Visit To Ndanda

This past weekend we traveled to Ndanda, Tanzania which is home to the priory of the sisters we are working for and also the home to the abbey of the associated brothers. The prioress, Sr. Raphaela was in Mtwara for a board meeting at the school, so we rode with her back to the Ndanda to have an orientation at the priory and to see Ndanda. The abbey and the priory in Ndanda have been there for over one hundred years. The abbey was founded in 1906 and the priory two years later. The Benedictines were the original Catholic missionaries to the whole southern half of Tanzania. 

 It takes about two hours to drive to Ndanda from Mtwara. It was our first trip into the really rural areas of Tanzania. Mtwara seems to serve as a regional market town for what otherwise is a very rural part of Tanzania. The landscape going out to Ndanda was beautiful. The terrain is hilly and is a mix of forested and brush land type of foliage. Most of what seemed like it was being farmed was cashew and coconut trees as well as corn and millet. The car also frequently had to slow down for cows or goats that were crossing or just wondering in the road; there are not a lot of fences in Tanzania, and most animal are free range. We passed many small villages along the way. Most of the houses were built in the traditional way with sticks and clay and had thatched roofs. There are still many mud houses in Mtwara, but most here are made of concrete blocks and have corrugated steel roofs. 

 Ndanda is a peaceful and prayerful place. We stayed for four night in the guest house across from the convent. Sunday we went to morning prayer and mass with the sisters in their chapel and then went on a hike with Enrique and Carolina from Mission Doctors up to a spring fed swimming pond. It was a nice hike and took about an hour, so it was nice to go for a swim. Then for the next few days we had some classes given by some of the sisters and one of the brothers. We received a nice overview of Benedictine spirituality, the history of the Benedictines in Tanzania, and Tanzania culture. 

 

It was a very nice trip to Ndanda. We enjoyed seeing another part of Tanzania and spending time with the sisters and Enrique and Carolina. It was also very encouraging to see the foundation that the missionary before us have laid and know that we have a wider support group in Tanzania than just Mtwara.

First Week

We have been in Tanzania about a week now. After the first few days of orientation we moved into our new home on the outskirts of Mtwara. We are living in what we were told is part of what used to be Aquinas School before it grew too big and was moved to a new campus about a mile away. The building is part of the parish complex of Christ the Redeemer parish. The rest of the structure and the adjacent building is occupied by a kindergarten.

On Monday were started coming to the school for the first time and have been meeting the teachers and other staff as well as getting to know how the school operates here. The school is run by the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. It is one of the nicest secondary schools in the area and has around two hundred seventy students enrolled. Around two hundred of the female students are boarders and live on campus in dormitories or the hostel as they say here. The remainder of the students, boys and girls, walk or bike from the surrounding area. The school is well equipped with solar panels that were donated a few years ago since the city electric grid does not come out to the school. The city water does make it out here, but the school also has its own water storage and rain water system, so overall the school is well prepared to handle what can be an unreliable municipal system.

Tuesday we were able to sit down with Sister Maureen the headmistress and discuss what will be our responsibilities here at school. I will be taking over many of the jobs for which Earl Fong the outgoing Lay Mission-Helper was responsible. This includes creating the timetable for which teacher teaches which class at what time, maintaining the donated computers (many of which are aging fast) and keeping the records for the school backed-up. I will also be teaching math and physics and possibly computers. I don't know when I will start teaching but it shouldn't be until at least when we get back from language school in August. Lauren will also be taking over many of the responsibilities of Diane Prell, Earl's wife. This means that she will be in charge of the library and book catalog and checkout records, all of which are done by hand. She will also be teaching bible knowledge. In fact one of the bible classes currently has no teacher, so Lauren just found out today that she will be covering that class tomorrow. That seems to be the norm for here in Tanzania; things are fluid, so we will be fluid with them.

-Justin

Goodbye and Hello!

