Dan and Sue in Tanzania: Kising'a Visit

I went to Kising'a last Friday to visit our partner village. The car I rented has a bad clutch that sometimes would not engage in any gear when the car is stopped. A couple times it took about 5 minutes of trying to finally get it in gear and I thought I might be stranded. Much of the ride does not have cell reception but there are quite a few vehicles on that road. On the way, I picked up two men and two women heading to Kising'a and Isele. This caused quite a bit of amusement when I arrived in Kising'a with two men who did not speak English. That night at the house they must have laughed about it for more than 5 minutes wondering how we communicated. It is nice to be back in Kising'a and Pastor Candidate Peweni, from Tumaini, was still there and she helped with English and is a delight to be with.

Pastor Wihale's living room decorated for my arrival.

Last Christmas, Sue and I brought a small solar power system for the Pastor's house that would charge a battery during the day to run two small fluorescent bulbs and three LED lights. It can also be used to charge cell phones. The family has decided that this last feature is more important than having light and they are using the system to charge phones for people in the village. People pay 500 shillings to charge a phone and they can charge about 10 in a day, thus making up to 5000 shillings a day or a little more than $3. This is another lesson that how we think about things is not how a Tanzanian might think about things such as the importance of having solar lights at night when you could use a candle.

Phone charging station with universal adapters.

I arrived mid afternoon and watched a football game between Secondary School students and the village. I met a group of Form I and II girls from the Secondary school and was pleased to hear pretty good English.

Secondary School girls shouting Safi! meaning Fine! for every good play.

Younger spectators eager to have their picture taken and see it on the camera.

The next morning, we went to the preaching point of Kidamuka to see the new church they have been building. I didn't trust the car so we used the shortcut foot paths which take you down one steep slope and up another. We passed a tree nursery for pine seedlings. Kising'a people plant pine trees to harvest for lumber and the parish has been harvesting their forest to pay for church construction along with our donations. Recently, a company called New Forests has come to Kising'a to plant larger tree plantations. They built a new maternity ward at the dispensary for a benefit to the community. This is probably a mixed blessing because the landowners in Kising'a will not benefit as much as they would planting trees themselves.

Pine cones drying to produce seeds for planting.

Tree nursery in the valley where water is available.

Pastor Wihale, Peweni and evangelists in front of Kidamuka church.

Peweni on my right and Wihale on my left inside the freshly painted church.

Flower and unripe fruit of naturally growing Passion Fruit on the shortcut path.


This poor thing grazing in a burr patch with a beard of burrs. Reminded me of my dogs.

Kising'a parish was having a special Marriage, Family, and Children program that weekend led by Peweni and Pastor Wihale. Women from all the preaching points had gathered for the program and fellowship together. The met in small groups to discuss family matters and did a lot of singing.

Women discussion group.

Preparing a sweet beverage from a local wheat like plant. This same beverage can also be made alcoholic but of course not for the women's group. Maybe we shouldn't complain about our Church kitchen.

Progress on the new Church at Madisi, the main preaching point of Kising'a. Lumber for the church from the parish forest was stacked at the Pastor's house and completion was expected by the end of this year. Next step creating two concrete beams.

In the afternoon, we went to Kising'a Secondary school for the graduation of the Christian Student Fellowship Form IV students. The school graduation will be next week. The ceremony was a bit long but included a lot of singing and dancing. They had a fun fund raising auction where people could bid on something to be given to others by saying the amount of the bid and the person it was for. I bid on a soda for Peweni and then she turned around and did the same for me. I met the headmaster and teachers the following morning. The teachers are all Form VI graduates themselves so like many Tanzania Secondary schools you have high school graduates teaching high school students. Brian, an American volunteer from Idaho had just arrived to teach English for at least 4 months and he might stay for as long as 2 years. We met his sister Katarina last year when she was at Kising'a teaching English for 4 months. VST acquired a lot of text books last year and Kising'a school is now well supplied. The bigger problem is recruiting teachers with teaching degrees and teacher and headmaster turnover. This is a common problem at most Tanzanian secondary schools and remote village schools are in a difficult position.

Student receiving her certificate with reusable garlands for the photo op.

Water is still an issue in Kising'a. The pump we installed a couple years ago is not working because the seals need to be replaced. Sargent, a student we sponsored, has found a natural spring high up a nearby mountain. He built a water intake at the spring and laid about 2 KM of one inch pipe to bring water to the edge of Kising'a village using gravity flow. The water looks pure and people have been drinking it with no ill effects. This has a great potential for connecting to a central tank in Kising'a with distribution lines running to different parts of the village. On Saturday, I will go back to Kising'a with the Iringa Region Water Engineer Byemerwa, a friend from past work at Image and Ipalamwa wells, to measure the elevation at the source and evaluate the flow of water available. We will also try to bring someone from Kilolo Star to replace the seals in the pump.