Heading to Dodoma Again!

December 14, 2011
HABARI!!
After many months of waiting and endless e-mails, our plans are 90% complete for a Dodoma departure in early January! This time our volunteering will be 6 miles north west of town in a little village named Msalato.
We are excited and very eager to begin this second mission with the Anglican Church of Tanzania.  We will be housed on the campus of Msalato Theological College which is affiliated with St. John's University in Dodoma, TZ.  The seminary houses around 90 to 100 seminary students with some day students coming for lay ministry and teaching certifications as well as English classes.  The college is partially supported by Episcopal churches in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia as well as the Anglican Central Diocese of Tanzania.  Our duties will consist of  teaching English listening skills as well as oral reading and silent comprehension skills.  This will be very similar to what I did in my teaching profession with younger students.
In addition, David  may work at St. John's with the Special Education Master's program he wrote before we left in February of 2010.
If you wish to know more about Msalato Theological College try these web sites:
http://www.msalato.com/
http://www.mccannmission.com/  

These pictures show the seminary as of January,  2010.

Check us out after mid January, 2012.

Blessings

Charlotte and David Reid

   

Returning Home

I write this blog with a very sad heart today because we will be returning to Colorado near the end of this month. Our decision to return was not easy but necessary.  Our stay here has richly blessed us with many wonderful memories of the Tanzanian people and the countryside. 
In January and December I wrote about the desire to serve. David and I still feel very committed to this idea and believe with all our hearts that we still can make a difference here in Africa. But over the last two months several events have occurred that have altered our  abilities to continue here for this next semester.  One, there were two sudden deaths in David's immediate family over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. He needs to return home to touch base and help with family matters. Two, we  realized that my teaching at Msalato Seminary this February would demand a real car due to the terrible roads and we were not able to secure funding to buy or lease one here. So with a heavy heart we return home to regroup and decide how to secure the money for our trip back and the car. In the meantime we are posting these pictures from our first and last trip to a wildlife preserve near Dodoma.  Hope you enjoy them.
Please look for our blog again in October of 2010.  Hopefully by that time we will have arrived back in Tanzania.

On the way to the park with  Benedict Hodrum, the Director of Planning for St. John's University.

 Elephants were everywhere in the park.

They are smaller they told us than some but it was great to watch them. 

On our second day in the park we went on a seldom used road and found three lions and a set of cubs that were about a 1/4 of a mile away in the brush.  There were vultures over head so we knew the female lions had just killed something big or had just eaten and were resting.  I took all the lion pictures from our car.  Just a normal car right out of the window in the front seat.  No zoom lense either.  Count the feet!Baby lion cub but away from mom!

David loved the hippos in the park because they did not move just breathe.

The Giraffes were wonderful.  So graceful and yet so big.  It was hard to see them from a distance because they appeared like trees and blended into the landscape.

We had a great time and look forward to going to another park when we return, maybe even the crater up north.  Hope we can continue this blog later in the fall.  God bless you all who followed us and gave us your support, prayers and money.  Charlotte and David Reid, February 18, 2010.

January 20th, 2010
Below is a journal entry I made while traveling back to Dodoma from Christmas break. Hope you enjoy it!

Today on my way to DC I had somewhat of a revelation. I know it may sound trite
but “life is all about serving .”  You can choose to serve yourself or to serve others.

