Another trip to the Kisi and Manda language areas

The long journey to the Kisi language area always requires an early start, so once again I was at the bus station for about 5.30am for a day on the bus. This was my second trip to visit the Kisi people, so I had some idea of what to expect, but this time I was travelling alone and meeting my colleagues on arrival at the lake. All went smoothly, although there was a last minute change in plans about the time that I should leave the town of Ludewa, where I had slept overnight, as apparently the lake had become quite rough so the earlier I left and caught the boat the better because the lake can be calmer early in the morning. So not long after 6am I was driven down the steep road to the lakeside at Lupingu and at 8am the small motor boat arrived, with one of my colleagues (Claudia) in, to take us to the village of Makonde. Any roughness had passed, the lake was calm (and remained so all day) and it was a beautiful boat ride – this boat was smaller and faster than the one I’d ridden in last time, and the wind in my face felt good and the scenery was beautiful in the early morning light.

We attended the Anglican church service – it’s high church, so there was a lot of sung liturgy and ritual. The best aspect of the service is that there are multiple readings of Scripture, but as those readings aren’t necessarily the ones preached on, I don’t know how much people really take in. The worst part was the choir singing because they played a backing track to give them a rhythm for their dance steps and singing, but they didn’t sing in tune with it! They were in tune with each other, but they clashed horribly with the backing track. I also struggled to stay awake – it was very hot and the travel sickness tablet I had taken for the boat ride also made me drowsy!

Afterwards we popped into the pastor’s home to greet him and his wife, especially as we would be holding the seminar in his church the next day. With wonderful Tanzanian hospitality they quickly put food on the table, which they had obviously prepared the day before or first thing this morning and kept in hotpots as it was lukewarm, and I got my first taste of fresh dagaa served with plantain. I have eaten dagaa (tiny fish that you eat whole) many times, but I’ve never had them fresh, they’ve always been bought dried or fried. But apparently it is now dagaa season and the fish are plentiful and I found that simply boiled in salt water they are really tasty. All day I felt hot and tired, until we went for a swim in the lake in the evening. Oh it was wonderful, the cool water on my body, so refreshing, and the lake was calm and the evening sky soft.

The seminar the following day was with about fifteen church leaders from several different denominations, though mostly Catholic and Anglican as these are the predominant denominations in the area. Despite the heat (though thankfully there was a bit of breeze and a little cloud cover) and the fact that some of them had endured walking down steep hills and a boat ride (probably in a dugout canoe) to get there, they engaged well. We did a little Bible overview exercise while we waited for everyone to arrive, and then moved on to talking about what keeps people from reading God’s Word and applying it in their daily lives. One of these barriers to Scripture engagement is language issues, so we then focused on this, talking about what our project is doing, spending some time practising reading Kisi books and discussing how to use Kisi more in church ministry. It was encouraging to hear a report from one person in the group who had attended the workshop I helped teach in July – he shared how he has since used the book of Jonah in church when preaching (this was the book we used for all our Bible studies during the workshop as it is currently the only Bible book printed in Kisi), reading first from the Swahili Scriptures and then from the Kisi Scriptures. Others also testified to how other Kisi books that they have bought in the past get shared around, and how the audio devices with Kisi Scripture on (Ruth, Jonah and the Easter story) are also in popular demand.

Passing a passenger boat on our way to Lupingu

The evening boat ride back to Lupingu was a very different experience to Sunday’s ride! The lake was far from calm and I held tightly to the side of the boat. Sometimes it was just a matter of getting a good spray, but other times riding up a wave and then dropping down into the dip behind it, sometimes with quite a slap of boat against water, was alarming and the odd squeal escaped my lips! I wouldn’t say I was frightened exactly, as I can swim well enough (though swimming in a long dress wouldn’t be easy), but I was certainly uneasy and worried about my luggage staying dry. Even the crew and my colleagues acknowledged that it was pretty bad in places and were worried for one passenger who couldn’t swim (we were seven in the boat altogether). The ride took longer than before because of the waves and I was soaked through (firstly from getting into the boat, as they couldn’t get very close to shore due to the waves, and then from the spray). We arrived after sunset, but before it had got really dark, and surprisingly my rucksacks had remained dry, except for one pocket where my soap bag was. We alighted with our luggage, including a somewhat traumatised hen that I had been given as a gift by my colleague’s father. This hen, together with some dagaa and fruit, had been brought out to our boat by someone in a dugout canoe as we went past their village!

