Off to the capital

One advantage of an early start - getting to watch the sunrise

5am. Seriously? When did they change the bus departure times from being 6am to 5am?! So I had to get up in what felt like the middle of the night to catch the bus to Dodoma, the administrative capital of Tanzania, where I was going to be teaching two workshops. At least the bus stand is only a five minute walk from our home! Nearly eleven hours on the bus, with only one toilet/food stop (of just ten minutes), doesn’t make for the most comfortable experience, but it was nice to arrive in Dodoma mid-afternoon and have time for the excitement of a visit to the supermarket. That may not sound exciting to you, but Mbeya’s biggest food store has three very short aisles, so you can browse everything they stock in less than five minutes. Not that I’m complaining, as we can get almost everything we need, and for a terrible decision maker like me it’s a good thing to not have a lot of choice! But I’ve always rather enjoyed food shopping, so it was fun to have this chance to browse a bigger store. I bought some juicy sultanas off the bargain shelf – amusingly the packaging declared a price of ‘£1.45’ (about 4400 Tanzanian shillings), so it had obviously been imported from the UK. Usually such items are two or three times the original UK price, but it was on a date-offer of just 3000 shillings!

Lunch stop - I was on the bus in the middle

I was staying with friends and colleagues in Dodoma, Michelle and Nicholle Haupt (they’re sisters) – they were the ones who had invited me to teach as they are coordinating Scripture Engagement work in the projects that are based out of our Dodoma office. The first workshop wasn't held in Dodoma itself, so on Monday we had to catch a bus to a small town called Magugu, which spreads out on either side of the main road that connects Dodoma (in the centre of Tanzania) to Arusha (in the north). This meant another five or so hours on a bus! Magugu is in the Mbugwe language area, and the three Mbugwe translators had arrived over the weekend to make sure everything was set up. It was my first time to visit, and I can’t honestly say I will be in any hurry to return! Compared to the highlands of home in Mbeya, the landscape felt bland and the town somehow reminiscent of a Wild West town with sand, dust and drab looking buildings on either side of the highway. On my third evening there I was thankful to discover a road that led me away from the highway and houses towards a village, where I finally felt I could breathe as my surroundings opened out to fields and vegetation, with low lying hills ahead. The second (and last) time I walked along that road, I caught up with a teenage girl walking home to the village (apparently 6km away from Magugu) who wanted to chat with me, so she picked up her pace to keep up and we exchanged pleasantries. I learned that she walked that 6km every day to get to her school in town!

Going for a walk

The workshop was for Sunday school teachers. The goals of the workshop were:

• to teach them to read their Mbugwe language
• to introduce them to a series of Old Testament Bible story books that have been translated into Mbugwe that they can use in Sunday school
• to do a Bible overview with them (using those books, which covered creation, the fall, Noah, the tower of Babel, God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and the Exodus, as part of that overview)
• to teach them interactive methods for teaching children
• to provide guidance for preparing a Sunday school lesson.

Playing games

We had around 15 teachers, coming from villages across the Mbugwe language area. They had varying levels of ability, but all engaged well and by the end each one was able to share something they had learnt, from understanding the significance of sacrifice and how that began right at the beginning in the Garden of Eden, to enjoying new games that they can use with children, to learning how to read Mbugwe. They were a fun group to be with and at the end we were touched by many kind words and each of us facilitators received a gift of a big bag of rice. Apparently Magugu is known for its rice – at the edge of the football field outside our guest house were piles of rice husks. In the mornings I saw ladies winnowing (using a shallow basket to toss the rice husks in the air and let the breeze blow them away); I think they were looking to see if they could find any grains of rice left among the husks. We finished the workshop early Friday afternoon, and before departing they performed a traditional song and dance for us, in their own unique Mbugwe style, circling around the drummer with careful footwork and moving their shoulders in time with the beat.

Traditional Mbugwe dancing

Saturday morning we were back on the bus to return to Dodoma, wondering exactly what we would find in the Haupts’ house, as we’d received news while we were away that it had been burgled. We arrived at the house to find their househelp had kindly stayed around while people were there repairing the window frame and iron bars that had been cut through by the thieves in order for them to get into the house. Thankfully nothing of any significant value had been taken, it was mostly kitchen items and a few other things, but knowing someone has broken into your home is unsettling to say the least. We visited the supermarket that evening in order to replace the kettle and iron!

On Sunday I went with Michelle to the church they attend, which is pastored by the team leader of our Dodoma project office; he proved to be a great Bible teacher. The service was a real encouragement to me – the last time I had felt fed and built up by a church service was in February when I was in Dar for our strategy meetings! It was such a contrast to the far-too-loud church I normally attend, with endlessly repeated choruses, four choirs to listen to and sermons that seem to contain an unnecessary amount of shouting. (I don’t really know much about the content of the sermons as I’m usually out teaching Sunday school, but from the odd chance I’ve had to stay in for a sermon it seems that the teaching is usually milk rather than meat.) You may wonder why I don’t find another church, but the reality is that the alternatives may be no better, in fact they may be worse. At least in the church I attend most of what is said is faithful to Scripture, there seems to be genuine care for people in need, the pastor appears to be a man of prayer and I feel part of the church family to some degree.

Group work - practising telling the
Bible story and teaching

Monday we began again – workshop number two, this time held in the Dodomaoffice, with the Sunday school teachers coming into Dodoma from the Rangi and Burunge language areas. The goals of the workshop were similar, but the Rangi and Burunge books we were sharing with them to use in Sunday school were very simple books of teachings and stories of Jesus, so I spent less time on doing the Bible overview and more time looking at these different stories and learning how to teach children. I was amused at lunchtime on the first day to find out that one of the Bible translators, who was supposedly working away in his office, was actually listening into our seminar and making notes on it! After talking about how there is no more need for sacrifice since Christ gave his life for us, one participant asked how do you respond as a Christian when there has been a fire on your land and the neighbours say you must join them in making sacrifices (I think to appease the gods or ancestors). It would have been easy for me to say you need to stand firm and refuse to participate, but I’ve never had to face that kind of community pressure! I invited the group to respond to his question and I was very glad when a participant was able to share a personal example of standing firm in a similar situation.

Performing a memory verse song they had
composed (first workshop) - there was a power
cut, and the room was rather dim, so they
were using torches on their phones to help
them see the words!

At the end of the workshop we invited people to share something new they had learnt about God, something new they had learnt about how to teach children and one thing that they had really enjoyed about the workshop. It was great to hear people saying that they’ve seen God’s love right from Genesis, how he wants to be near to us, how he came to seek and to save the lost etc. It was encouraging to hear lots of them say how much they enjoyed the teaching, that they didn’t get tired because it was so engaging and that they have learnt a lot about how to teach children.

Thursday morning it was back on the bus for 11.5 hours to return to Mbeya (it always takes longer on the return journey, maybe because of climbing the hills to get back up to Mbeya and the traffic jams on the way into town). It was good to get home. I was exhausted after the trip, both from the fairly intense programme and the travel itself, but I was thankful for all that God had enabled us to do. I pray that the Sunday school teachers will have the courage to implement what they learnt, and also have gained an appetite for reading God’s wonderful Word.

I was fascinated by the unique housing style in the countryside outside of Dodoma -
long, low, flat roofed mud houses.
(Apologies for blurry image - it was taken while on the bus.)