Sunday at the School

Today was our first Sunday together at the school after our long Corona break.  The triplets and my student helpers were happy to have our Bible class together again.  After I finished Bible class, I went back to the library, which was busy today with many kids studying, reading and catching up with each other.  It's so good to see the library full of life again! 

(Above) Jackline and Edina, two of our form 3 students.  Below, Athuman, a form 2 student whose hobby is disturbing me and generally being underfoot in the library, is trying to look cool in a photo with me.  

(Below) Stephanie and Doreen, two of our form 2 students, took a quick selfie on my phone. 

In the evening, I went out to Kisongo to get some groceries.  It was a cloudy evening, a bit unusual for this time of year, and I got a photo of the strange light while driving back towards Monduli Mountain. 

 

Sunday Morning in Monduli Juu

On this particular Sunday, I decided to go up to visit the church in the village on top of the mountain, the Monduli Juu church.  As we're just ending rainy season, everything is still so green and flowers are blooming everywhere.  A former student, Wilson, wanted to go with me, so we drove up together.  

We arrived just in time for the break between class and the service, so we had time to greet people before heading in.  Several of the students from Wilson's graduating class last year are members there, so he went of to sit with them and catch up.  Ralph and Twyla Williams, some Canadian missionaries we're all good friends with, worship there, and due to coronavirus Twyla has become the Hand-Washing Guard, standing beside the bucket and soap set up by the door and making sure everyone stops to wash their hands properly before going inside. 

I enjoyed being there; the Monduli Juu church is always friendly and I like spending time with the people there.  It was nice to be able to get back up there; I haven't visited in a while due to not wanting to drive the steep mountain road in the heavy rains of rainy season, but now that we've had over a week of sunny weather it was a great time to go up.

After church, Ralph and Twyla invited me (and Wilson, since he was with me) back to their house for lunch.  Sunday is their leftover day so as to have a quick meal after church, but we lucked out--they had leftover fajita meat!  It was nice to share a meal with them and admire their verdant garden before heading back down the mountain.

Look how well their rhubarb plants are growing! 

Elijah and the Ravens

Another fun day in Sunday school!  Today, we talked about the story of Elijah being fed by the ravens at the Brook of Kerith from 1 Kings 17.  Elijah is one of my favorite Bible characters, so I'm really excited about the next few weeks.  (Edit: everything closed for the virus three days later, so this was the last class for a few months).  

The story itself is fairly short, so we had time for two activities today.  First, we had a little game of hide and seek to find Elijah, who was hiding.  (I had taped a picture I drew under a chair in the lobby of the administration building, where we meet, before class.) 

After that, we had a craft project (always popular).  We made paper ravens!  I had precut heads, bodies, feet, beaks, tails and eyes.  The kids traced their hands and cut them out for the wings, and then we just had to assemble and decorate them.  

I also had a coloring sheet for them to do, to keep anyone who finished early or who was waiting their turn for glue something to do. We didn't have electricity this morning, so I couldn't print or copy a coloring page, so I just drew a simple design and then drew it again ten more times.  (I know it looked like I was doodling during the sermon, but I can listen and draw at the same time, I promise!) 

Here are some of our masterpieces: 

Pray for a Future Leader

Another Sunday morning at the school church service...today, Revocatus, one our form 4 students is giving the lesson. He's one of the students that I have a lot of respect for, for his maturity and leadership among the students. His parents are leaders in the church in Geita, a city near Lake Victoria. I hope that he will as also become a strong leader and influence those around him well. 

I write a lot about my experiences here in Monduli, but the most important part of my life here is knowing these students. I wish I could introduce every one of them to you. I would like to tell you now and then about specific students, and I ask that you say a prayer for them. Today, please pray that Revocatus will become a strong leader for the Lord! 

Learning about King Solomon

Today in Bible class, we are learning about King Solomon. Last week, we learned about him becoming king and asking God for wisdom. This week, we are talking about the building of the temple in Jerusalem. Fortunately, I have a model of the temple that another missionary that was moving back to the US gave me. I keep it on the shelf in the library, and it finally came in handy. The kids enjoyed seeing it in 3D. 

After the lesson, we watched a cartoon of the life of Solomon (I've been sick all week, so I'm not really up for anything too physical; I save video watching for occasions like this) while colouring and doing a word search. Another fun day in Bible class!

Becoming a King in Bible Class

We had another fun day in Bible class this morning! We have finally finished our study of the Parable of Jesus, and now we're starting a new study on the King of Israel.  Today, we talked about Saul being chosen as the first King of Israel.  We made crowns to imagine what it would be like to be chosen as a king or queen.  We had fun with glue, scissors, crayons and colored paper decorating our crowns.  

