Just Like That a Month Has Gone!

An interesting, peaceful but very busy week. Church as usual on Sunday. It was a shorter service than usual as the main choirs were away singing at a fundraiser. After church as I was speaking to people a man who was born with albinism approached us, bent over and out of his gumboots pulled an empty tube of SPF60+ sunscreen, seeking donations to buy more.

Albinism is seen in adults who survive childhood without being kidnapped and butchered by witch doctors Well what can you do? The TZS 10,000 is a lot of money for people who may only earn 400,000TZS a month (AU$225 is a very good income) so it was nothing to give him the $6. I saw the same tube later that week sheltering from rain for exactly TZS10,000.

Lunch on Sunday was at Afrilux where I have eaten each Sunday since arriving but this time with Bishop away, I took the pastor of the English Service and his wife to lunch and had, as usual tilapia but baked which had a tomato based sauce on it. Not as good as fried tilapia.

Adram and Roy Sunday lunch

Roasted tilapia

One of a number of albino adults in Musoma

Bishop was away at his village after getting a call from his dad who wanted to see him. He mentioned Monday and Tuesday were public holidays so I started working at home Monday in preparation for the workshop I was presenting at on Thursday and Friday on strategic planning. I rang the Diocesan Secretary about some issues about the workshop as he was translating, only to find out the holidays were Tuesday and Wednesday so off I went. I located what must be the only locksmith in town to get a key cut. Enroute the public reserve was populated by hundreds of Muslims bowed down under large tents in what I understood later to be the beginning of Eid at sunset that night.

Monday flew and before I knew it, the workday was over after 5pm. I walked home and found a hairdresser and had a cut for 3,000 TZS or $2. I left a tip with both the cutter and the woman who massaged my scalp with oil after the cut.

Tuesday and Wednesday were holidays for the Muslim festival of Eid which celebrates the end of Ramadam.I went into the office late morning as Max was working and I needed some assistance from him Lunch was at the Serengeti Resort, a bar that serves food. A muslim man was there with a bottle of red wine and a bottle of coke. He was alone – it was apparent after sometime. I saw something I have never seen before: the Coke was a mixer for the red wine. I saw it with my own eyes!

After work haircut

Key cutting

Eid ceremony

Bishop was back Tuesday and it appears his father is having some health issues he wanted to share with him. Over one of our regular after dinner conversations he mentioned a building the diocese owned which had been vacant for years since his arrival which previously housed a disability program supported by a Dutch NGO. The upshot of that discussion was to arrange a call to the disability program on the western side of Lake Victoria which coordinated 21 disability programs for the Dutch rather than them setting up an office here to see if this program could be kick started again.

After breakfast we had a long conversation with Aggrey from the Karagwe Disability Program. He was confident this program could be supported again by the Dutch and he will arrange an introduction to the new manager there as he has retired.

I had given Bishop an old phone and we spent time this morning putting the Google Fit app on it and showing him how it worked. He is very health conscious and has stopped using sugar since I commeneted on its negatve effects. We decided to walk to church for the 3pm Wednesday service and walking home were caught in a torrential storm. It rained during the service, stopped, we then got to the shoe repair guy on the street outside the cathedral where he had his shoe repaired. It rained there again as we waited so we sheltered under the shoe repairer’s shelter, had a corn on the cob from a young student he knew who sold these for some extra money (TZS 200 = 12 cents!), then made our way to town when it poured again while we were in another shop. After stopping Bishop then found a milk vendor. Street vendors purchase from suppliers and pasteurise it on the street over charcoal stoves. The milk is warm as it is poured into an empty water bottle. TZS 1000/Litre or 65 cents.

Milk for sale

Harvesting storm water

Wet after a rainy walk

When it stopped 30 minutes later we walked across to another store to buy a pillow and the heaviest rain of the day hit with thunder and lightning. The power went off briefly. After about 30 minutes when it eased off we just walked in the rain to the amazement of locals under shelter. Bishop mentioned they are more scared of rain than motor cars.

Shoe repair shop

Corn seller

Note the recycled tyre sole

Fixing Bishop’s shoe

Goat for lunch

Red wine and coke

POLIO

While polio is unknown now in Australia, I do remember at primary school kids with leg irons who had polio in the late 1950s. The evidence of polio here in Tanzania is evident in a number of people I have met who are pastors at the cathedral who still limp or walk with difficulty, all the result of polio in their childhood. All in their forties which suggests polio was still rife here in the 1970s if not later.

The photo above of the shoe repair man is a good story. Afflicted before five with polio, he survived and is now married with children. He had a shoe shine business and in 2019, a visiting Englishman provided capital for him to make sandals as well as repair shoes and keep shining. So the covered area you see is his “shop” and to the left you can see his hand pedal tricycle which gets him around.

The Strategic Planning Workshop

This is the first pressure I have felt since being here. 28 Archdeacons and area deans were gathered to learn about strategic planning. Few had English so I was working through a traslator, Max, the Katibu or Diocesan Secretary. Google Translate has been my friend. It dawned on me Tuesday that my overheads could be duplicated then translated using Google Translate. This assisted greatly as Max was able to refer to the OHP while I had my tablet with the English slides on it.