As I was waiting in Denver to catch my first of three connections to Dar a CNN show was blaring about the world’s reaction to Haiti’s troubles. People were texting, twittering, and calling in about their problems here in the US and in Haiti. Comments ranged from sorrowful for having little money to bitter that their financial woes had not been solved. But all expressed concern and regret that Haiti was in dire need of aide.
It reminded me that as a species we do care about most living creatures. ( Of course for myself I must rule out snakes and spiders.) We show great concern when cruelty is done to animals, when our environment is turning up side down, when we see injustice, genocide, religious and political scandal. We even care about historical injustices and past wars. What I realized on my way back to my adopted home of Dodoma is that “reacting” to these concerns is the key to life. You see, I can care but do I act on the caring? Do I give time or money? Do I give something from myself?
To say that I care is only the first step. To say I can do is the second step. And to say I will serve is the third and final step. Now I don’t want anyone to confuse serving as only the act of working. As the hands and feet of Christ’s body we can do more than physically serve him. Serving comes in many different modes such as giving our time for a national drive, collecting used clothing, books, toys, or food for the needy around the world. Organizing awareness in our communities for the homeless, the poor, the sick, the mentally ill, or those in need of medical attention. Serving takes many forms …one just needs to ask: where is the need that they may serve and take that final step. Tonight as I listen to the news I know we have many places and people to serve. There are disasters, poverty, bombings, conflicts and misery all around us. Unfortunately the choices are endless.
I know personally how this works you see. I used to say I cared. That was it.. nothing more. I would watch TV news and cry or hear about others volunteering and wonder, “How do they do that?” But nothing more did I do. Today, I am sitting on a plane waiting for my connector flight to Zurich where I board another plane to Kenya and on to Tanzania. Three years ago with retirement in front of us, my husband and I would never have dreamed we would be volunteering in Africa. What a wonderful difference God can make in ones life. All we need to do is just open up and say,” Yes I will Lord. Hear am I.”
Tonight I am returning to serve, to care and to love my fellow sisters and brothers of Tanzania. We are all one family under God. One heat beat living on this great earth!
If you ever wondered how you would serve don’t ..just say in prayer, “ Here I am Lord” and he will lead you!
PS: I wish to add a footnote here. A special thanks goes out to all my ELC fellow members who donated so generously to my collection basket while I was home. (Over 380.00 dollars) An additional big thank you to a special caring individual who donated $200.00 one Sunday morning. God bless you Michelle. And last a wonderful and grateful thank you to Christine and Jeremy for their work in collecting all types of balls and games for a primary government school we have adopted in Dodoma. Stay tuned for pictures! Last but not least a grateful praise God for the council’s pledge of money coming in the Spring which will be used as a scholarship fund for Msalato Seminary students. Thanks to all of you I go back with a warm heart and a renewed belief in the goodness of God’s children.
In Christ,
Charlotte Reid

The Real Meaning of Christmas (Prepared Dec 27th for Dodoma Mission Blog)

I am a little late getting this in this blog but got busy and unfortunately had another death in the family, this one my oldest brother.  It came as a shock as my nephew, his son, just died only three weeks ago.  I am still reeling from these events, but here goes the original blog I had already drafted:

Charlotte has written her impressions about Christmas this year on the Dodoma Mission Blog.  She is in Colorado visiting our son and completing a number of important tasks that will help St John's University, our living conditions in the concrete bunker, and raise funds to suppliment our projects in the villages near campus.  I stayed in Tanzania because of the cost and someone had to teach her classes while she is gone.  Almost all of the support groups here are funded by an external agency. We are here on our own dime, so to speak, with no help period.  She hopes to obtain fundng for both our basic needs and for St John's as well as our school projects.

My impression of Christmas this year involved traveling to Bayamoyo on the eastern coast of Tanzania near Dar es Salaam.  I was excited about the trip for many reasons.  Dar es Salaam actually has a relatively new shopping center similiar to those in most U.S. cities.  It was good to be able to see modern stores with lots of merchandise. My big find was a business level black and white laser printer that is also a scanner, and photocopier.  It was on sale and actually cost about what it would when not on sale in the U.S.  Dodoma businesses are often dominated by foreigners who work together to keep prices high and keep out competition.  The same printer if available in Dodoma, would cost 30% more. Other purchases were for the trip up the coast to Bayamoyo including a gift for a name exchange between those traveling together to Bayamoyo.

Bayamoyo is a small sleepy town that reminds me of Myrtle and Virginia Beach where we went in the late 1950s and early 60s in the summers.  We stayed right on the beach (No high risers to block the view.)  Cost was only 50.00 per night which included breakfast. Down the road is the oldest Anglican Church in Tanzania. It has the distinct honor of housing the mummified body of David Livingston while waiting to be taken to Zanzibar for burial in 1876.  We enjoyed several meals in the open outdoor restaurants and local historical tours including the slave market, talk about man's inhumanity to man!