We had a big class today as we had visitors; Tammy's brother, David, is visiting along with his two oldest children.  

Everyone's busy!

Our class is held in the conference room in the administration building.

I wish I had thought to get a group picture of everyone in their crowns before the triplets left, but at least I got this crowd! 

Beth texted me later that evening and told me that Jackson refused to take off his crown until well after he got home, and that included while going out for lunch in town.  

I made a crown, too, when we had an extra, and I had it with me in the library after class.  A few of the students tried it on.  Here's Omega modelling it: 

JOY!

Today's Sunday School lesson was the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, from Luke 18.  We had our usual students (Jackson, Deborah, Glory, Grace and Gladness) as well as two student helpers, Stephanie and Paulina.  We talked about the way the two men prayed and how we talk to God. 

When talking about prayer, we talked about JOY as a model for prayer;

J: Jesus

We talked about thanking God (Jesus) for all he has done for us and for our blessings. God is great!

O: Others

We talked about praying for others that we know are sick, sad, lonely, or in trouble.  We can also pray prayers of thanksgiving for our friends and family that have good things happening in their lives!

Y: Yourself

We talked about praying for the things we need in our lives. 

For each letter, I had glued a big, colorful letter to pieces of paper, and we wrote things we could pray about in each category on them.

After talking about prayer, we went around the table and all the children prayed.  I thought they would all be too shy to pray aloud, but everyone participated enthusiastically and we had a really nice prayer.

We finished off Bible class with words searches and coloring pages, which the kids always enjoy.

After Bible class, I went back to the library for a while to get a little work done.  Some of the boys (high school students) were hanging around, and they saw our JOY letters and decided they needed to be permanent decorations in the library, for some reason, and taped them up at the top of the blackboard.  I think they mostly just wanted to excuse to climb on chairs, but it does look nice up there. 

The internet was working pretty well (well, for here) today, so I let the boys watch the football (soccer) highlights of the week.  They're all big fans of not only Tanzanian teams, but also the English league and La Liga, the Spanish league.  They really miss not always being able to get the scores every week while they are at school, so this quickly drew quite a crowd!  Of course, little Jackson was right in the middle of it.  At six years old, he's already a huge soccer fan! 

Scavenger Hunt in Bible Class

This week in Bible class we continued our study of the parables of Jesus.  Today we talked about the Parables of a Hidden Treasure and a Lost Pearl from Matthew 13.  I've been using a website called Mission Bible Study that has been really helpful.  There are some good ideas, though of course I also add in my own for some lessons. 

Since we were talking about treasure, of course I had to organize a treasure hunt!  I had some chocolate coins I found in Kenya that I had been waiting for the right opportunity to use, so I put some in a wooden box with brass trimming that I bought in Zanzibar (which made a perfect little treasure chest) and hid it.  Then I taped various Bible verses around campus.  Each Bible verse mentioned a place in it, which was a hint to where to go next.  One mentioned a gate, one mentioned a banner being flown (which led us to this picture, at the flagpole), one mentioned a store (the school shop), etc. 

The clues led us to the teacher's lounge where we found...oh wait.  We found nothing.  The box was not where I had left it.  I had thought it a safe place; it was up on top of the school nurse's cabinet and it wasn't an area students should be in on a Sunday without teachers there anyhow.  But it was definitely not there now. 

It was a bit of an anticlimactic scavenger hunt, but we went back to class and shared the rest of the chocolate coins which were still in my purse. 

Later, it came out that Shuaka, one of the form 2 students who is the Health Prefect (and therefore the holder of the keys to the nurse's cabinet when she is not on duty), had come in to get something out of the cabinet.  He saw the pretty box and assumed someone would try to steal it.  So he took it and locked it in the cabinet. 

I was pretty annoyed with him, as I had even announced at the end of the church service that I was doing something with the kids so if the students saw strange things (like the taped up Bible verses) around not to bother them, but he never seemed to grasp that he had been anything but helpful in protecting my property.  Lewis says it's a cultural thing; in this culture he did the right thing, but as an American I felt not touching something that had nothing to do with you would have been better.  Oh well; it was found in the end and the kids enjoyed the chocolate and had fun running around campus looking for clues.  

New Children's Bible Class

On July 14th, I started a new project: a Sunday School class for the kids!  We have a worship service for the students every Sunday morning, and there's a Bible class after, but it's geared towards the high school students.  I started noticing last term that we've got several elementary-school-aged kids around now (mostly children and grandchildren of staff).  Several of them participated in the high school class, but would really enjoy something just for them.  And so here we are!

