Whithersoever thou goest

Going to church on Sunday is a bit of an effort. It means taking a dala dala/”costa” bus to Arusha for about an hour. This morning, after getting on and standing for a bit, I was able to take a vacated chair rather soon, one single seat on the left side of the aisle. I’m thinking that it is good for me to be getting on the bus before the village Tengeru; lots of people get on there. Soon, we had double wide people standing in the aisle, so people from the back getting out had to somehow squeeze between people, pressing everyone to the windows. One of the young women standing next to me in the aisle, asked me in lovely English, “Can you help me?” holding her purse and bag out. Of course, I’m willing. So, this time, I was the stranger holding the purse of a stranger (see post for 2023.09.10). On the bus was an audio system and screen that played Swahili gospel music. So, with all the people dressed up for church, there is music to get people in the mood. (Though, I’ve always wondered about worship music being background music!)

It took over an hour with all the stops, so I arrived just as The Arusha Community
Church was getting started. The Korean couple did a lovely job leading the worship, an American presided over the worship, and a Tanzanian woman preached. The majority are Africans, yet there are clearly others from global contexts, Asians, South Asians, and European descent folk.

I wasn’t quite sure where I would catch the coaster bus back, but I had a general sense of what might work. It does mean walking across some busy roads. One tip is to be downside of the traffic stream from a Tanzanian crossing the street! On the way back, I found the crosswalks, but there is no obligation to stop for pedestrians. Fortunately, one stopped, but then there is no guarantee that the driver coming the other direction will stop, so I could be in the middle of the road waiting to cross the other half of the road (a skill I learned in Pakistan). The last crosswalk actually had a stoplight and crosswalk signal. Though, the Tanzanians did not wait for the signal to cross. I found the area where the “conductors” are doing their hustle to get riders onto their van/bus, and I got on a nice coaster bus, sitting next to a mama with two small and very well behaved children on her lap.

When I got off the bus, I met an elder woman walking up to the gate with a heavy shopping bag in hand. I offered to help her carry the bag, and she asked if I was sure, because the bag was heavy. I was game. So, I walked with her up to her home on campus, and we chatted. I met, Mama Pray, the nurse director on campus. She is also a widow with one adult daughter.

What was lovely was the connection! I’m looking forward to tea times with her, practicing my Kiswahili. However, the other thing that is encouraging for me is that I’m in malaria land, and I’m in a part of this country where I didn’t know the local medical resources are. Now, I can check in with Mama Pray! What a providential meeting at the gate!

Finally, for those who “met” Joseph in post 2023.09.08 and 2023.08.31 (who got my WIFI set up), the wonderful news is that he has a job interview next week for a government job. Please join us in praying for a “fair” interview, one where there is not a nepotistic-shoe-in candidate, where he doesn’t even have a chance to shine. So, pray that Joseph can have a fair chance to be evaluated with his training, skills, experience, hardworking temperament, and wonderful spirit. Lord, have mercy.

Mungu akubariki? (God bless you!)

Saturdays are filled with the 30-minute-one-way grocery shopping walk, then laundry by hand facilitated by my sieve bucket system (see post on 2023.09.02), and more cleaning. Here are a couple pictures from my walk to the grocery store.

A serious army of ants on the march!

A flower growing garden on the side of the road and the kiosk for the best bakery in the area in the background

When I walk to the store, there is a demoralizing aspect of seeing a lot of plastic trash on the side of the road. I hope that Tanzania—which has banned plastic shopping bags in the entire country—would soon introduce a deposit requirement and recycling incentive on plastic bottles, which is the majority of the litter. On the walk back, I actually saw a ditch clean-up crew. I thanked them profusely!

Toward the end of the day, I received a text from Thomas, who teaches Hebrew and Old Testament at TUMA. He did his master’s degree at VID Specialized University, my PhD alma mater, and studied under my doctor father/research supervisor, Knut Holter, and Knut introduced us via email. Thomas and his son were in the area checking their corn fields in the area, and he said that he could stop by to greet me. So, I prepared some tea and brought out my shortbread cookies I bought for such visitors. I had a lovely visit and was able to meet his firstborn son, Alpha. Yes, the Alpha male, who loved the shortbread cookies.

