.m. Confirmation has ended and we take tea. I ask when we will leave for the funeral and I am told
12:30, we three pastors will ride together.

12:15 p.m. I quickly run home to get my jacket, it’s a little cold out and the funeral will be outside. Pastor Mmanga is there having tea with the Bishop, he is in no hurry. So I wait and walk back with him, we arrive at the church just a little before 1 p.m. He hands me a paper and says he will meet me in the office shortly.

1:05 p.m. Pastor Mmanga arrives in the office and says it is time for lunch. (so much for the 1:00 funeral). We eat lunch and Joyce Makyo arrives to bring her greetings and eat with us.

2:00 p.m. Pastor says that he will leave me here to meet with Joyce and he will go to the funeral. Pastor Shao will stay here to do the 3:00 wedding. He says he will be back in 1 ½ hours.

2:05 p.m. Joyce receives a phone call and needs to leave. I move a chair outside and work on a sermon for next week.

2:45 p.m. I go back to the office to see if the wedding is getting started. Pastor Shao is working on a sermon and picking out hymns. I sit down in the office and continue working on my sermon.

3:30 p.m. Pastor Shao and I start talking about weddings when I ask him about the number of guests that will be expected. He says that this will be a very small wedding. These people have already been married, he struggles to find the word in English. I suggest that perhaps they are renewing their vows. This is not it. These couples couldn’t afford a wedding when they were young. So they have lived together, raised children, and now they are getting married. When he says “these couples” I realize that there is more than one marriage taking place, 3 in fact.

4:00 p.m. Pastor Shao is robed and ready to go, but Pastor Mmanga has not returned from the funeral yet. He hesitates just for a moment and then decides to begin the service.

4:15 p.m. Pastor Mmanga arrives and enters the sanctuary mid-service. No problem, people are getting up throughout the service to go and take pictures.

6:30 p.m. Back in the pastor’s office, the day is done. I have observed much and I must say that this actual itinerary for the day has been far more interesting than the original plan could possibly have been!

I have since learned more about this particular type of wedding service, but that is for another post. I continue to anticipate a wedding that is a full-blown celebration! For those of you who know me well … are you surprised that I’m using the word “anticipate” in the same sentence as the word “wedding”??

Praying Servants

Today I was invited to sit for tea in the Uswaa dining room. Eli, the beautiful parish worker with the most amazing graciousness extended the invitation.

“Karibu sana, Mchungagi Sara”
“Chai?”

She does not speak much English and I can understand just this much Swahili. She asked said, “welcome pastor Sara, would you like tea?”

When my tea (which turned out to be coffee) was poured, she said: “I pray.”

I thought she meant that she was praying for me during my visit here. I said: “eco ma” (which is thank you in Chagga) as I turned to sit down with my coffee I noticed that she had bowed her head in prayer. Right then is what she meant, she would pray right then.

I’ve noticed that before a meal or tea time the one who has prepared the meal and is serving it, will say the prayer to bless it. I guess in our prayers before meals we are accustomed to praying in thanksgiving for “the hands that have prepared the meal,” but here those hands are not only preparing and serving, but praying too.

I like to think about the work of these wonderful people as a prayer in itself. It reminds me of Abraham Heschel who marched in the ‘60’s to protest civil rights violations, when he marched he said – “I felt like my legs were praying.”

Today I am so grateful for these servants who pray with their voices, their hands, and their hearts.

Jakobo and Esau

Today I sat in on the Confirmation class observing. I think next week I will teach. The lesson today was from Genesis 27, about Jacob and Esau, although in Swahili it is Jakobo and Esau. I was pretty impressed with myself for following as closely as I did without having a word translated for me, luckily these two names were spoken frequently. You could say that Esau is pretty straight forward, but they don’t pronounce it “EEsaw” as we do, they say “eeSOWa”.

Pastor (Mchungagi) Mmanga told the story of the stolen inheritance from Genesis 27, but then he really focused on a verse from Genesis 28. This is after Jacob flees from his brother, and has a dream of a stairway reaching from earth to heaven.

Then Jacob says this:
If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshipping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me. (verses 20-22)

I love these stewardship lessons in the middle of the Old Testament and in the Middle of Africa! Pastor asked insisted that these students (who come from so little) make their lives a worship and an offering to God.

