Tanzania Partnership

by Judith Anderson On the 29th of July I will get on a plane with other members of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church and head to Tanzania.  I am going back for the second time and counting the days as I prepare with shots, purchase a new suitcase, and figure out the best way to use all the things my camera can do.  I am taking a different, more talented camera on this trip. This charming hen and her chicks posed for my old camera on a sunny afternoon as they roamed free in the yard around the church in the village of Tungamalenga. Free range chickens, as the ads in the Sunday paper say, are really the best. In Tanzania free range is honestly, FREE range.  There are no fancy grasses for these chicks to peck in and pull up some lunch. The chickens we eat in Tanzania are prepared and taste differently than the way I do them at home.  Both kinds are prepared for the family with the anticipation that they will be enjoyed. This type of chicken was offe...

This article was originally written as a devotional piece for those traveling to Tanzania with the medical group serving Ilula Hospital.  It has become a favorite of SOTV travelers. Thank you to author Kathy White, a nurse from Gethsemane Lutheran Church in St Paul. I am sitting here drinking a cup of AfriCafe, this instant coffee that is ubiquitous throughout Tanzania. Drinking AfriCafe reminds me of Sarah, the woman who cooked for us at Ilula. In my house I went to the tap and got a cup of water. It would not cross my mind that there could be no water coming from the spigot or that it might not be clean water. I put it into the microwave. Three minutes later I had a cup of clean boiling water. In Sarah’s house, she starts by going to the well at sunrise. The water from that well is brackish, not sweet and clean. The well sits on the top of the hill overlooking the town of Ilula . Sarah has a house in that town. Her house is about the size of my daughter’s bedroom. It...

30 days until the first of this summer's 25 travelers leave for Tanzania.  It's time to think about packing! Our travelers always carry one suitcase filled with gifts for our partners.  This year, we're collecting SOTV t-shirts, tote bags, solar calculators with scientific functions.  We're also accepting monetary donations for books to fill the Tungamalenga library, for indestructible soccer balls , and for purchases we will make in Iringa:  medicines, mosquito nets, and gifts for the orphanage. Another gift we will carry is the gift of prayer.  Four years ago, our travelers carried prayer cards to Tanzania as gifts from the congregation.  We had taken photos of our SOTV members, and created laminated cards with the person's name and a promise to pray for our partnership. These prayer cards were distributed at each village visit, and we then took photos of the recipients.  When we arrived home, more prayer cards were made showi...