Four days later, I’m back in Monduli for another fieldwork site visit at Lendikinya, a village in the rural parts of the Monduli Parish. The focus this day is on confirmation, with lessons written and taught by Rev. Megiroo, the lead pastor of the Parish.
We arrived to hearing the students singing in the church. I love the rural Maasai churches where simple structures provide protection from the intense sun and—later today—a deluge of rain with a powerful windstorm.
The students were well discipline, beyond what I would expect for 4-6th graders. They engaged with a sort of call-and-response fill in the blank as well as eagerly raising hands and standing when called upon to give an answer or comment.
The small groups gathered in tight huddles to read the Bible. I’m sure there was limited oxygen at the core as they were packed so tightly!
During the last lesson—after a lovely lunch with soda (again in glass bottles)—a rainstorm quicky came up upon the church with a corrugated tin roof. The tin sheets were recycled, as you could see the holes left from being nailed down in a previous installation. Rev. Megiroo told me, “If we don’t leave quickly, we’ll be sleeping here tonight!” So, he wrapped up the session quickly. Though, we still had to take the post-lesson survey, which is a key part of this research project. As the rain pelted the tin roof, the research assistant, Joseph, had to gather the students close and yell out the survey questions (in our model of a spoken survey, which works better with the Maasai). The wind forcing open the door and spraying in rain encouraged the students to get closer to Joseph in the front.
When we drove to the church, we precariously drove through 3 dry creek beds. Now with the downpour of rain, they seemed impassable with various amounts of water and sticky, gumbo mud. Amazingly, Rev. Megiroo skillfully drove the 4-wheel drive vehicle through the creek beds and up the other side. I didn’t think the last one was possible!
It was another wonderful day to see the students eagerly engaging the lessons and sharing at the end that these were good lessons with important information for them. In addition, I was pleased to see the evangelist who hosted us. He is a friend from 23 years ago. In fact, he was a good friend of Eric, my late husband. This friendship was part of the impetus to establish the Eric Hanson Memorial Scholarship, which was set up for the district pastor at that time to identify evangelists children for further studies and get them in enrolled in a co-ed Lutheran secondary school in Monduli. Now, I’m also able to get girls enrolled in the MaaSae Girls Lutheran Secondary School. In addition, one is a young woman studying to be a pastor at a Bible college. This is a great way for our family to honor Eric (as we make donations to the scholarship fund instead of giving Christmas and birthday gifts). The scholarship is managed by Operation Bootstrap Africa, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
Another surprise of the day was wonderful food. Most often in Maasailand, I take as little meat as possible, because typically, the meat is chewy, gristle-ly, or connected to huge chunks of fat (though I am trying to be a reducitarian and reduce the consumption of meat, I am glad that I can be an easy guest in Maasailand). However, today, the meat was lean and tender, and the stew sauce was one of the best I’ve had. I praised the cook profusely!
The village church is in the midst of a building project. As funds are raised, they buy more building materials, so building projects can take a decade or more. As I talked with the pastor about the $500 donation as a research site, it seemed good to us that the money goes to support their church building project. That is my primary goal of this project—to be a blessing.
Mikitamayana Engai! / Mungu akubariki! / God bless you!