It reminded me that this morning I was reading Proverbs and meditating on the very same idea:

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. (Proverbs 3:9)

Honestly, every day, and in just about everything I see and take part in, I am watching people honor the Lord with the very best of who they are.

What a blessing!



And now for a random side note: Speaking of blessings. The pastor, when teaching about this stolen blessing, wrote the word “Baraka” on the board. I saw that and asked him if this word meant “blessing.” He responded: “Yes, just like Barack Obama is a blessing to America!” The African’s love Obama!!

How Did He Die?

Pastor Shao (PS) and I are having tea when two girls bring him a piece of paper that has some writing on it, he begins to carefully study this paper. After a few minutes, I ask him about it.

ME:  Is this the girls’ work from Confirmation?

PS:   No, this is the report about the man who has died.

ME:   Oh, for the funeral this afternoon.

PS:   Yes.

ME:   How did he die?

PS:   He was a bubbler?

ME:   Oh, he drank too much?

PS:   No he worked on the shoes, he was a barber?

ME:   Oh, a barber. Did he cut people’s hair?

PS:   No, he worked on shoes. Not a barber?

ME:   A cobbler?

PS:   Yes, yes a cobbler.

ME:   Was he sick?

PS:   He had problems with the ulcers, he didn’t eat enough and he drank too much. He had an operation at
KCMC to repair his stomach. He died there.

ME:   He didn’t recover from the surgery?

PS:   Surgery? (confused look)

ME:   The word surgery is a similar to operation.

PS:   Oh, he did not recover from the operation and then he died.

Sorry for this random conversation. However, it made me laugh … or maybe you had to be there!

Chakula

Let’s talk about food (chakula is dinner). This seemed to be the first question people would ask me when they knew I was preparing to spend an extended time in Africa. What about the food? What will you do?

Many of you know that I am a notoriously picky eater. Just ask my mom or Brenda Kuper. However, in Tanzania I love the food. There are a few things I could do without, cucumbers and warm milk. Otherwise, I like it all – yes, even the banana stew.

Before this trip I had always managed to avoid the banana stew. It is just what it sounds like. Bananas are served in stew, sometimes with other vegetables and meat, usually over rice. It does not look at all appetizing, but the bananas really just taste like potatoes and the spices they use are quite good.

Last night we had banana soup, it was thick and pureed and had some beef in it. Delicious. Mama Kweka said, “tonight we eat like Chaggas.” It was so nice because it was just the soup. Most of the time there are about 10 dishes on the table and you have to take something from each plate and I never know how much to take from the first dish, because I never can anticipate how many more are still to come.

Best of all is fruit for dessert. After each meal, fruit is served. Watermelon, bananas, papaya, oranges and mango. These fruits are freshly picked, they are ripened on the plant, and they just taste 10 times better than the fruit we get in the Midwest where fruit does not grow natively. For breakfast we have roasted bananas, the outside is hardened like a shell and the inside is hot and gooey and tastes like candy. Again, they look nasty – but taste wonderful.

Finally I must talk about the most hallowed of foods (in my book anyway) the parachichi – or avocado! I love them, when I see them appear on the table it just makes me happy. I rarely eat avocado at home, they don’t seem to have much taste to me. But these African avacado’s right off the tree outside the church are amazing. Let me just say that they are like butter. I suppose only the Norwegian readers will understand the butter reference – but the translation is that they are like frosting from heaven.

I haven’t even cracked the seal on my big jar of peanut butter yet. There are just too many good things to try here!

It is early in my trip, so I should probably update this post again in August. Perhaps by then I will have a different story.

For now, let’s eat!

A Day In The Office

I am sitting in the pastor’s office at Uswaa.  I’m not sure if this is a typical day in the office or not, but here is what has happened so far.

Today we will set my schedule for the next 83 days, I came to the office this morning to do this.  Pastor’s Mmanga and Shao are at work already.  I am welcomed into the office, they continue to work.  Sometimes they speak to each other in English and sometimes in Swahili, I know some Chagga is thrown in from time to time but I cannot sense a reason for the changes in language.  I wait.  It is okay.

Then a woman comes for counseling, I am asked to stay, but again do not understand the exchange.  So I wait.  It is okay.  I move to the dining room to read and write, until the counseling is finished. Then we all take tea together, along with some fried bananas which are quite good.

Back to the office, we now are putting together my itinerary for the stay.  We spend 2 hours on this.  Periodically there are knocks on the door, sometimes the visitors are welcomed, sometimes ignored.  Several women now wait on the bench outside of the door seeking wisdom.

