In the beautiful Vwanji language area

Wednesday 15^th May

The day started like many other Wednesdays, with a 5k run around town, my usual breakfast of uji (see description below*) while reading the Bible and then… a slight change. I drove to work. Normally I walk, but today I had more than just my laptop bag to carry. There was my big rucksack filled with clothes, toiletries and other necessities such as toilet paper and a bag of food bits and bobs. I was ready for a week-long trip to the Vwanji language area.

Konga talking with people about language use

The trip would serve multiple purposes. My colleague, Konga, would be meeting with people from different villages and churches to ask about how the Vwanji language is being used at home and in ministry, and how the Vwanji Scriptures (print and audio) and other Vwanji resources are being accessed and used. Konga himself is Vwanji, and as part of his training to be a Scripture Engagement specialist (which he completed last year) he learned about the importance of doing research, both for needs assessment and to monitor and evaluate work, and he was keen to implement this training in his own language area. So rather than me taking the lead using ‘Outcome Harvesting’ (see previous blogs about this research method I was using last year), Konga would be the primary researcher while I get to do what I enjoy most – teaching. We’d start in the village of Ikuwo, where I’d teach a three-day seminar focusing on the book of Ephesians, as well as do an activity with children one evening, and attend local churches on Sunday. And then it would be onto the village of Matamba (the largest village in the Vwanji area), where the research would continue and I would teach a two-day seminar focusing on the book of Galatians. On our last d
ay we’d also have a meeting about New Testament distribution.

I’d loaded up the office Land Cruiser the day before with piles of books in the Vwanji language. Unfortunately, when we printed the first books of the Bible to be translated into Vwanji (Ruth, Jonah, Mark and the Pastoral Epistles) we printed way more than would ever be sold. (Over time we have got better at printing appropriate amounts, though it’s easy to be over optimistic.) So we stacked as many of these books as we could physically lift (though still leaving behind way more than we were able to pack) into big plastic boxes to take with us. Our plan was to give free books to people who attend the Bible seminars as well as to the people Konga would be interviewing, and to leave what’s left with the Vwanji Community Based Organisation to distribute.

I left the office after our morning coffee break, picking up Konga en route. We stopped at the town of Chimala, about two hours from Mbeya, to get some lunch, before heading off the tarmac and onto the dirt road for the climb up to Ikuwo. Thankfully we hadn’t had any rain for a week or so, so there was no risk of getting stuck in mud, however the road was very rocky, with occasional holes and dips that were very hard to see. Often we were crawling along at less than 10km per hour (I was running faster this this on Saturday in the Mbeya half-marathon, though that wasn’t up a steep hill on a dirt road)! After just over an hour on this road, a truck went past and stopped and beeped its horn. Wondering if they had a problem, we also stopped and Konga went to speak to them. It turned out we were the ones with the problem – they’d noticed that we had a flat tyre! The road was so bumpy that I hadn’t noticed anything was wrong! So we set to work, only to find a bit of the jack’s winding-rod was missing, so we had to improvise, and the jack wouldn’t go high enough so we had to find a suitable rock to balance it on. By this time, a couple of other trucks had stopped (unable to get past) and the crews had come to help and chat. An hour later we were on our way and, despite the last section of road being narrow and muddy, we arrived safely at about 4.30pm.

It was lovely to be greeted by the familiar face of the pastor of the Lutheran church where we’d be holding the seminar, who has also hosted previous workshops we’ve held in Ikuwo. After we had put our stuff in the guest house we stood outside chatting in the beautiful evening light. Later I left Konga at a café with a friend of his, while I continued to stretch my legs by accompanying a trainee-pastor, from the Lutheran church, on his way home.

After eating my tea (rice cakes, peanut butter, salad stuff, fruit and chocolate), I wanted to wash. It’s a simple guest house, so having a wash involved taking a jug from my en-suite bathroom (a very grand title for a small room with a long-drop, a tap and a bucket of water) to a big pan of water set on a small fire in the yard, to get warm water. It turned out the jug had a leak, so by the time I got back to my room I only had half a jug of lukewarm water for washing with! There was no bulb in the light fixture in the bathroom, so I propped up my solar-light and got on with getting rid of the dust of the journey.

*Uji: a kind of porridge made from a mixture of different flours – my preferred blend, learnt from a Tanzanian friend, is rice, maize, millet and peanut flours. However, I veer away from the way Tanzanians might make it by adding various other things to it, such as chia seeds, peanut butter, raisins and lemon juice, with a banana chopped into it at the end, and by not adding any sugar.

Thursday 16^th May

It turns out that my bedroom looks out on the yard of a children’s nursery, so after getting back from a beautiful morning walk between fields of potatoes, maize, wheat and sunflowers, I ate my breakfast to the sound of children playing outside my window. Thankfully the windows are reflective on the outside, so they couldn’t see in!

