From the hills to the tropics – travelling around Unyakyusa

Meet the people

Before we travel, let me introduce you to some of the people you’ll meet along the way. Above is a photo of the literacy/Scripture engagement team from five years ago. The people you see worked in eleven different language areas, some of them were (and still are) based in the Mbeya office, but the majority lived and worked in their home area. A year or so after the New Testament translations were completed in nine of these languages, the employment of the workers in those areas ceased (for most of them this was at the end of September 2021). However, we still partner with them as they continue to serve their language communities through local Community Based Organisations.

For our trip around the Nyakyusa language area (a.k.a. Unyakyusa), Frank (from the Mbeya office) and I would first be accompanied by David Mwangunga, who lives in the northern part of Unyakyusa (closest to Mbeya), and then by Andrew Mwangosi, who lives in the southern part. Finally, Frank and Andrew would be joined by another Andrew (not on the picture), who was one of the Nyakyusa translators, for the final leg of the journey into Malawi (while I returned to Mbeya). You can see our journey on the map below – 2 stops in the north, 2 in the south and 2 more for my colleagues in Malawi.

Wednesday

Frank and I left the office at 2pm, arriving in the small town of Kandete less than 3 hours later. The journey was uneventful, our project Land Cruiser behaved itself, and I enjoyed leaving behind the brown, dusty landscape of Mbeya (currently in the middle of our long dry season) for the much greener, lusher landscape of Unyakyusa. Unyakyusa is made up of both a hilly region that gets rain almost all year round and a low, hot, tropical region that also reaches into Malawi. Kandete is at an altitude of about 1590 metres / 5200 feet, making it fractionally lower than Mbeya, and isn’t far from Kitulo National Park (a plateau about 2500 metres / 8500 feet above sea level, and known for its rare orchids). It was colder than I anticipated! So after getting a somewhat disappointing dinner (lukewarm, slightly greasy rice isn’t very appetising) at a rather funky looking café, Frank, David and I headed to the market to find coats! It was David in particular that needed one, but I saw a long black coat that was a reasonable fit on me, costing less than £3. Okay, so it was second-hand, with some marks on it and a couple of tiny holes where the filling kept spilling out despite my best efforts to sew it up, but it would do to tide me over until we dropped down to warmer climes later in the trip. 

Once it got dark, I set up our speakers and projector to show the Nyakyusa translation of the Jesus film on the outside wall of the Lutheran church. I left my colleagues to supervise the equipment and endure the chilly, damp evening air, while I retreated to our guest house until it was time to pack up. It was one of the nicest guest houses I’ve stayed in for a long time. Everything felt new and even toilet paper was provided (an unusual luxury), as well as soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste and a little pot of scented petroleum jelly (which Tanzanians use as a moisturiser).

Thursday

I didn’t want to get out from under the blanket! But telling myself I’d feel better for a brisk walk in the cold morning air, I forced myself to get up and head out. The clouds hung low over the mountains and by the time I got back there was a faint drizzle in the air – I was thankful for my new coat! We had come to the Nyakyusa language area with the primary goal of listening to people’s stories of the impact of the work we have done there, including making the New Testament available in the Nyakyusa language in both print and audio forms. This method of research is known as Outcome Harvesting, and would later involve analysing the short stories we have collected, to look for patterns in the data to see what we can learn from it for future work.

In Kandete we hoped to meet with ten people, starting at 9am. We eventually started about 2.5 hours later with seven people, in a room belonging to the Lutheran church. Frank and I were disappointed with the small number of stories we were able to gather. On the plus side, they were very happy that we had visited, we had a good Bible study time at the beginning, we sold a few Nyakyusa books and were able to leave three audio devices behind for them to use to listen to the Nyakyusa audio Scriptures.

After a very late lunch (as disappointing as the previous day’s dinner) we set off for our next location, Mbambo. I drove slowly over the rough road, trying to avoid the worst of the bumps, and enjoying the beautiful scenery all around, from the rolling hills to the green fields of potato plants, and from rows of tea bushes to big, leafy banana trees. At a seemingly random spot, the dirt road suddenly became tarmac, and the rest of the journey was an almost constant descent on a lovely smooth road.

Being at a lower altitude, Mbambo was much warmer, so I was finally able to shed my coat and cardigan. The guest house wasn’t anywhere near as nice as the previous place, but then again, it was also half the price (at about £3.30). The worst problem was the loud music emanating from the bar next door and the drunk people talking too loudly just a few metres away from my bedroom window. David and I went to visit the pastor of the church where we’d be holding our meeting the next day, and were invited to stay for dinner (the kind of invitation that you can’t refuse). What I really wanted to do was go back to my room and have some time alone, and I felt guilty for feeling like that in the face of such kind hospitality. When we did return to the guest house, it was to find that the music seemed even louder, so it was nothing short of a miracle that I managed to fall asleep.

