Day Nineteen: Waiting

By -

This morning we woke up to an email message from a friend in Tanzania -- Pastor John's wife Addy is at the hospital, in labor!  

We are praying for mom and baby today. And we're all checking email frequently, waiting for news.


Breakfast with Rich and Nancy Nonini.


Ben Kilgore gave John some early morning training on the new laptop, orienting John to software for project management and a database.


Judy and John had lunch at Mim Campbell's home.  Mim's neighbor is from Kenya, so John is getting to visit in Swahili.


John gets a little practice in childcare, holding Mim's granddaughter Ebba.


Preparing for a baby is another one of many things where we have cultural differences.  Traditionally, Tanzanians do not share the news of a pregnancy like we Americans do.  While Americans prepare elaborately with nursery furnishings and decoration and clothing for the child, John told me that Tanzanians would surrepticiously buy only one item of clothing for the child, waiting to be sure the child is born live and healthy.


After lunch, they stopped at Judy's home to visit with her husband Richard.


Next, they visited the Minnesota Zoo.  Here's the Minnesota Trail....


....and here's the Tropics.  


 John commented that the zoo is so well built.  "You walk around and around and then find you are back to the same place."

John had dinner with the partnership steering committee this evening. From left, Mollie, Nancy, Richard, Joan, John, Pastor Diane, and Brenda.  Lyn took the photo and Kirsten came late.

Front row: Joan, Pastor John, Kirsten, Brenda
Back:  Lyn, Pastor Diane, Mollie, Richard

We had a fairly light agenda for our monthly meeting.  We asked John for his feedback on the trip -- what was helpful, where were the gaps in planning? What events did he enjoy? We all remarked on John's boundless energy and expressed our gratitude for the great work he did to strengthen support for our partnership.


Tutaonana tena [I will see you again], and still no word on Addy and the baby.  We continue to pray.

Tomorrow:  John will be at church from 10 to noon in the atrium.  All are welcome to drop in to say goodbye.  At 11:45 the SOTV staff will join the gathering to send John off with prayers. 

John will be driven to the airport by a couple who volunteer there, who will be able to accompany him beyond the security check point, take him to lunch and then to his gate.

Asante sana, Mchungaji John.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Idodi Secondary School

By -
Image
July 10, 2017 On Monday we headed out to Tungamalenga and Makifu parishes, ready to be offline for the next eight days.  Our first stop was at Idodi Secondary School.  Idodi is the first village we come to in the parish, and we have about 75 students attending the secondary school. Headmaster Christopher Mwasomola welcomed us to his office for an introduction and update. He said that Idodi is known as a community school -- the infrastructure is built by the community (in this case, heavily supported by a group known as Friends of Ruaha) and teachers are provided by the government.  Fun fact: the Friends of Ruaha at one point received a donation from Roy Disney, whose name is included on the dedication plaque for the school's library. The school was registered in 1999 and has 889 students, 437 girls and 452 boys. There are 41 teachers. The government supports salaries, books, lab equipment, desks, and other basic supplies. There are 11 non teaching staff, wi...
Read more

Safari 2013: the journey of a lifetime

By -
Image
Safari in Swahili means journey. We'd like you to consider taking the journey of a lifetime with other Shepherd of the Valley members next summer.  For two weeks in August, you could be ambassadors from our congregation living among and getting to know our partners from Tungamalenga Parish. What's a journey like this look like? We'll fly from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Dar es Salaam with a short stopover at Kilimanjaro (alas, it will be dark and we don't get off the plane at Kili). That's about 24 hours from start to finish, with a four hour layover in Amsterdam. Arriving at the Landmark Hotel just before midnight, we get a good night's sleep in Dar before the eight to ten hour cross country bus ride to Iringa. notice the US and Tanzanian flags on the dashboard of the bus?   Highlights of that cross country ride include driving about 100 kilimeters of the way through Mikumi National Park -- and if we're lucky, we'l...
Read more

Karibuni sana

By -
Image
Pastor Naftal & Anjelina Ng'amillo In just a couple short weeks, we will be hosting guests from Tanzania. Pastor Naftal and Anjelina Ng'amillo from Tungamalenga Parish, along with Dr Mufwimi and Dora Saga from the Ilula Lutheran Hospital, will arrive in Minnesota October 21 for a stay of just over two weeks. What better way to welcome them than to learn a few words in their language? Karibu sana or, if you are addressing more than one person, Karibuni sana , means "we warmly welcome you." It's pronounced like this: KAH ree boo SAH nah or KAH ree boo nee SAH nah. Jambo means "hello." Another greeting is Habari, which is more like "how are you," to which a Tanzanian might respond Nzuri [good], Salama [peace], or Njema [fine, well, good] and then they might add, Habari yako [and how are you?]. When Tanzanians are in a gathering, like at church or at a meeting, and they rise to speak to the assembly, they almost always start by say...
Read more