A little later than intended, but finally I’ve gotten some
time to update about our trip to Dodoma. Dodoma and Ilula were almost
antithesis of each other in every respect, but I’m glad we got to go. It was a
very cultural excursion to say the least.
Unlike the week
before where we left on Friday, we didn’t leave until Saturday morning because
we knew that we would not be able to leave Sunday afternoon. Since we’d be
staying until Monday morning then, we decided we didn’t have to leave after
school Friday and we got to have some down time. Saturday morning, at about 11,
our bus left Morogoro, and the ride was pretty short. It was only about three
and a half hours to Dodoma. As we started to pull into Dodoma, both Christine
and I were surprised by how quiet and peaceful everything was. Dodoma is not
the biggest city in Tanzania, but it is the capital, and we were in the city,
not like Ilula where we were an hour from the city Iringa. When we go to the
bus stand, the Dodoma UMC pastor met us and took us to his home. We were still
in the city, but his house was surrounded by small maize fields. It was a
strange feeling, almost like being back in Deuel county. Morogoro is definitely
the biggest city I’ve ever lived in, but we live in such a residential area
that it doesn’t feel super city-ish. However, there’s usually a number of
people out and walking about all day, the church is next door so if something’s
happening there, we know about it, I always hear people at the duka nearby,
etc. Even later on when we did walk by shops and more active areas, it was
still much quieter than Morogoro.
When we arrived to his house, we were graciously treated to
standard Tanzanian hospitality, a meal almost as soon as we sat down. We talked
with the pastor, and quickly established a primarily Swahili conversation. I’m
really proud of my Swahili abilities. For having no formal training other than
my books that I’ve gone through when I’ve found some time, I understood about
90% of the conversation. Since Christine has gone to language school, she did
almost all of the talking. I’m not very good yet at forming the sentences. Most
of the time, I get so excited at knowing the right verb to use in the first
place that I get over excited and speak before I know the first part which is also
slightly important, the subject and tense. It was really good practice for me
though, and it was easier to keep pace with Christine’s Swahili because I can
understand her accent better. Also, the pastor was cognizant of our limited abilities
so he was patient with us and spoke slower. We got to meet his wife and a few
of his children (7 total, oldest being about 14-15, youngest a baby).
The Pastor suggested
we could go see the church. We went outside and started walking. We had only
gone the length of the building when he stopped. Both of us were confused, so
we looked up and then saw the painted sign above the church “United Methodist
Church of Dodoma.” This is the true meaning of parsonage; his house and the
church are the same building. We went inside, and it was a simple setup. I’m
sure someday our church will look similar when we get a roof put on so it’s
more enclosed. I believe I put up a picture in my last blog post in case you
want to see it. After a few minutes, we asked about the preschool he had
mentioned and if we could go see that. He pointed to a small blackboard on one
of the walls. This building is literally the entire ministry of the Dodoma UMC,
church, parsonage and preschool. Like I said before, this was the total
opposite of IOP. While that ministry was almost overwhelming, this was rather
small, and after the week before feeling like our site in Morogoro was nothing,
it was a firm reminder that we are doing a lot in our area.
They wanted to give us time to rest, so they escorted us to
the guesthouse we would be staying at. It was about 7 or 8 minutes from their
house, and it was very nice. It had a western feel to it, at least in my
opinion. It was quite simple; each room had a queen bed, a chair, TV and
bathroom, which came with a western style toilet even. Christine and I shared a
room to save on money, so we hung out for a few hours while waiting to
eventually go back to the pastor’s house for another meal. Around 7:30, he
returned, bought us a pop, and after that we went back to his house. A couple
parishioners joined us this time, and after a few songs and a prayer, we went
off back to the hotel.
The next morning Sunday school started at 9:30 although the
Dodoma church wasn’t quite as punctual as ours. Nevertheless, things got going.