Friday

We were able to start our meeting more promptly this time, going through the same routine as the previous day, but gathering even less stories than before. However, our time together felt very worthwhile as we were able to sell print and audio Scriptures and talk about how they could all play a part in raising awareness of the availability of the Nyakyusa New Testament. As they finished off their sodas at the end, which the pastor had kindly provided, they also enjoyed watching a short section of the Jesus film. It’s amazing how even in the most rural places you can find crates of fizzy drinks in glass bottles (usually from either Pepsi or Coca Cola, who produce a much wider range of drinks than I was ever aware of when in England). A common gesture of hospitality is to give your guests a soda – unfortunately my favourite sodas (bitter lemon and ginger beer) are not so easy to come by out of town, so I am very thankful when a bottle of water is amongst the drink offerings.

And then we were on the road again, to the village of Itete, where the plan was to hold a seminar on the book of Ephesians for local churches (especially church leaders), beginning Friday evening and continuing throughout Saturday. Only four people were there at the time we were supposed to start, so I played the audio version of Ephesians in Nyakyusa for them to listen to while we waited for others to come. By the end, there were still only four people! For some reason they’d omitted to tell me that most churches have a service on a Friday evening, so they couldn’t participate at that time. So, quick change of plan – I used the time instead to do a Bible overview (a quick revision of a Bible seminar I taught there last year) and to have a Nyakyusa literacy lesson (taught by David).

After teaching, I wanted to rest but David and Frank needed food, so I drove them to the village centre and waited in the car while they got something to eat, which took longer than expected. I was hungry, thirsty and tired and desperate to get back to the house when they finally emerged from the café an hour or so later. Driving at night in a rural village is a disorientating experience – the dark feels so very dark, and I lost all sense of direction and had problems turning the car as I couldn’t see what was behind me (an issue exacerbated by the tinted rear windows).

We slept in the same house I stayed in last time I was there (the owner of the house doesn’t live there anymore, and lets the pastor use it for his guests). David and Frank were given the room I slept in last time, as it has a double bed, which they had to share, while I got the room with a single bed. This didn’t seem to disturb them too much – Frank told me the main thing was that they both like to have the light off when they sleep, so at least they were in agreement on that! Later I could hear one of them gently snoring.

Saturday

I enjoyed a short but beautiful early morning walk to a crater lake, with fantastic views in all directions, to Lake Nyasa in the south and mountains in the north. Then it was off to the grass-roofed church for the seminar. This time there was a good turnout, from a range of church denominations, and we enjoyed studying Ephesians together. One of the main challenges I found was getting them to give thought-through answers that related specifically to the Bible passage in question – instead their answers were often just based on their general Bible knowledge. While the answers weren’t necessarily bad or wrong, it just meant that they weren’t ever getting beyond the basic truths we are all familiar with to discover the breadth and depth of what is revealed in God’s Word.

As soon as we had finished we were off again, saying goodbye to David en-route and hello to Andrew as we arrived at our next sleeping place less than an hour later. But no time to rest, we needed to be off again to show the Jesus film at an evangelistic meeting outside a little Baptist church, where a piece of tarpaulin had been stretched across some bamboo poles to create a big screen. Being a warm location and having been well advertised at the evangelistic meeting in the preceding days, as well as drawing in people passing by on the road less than a stone’s throw from where the screen had been erected, there was a big turnout of both children and adults. Although it was hard to tell in the dark, I reckon over 150 people had gathered, with even the children staying to the end, despite the late hour.

Sunday

On Sunday morning we headed back to the Baptist church, which was little more than a wooden hut. Andrew preached to the small congregation, using mostly Nyakyusa, though with enough Swahili mixed in that I, and any other non-Nyakyusa speakers, could still follow along. We also had the joy of witnessing the baptism of some teenage girls and a young boy, at a river a one mile walk away from the church. I wouldn’t have wanted to get baptised in the muddy water there, a place that, judging by the multitude of hoof marks on the banks, was obviously frequented by thirsty cows, but the girls didn’t hesitate to squelch through the mud and into the pool, afterwards getting changed into dry clothes behind a bush.

Singing and dancing as part of the evangelistic meeting.
In the back, left-hand corner you can see the little church.

After lunch at the pastor’s home, the ubiquitous rice, greens and meat and a soda, we headed back to the guest house where I was able to have a couple of hours of respite, while Frank went off to find a barber to shave his short beard and hair off as it was getting itchy! And then it was off again, for yet another showing of the Jesus film outside the church where we’d hold the next day’s meeting. I was amazed to discover the church was carpeted inside – I felt like I was back in a church in England! Why they would carpet their church located in a hot, tropical village, where I doubt anyone has even heard of such a thing as a vacuum cleaner, beats me! A cement or tiled floor is much cooler and easier to keep clean, which is what you will find in most churches and people’s homes.

Showing the Jesus film (we'd taped white sheets up over the window to create a screen)

Monday

Same again, another meeting, in the warm, carpeted church, with a fan whirring furiously overhead. Then it was back on the road to the district town of Kyela, and back to the same guest house and room I had slept in a couple of months previously when we’d gone to meet with the Nyakyusa team to talk about the research and plan the trip we were now in the middle of.