In the evening, the power went out, so I jury rigged a rake with stuff I’ve found. It works fine for leaves, so it will suffice until I can find a better one to buy—as I haven’t seen one yet.

The broken broom and repurposed broom handle

A snail shell found with the test of the rake (with the lip balm for scale)

Mungu akubariki? (God bless you!)

On Friday, working from home, I spent a good part of the day responding to SIKT, The Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research, which is the vetting authority to review research projects to make sure they align with the ethical standards in Norway. I had submitted my project for review when I was in Norway and received a prompt response with how to revise my submission criteria but also a requirement that I submit the questions for the anonymous paper surveys I will use.

If you are a researcher, you may wonder: “Why do I need to get approval for the collection of anonymous data?” First, I will use informed consent forms with names and signatures, which needs SIKT’s approval of the form. There is a lot of information on the form that needs to be clarified with research participants, and reading the form may take longer than actually completing the draft survey! Second, some academic publishers need to have their litigious butts covered, and they need to know that all information from research participants was collected with informed consent. However, the consent forms need to be anonymous by Norwegian research standards. So, on a previous project, I actually presented copies of the consent forms with blackened out names to the publisher! However, I demonstrated to the publisher that I’ve met the ethical requirements, so they won’t be sued by any research participant. So, for the sake of publishing, I’m being very thorough on the front end, because it will be impossible to fix at the end.

The main problem for me is that SIKT wanted the survey questions. I originally submitted a statement that I can’t submit the questions now, because they are dependent upon the lessons that will be collaboratively developed with Maasai pedagogy partners according to core values and learning outcomes developed by Maasai stakeholders. It can’t be a participatory project if I do all this development by myself (which would be much easier, but I’m not Maasai)! Yes, they want the cart before the horse.

So, I developed a DRAFT survey that demonstrated sample content of what the survey could be like, based heavily upon a UNESCO developed document for secondary schools in East Africa, “Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Simple Guide to Schools in Africa” (2019). The draft survey of 20 total questions also includes some biblical content from Genesis 1 and 2 (multiple choice) and a Likert Scale section to get responses about current “affective” (feelings) on related content. Part of the lessons will include the issue of climate anxiety (“I am very worried about the future because of the problems resulting from climate change.”) and the hope we have as people of faith in Christ “that I can made a difference, empowered by the Holy Spirit to participate in God’s renewal and re-creation of the world.”

So, we’ll see if I satisfy the Norwegians/SIKT. Yet, you may wonder, why don’t I just want for approval from SIKT until the survey is collaboratively developed?

The hope is that I can secure approval from SIKT, because I also have to get authorization from the Tanzanian research authorities, COSTECH, which also is in process. It would be helpful to say that the ethical review has been endorsed by both the European Commission (through the ethics section of the grant proposal review) and the Norwegian research authorities.

So, if you are wondering what I’m doing these days, this research approval journey is part of it.

At the end of the workday, I typically take a walk around campus before the sun goes down. Here’s a lovely view of a bottlebrush tree on campus in full bloom!

Mungu akubariki? (God bless you!)

I was able to eat dinner and do dishes without being interrupted by the power going out tonight!

Yesterday and today were on opposite ends of the spectrum of people interactions for me.

Yesterday morning, I took a “costa” bus to Arusha. The trips seem to start off with the new people—including me—coming on board standing until people get off. The narrow aisle in a crowded bus means people squeezing by to get off. Then, we get to take an open seat. I sat down next to a young mama and her 4-ish-year-old adorable boy on her lap. We shared a few words in Kiswahili, but it didn’t go on beyond my language limitations. Yes, the boy called me, “mzungu,” white person, which is not uncommon, and not just by children. So, I told him my name was “Mama Anya.”

I made it to the office of TAA Finance to visit my former student, Liz, who is co-founder of this civil society organization.

Liz and me at the TAA Finance office

As they are just getting off the ground, Liz is willing to be my research assistant on a part-time, hourly and mostly project basis, for some additional income. Thus, she isn’t dependent upon the organization when they haven’t built up their revenue stream to a sustainable level yet.

