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The November 2007 Newsletter of
JeanWahlstrom and Marvin Kananen
ELCA – GM missionaries serving in Tanzania
Beloved friends,
November is, on average, the rainiest month of the year in the Pacific Northwest. Please, send some our way. We are in the middle of the ‘short rains’ time of year, in this case the word short means (as with money), not enough. Around us there has been some rain, no one has had enough and we have been waiting for our slight share. And we wait. Not by coincidence, there was no water in our pipes today. It’s a time of insecurity for everyone, especially the farmers.
We have one wildlife sighting story to relate: For this last week we’ve been sitting at home at night mostly in the dark, with only the TV on for light, watching those movies we have meant to re-watch. Two or three times during the showing we would stop and Marvin would turn on the light, scoop up the caterpillars who have inundated the area, drop them in the toilet, and resume the movie in the dark. We don’t recall the caterpillars being so bad before. It’s a little strange to have caterpillars lined up on the floor as if they were watching the movie with us. So, just to be sure, before any bad language was spoken, I’d scoop them up so they wouldn’t learn any bad words from the movies and then I dumped the caterpillars into the toilet, where, if they had learned any bad words, they most surely would have used them on me.
Jean’s mother, Lillian, is adjusting to her new setting in Apple Valley, MN and my mother, Nelma, is in rehabilitation learning to walk again and to trust her new hip. It’s been a month, she has one more month to go before she returns to her own place in a health-care center where she has an apartment and can watch Dr. Phil to her heart’s content.
The Form Four students have taken their tests and have left us, waiting for their results. The Form Twos are just finishing their tests but cannot leave until the 4th of December. Form Six exams begin on the 11th of February. Lives are changing as a result of these exams, but we don’t have a clue how anything is going to turn out. The Form Six mock exam (national exam preparation) results were too good to believe, so I won’t tell you that we ‘rocked’ as a school. Expect tears of anguish from the students and us when the final results come out in late May.
That’s what we’re doing: this is what we’ve done. On the last Sunday in October we had our annual baptism and confirmation service. This year we baptized 19 young women and confirmed another 21. Forty girls, may their lives be changed for the better forever. The highlight of the event was a little eight-year-old girl named Nawasa who was baptized among them.
For those of you who wonder what has happened to the father of the boy (the one with the beautiful name) who died: the father has returned to AA. Usually he comes fairly drunk, but he comes and that means that someday he will return to sobriety. Because he comes back to our meetings, he will survive. It is those who do not return who fail. He is, by the way, avoiding me for a time and that’s OK with me. I like to think the sight of me might make him sad and that’s why he’d rather not see me; but if truth be known, if I saw him I would probably break out in tears and hug him and he’s a lot smaller than I am and fears being crushed. The truth is elusive.
I do have a serious request for those who write us: please do not send a copy of our newsletters back to us. There are two reasons I say that: first, I know what that fool who wrote the newsletter said already and, second, somehow the new system that we use for our e-mails is getting slower. It takes us 30 seconds to download each e-mail we get or send nowadays, if you send us our letters back, the additional 20K message takes us to a full minute. So, please, do not send us back our letters. Thank you. Our last newsletter took 43 minutes and 10 seconds to send, that’s 2590 seconds, divided into 606,692 bits of sent mail, meaning we had a sending speed of 234.244 bits per second. Someday we’ll be in America and send at 600,000 bits a second (or whatever broad band is) instead of 234. Until then, we ask you to be gracious and merciful unto us.
Regarding life in Tanzania, the fading dollar is traumatic. One year ago we were getting 1,300 Tanzanian shillings to the dollar, two months ago it was 1,200, and yesterday I heard it was 1,085. That’s a drop of almost 17% in the last year and it’s plummeting at a current rate of 5% per month. If any of you sponsor students (or adults [or missionaries]) in Tanzania and they write to complain that the money isn’t going very far, I want you to know it is true. Pray especially for the administration of our school trying to balance a budget in the midst of an economy that is dependent on the dollar and now must find more shillings to try and pay the bills.
The newest students, those in ‘Pre-Form One,’ are here. Sixty-two came, one is returning to become a mother but sixty-one remain to become our new Form One students in January. The one who is pregnant will have an opportunity to return next year if she so desires, we’d guess that about half of them choose to return, including one who returned this year (which is why we have 61 and not 60 students). Donna Kernutt is here teaching them (her daughter Susan was a 2-year volunteer in the late ‘90s) and earlier we had our version of the NPR’s Click-an-Clack brothers, Rae and Kay, sisters in their early 70s who spent six weeks with these girls. Between these three, there is close to 120 years of teaching experience. Bless them for continuing to share there gifts. If there are any math teachers who would like to spend a couple of your dark, winter, rainy and cold months away from home and stay three degrees (that’s not a temperature) south of the equator next year, let us know.
We close now. We never write newsletters in December, leaving the Advent and Christmas seasons for you and your family and friends (of which we consider ourselves to be part). This year our new chaplain, Pastor Neema Ndooki, will be here with Jean to help lead the many worship times. It will also be a month of planning and preparation for the new year. Hopefully it will also allow time for Jean to be writing curriculum and reviewing the Form Six students for those exams. The Arusha Community Choir (which Jean conducts each Thursday) will share the gift of music at Carols by Candlelight on the 21st. Pray for that event when many Arusha people come who don’t know the Christ child as their loving Lord and Saviour. They come because they like the music and the candles. May Jesus keep coming to you each day!!!