On Christmas Day, Dr. Carr, the Dean of Humanities and Education at St John's University had been invited by a former theology student to present the sermon at the little Anglican Church I previously mentioned.  Paul (Another faculty member St. John's) and I walked down the road from our place of lodging to the church.  As we were walking along, a tall slender man passed us and I realized he was a Maasai.  It seemed odd to see everyone else dressed more western style and this individual looked like the pictures in a travel brochure from the Serengeti.  Paul spoke to him in Swahili, greeting him as he traveled on.  Once at the church I observed that men sit on one side and the women on the other.  Lots of children dressed in whatever they had that was Sunday best.  The church was small, maybe holding about 100 people.

Dr. Carr gave an important message.  He mentioned around the world in many countries children were opening lots of presents, but may be missing the real meaning of Christmas.  Having a lot of material things and not acknowledging the spiritual side will leave you unsatisfied.  His message was right on for this congregation. I doubt many, if any presents were opened on Christmas morning at this beach church because just behind the beach facade is the extreme poverty that exists in Africa.  They sang many classic Christmas songs, reminded me of my own church on Christmas eve.  When it became time to give an offering everyone filed to the front to give their donation.  Paul and I gave 20,000 Shillings (about 15.00 USD) each and the group seemed to gasp at the amount.  Think of the irony of that.  We never gave it a second thought that the amount was more than many made for two weeks work.  After church I felt like I had gotten a sore hand from shaking everyone's hand including the children who seemed honored that this old white man smiled at them and bent down to their level.  The whole experience had a reminding effect on what is important about Christmas.

Enough of the serious side.  We had several humorious events occur.  First, while eating at the open air restaurant on the beach the second night, two large gray furry things fell from the thatched roof directly onto the floor.  Rats!  The one who had a soft landng ran under a table of six people who demonstrated their athletic skills by fleeing.  I turned to the bartender near by and and said what are you going to do about it?  He leisurely got a broom and swept the fatally wounded one outside and checked under the table of six, then went back to bartending.  Hmmm..,does this happen often?

Other incidents include going to a posh restaurant 18,000 Tsh (13.00 USD) for Christmas dinner.  That was the easy part.  At the gate the guard tried to charge us 7,000 Tsh each to enter, or 35,000 Tsh total.  After an intense discussion between Christine and the guard in Swahili,  he let us in free.  What I noticed was the age that started for adults, five years old.  I don't care how much growth hormone is put in American cattle feed, no child even in America looks like an adult at five years, maybe a rip off?

The next day when I paid up, the clerk took out a receipt book, put in a carbon paper and wrote me out a receipt, vintage 1950s.  Not a computer in sight.  On the way back we took a 75 mile short cut on dirt roads to save some mileage and time. Christine is an excellent dirt driver.  She averaged 55-60 miles an hour on the dirt roads.  We would come up on a small village and people would scramble up the banks to get out of the road.  Later, literally in the middle of nowhere, we came upon several men putting interlocking bricks on the short street (using the term loosely)  in the middle of the village. The had the road blocked off.  Christine and two of the guys had another of those pay us to enter talks like the guard at the posh restaurant.  This was in Swahili, but I could tell Christine was not winning.  They wanted 5,000Tsh to cross their toll or troll road.  Christine backs up and puts it in four wheel drive and goes up the bank onto the path in front of the huts and dukas and drove through their "front yards" and back down the bank past where the brick were being laid.  The look on the two guys faces was shock.

The rest of the trip was uneventful to Dodoma.  As I think back, Paul and Christine balanced the importance of Christmas and yet gave their children presents.  The two children know what was important about Christmas because they would tell you when asked.  Enough for this time.

Home Again and Back

Today is Christmas and I find myself in Colorado and David is in Dar es Salaam.  A decision was made for me to fly back and acquire a new computer plus of course to visit family and friends.  It has been an unusual Christmas for me and for David.  We usually spend major holidays together but with one son in Japan and our oldest in Colorado it meant a world wide Christmas this year!  It is nice to be home and to see my church family and my son and his wife.  But it has created in me a different view of the world I came from to the world I really belong. So here are some thoughts just rambling around in my head...enjoy and please comment if you can.

