Cathy Schrull
Shopping with Olivia
This morning, after breakfast at the Bishop’s house, our friend Daudi Ndahana, picked us up to take us to the Bible College.
The Bible College is where Bill was, with the very generous financial help of a private foundation, able to install a solar-powered internet café/computer lab 5 years ago. Every year he likes to do an on-site checkup on the system, cleaning off any viruses, verifying that everything is running well and seeing what might need to be replaced or upgraded. This year we picked up 10 new sets of keyboards and mice in Dar es Salam to replace the original keyboards and mice which have gotten sticky with 5 years of use and Kasulu dust. We have started a running list of other bits of equipment and supplies to either be ordered and shipped out to Kasulu when we return to Dar, or, if it is small enough and unavailable in Dar, bought and mailed from the U.S. when we get back.
Daudi took us to his house for lunch where we met his three eldest children for the first time. The oldest is awaiting the results of her exams, to determine whether she can continue her education to the next level. The middle two children attend a catholic boarding school which teaches in English (essential for continuing to a University level education, and difficult to learn well enough if you wait to start it in secondary school, which is where the government schools start it). They are home for the Christmas break. Their youngest child, Frank, is our Godchild, although he did not remember us and was a little frightened of us at first.
Olivia and her daughters made us a lovely lunch: rice, potatoes, beans, chicken and stewed beef. A tasty shredded cabbage dish with carrots in it, among other things.
We had hosted Daudi, Olivia (and Frank) in our home when Daudi was traveling to and from Nashoda House Seminary in Wisconsin for an advanced degree. As a thank you, they presented Bill with a shirt and me with a dress in matching fabric that Olivia had made. We wore them to dinner tonight at another old friend, Daniel’s house.
When I was last in Tanzania five years ago, our friends at the Bible College had presented me with a rather elaborate white with gold colored embroidery tie skirt and blouse. A friend of ours, who had come with Tanzania with Bill about 3 years ago had a more traditional “every day” skirt and blouse made while she was here. I had decided before we came that I would like to try to do the same. I know that I will feel more comfortable wearing something less elaborate back home and I would like to be able to wearEast African ”couture” at mission events. I asked Olivia to assist me with this.
So after lunch, even though we had heard thunder and it was starting to spit a little rain, Olivia and I set out to purchase cloth. This was an adventure: Olivia has forgotten some the English that she learned during her year in Wisconsin. I speak NO Swahili, with the exception of “asante sana” (think you very much).
We went to the section of the market where most of the cloth and clothing sellers have their shops. A shop is really what we would consider to be a booth, maybe 6 feet wide by 4 feet deep. The cloth in this particular shop was all cotton, printed in various patterns, hanging from racks that completely cover the walls of the shop. You do not actually enter the shop, which is fronted by a counter but point to the various patterns which you want to see better. The proprietor lays them on the counter, you make your selection and tell him or her how many lengths you need. Olivia helped me to pick out a good pattern. Total cost for the fabric: 19,000 T shillings.
It was now lightly raining, so Olivia and I shared her umbrella, walking past other fabric shops and some tailor shops, crossing a street and going down another street of mixed shops to an open-fronted tailor shop the was maybe 10 feet by 10 feet, held four treadle-powered sewing machines and as many people. The seamstress and Olivia and I discussed what my skirt and blouse should look like, the seamstress took my measurements and asked if I would like some machine embroidery on the neckline. I agreed and paid the fee. Cost for making my skirt and blouse with the embroidery: 15,000 T shillings. My new outfit will be ready Wednesday afternoon. When I got home to the compound I did the math: total cost for the skirt and blouse at today’s exchange rate: slightly over $20.00 USD.
Tomorrow we will spend time meeting with the Bishop. Good night.
Celebration and Sheep
One of the interesting and good things about being here in Tanzania is that we are not reminded about Christmas and how many shopping days left until at every turn. I have not seen any Christmas decorations in Kasulu at all. Apparently they don’t get them out until Christmas Eve. Even in Dar as Salam we saw very few Christmas decorations.
Today we went to a confirmation celebration in Msagara Parish, which is very close to the Burundi boarder (time to get out your atlases and see exactly where we have been traveling). The drive took us about 90 minutes and we passed through some beautiful country, a number of villages and farms. There where many banana “trees” (banana plants are not truly trees) with corn plants, and in the higher elevations, coffee plants growing in their shade. The Tanzanians are good at mixed crop farming.
