Pedicure, Haircut (and Colour) and a Wedding

 A week of work ends with a wedding Tanzanian style

This week has been a focus on a few treats for me. I found a barber shop where pedicures were advertised and it was not bad. My feet which have walked through dusty roads since my arrival and dried out soles needed a good scrub and scrape. So for $12 it was great value. Mind you the original quote was $10 but after having my feet in hot water for a few minutes suddenly the Engish of the lady scraping my heel managed to tell me 20,000TZS, not the 15,000 I had quoted. I would have tipped her the additional 5,000 so no great loss.

Pedicure

PTC Graduation Friday online

Next day a haircut. Back to the same hairdresser for my $2 cut (tip last time was $2) and I am sitting there the young girl who sweeps the floor, does the hairwashes and other sundry tasks, opens a cupboard and takes out hair dye. Now everyone over here has black hair. The guy out the back who has his hair being dyed has black hair. How ridiculous I thought, only to be told a lot of guys like it darker. So after ascertaining it was only a three minute job ( I forgot to ask how long I had to stay in the chair) and a price of $7.50 I thought why not.

Well putting the dye in was three minutes but waiting for it to dry and then washing my hair was about another hour. Now to my eyes it was very dark. However I have been told by many here they like it. In fact Bishop mentioned to me if I was marraiageable, I would not be turned down! I am not sure it has made me look that much younger.

Misoji is a wok colleague

My new look

The hairdresser

Work this week was again busy and frustrating. Seeing people working on computer systems where there is no internet, no way of readily sharing documents and even getting a letter written and scanned for the bishop since Wednesday wasn’t finished by Friday. Staff here work very hard.

I was asked by a staff member when “do you rest.” Not satisfied with after work and weekends she persisted and I understood that sometimes people have a break during thier work day even if they don’t leave their desks.

Most mornings we have breakfast before heading to the cathedral for morning prayers and then to the cafeteria where staff enjoy a subsidised breakfast at 8am. I usually go and have a coffee (Vittoria Coffee bags brought with me from Australia) , chat with others and get in by 8.30am. On Thursday I decided to have a chipati and had to wait so went out the back to see how they were preapred. The pictures graphically tell the story.

Cooking chipatis

Rolling the dough

Pre made dough

One morning I walked the long way to the office from the cafe and saw girls from the sewing centre playing a ball game before class. Netball would do well over here. Monkeys were spotted on the roof of the cafe that morning.

Sewing Centre

Sewing girls play ball

Monkeying around

The Bunda Bible College has its graduation on 11 June and given my past role with Anglican Aid and helping support students there the college will graduate the largest number of graduates in living memory of any Anglican Church of Tanzania College with forty graduates at certificate, Diploma and the extension (remote) course. As a result I have been invited as the speaker on the day so one evening was spent preparing that talk. As I edited it Saturday, I translated it into Swahili and had a go at speaking it. Not sure I can speak 1500 Swahili words efficiently but will have a practice run through with some poor soul to tell me if it is worth pursuing.

Friday was the PTC graduation in Sydney. I was able to tune in online. Friday afternoon I faciliate the English Bible study. Only two people thiss week.

A Tanzanian Wedding

Bishop told me one of the pastors asked him if he could marry about six weeks ago just after he got a yes from the bride to be. This is a formal process and because she was not a confirmed Anglican and her family wanted the wedding in her town and church, his feedback was that he had to marry in an Anglican Church as an ordained clergy.

So imagine organising the wedding in six weeks. Well it went off on Saturday and was interesting to observe it all. We arrived at the cathedral at 8.40am for a 9am start. Not a soul around. Ten minutes later the groom and best man emerge through the closed doors of the cathedral. They came to see what was happening which was nothing, other than our arrival. at 9.03am still no one. By 9.15am a small number of people started arriving and then a rush.

Both are employed att the local Anglican School and as the adults started increasing in number, a wave of primary and kinder kids from about three years old streamed in. The cathedral was fairly full by 9.30am as the briadal car arrived. She did not emerge till after 10am, by which time a few choirs had warmed the congregation up, the groom had addressed the people inside and most guests were seated making meaning the cathedral was 75% full (about 300 people).

As her entry was announced a choir led singing and people lined up in the aisle. She stopped just inside the cathedral doorway and the groom and best man made their way down the aisle and stopped 1.5m from her. The dean made an announcement,there was a response from the groom, people howled, ululated and cheered and then the groom lifted the veil of his bride to be. Together they commenced walking down the aisle together to deafening ululations and cheers.

The service used the Anglican Prayer Book for weddings so I could follow what was going on. The Vicar General spoke and received a note from the bishop which I was later told “time is not our friend.” He completed his address shortly afterwards. The couple were married, resumed their seats, communion was taken and then back up the front for the binding of hands with the bishops scarf as he prayed for them (words about whatGod has joined let no one separate).. The register was signed and out we went about two hours after the bride made her entry.