We managed on day one to get through what components are required in a strategic plan finishing on the process of developing one and a visual of the matrix from vision to tactics which support strategy.

The big surprise of the day was the introductions which were just an icebreaker asking for tem to introduce themsleves, their area of birth, number of siblings and favourite food. The number of siblings was a shock as one after one identified 8, 9, 10, 12 siblings from one mother. One pastor was one of twenty born to one mother. Another was born to his polygamous father’s ninth wife and counted 32 boys. I asked later about the girls and he didn’t know but thought altogether there were over fifty children. His story will be a separate blog.

Day two started with them developing a personal plan to get some practical experience, then we did the SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) and it highlighted the endemic poverty these men come from, their uncertain incomes where $40 is a good income monthly and their need to farm in sometimes harsh environments when drought prevails. However they did well to identify all the components of the SWOT analysis and a good morning from my perspective was accomplished.

After lunch we had the chair of Mothers Union address them on the trial of a successful program mobilising communities using the Church and Community Mobilisation Process (CCMP) which has been around Africa for decades and in Serengeti has seen eight savings and loans groups start since 2019 which operate like community banks. Two of these in a large town have 28M and 31M TZS ($19,000 and $21,000) in the economy providing loans for members. This has seen many small enterprises established and increased economic conditions for many.

Her session started with her bringing a wooden box about 30 cm long and 10 cm deep. It was a money box used by the village S&L Groups. It was at that point I understood this was starting something kids in Australia learned from Kindergarten which is how to save. Remember the Commonwealth Bank deposits and the weekly banking which taught us to save. As she spoke, I didn’t need Swahili to understand that most pastors found this something that would be helpful for them. We assume a lot and here I was witnessing many understanding for the first time about saving for the future and borrowing for investments.

The response to her teaching was overwhelmingly positive and hopefully there is a takeup for MU to train people in many villages in the concept.

Groupwork

Groupwork

The workshop room

Reporting back

Reporting

Engageded in discussion

Australian Moneybox

Group photo

Tanzanian S&L Moneybox

I concluded with a hastily developed evaluation in Swahili, the main question being what will you do in the next two months as a result of this workshop. The translated responses will be interesting.

Day one I was absolutely wrecked and not so much after the second day as I was more confident. However overall a fairly positive outcome.

Saturday as I write this was a quiet morning then off to lunch at Rehema Cafe which is only open by booking and ordering ahead by Friday. The three English GOMAD volunteers were there and we talked about COVID and two of them have had COVID three times, both early on and prior to vaccinations being available. Apparently it is rampant in England at present. Hannah the 19 yo nurse saw a colleague aged 19yo die in April 2020 within three days of being vaccinated. She was the only one of the three not to have had it.

Late afternoon was spent at a Bible Study the bishop attends. Very formal structure and this week was a sort of time of rememberance for one of the members whose father in law died two months ago and a gift of cash being provided as a means of showing their support and affection for her and the extended family.

Tim Swan CEO of Anglican Aid is visiting and I catch up with him tomorrow at Bunda as he visits the college there and also the secondary and primary schools.

A busy but satisfying first month.

Starting Out Week 2

Easter Monday being a public holiday saw the bishop and I returning from his village where we had spent the previus evening. A separate blog is coming.

Tuesday at the office was spent still getting my head around everything. My meeting with Arthur on Thursday had left me thinking about a young woman who he had lined up for studying at the local sewing centre here in Musoma run by Mother’s Union. Anglican Aid had previously supported the renovations at their hostel and provided equipment including machines for the classes. I had on an earlier visit proposed they relocate from the small room they were in to a vacant room elsewhere to accommodate all the girls This actually happened in front of my eyes on the day. It seems many here are happy to take advice when given for what was obvious to me. It seems a nudge helped them to see that there was a better option.

Small dark room replaced by

This larger classroom with natural light

Glen and Dominique and their three kids worked and lived here for over ten years until COVID struck. They packed up and left the country as did most westerners at short notice. They were back to say goodbye to many they worked with over the time here (Glen was principal of the local Anglican Primary School), pack up their remaining goods and give their kids and themselves time to close this part of their lives. A formal farewell was held for them on Wednesday, separate from the farewell the previous week by the school staff.

Outside location ideal

Some of the guests

The guests of honour

Listening to speeches

The bishop speaks

Dominique responds

An emotional Glen responds

Presentation

The farewell was held in a covered area near the hostel and kitchen which is where many meetings are held in this climate. There were a number of speakers before the bishop spoke in glowing terms of the service the family had renderd to the church and how Glen hasd raised the standards at the primary school where he was principal. He brought professionalism and diligence and modelled leadership that teaching staff had rarely seen. Glen was quite emotional in his response. Big thing saying farewell to a part of your life you have invested in for so many years. CMS, his sending agency are to be commended for faciliatting this return visit.