We started today with seven kids (Beth's son Jackson, Lewis and Tammy's daughter Deborah, the headmaster's triplet daughters Glory, Grace and Gladness, and the granddaughters of the girls' dorm mother, Irene and Brightness) and two high school students (Prisca and Glory) as helpers.  We are studying the parables of Jesus over the next several weeks, so it should be fun! First on the list is the story of the wise and foolish builders, so I taught them the song today. 

It's been a few years since I taught kids this age (and it was in Italian when I did); I'm trying to remember all the songs I once knew.  They already know the Hippo song, at least, but not Blue Skies and Rainbows.  I'm sure it'll all come back to me soon! 

Lewis's Bible Class

After our morning service at eight, we have a short break (depending on how long the sermon went) and then Bible class in the library.  This is optional, so it's the more dedicated or more interested students who come (or sometimes people Lewis comes across on his way who aren't doing anything useful and get herded in). Lewis has been teaching this class for quite a while.  He follows the Discovery Bible Study format--the section of scripture is read out loud three times (normally just two, but he added in a reading in Swahili as well just to make sure the younger students whose English vocabulary may not be great yet can follow).  Then, another person summarizes the passage in their own words.  Next, the group brainstorms: first, what are the characteristics of God that we learn from this passage?  Second, what do we learn about the character of people from the passage?  And third, what do I need to do to obey this passage/put it into practice?  Finally, each person chooses which of the things from the third list that they plan to work on this week.  This term, we've been working through the book of Mark. 

Sunday School at Ngarash Church

One of our older students, Rispa, has been co-teaching a Sunday school class with Janet Allison (one of the American teachers at the school) at Ngarash church of Christ, which is just down the road from the school. She's confident enough now that she taught by herself when Janet was sick last week.

We have a Sunday service on campus every week, which all the students are required to attend.  It is mostly in English, since students are required to speak English on campus, though we do sing in Swahili, too.  However, our service is early enough that it does not overlap with services at the nearby church, so if the students want to attend a Swahili language service, they are allowed to go.  A few of the more mature Christians among them do on a regular basis, while several others stay on campus for an English-language Bible class with Lewis (which I attend as well).  

Ngarash Church

The view of the church from the road.

On my third Sunday in Tanzania, we went to the Ngarash church.  This church is just around the corner from the school, right across the street from the clinic.  The current preacher, Saiguron, is the accountant for both the clinic and the school. 

The building itself is a rough unchinked log building, lined with plastic sheeting inside.  It has a hard-packed dirt floor, and there's a little churchyard out front lined with rocks.  As you can see in the picture above, there is also an outhouse if needed.  I wish I'd gotten a photo from a different angle because there are some traditional round mud huts just to the left of the building, but they are blocked from view in this photo by the bushes. 

Tammy and Deborah chatting with one of the church members after services.

The building was filled up by the time the sermon started; it's a small congregation but has several elderly people and several children.  Mr. Shekwavi, the headmaster of the school, was the guest preacher today, and Saiguron did the singing and the Lord's Supper.  Here in Tanzania, the communion meditation is functionally a second sermon; it's usually nearly as long.  

As usual, the service ended with a song during which everyone exited in a line, shaking everyone's hand along the way until they reached the end and joined the line until it wrapped around the churchyard.  The Ngarash church is very friendly and I really enjoyed meeting the people there.  I'm not sure what it was, but of the three churches I've visited so far, this one felt the most home-like.  Starting next week, however, I'll be worshipping on campus with the students.  I hope to visit at Ngarash again sometime, though! 

Arusha church of Christ

On my second Sunday in Tanzania, I went with the Shorts to visit the Arusha church of Christ.  They have friends who are members there but had never visited for a service.  It's still the school holiday, so we don't have the Sunday service with the students and are using the time to visit other area churches. 

The Arusha church of Christ is down an extremely rough little road by the railroad tracks and these huge silos just south of downtown Arusha.  I'm not sure how they get down to the building at all in the rainy season; even though many people walk down I imagine it's a bit of a mess.  It was worth the trek, though, as the members are a nice group of people.  