We were greeted by Bishop Makaya on our arrival and led into breakfast. “Second Breakfast” in our case, as Mama Askofu (Mama Bishop) had already fed us breakfast at her house before we all set out. After breakfast, the priests put on their robes and everybody went over to where a new house was being built to house the district director to dedicate the foundation stone. The major celebration of the day was confirmation of a very large confirmation class and the installation of the new district director. 
There were four choirs – a Youth choir from Burundi, a Mother’s choir and two other Tanzanian youth choirs. Each choir sang (and danced) a song welcoming the Bishop to start the service. There were lessons read, Bill and I sang two different times, and included choruses that the congregation joined in with us. Bishop Makaya preached and then confirmed about 60 folks, most of them young, but a few of them quite old.
Following the confirmation, the new district director was installed. The district director acts as the Bishop’s assistant in an area. He is responsible for a large number of parishes and churches in an area of very poor communications. He accepted his new ministry to the district and was prayed for by all the priests in his district.
All three youth choirs sang during the offering time and they needed to: it took an HOUR for everyone to come forward with their offerings. The dancing of the choirs was so infectious that I wanted to go down and join them!
After the offering, there was gift giving. this is a tradition and Bill can remember traveling back to the diocesan compound on a previous trip here with the results of this gift giving from two parishes in the back of the truck. They gave the Bishop a small sheep, who had a lot to say about it (the sheep that is). Then they gave gifts to the district director and his wife: another small sheep, who wasn’t to eager to be lead up the chancel steps, a few household goods and lots of lengths of cloth.
Two hours or so into the service it started to rain. It rained HARD. Although it was not raining as hard when the service finally ended it was still raining, so getting to the hall (the original church), where lunch was served and then into the car was a damp experience. 
The Bishop left quickly after eating to go to a smaller parish that is on the road back to Kasulu for another confirmation. Originally we were going to go with him, but it had gotten cold with the rain and Bill and I had not brought warmer shirts with us this morning and were feeling chilled, so we headed back to the compound with Mama Askofu and changed into warmer clothes that we did not expect to wear again until we were headed home.
Tonight we enjoyed spending time with the Bishop at dinner and are looking forward to Tuesday when we area scheduled to meet with him again.
Market Day
The sounds of Kasulu at night reminds you that you are in an area surrounded by people. For most of the night there were the sounds of a pretty good party going on somewhere not too far away. It wasn’t loud enough to keep us awake, it was just there in the background. Somewhere between 4 and 5 am the local rooster started crowing, something that he does at odd times during the day, followed by the sound prayers from the local mosque. Then silence, except for some of the most beautiful bird-song I have heard since spring in Connecticut.
Today was market day. Market day’s are held Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This was a farmer’s market on a far grander scale than any farmer’s market that you will see in Connecticut, much grander than any produce department at your local grocery and the source of most of the food bought by the folks in Kasulu and environs.
Needless to day, the awnings and tables of US farmers markets are not present here. A “stall” is a patch of ground, maybe 4 or 5 feet by three feet or so on which the vender has placed sacks. The vendor’s wares, depending on what it is may be displayed directly on the sacks or contained in large baskets or sacks. Occasionally someone will be holding an umbrella to protect themselves from the sun. Most of the vendors and shoppers are women, often with babies and small children in tow although there are a lot of men present as well. The “aisles” between the rows of venders are only a foot or two wide. It is more than crowded. I had no idea how many different crops were grown in the area until I went to market. There were the expected potatoes (sweet and white), tomatoes and dried beans that we have eaten here so many times. And of course, huge hands for bananas (there are bananas growing in our front yard!). I expected mangos, it is mango season. There were also melons,several different kinds of mushrooms, green beans, carrots, garlic and ginger root. Peppers, and I think, okra. Sacks of maze, which were ground in a nearby mill powered by a diesel engine. Eventually, all purchases made, we came back to the compound, where lunch included some of the recently purchased potatoes, carrots and green peppers. Delicious! 
This afternoon we were reminded that this is the rainy season. After rumbles of thunder in the distance, the skies opened and it poured for about an hour. There was easily an inch of rain in that hour.
Tomorrow we travel to Masagara where we will meet up with Bishop Makaya and attend a confirmation service.