Kising'a Visit

The water team left me in Kising'a for Palm Sunday weekend after we handed the water project over to the village.  I think this was my 13th visit to Kising'a and it feels like home for me.  They even let me help clear the table or pour water for others to wash hands sometimes, a sure sign you are a host and not a guest.  LCP donated quite a bit of money for books for a library in Kising'a and I used the rest of those funds to buy a lot of books, mostly Swahili, in Dar for preschool, primary, secondary, and adults.  Anna Wihale, Pastor Wihale's oldest daughter, has done a great job setting up a library in a small room next to the pastor's house and it is getting used!  There were three full novels in the adult collection that I wasn't sure would be appropriate for a village library with translated titles of Blood and Tears, Death Denied, and The President Loves My Wife.  I checked with Pastor Wihale first and he said they were OK and the Tanzanian author was well known.  It turned out that those were the most popular books in the collection and Joyce and Anna Wihale and one of the church leaders helping prepare food were reading them during my stay.  Helps to have books that people want to read, even if they might not be too enriching.

Anna at the library desk with book for recording check outs, the books on the right shelves are English and dictionaries and the books on the left shelves are Swahili.  Anna's son, Godlove, is peeking at me.

 Pastor Wihale's house has two grandchildren now.  Joyce's son Heri is now two and a lot of fun.  He is very verbal and repeats anything I say.  He calls me Babu (grandfather) and now they are calling me Babu Mzungu (white grandfather).  Rushwa is now in Kindergarten, Stefano is in 2nd grade, Grace is in 6th grade, and Amani is in his first year of Secondary at Ukwega, a government boarding school.  I brought a couple frisbees and a bottle of soap bubble solution and both were great hits with children.  Frisbees are great because boys and girls can play together.  In fact the girls seem to have better eye/hand coordination because they play net ball (like basketball with passing instead of dribbling)  and the boys play soccer.  The boys might do better playing frisbee with their feet.  The soccer influence shows up with the soap bubbles too because children try to hit the bubbles with their heads.

Heri wearing Babu Mzungu's hat.

Watching music videos on the Pastor's phone.  Most of the solar power goes for charging phones instead of storing in the battery for lighting at night.  Phones are more important, they get by with other light sources at night.  Rushwa (far left) is almost as big as Stefano (second from left) now.

Pastor Wihale working with Rushwa and Stefano with Addition flash cards.  The boys really enjoyed the exercise and Rushwa did really well for kindergarten.

Playing frisbee, something new in Tanzania.  I also gave a frisbee to Brian in Dar.

It was great to see Sajeni.  He was a sponsored student of ours and is very active in Kising'a with many projects.  He found the spring water source and laid the first pipe to show it could bring water to Kising'a.  The engineering students had a great time with him and he is very proud of the result.  He cleans the water tank every 2-3 weeks to make sure water stays fresh.  He is also budding mature avocado stems to young plants so they start producing fruit in 2-3 years instead of 10-12.  He has a shamba (farm) and also plants pine trees which will grow to harvest for lumber in 10-12 years with the great growing season (US trees harvest in about 40 years).  A South African forest company called New Forests has also been in Kising'a for a few years planting eucalyptus (utility poles) and pine trees (lumber).  This has significantly raised the level of economic activity in Kising'a as evidenced by more dukas (small stores) and many piki piki (motor cycles).

Sajen showing his avocado seedlings with grafted budding stems from mature trees.  They need light but rain must be kept off of the plants so the plant does not rot at the graft.

 Church leaders had come to Madisi preaching point from all 7 preaching points for a two day seminar.  The first day was conducted by Pastor Chaula from TEE (Theological Education by Extension) a training program for evangelists and church leaders and the second day by Pastor Wihale.   I spent some time during the seminar with an american volunteer at Kising'a Secondary school and came to the sessions at the end to greet the participants.  The volunteer has been in Tanzania since September and was happy to have an american to talk to.  I was amazed at the number of church leaders involved in the seminar, including evangelists, youth leaders, womens group leaders, choir leaders, and education.  After the seminar the group formed a circle outside the church to sing before adjourning.

Church Leaders Singing

I asked Pastor Wihale if they did anything special for Palm Sunday, expecting a procession with palms but he told me communion.  They did have two baptisms though.  Gary Langness from BKB was preaching  at another parish and ready to preach on Palm Sunday, but he was asked to preach his famous stewardship sermon instead.  One Easter tradition they have that we do not is Easter Monday, it is a holiday with church services.  Baptisms are popular on Easter Monday and one year Gary Langness preached at Ipogoro and baptized 65 babies in one service.  The service started late, around 10:30 and lasted until 1:30.  The youth and women choirs sang throughout the service.  Pastor Wihale preached the sermon but he asked me to talk about the importance of reading and the books in the library.

Two baptisms and one family had three older children who had been baptized in a different church who were also received by the congregation.

 Youth Choir, 20 members aged 18-25

Women's Choir with offering goods to be auctioned.

This is the rainy season, especially at higher elevations like Kising'a.  The bus I had planned to take back to Iringa stopped in Lulanzi (Bariki Mhanga's home town) and did not come to Kising'a on Thursday and Friday because of bad roads.  I was happy to see better weather and the bus arrive on Saturday and then again on Sunday.  This is a new bus called Florida because the old Kising'a bus is undergoing repairs.  Pastor Wihale and I took the bus back to Iringa together, leaving Kising'a at 4:30 AM and arriving in Iringa about 8:30.   The bus was almost what we would think of as full when we left Kising'a but we kept picking up people and goods for the market along the way.

Kising'a bus ride is a far cry from Florida Tours.  The big sign in the background is for Tigo cellular and the caller is telling someone we have arrived at the bus terminal.  Cell phones are huge here and kising'a has places in the village where you can get "network" or cell reception.

 Worship is now in the new church and the parish wants to use the old church building as an expanded library and community center.  The old building has sound walls but needs new iron sheets for the roof and a redone floor.  I helped Pastor Wihale purchase 50 iron sheets and 20 bags of cement for this project.  He returned on the bus with the sheets and 2200 lbs of cement loaded in the cargo holds.  Vehicles are often overloaded here, capacity is limited by space and what you can attach, not by weight.