After church, we spent a while outside while the Shorts caught up with various people that they know and I was introduced to many new people.  We went to lunch after with the Kambarage family.  Mr. Kambarage is an elder in the Arusha church and a respected church leader here in Tanzania.  He owns a mechanic shop, as well.  He and his wife have three children, who all came--the eldest son is an accountant in his late twenties, then a daughter who is twenty-two and working as a housekeeper for an American family we know while also finishing her degree, and a twenty-year-old son who is in trade school.  I ended up at the end of the table with the three younger Kambarages, who all speak good English, while the Shorts chatted with their parents in Swahili.  I enjoyed getting to know them, and hope to see them again in the future. 

There was a great view of Mt Meru from in front of the church.

Kanisa la Kristo

The plan is that normally I will worship with the students at the school at the Sunday service held on campus, but as it is fall break now I have the chance to visit other congregations.  The Monduli church of Christ is right around the corner; it was nice to only have a three-minute walk to get there.

Services started at ten; there was a Bible class with everyone together, but there's not really much separation from the main service so it all ran together.  Then there was the usual: singing, praying, sermon, communion, announcements, etc.  Most of it was translated into English by Tizo (Beth's husband).

The service took about two and a half hours, and afterwards, the children rejoiced because usually it's closer to four.  I'm not sure quite how that's possible, but then again there is the Bible class lesson, the sermon, and the communion mediation which is basically another sermon (even today in a rather short service the scriptures and reasons behind communion were thoroughly reviewed), and translating makes everything twice as long.

There is an interesting tradition here in Tanzania that I've never seen before: at the end of the service, instead of dismissing and everyone standing around inside, everyone keeps singing the last song as everyone files out.  The first person out stands at the door, and as each person exits, they shake his or her hand and then stand next to them.  The line forms a big circle around the churchyard as everyone shakes everyone's hand and then joins the end of the line.  Now, I know it wouldn't work in a very large congregation, but it was nice that everyone (even small children) had the chance to greet every other person.  We kept singing the chorus over and over until everyone one was out and we were all in a circle outside, and then we were dismissed, and the normal standing around talking after service happens outside.  I do wonder how this tradition changes come rainy season.

Also, here's your Swahili word for the day: kanisa.  As you can see from the sign over the door, kanisa means church.  

October 3rd: Fish for Sunday Dinner

 The long-awaited fall cool-down came to us over a week ago, but we haven't been able to enjoy it too much as it brought with it a solid week of drippy drizzling.  Today, however, was one of those crisp, clear, brilliantly sunny perfect fall days.  I wished I was hiking in the woods; the urge to be outdoors was nearly irresistible.

It was a good Sunday, following the normal pattern: in the morning, Rebecca, Season, and I headed over to Ron and Evelyn's house on the south campus for a morning meeting.  After the meeting, most weeks we all go out to eat together.  Eleven people gathered around two pushed-together tables in the small back room of a restaurant across from the south campus.  It was crowded, but the more the merrier when we can share good food with good friends.  The main dish was grilled fish.  We Americans tend to have quite a disconnect between animals and food--we buy our meat clean and packaged in plastic from Kroger's; it's easy to disassociate it from the animal it used to be a part of.  No such thing  here.  Just inside the doorway of the restaurant there was a tub of water with a board over top of it.  Jordan, one of the Chinese brothers, translated Ron's request for fish.  The restaurant owner lifted up the piece of plywood and plunged his hands into the murky tub, and came up with a squirming ten-pound fish.  "Bigger!"  So he dropped the first fish unceremoniously back into the water and scrambled for another.  The third pick met the requirements, so he tossed it over his shoulder onto the sidewalk by the door.  It gasped in the sun as we filed past to find a table.  The owner's daughter squeezed past us with a meat cleaver in hand.  Twenty minutes later, we had a perfectly grilled fish, with a marinade of onions and spices, in the center of our table. 

As everyone else settled in at the tables, Ron, Jordan, and I held a conference in the kitchen with the owner.  Jordan is Chinese, so he could write our order down for us--here, generally you write your own order on the pad of paper instead of the waitress doing it.  Ron has the idea that I'm good at ordering food, so I have now been promoted to the ordering committee at most meals.  My Chinese is still on a just-getting-by level, but I have learned how to say several of the normal dishes.  Today was a wonderful meal: besides the fish, we had a plate of sweet and sour pork, two plates each of eggplant and cabbage, potatoes and onions, scrambled eggs and tomatoes, lotus root, and a super-spicy version of chicken and peanuts.

Another Sunday dinner, a couple of weeks later than the one I'm talking about.  Of course, I should have got the shot before we ate all the food...

I spent the afternoon doing some stuff for BW's birthday, and then we had a meeting at Colonel and Kelly's at five.  The singing seemed especially wonderful today--several of my favorite songs.

