Concordia College

July 2007 Newsletter

Dear friends,

It’s good to start the month well. We had a full moon and we had the first graduate of the Maasae Girls Lutheran Secondary School be ordained as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania, Diocese of Arusha Region. Neema Ndooki is now the Reverend Ndooki. And then there was the issue of not being able to get any of our grads into medical school, and starting in September we’ll probably have two. Anyone reading this letter who knows the Tanzanian educational policies just said, “Wow!” Of remote interest, the word paralinguistic is an adjective referring to the gestures which accompany speech – when we say “Wow!” on this one, we burn off some calories paralinguistically.   
      
But the “Wow” got better when we received some student teachers from the University of Dar es Salaam, including two of our graduates. Suddenly I’m in the faculty lounge and realize that I’m surrounded by Rev. Neema Ndooki, Selina Leyan, Selina Rotiken Olting’idi, Esther Piniel, and Neema Melami. This old puppy’s heart just keeps beating as fast as that puppy’s tail can wag and I think this profound thought: “Sweet!” That’s about as profound as I get, and it’s a really nice profundity.   
        
Those five are part of the 96 Form Six graduates at the Girls School. MGLSS also had about 250 Form Four leavers (those who did not continue on to A-Level), 270 current students. The school has educated (or partly educated) over six hundred young women. Wow! Come September, we add 60 pre-Form One students.  
         
To run a school of 275 students we have a faculty of 18 teachers that includes the two missionaries (us) while the rest are Tanzanians. Imagine our surprise when the University of Dar es Salaam sent us 11 student teachers! We tried to find enough places and managed to keep eight of them, the other three found places in the other schools in the area. Two of those student teachers we kept are the previously mentioned MGLSS grads, Neema M. and Esther.        
   
Then, 10 days into the month, the newly ordained Rev. Neema got her assignment. She has been assigned to be the chaplain at the Maasae Girls Lutheran Secondary School. And, friends, if you think we burned off a few paralinguistic calories celebrating and yelling “Wow,” you should have seen us when that word came. Some dreams are bigger than others: to get MGLSS grads back as teachers was a big dream; to get some grads into medical is another; but to get Neema assigned to the school was about as big as we dare dream. Jean will gladly assume the role of Assistant to the Chaplain. Hear this, for the last nine years we have had one weekend off each month, that being the Maasai worship weekend. We don’t expect all weekends off, but each month we’ll gladly take two or three off. This last Saturday Jean was almost giggly: Neema was doing the service. Jean didn’t need to do a sermon, Neema picked the songs. Jean got to do something she’s wanted to do for weeks – correct her papers! 
 
We celebrate the appointment of Neema Ndooki to MGLSS. Jean can be that teacher she started to be in 1968 (actually, we both started that year). This can be her focus. There is so much curriculum stuff that has been floating in Jean’s head under the subheading “Intentions” that she may now be able to accomplish. In this first year Neema will probably take just one of Jean’s classes, which might reduce Jean to only 24 periods a week, and focus on counseling and worship leadership.  Selina Leyan, with a minor in religion, has already taken the Form 3 Bible class.  Jean, being Jean, will assume some other roles to help with the running of the school.  She can now assist the administration in some much needed projects and start training others for those miscellaneous duties no one could ever really put in an official position description.  
         
In these summer months (our winter, about the same temps as Seattle in June), we’re getting a lot of visitors. Know this, you are welcome. We love people; we love to be around those who are experiencing Africa for the first time. You visit Europe, you experience Africa. Consider coming. At most, we have slightly less than three years left here. Consider coming. Desperately seeking plumber, electrician, and carpenter!            
A part of the experience of Africa is the lovely unknowns that seem to appear daily. On Wednesday during the middle of a stirring lecture at Moringe Secondary School on Word Formation and Affixation, my Form Five class rose en masse and jumped out of windows and slammed into each other as they raced out the door. I wondered, “Am I that boring?” Only one student remained sitting, directly in front of me. He observed to me, “You didn’t run.” I said to him, “The earth has a right to tremble if it wants to. The tremor is like a bee, had it been a swarm, I’d have run too, just outside.” It took five minutes for my class to return. I explained a bit about earthquake safety and wisdom, which did not include jumping out of windows (ground floor) but to stand in doorways, and to avoid power- lines, trees, and panic. It didn’t help. The tremors lasted five days, hitting a maximum magnitude of 5.4, with no known damage done beyond a few bruised psyches. Yeah, life is an adventure, there is no doubt. But the highlight was that the government announced the big quake was going to hit at 4 p.m. that afternoon, local time, and everyone but the teacher believed it. By the way, when the time came, no 4 o'clock quake was noticed. Things are quiet now.   
 
