trips.schrull.us

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.

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.

Today began very early as we continued our journey to Kasulu.  In the past we had flown from Dar, stopping in Tabora and then on to  Kigoma in rather beat up Embre turbo prop planes.  The whole trip took about 3.5 to 4 hours hours and was not very comfortable.  That route is no longer available.  With some trepidation we set off on our new route, flying to Mwanza and changing planes there after a 90 minute or so layover to go onto Kigoma.  What an improvement!  The flight to Mwanza was on a “short” Boeing 737 and only took an hour.  We were on the right side of the plane which gave us some fantastic views on Mount Kilimanjaro.

After exiting the arrivals area, getting a taste of the Mwanza airport facilities (all open-air little cabana type shops), we re-entered initial security to get our boarding passes for Kigoma.  In my previous experience, only in Dar did you get assigned seats.  The outlaying airports would have “open” seating.  The first onto the plane would grab all the window seats, making in very difficult to sit together….but what was this?  Assigned seats?  Cool!  We boarded the terminal bus that drove us out to where our plane was waiting.  There sat the familiar Embre turbo prop:  passengers load from the back, the luggage and cargo area is between the cockpit and passenger area.  But again, a very pleasant surprise:  no beat up seats and interior – this was a very clean, new plane!  The hour flight to Kigoma was a joy.  Some great views of Lake Victoria on leaving Mwanza and super views of Lake Tanganyika before touching down on Kigoma’s clay/dirt runway.

Bill has posted pictures of the Kigoma arrivals (and departures) gate in the past.  It’s always fun to see the folks waiting for the arriving passengers on the other side of the fence as you walk down the tin-roofed pathway.  In this case it included a small flock of white-robed nuns excitedly awaiting the arrival of two sisters on our flight.  We were greeted by our old friend, Emmanuel Bwata, our new friend, the rector of St. Michaels’s in Kigoma and our driver, Clement.  All luggage was hand-delivered to the luggage window (the luggage handler often reading the names of the owners off of the luggage tags).  We loaded it into one of the diocese’s rather beat-up but dependable Toyota Land Cruisers and headed into town.

Once again, another pleasant change:  Five years ago, the road from the airport  dusty, dirt, rutted and covered with trash.  It is now clean and paved.  Some work remains on the side gulley’s, which are obviously in progress.  (Road gutters are really necessary here:  imagine stepping into a shower under a “rainfall” shower head.  That’s what it’s like when it rains here.  Rain comes down fast and there needs to be somewhere for it to go.)  We headed into town and then turned up off the paved road onto a series of washed-out eroded and wash boarded dirt roads which in the U.S. would be considered “off-roading”.  We were delighted to arrive at the Hill Top Resort where we had lunch.  Bill has spent several nights at this resort on past trips.  The food is excellent and the view is fantastic.  We caught up with our friends while we waited for our meal, which in Tanzanian fashion took a while to arrive.

Whenever anyone goes to Kigoma, errands must be run.  Kigomo is more “big city” than Kasulu.  It has had power for years  and there are things you can get there that you can’t get at Kasulu.   For years it was the last place where you can get cash from an ATM machine before heading to Kasulu. Our friends ran a few errands, we dropped the Rector of St. Michaels off at his church compound and started the hour an a half drive to Kasulu.  This used to be a three hour drive.  The road is now paved more than half way there.  There are plans to pave it the rest of the way.  Even most of the dirt portion of the road was relatively smooth – in the middle at least!  As we got closer to Kasulu, the road become more rutted and wash-boarded.

The diocese compound is beautiful.  It was originally built by German missionaries and often some German missionaries still live and work there.  The gardens are both European and African in design and beautifully maintained.  We are staying in the “German House” which is often used by the German missionaries.  We have stayed here before and know how it “works”  (when the water runs and doesn’t run; how to throw buckets of water down the toilet to flush it if necessary).  It really is our home in Kasulu.  Another improvement:  the compound and the German house now has power 24/7!  (The water is still an issue and it seems that the solar hot water system, which provided water even when to cold water was not running has been shut down as no one is currently living here.)

We met another new friend, Bishop Makaya’s wife, Editha, and a lovely young lady who  brings us coffee snacks and heated hot water for our baths named Baysteela (phonetically spelled).  Daudi Ndahana stopped by and had coffee with us.  Eventually, dinner at the Bishop’s house with Mrs. Makaya and Emanuel Bwata and then home to the guest house with the sounds of night time Kasulu in the background.