Liz was one of my former Form 3 (9^th grade equivalent) biology students at the MaaSae Girls Lutheran Secondary School. We’ve kept in touch, and I last saw her in February 2020, before Covid hit hard. I would consider that she was one of the top 3 or so students in biology, but she also had a sense of agency that isn’t common for Maasai girls who have grown up in the rural areas where patriarchy is strong. I also taught her basic computer skills. Now, she has professional capacity for all her business and financial accounting programs!

We had lunch with the guy from Canada, Jerome, who is trying to set up a small scale, appropriate technology machinery company to make hay bales. The machine not only makes bales that retains food value of the hay, but it can also be income generating as an itinerant baler and make bales that can be sold. I’m sold on the business model. And Jerome is sold on Liz’s business skills that can help him navigate the bureaucracy that hinders entrepreneurship Tanzania—especially by expatriates. Here’s his baler at work in Kenya.

I did get to overview my project with Liz and discuss the description of how I saw her role in this project. What is so Providential is that she has the skills to manage the hiring, taxes, and government regulations for the four future co-curriculum developers/lesson plan writers. Being trilingual in Kiswahili, Kimaasai, and English, she is a great asset to this project. She also drives, and she is willing to have a few trips where I would reimburse her per kilometer at the rate that covers fuel and cost of ownership. I know she drives well, as I arranged for her to help me stop by the largest supermarket in town to get some things that I couldn’t find locally and take me back to the university. Then, I wouldn’t have to navigate the costa bus back home with a big, heavy bag. So, she is huge blessing to this project.

Today, I worked from home. The only words I spoke were greetings to the few people that I passed after work when I took a walk at the end of the workday and before the sun went down. Working from home means that I am close to my teapot and a bathroom that I know has toilet paper, and I get to wear shorts! Skirts are required on campus, so it is nice to be at home. It seems that Covid prepared me to be comfortable with solitary days.

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you!)

Today, I took my first solo dala dala ride from the bus stand across the road from Tumaini University Makumira (TUMa). I started chatting in my basic Kiswahili with two young men in their 20s who had their Bible’s with them. Yes, we were all going to church. I wanted to get into a larger “costa” (from the Toyota Coaster bus model, with about 30 seats, but more passengers can stand in the aisle), but when a dala dala (van) came, they welcomed me in.

Over the next 40 minutes and many stops, people got on and off this informal quasi “public” transportation. There is no municipal bus service that I know of. Everything is privately owned. The “conductor” whistles to get attention–or the driver honks the horn–for any potential passengers. The goal is to get as many people in the van. The highest number this morning was 27, though 3 were children on laps. Fortunately, I was usually by a window, so there was some fresh air.

Dala dalas aren’t my favorite way to travel, as besides the discomfort of being squished in to a small seat, they aren’t very safe. Seat belts are unheard of as they weave in and out of traffic. However, they are interesting for observing the stuff of life. One time, a dad passed a 2-ish-year-old child to the mother, but before grabbing the child, the mother plops her purse on the lap of the stranger next to her, a young man in his 20’s, without asking! He just held her purse until they were getting off, when he handed it back. Where in the world would you have a stranger next to you hold your purse?

My 40-minute van ride cost me 700 Tanzanian shillings or 28 cents.

I arrived early at the Arusha Community Church, as I wanted to make sure I had enough time. I was told that it could take longer on the dala dala than it actually did, probably because this was a slower Sunday morning. So, I sat and read a Bible that was on the chair. Soon, a woman introduced herself. She is on the ministry team. There is no professional staff at this church, so it is all volunteer led. She heard that I am a good preacher, and asked if I’d be willing to preach. There are a few people who have actually heard me preach, but 20 years ago! I must have made an impression, or perhaps they are desperate. Yet, thanks to my time this past year at Wartburg Theological Seminary, I believe I am better equipped to preach the gospel, thanks to great preaching modeled by my Wartburg colleagues and some really insightful information from the new preaching professor. She really is inspiring. I now check my sermon preparations with her primary evaluation criteria, “Did Jesus have to die for this sermon?”