When we arrived at the Lutheran church, we stood around chatting as people gradually arrived. ‘Breakfast’ was provided – sweet black tea, boiled cassava and mandazi (a kind of fried dough, faintly resembling doughnuts without the hole); a standard Tanzanian diet is very high in carbohydrates. While I don’t dislike these foods, I prefer my homemade granola bar, peanuts and bananas! So I ate just enough to be polite.

We finally kicked off the seminar some time after 10am, with the focus of day one being on giving an introduction to the book of Ephesians, especially looking at where it fits into the big story of the Bible, and on practising to read Vwanji. There was a good turnout, with around 40 participants, all in some form of leadership or teaching role (from pastors to Sunday school teachers). All bar two came from Lutheran churches, which is the main denomination in the area. Lunch was rather late (2.45pm) and I struggled through rice and bits of chewy intestine, longing to eat the beans that were also provided, but knowing I’d probably regret it later if I did. As the seminar continued, the corrugated iron roof creaked is it expanded and shrank according to whether the sun was blazing or hiding behind clouds.

Practising reading Vwanji

After we’d finished, tidied up and chatted, I went for a short walk, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and the friendly greetings, before retiring to my room for the evening, snuggling up in bed to keep warm.

Friday 17^th May

Another beautiful walk, breakfast and a bit of work before heading to the church. I was encouraged to see that everyone was back plus one or two extras, and we had a good time working our way slowly through the book of Ephesians. I found it hard to tell how much they were understanding or discovering through our studies, as only a few people had confidence to answer and ask questions, but as far as it was possible to read their faces, it felt like most of them were engaged and listening well. Nyambo said people were enjoying it and saying that the seminar was too short, so I took that as a good sign! There were some good and some slightly odd questions and comments, and I appreciated the wisdom of some of the older pastors present as they shared their thoughts. Lunch was ready on time, and far more appealing to my palate, with chunks of meat and greens to go with ugali.

I felt tired after teaching all day and was happy to leave Nyambo and Konga to travel on motorbikes to a nearby village (where some of the seminar participants came from) to show the Jesus film.

Saturday 18^th May

There were eggs for breakfast today, which was a nice surprise. Local, free-range eggs are small, with a whitish shell, full of flavour with their lovely yellow yolks. And pumpkin – not something I’m accustomed to having for breakfast!

The final day of the seminar seemed to go well, with people sharing at the end how their understanding of salvation and grace had changed, or how they had been touched by the way we should love and forgive others because of how Christ has loved and forgiven us, or how it’s important to start at the beginning of a Bible book or passage to make sure we get the right meaning of the verses we want to read.

Composing a song using Ephesians 5:1-2, in Vwanji

Straight after the seminar, children gathered excitedly in the church. Many of them had already been waiting around since lunchtime, as they’d been told there’d be a special class for them in the evening. Altogether about 100 children turned up (apparently more than twice the amount that usually turn up to Sunday school). We had great fun playing ‘Simon says’ before Nyambo gave them a short lesson about Vwanji. Sadly we found that very few of the children could speak much Vwanji, which was something we had already started to notice during our stay there. Even Nyambo and Konga were surprised at how many children, including pre-schoolers, were using Swahili, compared to just a few years ago. It seems that one of the reasons is that children are beaten at school if they use Vwanji. This doesn’t bode well for the continuation of the Vwanji language or for the Vwanji Scriptures being used by the rising generation.

After reading a Bible story in Vwanji, and then in Swahili (realising that a lot of them hadn’t fully understood by hearing it in Vwanji), we had a quiz and finished with the Lord’s prayer (in both languages), and each child left with a simple Vwanji Bible story book to take home. Some of the kids followed us back to the guest house – I felt like the pied piper (a story that is apparently also told to children here)!

I was asked to teach in church the next day, so my evening was spent preparing for that. It would have been nice to just participate in the service from a back seat, but that was never likely to happen!

Sunday 19^th May

Finally, what I’d been hoping for each morning when we gathered for breakfast – potatoes. There’s something particularly enjoyable about eating new potatoes that have been pulled freshly from the earth in the very village where you are eating them. The high altitude and resulting cool weather create just the right climate for growing potatoes and wheat. The pastor was surprised to see me eating the tender skin; I attempted to explain its health benefits (but somewhat lacked the Swahili vocabulary to talk about digestion) as well as enthuse about how good it tastes, but I don’t think he was convinced!

I sat next to the pastor’s wife during the morning service, so that she could guide me through the Lutheran liturgy with her book of liturgy and hymns. The liturgy is full of wonderful truth and I enjoyed the calm, ordered service (somewhat different from the Baptist church I usually attend), though I did miss some of the spontaneity of a non-liturgical church.

When it was time to give offerings, a number of people came up bearing small bags or baskets of maize, beans, wheat or eggs to place beside the offering box. While it is not uncommon for people to bring an offering of food, it was my first time to see quite so many people doing this, perhaps giving a picture of the economy – people are not likely to go hungry with such rich farmland around, but they may have very little cash-in-hand. After the service they auctioned off some of the food gifts, so as to turn them into money that can be used by the church. I acquired some avocadoes, which someone bought for me!