The schedule is important, we will turn this into the Immigration office to make sure that I am in compliance with my Visa.  There will be work to do, meetings with the women, the youth, and with the pastors of the Machame area.  There will be some excursions too, a trip to the Chagga museum, hiking, a national park, and a trip to the coast to see a historic slave trade site (Faye – do you want to do this?  If so we’ll schedule it for when you are here) we will also spend a weekend at Pastor Mmanga’s home in the middle of June.  We will take some trips to Arusha and Moshi as well.

Then we move back to the dining room for lunch.  A vegetarian meal is served, and this is nice.  Yesterday’s lunch included fish, chicken, beef and goat, oh my!  We finish with bananas, of course.  During the meal three men come in, one pastor (Rev. Bildad Lema – who has visited Nebraska before) and two other men.  They talk in Swahili all throughout the meal, finally I am told that they are planning a funeral for Tuesday, the two men are the brothers of the man who passed.  So I wait and listen to what I cannot understand, but it is okay.

Now there are 4 men squished onto one couch back in the pastor’s office.  They wait while Pastor Mmanga talks with the headmaster of the nearby secondary school Uroki, I have been introduced, but not invited to join the conversation as they continue on in Swahili. (Now it has been explained to me that this group of men is the Evangelism committee of the parish and they are meeting to determine how to help the congregation grow spiritually.)

At the same time there is beautiful music rising from the sanctuary, a woman wails a beautiful soprano line, then the chorus responds in amazing harmony.   I believe they are preparing for a special worship service on Sunday in which several area choirs will be guests and will make and offering of music.  Based on this preview, I am very much looking forward to Sunday.

So I wait, and in the waiting there is much to observe.  I understand that the genuine nature and the faith of these people needs no translation.  So, waiting is okay.  Of course it is.

Arrival

I'm here, I made it. It was a long long trip! Enough said.

There was a very warm welcome at the airport, about 10 people from the church came out to pick me up, they brought flowers and everything. Then we got back to the church and had a full meal at 10 p.m. I sort of knew this would be coming so I didn't eat the last meal offered on the flight to prepare myself.

Today I have had a meeting at the Diocese office, that was good. It was slow getting to the meeting (no suprise there) the van they used to pick me up at the airport, hit a motorcycle on the way. There has been much time spent at the Police station since then, some last night and then agan today. This morning we went to the police station, picked someone up, and then drove somewhere (I'm pretty sure we were lost) to pick someone else up, then back to the police station. I SO wish I understood Swahili!

Tomorrow the pastor at Uswaa and I will sit down and formalize an itinerary for me for the rest of my stay. It will be helpful for me to have this itinerary.

The entire football team from Drake University was on my flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then they were on the flight again to Kilimanjaro along with a football team from Mexico. The two teams will play this saturday in the first organized American football game ever in Africa. This is big news here. I don't think we will go to the game, there is a wedding on Saturday.

I am not sure how much I will get to use the internet, but for now this is my update!

Love,

Sara

What Is Real

Last week Janelle sent me these words of blessing. They are incredibly powerful to me as I prepare to leave for Africa in 2 days. I just keep reading them over and over and over and they both inspire and calm me.

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be confident knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.

They are attributed to St. Theresa of Lisieux, a French Catholic nun that died at the age of 24, that’s all I know about her right now, but I’m putting her on my list to read more about in the year ahead.

I decided to read this blessing at our staff meeting last week, and Evi reminded me that Michael had given this same blessing to the Confirmation students just a couple of weeks before. I hadn’t remembered that.

Now, these words, which I had not recollected hearing before, have become real.

The same thing happened with a choir anthem. The Southwood choir sang an anthem, Peace Evermore, at Easter service. Like this blessing, the words were inspiring and the anthem was memorable. We raved about the anthem and Denise reminded us that the Choir had sang it before in January at Concert with a Cause. I hadn’t remembered that at all. She said it was because at the concert it was a performance, at Easter it was an offering.

An offering is more memorable than a performance.

What is real. Real things strike us right where we are, as we are, and to the heart of who we are. Some things are good, even great, for a moment. Real things are memorable, they settle into your bones. What is real are blessings and prayers for what is coming, gratefulness for what has been, and offerings to the one who calls, empowers and sends us out.

Looking forward to what is real.