I had made plans to talk with Erwin and Angelika after church over lunch. Both of them have been in Tanzania for around 40 years or so. Erwin is director of the Tanzanian branch of ECHOcommunity.org, an environmental agricultural NGO (and prior to that Heifer International), and Angelika has lived with the Maasai as nurse, midwife, public health educator, and started an elementary school deep in Maasai land and orphanage in Arusha, and she knows the culture and Maasai spirituality so well. We were able to discuss this project, and they shared from their wisdom, experience, and networks. I am an informed “outsider” with limited experience compared to these 40-year veterans, and often conversations start trying to figure out how much I know about the Maasai. I am always learning, but I usually am able to bring the conversation into a meaningful depth rather quickly, and then get to the stuff that is strategic as I frame this project at the beginning.

One of the others at lunch was a Canadian that knows Erwin. He offered to drive me to the other side of town to catch a dala dala that would go directly east (instead of going into the Arusha bus stand, and then coming out to the same road on a different bus that drives east from Arusha). He ended up offering to drive me to TUMa, which is about 15 km/9 miles farther, as our conversation was interesting. Then, I may have done a bit of networking, as he needs an accountant and my very part-time research assistant is a CPA! Amazingly, they both live in the same village outside Arusha. So tentatively, we will all meet on Tuesday.

The little victory of the day is having an OK dala dala ride. I was a bit unsettled before hand. But it went OK. I still have to learn where the dala dalas for Usa River (east of Arusha) are located in the Arusha bus stand, as it is known to be congested and chaotic. It is a bit ironic that I just was in Norway for 3.5 weeks with one of the best public transportation bus systems I’ve ever experienced and that had the most informative apps to now be in a context where the information is learned by word of mouth. Yet, here, a random young man will even hold a stranger’s purse!

Mungu akubariki? (God bless you!)

Last night, I was able to Skype with my sister, Elenn’, and a bit with my brother-in-law, Steve. When Steve walked into the room with Skyping in progress, he asked, “Where are you now?” It has been a bit of a whirlwind, packing up and leaving Dubuque, Iowa (after a wonderful year at Wartburg Theological Seminary), then abut 6 weeks in Sweden with Anya (and other family guests), then 3.5 weeks in Norway, getting oriented to this research project, and just 2 nights back in Sweden for the final packing until departure to Tanzania.

Saturday mornings seem to be a good time to walk to the grocery store and bakery on the way back. It is the cooler part of the day. It is about 30-minutes of walking on the side of the Arusha-Moshi road, so it is filled with diesel exhaust and dust. This is the worst air I breathe. I thought about wearing an N-95 respirator mask, but culturally it would be a faux pas. There is so much interaction with people along the road, such as the motorcycle (piki piki) taxi guys along the way hoping that I will hire their services, or the mama with a few kids, or the grandma walking the other direction. I greet the people with my basic Kiswahili. It is important to give smiles and lovely to see smiles. Yes, a smile goes a long way! So, I expect that this limited bad air exposure won’t kill me. Fortunately, I have no respiratory issues, like asthma.

I am strategizing my shopping to slowly build up my pantry. I am walking back, carrying everything in my backpack and an extra tote bag or two. So, I actually lifted my rolling shopping cart (the smaller plastic one–which limits the volume of stuff) to see how heavy it is getting. Should I get the small Nutella jar or the one that is bigger and better value. For Nutella, I got the bigger one! And guess what I found this time! A fly swatter!

The authentic swatter next to my jury rigged swatter.

On the way back, there is a wonderful bakery. I stopped and bought more “seed” bread, a loaf of sourdough, and a treat for Swedish fika when I got home.

A chocolate croissant!

Saturday is laundry day. My laundry sieve bucket and plunger agitation (see the 2023.09.02 post) system works rather well. I have more laundry with a bed sheet, so I need to expand my clothesline.

Saturday is also getting things cleaned up. I scraped paint drips and the evidence that painter’s tape is not used here, then I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed the tub. It isn’t still what I’d like, but it is tolerable now.

As I was thinking about dinner, the power went out. So, Nutella and Marie Biscuits were enough to tide me over. I’m becoming a fan of a USB goose-necked desk lamp that Anya passed onto me. I can plug it into a power bank and read with some descent light!

I’d better get this posted before the power goes out again!

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you!)