December 24, 2009

Denver …Tanzania… Reflections
I went to the Christmas Eve Candle Light service tonight. The lights, the lighted tree, the candles, the carols, the pastor’s message all seemed to be perfectly fitting into that holy space on this the holiest of nights. But the images in my mind tonight were not of the wonderful snow, or the candles or the smiling faces I see around me. The images I see are of a place far from here. One that is full of poverty and desperation but at the same time full of hope and faith. The images I see are of Tanzania.
Everywhere I look tonight my mind shifts me back to a place where little is more, to have is to give, and to receive is a blessing. This is country where daily life is a struggle for all. Where water is obtained by carrying it on ones head not by turning on a faucet. Where traveling to work is by foot, by bike or local bus not by personal car. When it is time to do your laundry it is done by hand not by machines.  Reading at night is by candle or flashlight not by electricity.  Learning is done with a piece of chalk and board not by textbooks, pencils, crayons and paper.  Cooking is often done over a charcoal pot in the middle of a room rather than on a stove and food is bought daily rather than stored in a refrigerator.  Trash is burned  in a pit in your backyard rather than gathered up by garbage collectors.  Plastic bags are saved and washed instead of thrown away and coke comes in glass bottles rather than cans. Most roads are dirt and not maintained rather than paved with four to six lanes..traveling is only done by car when needed..not for a pleasure drive on Sundays.
The differences are so great from this wonderful country of plenty to Tanzania that is has created in me a sense of have and have not mentality. I seem at times to be a state of unequal balance trying hard to juggle the reality of Tanzania and reality of Colorado.
For example, my head spins when I enter a supermarket. Too overwhelmed by all the choices I often leave with little I came for. And when I do buy it is often the items I would select in the open air markets back in Tanzania.

Starved for western entertainment I have spent hours looking at movies to buy or rent. I have not done well in this area, usually only buying movies to share with others back in Dodoma.
Armed with a shopping list from Tanzania friends I walk among the isles of department stores my brain going into overload until I retreat to the safety of my car. My list is still very long!
The simple fact is that life for us here in the United States is not difficult for a large part of our population. But for the average citizen in Tanzania life is difficult and often not kind. Take Christmas, for most children in Tanzania it will not be one full of presents with decorations on a tree. It is a church event with carols and thanksgiving. Not one of endless presents and expectations of toys. There is little talk of Santa or Father Christmas. Christmas in Tanzania is simple and with family. It is all about the birth of Christ.
Another example is Tanzanians have little disposable income. Over 90% of the population live on less than two hundred dollars a year. And if they do make more it usually goes to their extended family to help out others who are in need. No one is expected to keep their money it goes for the good of the family. As a foreigner in Tanzania I must constantly keep in mind that I can spend more in a week than most people make in three months. I try to be careful about how I shop taking care not to buy too many items at one time. Theft is a problem in Tanzania.

One last example is the Church in Tanzania is not just a place to go on Sundays, but a place for the people to meet and greet, it ties the villages together and creates a place where social events happen through out the week. Being in touch with God is a way of life in Tanzania. Morning prayers and church bells ring out each and everyday at 6:00am and through out the day. Church members join choirs and spend hours every week practicing hymns for a Sunday service. The choirs hold competions and compete for the best choir in their area. They even make CD recordings of their hymns and sell them to make money for their church. It is considered an honor to be part of a church choir.

Writing tonight has helped my head to settle down. I see by the clock it is 6 minutes past midnight. Merry Christmas Evergreen, Merry Christmas Japan and Merry Christmas Tanzania!!

Reflections...Primary School...

Reflections on Teaching...Thanksgiving far from Home...

