Tanzania Partnership

During our recent visit, several of our travelers took time to have a long conversation with Dr. Barnabas Kahwage, asking how SOTV can support a long term plan for healthcare in Tungamalenga. SOTV members, you may be hearing about this plan as you attend one of the congregational dialogues for our 2015 Capital Campaign over the next few weeks. We have a unique opportunity to make a difference in our upcoming capital campaign, which includes proposals for projects onsite and projects that reach out to trusted partners locally and globally.  In 2007, a similar capital campaign included $60,000 to fund a new ward at the Tungamalenga Dispensary, an investment in healthcare for our partners that benefitted a whole community.  Here's a bit of our history of our partnership's healthcare ministry, and the details on the plans to come. This is the original dispensary as we found it in 2002, four rooms that included an examining room/office, a storage room for medicines and m...

From time to time, someone asks, why Tanzania?  Why and how did Shepherd of the Valley get involved in ministry in Tanzania, and why has this ministry become such a large part of our congregation's mission? Here's what I've heard about how the partnership began.... Sometime in the spring of 2001, one of our members read an account of a fledgling mission partnership between the Saint Paul Area Synod and the Iringa Diocese. A relationship that began informally in the mid 1980s had been formally adopted as the Companion Synod program when the ELCA was formed.  In the article, the woman read that now individual congregations in the synod were being partnered with Tanzanian congregations, and people were starting to exchange visits at the grassroots level.   As I've heard the story, the woman went into Pastor Paul Harrington's office with the article she had read, and said, "We should be part of this!"   I'm told that Pastor Paul picked up ...

Traveler Jenny Buckley shared her photos and observations from our school visits on Facebook awhile back.  Thanks for permission to reprint here. SOTV members visited the Tungamalenga Primary School on a Saturday.  All the standard seven students were camping at the school to continue practicing for the national exam. Posted in the Headmaster's Office at Idodi Secondary School.   I love it! I find the P interesting--do we ask our students to "Pick what is good from peers" or is that something lost in our individualistic culture? The Tanzanian flag flies in the middle of the school courtyard. A typical classroom building. When the students left this classroom, they took their chairs with them. I am assuming they use the chairs in another class, but I never got a definite answer on this. The Science Storage room (I think there are few storage rooms here that look like this). The library. Students come here to ch...

Our travelers have all been home for about a month now.  Since the exuberant hugs at the airport -- -- we have all gradually returned to our regular lives.  One young traveler put it this way: " It's so hard to believe it's been a week already! For me, so much has happened since then. Life seems to just pick right back up where it left off- busy as ever. I know I need to take some time to just sit and think about our trip and what I'm going to do now that I've gone and come back.  " Another traveler, in the week after arriving home, said, " The pictures online bring me back to our Tanzania family/friends in a welcoming, good way but with a sense that we are separated by such distance and culture."  The travelers set up a Shutterfly site where we are sharing photos and videos.  We are noticing that many of us took similar shots, each from different angles and perspectives. Some of the group gathered in person to share photos and watch...

Shepherd of the Valley travelers carry gifts when we visit, and we also carry funds to purchase gifts in country.  Some of the most valuable gifts we bring to our partners are gifts that bring health -- mosquito nets that guard against malaria, and medicines to supply the dispensary. Purchasing medicines and mosquito nets involves a visit to our favorite pharmacy, Acacia Pharmacy. This year, we also visited another store to order the mosquito nets.  The purchase also involves counting cash. Tanzania is primarily a cash economy.  $1600 in US dollars becomes a large wad of Tanzanian Shillings. The largest denomination of Tanzanian currency is the 10,000 Shilling note, worth about $6.25 USD this year. We purchased about 320 mosquito nets. To purchase medicines for the dispensary, we first give Dr. Barnabas and Dr. Saga (from the diocese) our budget.  This year, contributions allowed us to spend $2000 on medicines.  The doctors pr...

There are 25 people from Shepherd of the Valley who traveled to Tanzania last month.  They all carried digital cameras.  Let's just say, they each took a thousand photos. or maybe more. Sorting through those photos, what I've seen so far is....... So Much Joy. Here's the welcome when we reach Tungamalenga, and are met by congregation members who sing and dance us from the main road to the church. Here's the singing and dancing that happens as we go from the bus to the church . Here's dancing with the Maasai at Mahove. That extraordinary moment when a US sponsor meets their Tanzanian scholarship student... Interacting with the orphans at Huruma Center. Our friends at Mahove village. A picture of the end of our village visits.... Another picture of the beginning of the village visits.... Pastor John Mhekwa's wife and daughter, Addy and Little Patricia... Kristen Holien with Pas...