The router issue was solved! Yes, Joseph reconfigured the router so that it could bypass the SIM that was required in the standard settings. I was not sure it was going to work, but he did it! Hallelujah!

He was grateful for the opportunity to do something interesting and solve a problem with his training and internship experience. I was thrilled to have WIFI, so now I can download photos from my phone for this blog! It was a mutual blessing as I thanked Joseph, honoring his time with an appropriate payment, and I have WIFI!

Joseph really has a great spirit and not only demonstrated his competence, but was kind and positive throughout the challenge. Please join me in praying for a job for Joseph in IT.

I was typing an email this morning, but I was interrupted by a “mammoth wasp” that flew by me in the house. However, I have not be able to find a fly swatter in the three “supermarkets” that I’ve visited in this area. But necessity is the mother of invention.

My DYI flyswatter!

This flyswatter is compiled from a Swedish plastic sink scoop, as sink garbage disposals are rather rare in Sweden. However, the slits should let some air through. And the stick is one of my “rods” that I use to play the drums, with half the small dowels on the back side and half on the front to secure the plastic scoop. It worked to swat the wasp!

I was able to Skype with my sister, Elenn’, last night. What a gift to connect via video chat. I talked about the fact that, surprising to me, I have not been able to readily find a flyswatter. She empathized from her 19 years in Pakistan. She said that once after a home assignment in the USA, she bought 40 flyswatters to bring back to the hospital!

I did a bit of rearranging after work–now that I have a WIFI router–and a 3 meter ethernet cable that I had purchased with the router. Now with a bookshelf to my left and a little deeper table for a desk, I’m creating a more functional workspace with what is in this house.

Saturday is grocery shopping, so off to bed to get up for 30-minute one-way walk around 7:30 (or so) to the ATM and store while the temperatures are cooler.

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you!)

While I worked on getting things done, revisions, reading, networking, I had commissioned Joseph (See the post from 8.31 below, the younger brother of my teaching colleague, Daniel, with whom I taught at the MaaSae Girls Lutheran Secondary School) to go to Arusha and buy a WIFI router for me. He graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in ITC, and he was eager to help out. (He currently is looking for a job, so all pray for a job for Joseph! He is a hard working guy with a good, positive spirit!) I thought this would be mutually beneficial. I have an ethernet cable in my house, so I wanted a router that had an ethernet plug in, like I’ve had elsewhere. I learned online, that many routers work by SIM, which is a great way to get Internet access to people where there isn’t the wiring.

I did take a break when the colobus monkeys were grunting to each other! I discovered about 8 monkeys in the trees on the south side of my house.

This is taken with a smartphone from my front porch!

Their jumping from limb to limb is wonderful to see the long white fur catch the air. Yes, things are different here as monkey grunting distracts me from my work mode.

Back to the WIFI router. Joseph diligently returned. This WIFI router is different! It requires a SIM card! But I can plug in my ethernet cable to the router, then connect the router to my laptop, and I can access the set up website (so, there is connectivity), and while my laptop recognizes the connection, it says “no internet.” What?!? The router must have a SIM card! I did try it with my phone SIM card, and yes, then I had Internet. But, if I have an ethernet cable with my rent, why pay for WIFI just because the router needs a SIM card?

Joseph believes he can work on the configuration to bypass the SIM card, and he said he did this kind of thing when he was doing an internship (unpaid) here at TUMa. So, providentially, he is connected with the IT department folks here. He’ll come by tomorrow and confer with the IT head tomorrow. I hope it works. Yes, I will survive without WIFI, but it means eating up data on my phone for tasks that required phone activation (Swedish authentication, which doesn’t seem to work due to a low bandwidth), picture download from my iPhone, and just the convenience of having a Internet access in other parts of the house. I’m also thinking when friends come, it would be great to have WIFI for others without passing the 1 ethernet cable around–if they brought a laptop, as their smartphones can’t connect.

Now, if you happen to be a techie and have tips for me in how to increase my capacity with my devices, just let me know!