Chritmas Tree in Front of Apt.(red one)

As I stood in Lecture Hall # 2 watching my class come in for the exam it occurred to me that this scene could be repeated anywhere.  However, it wasn't; it was in Dodoma, Tanzania in a start up Christian university running on far less than is needed. As I walked around the room for test monitoring three lizards greeted me out one of  the windows.  They had  been sunning themselves in the late afternoon sun on a few rocks near by. Now that you would not see in Denver, Colorado even in the summer. Strange I think, here I am on the eastern side of Africa in a dusty town of 350,000, teaching at a small university that hopes to educate students with a Christian foundation in Humanities, Nursing,  Geography, Sciences, and Theology.  In general teaching here is harder but the rewards of getting to know your students are greater.   Most of my students must ride a local bus transportation system which is always breaking down, they have no computers or memory/flash drives and more rely on photo copied notes or hand written notes for studying. (come to think of it so did I when I went to college). More often the class is hot (4:00 pm) with no screens just open windows and most of the time my power point presentation projector will not work correctly. . But with a stroke of good luck and prayers my lectures usually start within 5 to 10 minutes and end on time. 

 Most faculty work 70 plus hours a week, teach very large classes in an effort to offer the students the courses they need to stay on schedule and graduate on time.  The biggest bottleneck now is reliable printers to make master copies of tests, notes, and handouts. 

The photocopy situation is very good as we have several heavy duty copiers that usually do not break down.  Printers are another story!  Also the internet out of Kenya is not always reliable and can be off hours at a time, interfering with faculty and student's research for assignments.  Personally, we use Vodacom, a wireless broadband system.  It is expensive for here, about 45.00 U.S. per month but has unlimited use.  So... as I watched, I thought about the difficult logistics to get the exam ready to give to 130 students.  After they were seated David helped me distribute the exam.  He had to be stern with a couple of students about talking and looking at each others test.  He gave them the option of one of them moving or both of them out the door.  A big problem here in the secondary schoools where these students come from do a "Talk and Chalk" approach because of limited resources.  As a result the study model for students is to memorize the material and write everything they know for each question, often not fully understanding it meaning.  I graded all 130 tests, and believe it or not, they all made at least a passing grade.

This week is Thanksgiving week and its hard  not to think about it.  What we are doing is having a Saturday evening dinner for all of the missionaries and us, plus a few other invited guests, about 20 people all total.  No turkey, though, as they are only available for Christmas here.  Chickens are having to do, plus a pork roast.  Chickens, well, they are not very big, even those we bought at Two Sisters Grocery.  Hopefully there will be enough.  Everyone is bringing a traditional dish fixed the way they prepare it.  Should be fun.  Last night the Carrs had a belated birthday dinner for me and his wife who had a birthday this week.  We had three kinds off pizza, none like the U.S. pizza, but very good!

This week David and I went out to a k-12 village school (see pictures) and we were impressed with the eagerness of the students to learn even though the school had not windows or doors in some cases and 1100 hundred sudents wearing dingy, torn, and too large uniforms in most cases.  The average number of students in Primary was between 60 and 70 per class.  In secondary, about 40-50.  This is a government school, not private.  Private schools have better materials and equipment and teachers are paid more and tend to remain with the school long term.

 It is an understood fact that if someone with a white face visits, they assume you have lots of money to help their school. This is because so many agencies are trying to help Tanzanians in many areas, it gives that impression. The first  thing we said was we are not missionaries, not from an international agency, but just volunteers.  We have no agency supporting us.  We only have at this point services to offer.  Some disappointment but we discussed other ways we could help and it not cost much money.  Visiting classrooms (see pictures) illustrated why it is chalk and talk.

 The students have a cheap notepad they write down everything the teacher puts on the board, often have to repeat the information in unison, yet they are very eager to learn.
 In the English class, Primary level 3, students introduced themselves (10 students picked at random). Their English pronounciation was excellent.  The teacher is doing a good job with viturally nothing to work with!

David has finished writing the Master's in Special Education and it is ready to be reviewed by the various university committees.

 I am sure it will need some amending, but the plan is to send it on to the Tanzanian Ministry of Human Services and Education for hopeful approval. 
The special education course for undergraduates he wrote will be offered in second semester (March 2010).  While an optional course, he hopes he doesn't have 400 students enroll as there is a great deal of interest.

No word yet on our computer and phone.  I can only assume they are gone forever.  Every once in while I get a little sentimental over the loss of my mother's pictures and our oldest son's wedding pictures. But we now back up all our photos and data we type.