Justin and I finally finished packing and were ready to head off to Tanzania. The only thing we had left to do was say our final goodbyes. Neither Justin nor I particularly like saying goodbye, and it was challenging for us. Having to say goodbye to are families was one of the hardest parts about leaving. Even though we will stay in touch and Skype them, we still miss them a lot.

We left for Tanzania on July 1^st. It took us thirty hours and four flights to make it to Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. In Dar Es Salaam we spent our first night in Tanzania at a hotel, and then had to take one more plane to Mtwara. We received a great welcome at the airport. Our headmistress, Sister Maureen, our new parish priest and Earl Fong, a current Lay Mission-Helper in Mtwara, all came to pick us up in the school van. It was great to have a good welcome at the airport after such a long trip.

We have been spending this week at a house on the beach that is used by the Benedictine Sisters we are working for as a retreat house. The house is right next to a clinic or “dispensary” as they call it, run by the Sisters and one of their convents. We have been spending our time getting oriented to Mtwara. Earl has been acting as our tour guide and has been taking us around town. Really it wouldn't take more that one day to get a good tour of the town, but we took our time and saw it in two. Everyone has been very understanding with our need to recover from jet lag and not take in too many new things all at once.

We have been eating most of our meals at the convent. It has been great to spend this time with the Sisters. At the moment in this particular house there are two German Sisters, a Tanzanian Sister and one American Sister from Nebraska who has been a missionary in Tanzania for fifty-three year and shows no signs of slowing down. They are all very busy and most seem to have multiple jobs at the various sites the Sisters manage. Sister Martha, the Tanzanian, is the midwife at the clinic and has already missed two meals delivering babies.

So, we are beginning to get settled here. We went in to town on our own today and were able to buy some groceries in Swahili. On Sunday we will move in to our new house, and on Monday we will go and meet everyone at school. We are very exciting and grateful to join the great work that is going on in Mtwara.

-Lauren

Family Visits and Packing

In less that a week Lauren and I will be on our way to Tanzania. Over the last few weeks we have been staying with our two families. We have tried to make the most of this time by spending most of it hanging out and doing stuff with them. It has been like we are packing three years of visits with our families all into one period of time. Although it has been good to visit for a longer period than we would normally, a longer stay really doesn't seem a sufficient substitute for not seeing everyone through three years worth of changes. We will miss our family and friends, but this is what we feel called to do, and we are happy to go even while we are sad to leave. 

We have been spending the rest of our time making the last minute preparations to leave. There are a lot of things that need to be taken care of before you can leave the country for three years. In fact, there are so many things that for the first time in my life I needed a to-do list. Yes, I know...don't be too shocked. I have never been a list person; I often have a series of things in my head that I know need to get done, but I don't make lists. Anyway, there was so much to do that I caved and suggested to Lauren that we make a to-do list. It was so bad that this list included the entry: 'make a shopping list'. A to-do list that calls for another list, if I don't watch out I will become a planner :).

As of now we have checked off most of our list. We have been taking care of banking, getting our computers and kindles in order, shopping and most of all figuring out exactly what we are going to take. We can each take two fifty pound bags. That one hundred pounds apiece goes faster than I would have hoped. There are a couple of things that make packing difficult. First of all it is not as if we are simply going to visit Tanzania; we are going to live there. This means that we are trying to take stuff to make a home there. Also, we don't truly know what all we should bring. While we have talked with many people who have been on mission and have been communicating with the Lay Mission-Helper couple that is currently in Mtwara, we have never been to Tanzania and cannot foresee what we will wish we had brought. 

In the end I need to remember that all this worry about lists and packing doesn't really matter. Our choice to go has been and will continue to be an act of faith. We should try to go with the spirit that Jesus sent his disciples when he instructed them not to take an extra tunic. We will find what we need, maybe not always what we wanted. If we forget anything, we will find it there or we didn't need it in the first place. 

- Justin