At 3pm we began our journey to the large village of Matamba. Once again, we crawled along over the rocks, bumps and dips, alternating between first and second gear for much of the way, finally arriving in Matamba about 5.15pm. We visited the church where we’d be holding the seminar, and learned of a funeral nearby that had the potential to change our plans, as no-one would come to the seminar if a burial was taking place. The body was coming from some distance away (by the Zambian border), hopefully arriving that night.

Beautiful Matamba

It was a relief to finally settle in my guesthouse room, with the luxury of a table and chair, a good light, a tiled floor and a hot shower! I definitely needed the thick blanket, as Matamba is about 2160 metres (about 7080 feet) above sea level, and the evening air was distinctly chilly.

Monday 20^th May

I started the day with a beautiful walk along the road, as the birds sang and the sun shone on the fields and hills, giving me time to pray as I enjoyed God’s creation. Then breakfast. It was obviously going to be a day of eggs! It turns out the guesthouse provides breakfast (many do not, especially when you’re paying less than £5 for a room like I was), and while I couldn’t have most of the options (being made of wheat), I could have the eggs, so they gave me three! Yesterday, I had also been given a gift of three eggs, which I gave to Konga to boil at his home (although he lives in Mbeya, he comes from Matamba, and his younger brother lives in his old house). He brought them to me at the guesthouse, freshly boiled. I did not eat all six eggs! I stashed four away for later.

With the seminar not planned to start until the afternoon, I enjoyed a quiet morning, doing bits and bobs on my computer. I popped out at lunch time, walking down the road until I found a place selling chips. The vendor was very kind – seeing how cold I was she topped up a little stove with fresh coals and drew it across to where I was sitting, so I could enjoy my delicious plate of chips in the warm. One of the avocados I’d been given the day before made a good accompaniment.

I arrived at the church promptly at 3pm only to find the place deserted. A bit later Nyambo turned up, coming from the funeral; the burial had only just taken place, people wouldn’t be able to make it to the seminar today. So it was back to my computer.

Tuesday 21^st May

I really enjoyed getting into Galatians with the twenty or so participants that gathered together at the Lutheran church. The group were a bit more responsive than the folk I was with in Ikuwo, which makes it easier for the teacher! I also enjoyed beautiful walks morning and evening. A good day all round.

Wednesday 22^nd May

Enjoying the morning sunshine as they practised
reading Vwanji, while we waited for folk to arrive

The seminar continued until lunchtime. We had fun learning very serious truths through playing tug-of-war (illustrating how the desires of the flesh wage war with the Spirit, as Paul describes in Galatians 5:17) and we looked at the ways in which we may give the flesh an opportunity to pull us in the wrong direction and what we can do to give the Spirit more of an opportunity to pull is in the right direction.

In the afternoon we’d planned to have a meeting to follow-up a seminar on distribution that Konga had done in November with the CBO and people they’d chosen as distributors. Unfortunately most of the distributors couldn’t come, and those who did come didn’t have particularly encouraging reports to share. Effective distribution, leading to people really using the Scriptures, continues to be a huge challenge. We left them with the Vwanji books we’d brought with us and encouraged them to distribute them freely in appropriate settings (such as church services, children’s activities, to people who buy a New Testament etc).

We finally left Matamba at 5pm, with an extra passenger, Mahali. He is our Project Team Leader, who also happens to be Vwanji and who had returned to his village home for a few days to work on his avocado and passion fruit farm. (While many of our colleagues have built houses in Mbeya, most of them also have farms back in their home village.) The journey home took us up into Kitulo National Park – there were some magnificent views on the way and the wild moors of Kitulo have their own beauty, which I love. But I could see cloud ahead, and halfway across the moors we became enveloped in fog and the journey became an exhausting attempt to peer through the thick whiteness and avoid potholes, mud and rocks. Mahali kept us regaled with stories of childhood, when he used to walk to school across those moors, and of his translation consultant work with the Hadza people and their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, which helped distract me from anxiety over the painfully slow progress we were making and the fast encroaching darkness. We finally made it to the tarmac road at 8pm (it gets dark about 7pm) and I arrived at the office just under an hour later, having dropped off my colleagues en-route at places where they could jump on a bajaj (motorised rickshaw) to get home with their sacks of avocados. My car was patiently waiting in the office carpark, and soon I was home. Food, unpack, shower, bed. I was thankful to be safely home but also thankful for the opportunities the trip had provided to enjoy God’s creation and serve his Church.

Magnificent views as we left Matamba

Postscript

While I was in Matamba, the news came that Margaret Hill had left his earth and gone to be with the God she faithfully served. She was my tutor when I did my Scripture engagement training in 2007, and I have worked with her on a couple of different projects over the years. She was a remarkable woman, continuing to travel and consult into her eighties. She also taught Konga as he did his Scripture engagement training over the past three years, in Uganda, and as he said, “We have lost an important person.” I sat in my guesthouse room, in a Tanzanian village, and grieved her passing and thought about how she is one of the reasons that I was there, doing what I was doing.