Second seminar – same subject matter just a different place. The seminar itself was held at the Catholic church, which turned out to be a lovely old building set on a rise, built at the initiative of missionaries. Well, it is old for here, having been built in 1932. I wonder what the people who lived here thought of this missionary building a big church, probably at a point when very few people knew about Jesus. I wish I could be a fly on the walls of those who lived at that time and hear what they said about this missionary. I hear he was also the one to first get a road built from Ludewa down to the lake, paying people for their work by giving them clothes as they didn’t use money in those days. I hear he also tried to pipe water to the villages, but that didn’t go so well, as people didn’t see the point of piped water when they had a lake on their doorstep! Instead, the pipes were stolen and used for smoking!

Lunch was much the same as the day before – rice, greens (with too much salt
for my taste) and dagaa, though this time there was also beef, which was an interesting combination with the fish! I chuckled over some string found in my fish; I think it was part of a fishing net and part of a fish was still trapped between its strands. I was thankful for a cloudy day and a good breeze which, together with the tiled roof, meant the seminar room didn’t get too hot. (Corrugated iron roofs, which are the norm for most buildings, make rooms super hot when the sun beats down.) Even so I was glad to drive up from the lake back to the cooler air of Ludewa and feel my energy levels returning.

On the bus

After a ride on a rickety bus, the aisle filled with sacks of produce and with crates of beer tucked under seats, I arrived in Luilo and joined my Manda colleagues, Erasto and Faraja, at the church where they were just finishing up a three-day workshop. They had started early that morning in order to finish early, as the Catholic church (the main denomination in the area) were having a special celebration and there would be traditional dancing in the afternoon in which some of the workshop participants were involved. I introduced myself as a Scripture engagement specialist and teacher, and was encouraged by the response of one of the older participants who essentially said that I had done a good job of teaching my colleagues because they had taught the workshop very well. Feedback like that gives me a thrill, as over many years I have felt that God’s direction for my life is to “go and teach” and my heart’s desire has been to train people such that they can teach others. So when I see the fruit of that, I rejoice and thank God for the gift he has given me and pray that I may continue to use it to build his kingdom.

The traditional dancing was a fun experience. I managed to find a spot to sit on the sand where I had a good view and where, when the big drum was being beaten, I could feel it vibrating through my body. Some dances were only done by women, while the men played the drums, while other dances were done by men. I couldn’t make out many of the words being sung, but I was told that these dances are used at celebrations and the words are usually in praise of whatever that celebration is about. There was a fascinating blend of old and new props for the dances, with cows’ tails being swung around and gourd-horns blown in one dance while torches were swung around and whistles blown in another!

Seminar participant's home

The village doesn’t have a respectable guest house, so I was staying in the room of someone’s home – like Airbnb! I was very thankful I had my collapsible solar lantern with me, as there was a power cut all day and all night. Although my computer had run out of battery, I was able to recharge my phone using my power bank and read by the light of my lantern. The next morning I enjoyed a short walk in the cool air, and passed the home of one of the workshop participants who recognised me and called out greetings. I noticed how many houses were mud huts with grass roofs, indicating a lower economic level than many other places I visit where most houses have corrugated iron roofing. I also nosed around the Catholic mission compound to see if I could see when it had been built – it had a similar air to the one in Lupingu and I found out that it had indeed been built by the same group of missionaries just a few years after the one at Lupingu.

So, a third seminar, same subject matter. The participants were the same people who had been in the workshop and included pastors and leaders of different church groups (such as women’s groups) from different denominations. They participated well and they had made good progress during the workshop in learning to read their language as several of them were able to stand in front of the group and read a few verses of Manda Scripture almost fluently, even though they would have only seen the Manda Scriptures for the first time at the workshop. I hope we can continue to develop good relationships with the local churches in these areas and partner together as the work moves forward.

We sat by the road as we waited for the bus to come that would take us back to Ludewa. We had to stop for some repair work on the outskirts of Ludewa, but arrived safely as it got dark. The guest houses were all full, because the next day would be market day so stall holders had arrived early, but we managed to find two basic but clean rooms. Next morning we were up before dawn to once again head to the bus stand and make the thirteen hour bus trip back to Mbeya. The trip had been tiring, with a different bed every night, lots of travel and hot weather all contributing to the tiredness, but I had really enjoyed the opportunities to teach and serve alongside my colleagues and to experience new places and meet new people. I pray that God may establish the work of our hands and that some people will have become more passionate about God’s Word as a result of what we sought to share.