The Last Week of September

So much for being consistent.  For the past week, I have been out of school, so I've mostly stayed around the house.  I did quite a lot of genealogy work.  I don't know what it is; I've only had one or two contacts all summer about genealogy, but in the past week and a half I've gotten emails from five or six people.  Suddenly everyone is noticing the cemetery records I've had online for months.  The aggravating part is that, since my external drive broke, I was never able to put the most updated version of the database on my laptop.  It's too large to be uploaded to the internet or burned on a CD.  I'm trying to figure out a way to have mom break it down and then burn it on cds.  We'll see.

Last weekend (not yesterday, a week ago) was beautiful.  Perfect weather--warm without being too hot, sunny, breeze... That Saturday (the 23rd), Anna and I decided to go out and do something.  We both enjoy photography.  She suggested we find a bus that goes somewhere out of town, and take it all the way to the capolinea [end of the line].  She got online and poked around, and decided on Settignano.  So, we took the 10 bus from the stazione through town and up one of the large hills (small mountains) that surround the city.  On the top of this hill is the little town of Settignano.  It was a pretty little town in itself, but its real draw is the views of the valley and the city of Florence from there.

My favorite views, however, were as we walked out of the village into the countryside towards the Villa Gamberaia.  After walking past sloped groves of olive trees, with the valley rolling out behind them. I understand why there is poetry about olive trees.  The pale leaves seem to catch the light when they are stirred around in the breeze.

The Villa Gamberaia is supposed to have one of the most elaborate and beautiful gardens in the country.  However, there is a 10€ charge to go in, and we arrived only a half hour before closing.  It was a beautiful villa to see from the road as we approached, however.  The hedges were as tall as trees; I've never seen them so massive.

Just past the villa, the road ran through a little tunnel and through a wooded area.  We followed it up a ways, past orchards and olive groves, for a ways further before turning back.  Walking back down the hill towards the tunnel, we saw what appeared to be elaborately painted ruins in the woods.

We went back through the tunnel, and took pictures of each other at the end of it.  We also took pictures up--huge trees grew on the bank above the tunnel; it's not often you can get a picture of a tree from that angle, completely underneath it.  When we got back home, I realized I had taken over two hundred pictures.  They turned out well. Now, I'd like to go to Fiesole, another hill town, sometime.

The next day, Sunday the 24th, we took the van after church to Arezzo, a city about an hour and a half away.  Bernardo and Alfredo rode with us, and Tammy, Christina, and the Albanian lady (I can never remember her name) rode with Gary and Jennifer.  In Arezzo, we met up with church members from Rome and Prato.  Paolo Mirabelli, from Rome, had gotten us all together.  He is organizing people to go to cities in Italy that have no churches of Christ to pray for that city.

We had Bibles, in which we wrote the addresses and phone numbers of our congregations in, before passing them out.  We had a short devotional by the train station.  We sang "I Love You with the Love of the Lord" in Italian, English, Spanish, and Albanian to represent the languages of all of us who were present.  We read scriptures and prayed the same way, using the different languages.  We sang an African song that is apparently common here, as well.

We then walked through the old part of the city, winding our way up the hill the city is built on.  Near the top, we stopped and sat on the steps in one of the oldest piazzas.  There, we had a long devotional, singing together.  A couple from the Prato congregation who were originally from San Salvador shared there song book with me.  That was the best part of the day--meeting Christians from other congregations.

After the devotional, we needed to head back quickly in time for the Pepperdine devo.  Anna, Christina, and I ran through a little park on the top of the hill and had time to take a few picture of the beautiful valley view from there.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful.  Gary and Jennifer are on vacation, so we were rather informal this week. I made birthday cards to send to church members, and I studied a little, though nothing like I should have.

And now today, I'm sitting in the Piazza Savonarola, which I expect to see a lot of in the next few months.  The University of Firenze owns buildings at the corner of it, and that is where my new language school will be.  I came this morning to take the placement test and pick up my schedule and student id cards.  I think it will be good.  I plan to take the trips with the class, and try to do all I can.  I need to spend more time studying this afternoon.

The view from the park near the main church in Arezzo

One surprising thing about the last few weeks has been that several people have complimented me on my voice.  I've never been anything special as a singer; I don't know why I am here, but I'm enjoying it.  I always wanted to be able to sing well.  It just seem easier all of a sudden.  I can sing louder and stronger than I've ever been able to.  Maybe it's because my allergies are better here (I always said it was Tennessee I was allergic to!), or that there are fewer people who sing at all here.  Anyhow, it makes me happy.