An elderly gentleman who knew some English sat between me and Christine and
translated only bits of pieces of the Sunday School lesson (which is just
another sermon really) for us. I didn’t get the whole idea, not really close
even, but at least we knew the scripture involved. Then the actual service
started. Oh my. Now, this was praise at its finest. This wasn’t the hip-swaying
of Morogoro, this was entire bodily involvement worship to the Lord.
Hardly anyone was really staying in one defined spot. One man was so
enthusiastic in what he was doing that we couldn’t take pictures of it; we had
to get videos. At points his foot was going ABOVE his head! It was crazy! I
feel like we also worshipped a lot more than most of the churches I’ve been to
in Tanzania. We really had few of the traditional elements in this service; no
Apostles creed, Lord’s prayer, I don’t even think we sang a traditional hymn.
It was ok, but the amount of activity was almost exhausting for us. I was
asked to pray out loud, something that I’ve now been forced to get a lot better
at. When they got to the sermon, someone else translated line by line for us,
which was nice. They then welcomed us to the church. I was surprised by this
because usually when we’re guests at a churches, there’s a time in the service
where we have to introduce ourselves. We had already done this, but then they
asked us to sit up front, read us this brief history of the Dodoma church,
asked for financial support to get electiricty in the building, and then presented
us each with two khangas! That was such a shock to be given a gift like that.
They then asked us to say something to the congregation which was somewhat
awkward. They thankfully didn’t expect it in Swahili or anything, but to be put
so on the spot wasn’t very fun, particularly when they were likely wanting us
to say we’d help them financially. The service then ended and we had time to
greet the congregation before going back to the pastor’s house for lunch where parishioners
once again joined us.
That afternoon I went back to the hotel and rested while
Christine visited a friend originally from Morogoro but left very soon after I
arrived. That evening we visited the house of a congregation member and chatted
with them. Their son, who was in secondary school, did a lot of translation for
us which was very helpful because they were asking us strange questions that
would have been very difficult to translate into Swahili. For instance, they
asked us about Rihanna’s tattoo and if WWE wrestling is real or acted. Very
strange. After that we headed back to the hotel for the night.
We had originally planned to catch a 6 or 6:30 AM bus out of
Dodoma back to Morogoro so that we could be back to school probably around 11.
That way we’d only miss a half day, and because we knew in advance, we had left
work with one of the other teachers who had volunteered to assign it to the
classes we would miss for us. However, the pastor asked us if we would meet the preschoolers
the next morning. We knew that would set us back a few hours in the day, so we
figured out if we could and decided that it would be ok. It’s really impolite to say
no, and we made sure it would be very fast, meet the kids and the teacher and
that’s it. The next morning we were there at about 7:50. Just the teacher and
one or two students were there. Over the next 20 minutes they trickled in;
while we waited, she showed us some of their work. It was pretty cute to see
their practice attempts of making their letters. Most of them were very shy around us and afraid to asnwer if we asked questions. After a picture of the kids
and a quick cup of tea because again it’s impolite to say no, we headed off to
the bus station and back home. We arrived at around 12:30-1pm. I ended up
missing two more classes than originally planned, but all in all it worked out ok.
I had meant to post this as soon as I could after returning,
but here it’s almost been a week already! This week actually went by pretty normally, but things always are off when you miss a day, especially when you missed a day,
but everyone else didn’t. Everyday felt like a race to get caught back up. We're meeting more with Class VII too now; I have to go to school early on Tuesday's and stay late on Wednesday's to do extra science with them. Next week we’ll do our first set of
monthly tests. They’re mostly short, except for Class VII, but at least it’ll
give an idea of whether or not the students are retaining the information. This week
will be pretty quiet, or at least it should be. After all this travelling,
getting a weekend home was so nice, and I’m really excited for a quiet, normal
week. Once March hits, I’m afraid my last few weeks here will be a whirlwind,
and then it will be over.
I hope all is well and that everyone is staying warm!
God bless,
Kjirstin
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