I think the power went out 3 times today. Fortunately, not when I was presenting a draft of a paper in my Norwegian-African research group. I’m getting the hang of having a flashlight on my when the power goes down. I try to keep my phone plugged in when I’m at my desk, to keep it fully charged. But tonight, the power went out, and I realized that my phone would not work. I bought some vouchers to upload to my phone, but there is a new bundle thing that needs to either uploaded with more money (for Internet/data with half a dozen options in addition to some customizing plans) or turned off. However, the text that told me how to turn the bundle off was not accurate to the options on the screen I was to access. And I can’t buy a new bundle, because there is no credit card option. I have to get a Mpesa account–like Venmo/Zelle (for the Americans), Vipps (for the Norwegians), and Swish (for the Swedes). So, I was able to respond to an SMS from my answer-to-prayer-former-colleague Daniel only when the power came back on and I could WhatsApp message him online. Thus, for a while there, I was left incommunicado. In case of emergency, I would have to take my flashlight and walk to a neighbor and ask for help. I know one of the teachers here who is a neighbor, but I just don’t know which house yet.

So, I’m re-centering on a peace that passes all understanding through listening to some instrumental hymns and praise songs–since I have Internet access when the power is on. I also made sure I did my daily Duolingo language lesson and washed the dishes (to boil water, as I only have cold water in the kitchen sink).

I’ll probably head to bed early. Last night, there were dogs fighting outside. The barking–and some horrible whimpering–went on for a long time. I don’t know the neighborhood yet (not even which house is the one for the guy I know), but I sense there are some non-pet dogs that wander the community. I’m guessing people put up with them, because they eat up any scraps that get tossed out and help keep the rodent population down. I’m just guessing.

Sorry, no pictures today, as I didn’t go to the library to download pictures from my phone. I worked on the paper for the presentation.

Mungu akubariki! (God bless you!)

The sun rises every day at 6:30 am and sets every day at 6:30 pm, as I’m located just 3 degrees south of the equator. This Sunday, I was awaken at 6:30 am by monkeys chasing each other on the corrugated tin roof. Getting up, I heard and saw them run around, checking out my new clothesline I put up the day before. I wonder what this means for my laundry?!? Will monkeys decide to grab items that are close to the tree? I’d better leave some space. (For those concerned about the tree branch, I have half a dozen sticks between the rope and the tree’s bark to not impede the work of the xylem and phloem. The xylem distributes water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the leaves upward throughout the tree. The phloem carries food downward from the leaves to the roots.)

These are blue monkey, the third species of monkeys on campus that I’ve seen since arrival.

Blue monkey on the pink clothesline

Later, one monkey was checking me out through the window. (Cleaning windows comes after cleaning out the kitchen and room cupboards. I bought vinegar for this very purpose, using a home recipe with vinegar and a smidge of dish soap in water.)

After the morning’s monkeys, I was able to catch a ride to the Arusha Community Church, the English language worship. My driver/host was Randy Stubbs, a former ELCA missionary that has continued on here since 2006 and has done an amazing job of building up a next to nothing music program into a flourishing Cultural Arts Center, with a performance center, 19 employees, and a small museum. The musicians and dancers are now providing cultural arts at special events, like the recent visit of the President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was on campus just days before I arrived for the opening of the new science buildings at Tumaini University Makumira (TUMa).

Tumaini University Makumira (TUMa), my home now.

It was lovely to worship with Randy’s wonderful piano playing and his oldest daughter that I first met in 2011 when she was a teenager, now is a gifted worship leader (with two adorable twin daughters). There were some people who remembered me: the woman who taught the preschool where Anya attended twice a week and stayed with her daughters at their home until Eric was done working at Heifer International; and his former colleague at Heifer, who remembered Eric’s friendship and rich Bible studies together; and some I knew from the extended missionary community, and some who were names or networks I knew about but hadn’t known personally.

One providential conversation was with one of the local Roman Catholic priests from the Spiritan Brother order. All the Spiritan brothers that I’ve met are amazing! He introduced me to a recent Maasai civil society organization, the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance and connected me with a recent newsletter.

https://maryknollogc.org/resources/other/maasai-international-solidarity-alliance-misa-newsletter-september-2023

This newsletter is connected to my project in a tangential way, but it would take too long to describe tonight. So, it helps to identify the bigger picture of where I am.

Mungu akubariki. (God bless you.)