The bride appears

Groom speaks prior

Alpha (Best) Godfrey

Asking a number of people if this was a long wedding, I was gobsmacked to be told this was very shrt at only two hours. The couple were heading to Mwanza (four hours away) for the first reception with her family and friends. I will be at the Musoma reception Sunday night at 7pm. All in all a wonderful experience.

Formal photo

Married at last

Binding hands

Unmarried and apart

Some of the hundreds of kids

Jonah of Tanzania and My Busiest Week

 

 Jonah of Tanzania and My Busiest Week

I mentioned in my last blog a visit to a village on Saturday where the Bishop was speaking on Saturday afternoon and going back Sunday for confirmation for those ready and able to demonstrate they understood its significance. While there I met Pastor Francis whose story I tell because it describes so much that challenges Tanzania economically and the church in particular.

Pastor Francis

On arrival we were met by a group of church leaders and taken to Francis’ home to be welcomed officially. He is sixty three years old and has been pastor in this village for seven years. He has one wife (polygamy still exists so this is to clarify) and ten children. His monthly stipend is usually about 10,000 TZS or AU$6-7 but may sometimes be double that. So he farms to feed his family.

Apart from the village I am in, he also has four other congregations that he is responsible to pastor, supported by catechists (non-ordained pastors who may have some theological education). So he visits each congregation monthly to do the priestly thing about communion that non ordained pastors cannot do.

As I was asking him about his family and time in ministry he told me he went to Bible College in the early 1990s but was not a Christian at the time. We ran out of time at this stage so I had to continue a few hours later after all the activities we were there for had concluded.

He went to Bible College as a young man, enthralled with the vestments and ceremony of the Anglican Church at the time. He actually completed three years of college and was sent to villages to start new churches, something many do which is a tough gig. He eventually moved on to another community after establishing a new church and found life a bit tougher there. Many would say to him “you will die poor. Why don’t you get a job and look after yourself.” Not really having had a “call” he eventually left life as a minister and went fishing in Lake Victoria where many at the time were making excellent income from huge catches as large numbers of fish populated the lake and excess catches fed an export market. The boat was incidentally owned by his father.

From my stays in a hotel at Mwanza overlooking Lake Victoria, the distant lights at night tell the story of the fishing industry. Small lightweight, canoe style boats for 2-3 dot the darkness of the night as these men, the equivalent of sustenance farmers eke out a livelihood on Africa’s largest lake.

After some years, one night out fishing wth two older men a storm commenced. He suggested lowering the sail and they argued. One of the men mockingly suggesting if he was scared to walk across the lake to land. The boat capsized. All three hung onto ropes attached to the boat.

The sun rose and as they awaited their fate, poisonous snakes popped their heads over the boat looking at them. He prayed for safety for he and his colleagues from the snakes and did not see them again. The day became night. He prayed for his colleagues that they would survive. He had concluded he was responsible for this situation because he had left the ministry and he did not wish his colleagues harm.

As he kept praying aloud, they told him to stop praying as he might disturb the sea ghosts. “Sea ghosts” I asked. He explained these men were pagans who believed in evil spirits which lived under the water. He kept praying. Day turned to night and night to day.

On night three they saw distant lights and began shouting. Eventually the boat came closer and three bedraggled, naked men emerged for rescue. He saw his father and told him he was never going fishing again and saw the bishop of the area and returned to pastoral duties. After some years he again went to Bible College at Rorya for three years and became ordained as a priest/pastor.

When asked why he was foing to the Anglican Church, which people from his tribe equated as the church of the Luo, he recounted to friends that when his father was sick in hosptal it was the church that helped his father with fees. When he died the Anglican Chrch paid for his funeral as he was penniless.

While he has never equated his experience to that of Jonah who spent three days in the belly of a whale while running from God, the parallels between the expriences of Francis and Jonah are recognisable.

Francis lives very simply. He has a house made of mud bricks and a rough uneven floor. There is electricity for lighting and limited power. I ran into his daughter with Bishop later in the week and she send money home. She works in Musoma with the local soccer team.

A house

Village church

Francis’ lounge with Bishop

No harvest expected due to no rain

Trpical kitchen

Francis’ house

Sunset looking to Lake Victoria

The church now meets outside due to size

While the village is generally poor, there are signs of increasing prosperity in some of the houses. We had lunch in a room of a house under construction for ten years. The owner is a teacher and buys materials and labour when he has savings. Dinner was at another older church member’s home in a small compound that suggested some improved economic circumstances. Bishop mentioned it was good to see wealthier members of the church providing hospitality as this was an indication they had hosted the meal.

In speaking to Pastor Francis, he appeared content. He was preparing for retirement in a few years but expressed satisfaction with his life since the near drowning. He is thankful that God spared his life, although there were no bargains made at that time. He was just praying and asking if he died that his body was found so he could have a burial.

House 10 years in making

Teenagers cooking ugali

The best village
house

The rest of my week was busy and this was the busiest so far. Lots of admin work, video meeting with Anglican Aid and staff from here to discuss a building program and in between training people on Google drive and discusssing a newsletter with a young guy who is going to produce it.

All in all an amzing week