Compassion International is big in Tanzania. I have been to countless churches and heard the staggering numbers of kids supported by them. In most churches Compassion is the biggest program operating. In Musoma there are about nine Compassion Programs, each operating with over 200 kids, a manager, social worker and accountant. That’s over 2,000 kids in this town/city alone. This week they were running a conference for the Lake region here in Musoma so the bishop was attending that Wednesday and Thursday. So dinner was at the conference centre down the road from where he lives. We had dinner with the two bishops from nearby dioceses and it was also an opportunity to meet staff from other churches in this region.

Dinner with Mwita and Musa was great. I know both of them from my time at Anglican Aid and both are fine men. We chatted over old times and I learned a lot about the Anglican Church in Tanzania as Mwita was Provincial Secretary prior to becoming a bishop. It was a late night, lakeside in a beautiful location. The resort is basic and needs funds spent on it but cheap. Food here is excellent.

Tilapia was the order of the day for all four of us

Grace didn’t make it t the Compassion program as a child. She is a young woman whose education was disrupted by her father’s death. Arthur had told me the previous week about how the tailoring centre here and Bunda changed lives dramatically of girls unable to continue to secondary education because they did not pass the national exams or due to family finances. He gave examples of how parents prefer their daughters to attend the church program as opposed to the government vocational centres where girls from villages fend for themselves in towns and cities. The Mothers’ Union here provides a hostel with a matron so village girls are not without support.

Grace was due to start at the sewing centre in February, one of four scholarship recipients but was responsible for providing a uniform and some other basic things like mosquito nets and food. Up to the last days her family was not even able to raise $12 to contribute so did not start. After pondering this over Easter I told Arthur I would cover her costs for the scholarship. He was taken back as he only mentioned her as an example of girls whose lives have little future if they cannot get some sort of training.

Next day Arthur walked in to my office with Grace. He and some of his staff decided to support the additional money she needed for the add ons and her mother agreed to provide food monthly (girls cook for themselves to keep costs down). Grace’s appearance tells you all you need to know about village life. At 25 years old she looks much younger than her years. She is undernourished. She left school in form 1 aged 18 years old after her father died (that sentence tells you a lot about educational opportunities in Tanzania). While education is “free” the additional costs result in many not continuing as students must supply uniforms, books and materials. On Easter Sunday I met a primary school teacher who has a 173 kids in her class – and she was smiling! Two friends of Grace from nearby villages were in the office with her having collected her from the bus station. They have had two months in town and will help her settle in.

Martha is the secretary of Mothers’ Union in Mara, having taken over after the untimely death last year of Dorothy apparently due to diabetes. She is an ordained minister who serves at the cathedral on Sundays. I was able to give her my old laptop (2017) which I replaced last year for MU use. As I spoke to her and Arthur apologising for its age, Arthur told me this was the most modern laptop in the diocese. When I saw his I realised what he meant, still running windows 7 on a 4kg laptop which looks about 10-12 years old. Martha is new to computing so will as Arthur suggested enrol for an hour a day in the basic computer class next door at the vocational training centre.

Friday was a meeting with the manager of Buhemba Rural Agricultural Centre (BRAC). BRAC is owned by the diocese and comprises 1,000 acres of land which includes a training college on it as a separate entity, providing diplomas in Community Development. It is a huge asset which is not realising its potential. Annarose retired in 2021 as District Commissioner for the area and was offered the role of manager of BRAC. In its heyday in the 1980s it boasted a dairy that provided over 1,000 litres of milk daily and cropped hundreds of acres which provided income to the church. Following the departure of the missionaries who helped establish it, it has failed to maintain the momentum of the early days.

Martha and the laptop

Arthur who is a 30 year stalwart of the diocese.

Annarose from BRAC

Annarose has a big job and I have been asked to assist her with plans to get this farm functioning and helping her with a strategic plan. It has several business units – cropping beans, sunflower and maize, honey production, sunflower oil, cattle grazing and actually producing sunflower oil for markets. I have previously been to BRAC twice and the potential is hge. It has an underground water tank of 1 million litres and a large reservoir. Both need work to drought proof cropping.

In working through the issues, mortification set in when we spoke about finances and accounting practices and I was told the CPA there is still using books (as in paper) to keep accounts. In discussing this with Arthur who by this time had joined the meeting this is common across the diocese. Another task to look at. Reports are prepared in excel. Any accountants out there reading this who would be interested in a voluntary job?

The weekend came and went quickly. Lunch was planned at Rehema Cafe Saturday where the three English GOMAD volunteers were lunching and a couple, Roman and Rebecca who had been here since 2015 but are now in Rwanda serving with Wycliffe Bible Translators as they cannot get residency permits again. A separate blog at some time about their work which translates oral languages into written form using the Bible as the subject.

The bishop was teaching in the afternoon after morning baptisms at the cathedral so I went shopping to the markets after seeing what the GOMAD people had bought. I came back with Merrell runners for TZS 35,000 ($22) and almost new. The markets get clothes imported from USA, Canada and elsewhere and resell thse. It is huge. The shoes I bought were almost new.

Some of the 19 baptisms Saturday morning

Siblings

I was going to write about the work day routines and diet but will leave that for next week.

The shoe bargain