As ever, we thank you for your support, caring, prayers, tears, and laughter. Like a Georges Seurat painting (the guy who had all these colorful dots), it is only when you step back and see his paintings or our lives that you can see that we are all part of a bigger picture. We, that’s you and Jean and I, are those dots. And the painting, that belongs to God. Someday we will see it clearly. Again, thank you.            

Love,            
Marvin Kananen and Jean Wahlstrom            
ELCA-GM missionaries serving in Tanzania    
       
P.S.  Then, as we were preparing to send our newsletter, we got another of those fast-breaking news items. One of the reasons that our MGLSS graduates are so important to their community is that they can make a difference in ways we, as outsiders, never could. On the day the newsletter was finished, two of our graduates got directly involved in taking in and sheltering an eight year old bride from her husband. She had been delivered to him. The child is eight years old (but I think she looks younger)! There is no way this should ever happen, not even in the Maasai culture is such a thing accepted. Perhaps it is that these Maasai families are trying desperately to hang on to their old ways but, in this case, the uncle sold the girl for cows. The cows had been delivered on this arranged marriage, only the girl was not delivered to the uncle’s age-mate as usually happens, rather she was given to his age-mate’s fourteen year old son. It is possible they thought the children would thus be committed to the Maasai way of life and not education, so that these might continue the in traditional Maasai way of life for another generation. But no one, not ever, should treat an eight year old thusly.            

Because this practice is illegal in Tanzania, the government authorities went and took the girl from the new family. The girl is now with Neema Ndooki, our new pastor. She will begin primary school here in Monduli; she will not return home. She knows no English or Kiswahili, only Maa. Right now it is our graduates who are taking care of the girl. I spoke long ago of our graduates being the new breed of Maasai warriors: Educated Women. Well, friends, this day we saw these new warriors rise up and defend their own. It is something that we could not have done. It is a good story, it is a tragic story. And, of note, it is terrifying to know that because the girl was delivered, she is now considered to be married and for all her life he, this boy, will be considered her true husband, but for now she is free until she reaches 18 (or if she stays in school longer). These children were pawns in a very desperate situation. There will be repercussions, especially toward Neema Ndooki, but our graduates did what was right. Please, keep them in your prayers. The girl’s name is Nawasa, let her name rise up to God in the prayers of others.            
 
And then, because we didn’t mail this newsletter, the story continued the next day. Two family members came to Neema and said that she had to return the girl to her husband. Neema said, “No.” They said that they had put a curse on Neema, that no one in the village (Maasai villages are not villages, they are the bomas in a particular area) would give Neema a drink of water if she asked. This is the expression of the curse. Neema assured them that she was all right, the girl was safe (and hidden on the school campus at the time of this confrontation) and the girl would not return. The family left in a huff, claiming that Neema’s behavior had cursed them and the aunt and uncle, the ones who sold the girl were already sick. Neema promised them that the girl would grow up educated and a Christian.            

One week after the taking of the little girl from her husband, Neema’s brother died. Some here will say his death was the power of the curse, others will say it was the infection he received as a result of a one-car roll- over accident in which he was a passenger. Sadly, the accident happened on the day of Neema’s ordination as they were driving to her boma to celebrate. Truth is usually defined by the interpretation of the facts, not on the facts themselves. We can only grieve.          
 
This story is not over, but it feels as if this newsletter will be like a season-ending episode of Dallas or The West Wing. Stay tuned for the August newsletter, I suspect the story will be continued. But please, pray. Neema, only in her third week after being ordained, has begun to make her reputation. How she stands in these times of great trial will decide her lifelong ministry. The non-Christian tribalists will hate her and curse her; the Christians will cheer; and God, through it all, will bless.