Tuesday

Our fourth (and my final) meeting location was half an hour outside of Kyela, very close to the border of Malawi. It was hot. We met in a Moravian church, and I was very confused when participants introduced themselves and I discovered that there were two Moravian churches in the village, with slightly different names. Sadly there had been a big split in the Moravian church some time previously, leading to a family being burned in their home and a break-off of the original church being started. No wonder Jesus prayed for believers to have unity (John 17), for he knew just how hopeless we are at maintaining it in our own strength.

A late lunch was followed by a siesta and then sitting outside in the shade to work together on writing up the stories we’d heard, while mosquitoes enjoyed a sumptuous dinner at my expense. Thirsty, I crossed the main road to a little shop boasting a fridge, to buy a bottle of cold water. Shelves lined the walls, bearing pot after pot of local herb mixes claiming to help with all kinds of ailments. I told the ownders of the shop about our work of Bible translation and the Nyakyusa Bible app that you can download from Google Play Store – to my delight, they immediately downloaded it onto their phone.

There was just time to go for a short walk before it got dark. Well, I would have been back before dark if my stomach hadn’t decided it was time to complain about something or other I must have eaten that I shouldn’t have. I begged a woman, who was sitting outside her home cooking plantain, for use of their toilet, rushed to their little brick outhouse, grabbing some leaves off a tree en-route (I had made the fatal mistake of not carrying toilet paper) and ducked under the curtain that served as a door. Being dusk, I turned on my phone’s torch so I could see where the hole was and let my body do what it needed to do. I thanked the lady profusely and weakly walked the rest of the way back to my room, looking forward to having a shower. But my shower had to wait as less than five minutes after arriving I was plunged into darkness as my bedroom bulb blew. As they had no spare bulbs and no ladder to reach up and replace it anyhow, I had to move all my stuff to another room. Bed number six of a trip of just seven nights. Paint was peeling on the walls and loud music emanated from the bar across the road, but once again, God calmed my spirit and I was able to relax and fall asleep, even as the music continued.

Wednesday

After a final bit of work together, I dropped my colleagues off at the border to continue their journey into Malawi by public transport, and began my drive back to Mbeya, climbing back up into the hills and leaving the tropical heat behind. I was surprised to pass by a total of three white (or more precisely, sun-bronzed) men cycling along on bikes heavily laden with panniers, each some miles distant from the other, each persuing their own crazy goal of cycling from who-knows-where to some distant destination. (Incidentally, these were the first white faces I had seen since leaving Mbeya eight days earlier.) One sported a ‘Cross Africa’ sign across the back of his bike, and I marvelled at how different the idea of ‘a fun way to spend the summer’ could be from one person to another. While some people might think my life is exotic and adventorous, the reality is that it’s generally quite calm and ordered! It also helps that I can speak the language and any of my more adventorous trips are usually in the company of someone who knows their way around. When I do have to face uncomfortable situations I have a strong motivation to persevere because Christ’s love compels me. How does someone find ‘fun’ the idea of cycling alone day after day, up and down steep hills under a hot African sun, unable to communicate easily, not knowing whether you’ll be able to get a decent shower at the end of another dusty, sweaty day on the bike or any hope of good coffee and a bowl of porridge to get you going the next morning? We are truly uniquely and wonderfully made!

After a couple of hours of driving I stopped off briefly for one of my favourite Tanzanian lunches, chipsi mayai (chip omelette), before entering a windy and dusty Mbeya mid-afternoon. I’d driven a total of 399km (248 miles), along some interesting roads and through some beautiful countryside and remarkably diverse climates; what a privilege to work in a place like this. But it was so good to be home.

Back in Mbeya

The stories we heard

A few of the forty plus stories we gathered, both the uplifting and the disheartening:

A certain retired teacher has always liked to use Nyakyusa. If he was given a chance to teach in church, he'd read in Swahili and then begin to translate it. Since getting the Nyakyusa NT he has used it when given a chance to preach in church. Now he doesn’t have to translate from Swahili as the Nyakyusa NT can be understood straight away.

One church member said, “After attending the literacy/Bible study workshop in 2017, I haven’t known where to get Nyakyusa books. I didn’t know the NT was available here in Mbambo. And I’ve stopped teaching people to read Nyakyusa.”

A particular pastor uses the Nyakyusa audio Scriptures when he is preparing to preach. He listens to the Scriptures until he finds a passage he wants to use, and then he listens to it carefully so he can prepare his sermon. He also uses the audio Scriptures when there is a power cut and can’t see to read his Bible.

One day, a couple of years ago, this same pastor visited a lady who was unwell. He sang her a song from the Nyakyusa Christian songbook*. The lady sat up and began to sing and felt a lot better!

*The songbook has existed for some time, but a few years ago we updated the orthography (spelling system) and republished it, much to everyone’s delight. The new orthography that we developed and used in all our Nyakyusa publications is much easier to read than the old one, because it looks more like the Swahili alphabet. The new songbook quickly sold out, and although we haven’t been able to reprint it, we have been able to make it available as an app for anyone who has a smart phone.

Last year, a pastor read John 3:16 from his Nyakyusa NT to some neighbours who had visited his home. One of them came to faith!