We wish you a most blessed time of year. Another year of grace and mercy, God enabling us, we are thankful beyond words. God be with you.
Love,
Jean Wahlstrom and Marvin Kananen
Monduli, Tanzania
The September 2007 Newsletter of Jean
Wahlstrom and Marvin Kananen ELCA-Global
Missionaries serving in Tanzania
Dear wonderful people,
My promise to you in this newsletter is that we will keep it short. We did a whirlwind tour of the States, never had time enough to see everyone we wanted to see, ought to see, should have seen, and needed to see. But the doctors had their chance on us, between us we had one filling and one wonderfully successful laser eye surgery and we were pronounced fit to return. If we should have seen you but did not, we
apologize.
Next year, it is our hope to see everyone. 2008 will be our next 'Home Assignment' in which time we are to visit all of our sponsoring churches, which gives us spare time to see others. The goal will be to be in the States from mid-April to mid-June. We would start in Michigan, swing west through Iowa and Minnesota, drive back to Detroit and then fly to Seattle with possible connections to Oakland California and Winchester, Virginia.
We returned to the MGLSS campus on Friday afternoon, the Form Four graduation was on Sunday. Our 14th Pre-Form One class had already begun to arrive. Three volunteer teachers from USA will be here from September to December. Between these three teachers, there are over 100 years of teaching experience. They join our Tanzanian teaching staff, the matron serving as the Coordinator, to prepare next year's (starting in January) class in English, geography, math, Kiswahili, hygiene, community living, worship, working to prepare them up for Form One academic levels. The work of these three (Donna, Kay, and Rae) will set the tenor of the class in the coming years. They are living on campus in the new Concordia house (a self-catering duplex) with hot showers, stove, refrigerator, etc. This is Kay and Rae’s fourth pre-form one class and Donna’s second.
If this thought occurs to you, "Gee, I'd like to do that some year," be aware that Gee is a euphemism for "Jesus" and that Jean is the person you want to contact. Teaching experience, although greatly appreciated, is not necessarily necessary but the passion to help is a ‘must’. This job pays nothing: you pay your own transport and some rent. Other than those items, there are no other fringe benefits. But know this: working with these girls is a life-changing, heart-altering experience that you will cherish.
Two news-worthy items. For those who wonder about our eight-year-old Nawasa, my first glimpse of her after our return caused me to think of a racing sloop cutting through the water, full speed and on course. I looked at her walking, this former bundle of humility, and thought, "I'd hate to get in her way." She is now full of poise and pride. She'd found her course. Of her our friend Rebecca said, "I had a conversation with her in Swahili." In July she didn't know any Swahili or English. Concluded Rebecca, "She's a bright one." Said we, "Yup." Before she was born, God knew her. Before she was born, we were here teaching her older sisters. Oblivious to the ways of God, we stand humbled in the wake of this little girl and rejoice for her, especially mindful of the workings of God in her life, to which we are mere witnesses. We remain oblivious to God’s plans, but are expectantly reverent. He is God; she is Nawasa: we rejoice. Amen.
The second news-worthy item: Graduation. The main speaker was scheduled; we never knew who it was. That meant it was a 'Big Potato.' Someone who is a ‘Big Potato’ does not have to say that they are going to answer the invitation to speak, but by their not saying ‘No’ it really means ‘Yes.’ So, all preparations were made for that big someone who never came. Because they never said ‘No’ we had to assume ‘Yes,’ which is less a story about the speaker and more of an insight into how difficult communication can be. But in the end 57 students, our largest class ever, graduated from Form Four, in early October they begin their National Exams. We have released them now, they are on their own. These four years of preparation are over, now it is a time for them to stand alone. May their health hold out (imagine trying to take your national exams with malaria), may they study intensely and still get enough sleep, exercise, and peace to do well. We have no problem putting them into God’s hands, but it’s also into the hands of those who have written and will grade these exams we must trust.
A-levels return on the 15th of October to continue their educational journey. Please pray especially for the Form Six students whom have now turned the corner and are headed down the stretch, so to speak. February is the finish line for this stage of their journey, Form Six graduation on the 20th of January, 2008.
Pray for new teachers to come to teach at MGLSS, the ones God can use best in this very unique place. We especially need science and math and Kiswahili teachers.
We close now, trying desperately to keep this letter short. Be blessed in all you see and do. Life is worth living and worth sharing. Rejoice this day; for this, too, is a day the Lord has made.
Love,
Jean Wahlstrom and Marvin Kananen
ELCA-GM missionaries serving in Tanzania
P.S. No unusual wildlife sightings, but it was a joy to return home and find dog Asali, the elder, still alive and doing well and dog Macho, the younger, still as clueless as ever!! P.S.S. Jean has succumbed to the creative temptation to conduct the Arusha Community Church choir at Carols by Candlelight this Christmas in Arusha. Pray for her!! P.S.S.S. And as we send this, Rev. Dr. Jim and Pam Boston from Grant’s Pass, OR have come to rest and renew and try to resurrect our library. They will be here 3 weeks. Pray for them as well; we are so thankful to God for such folks who just come and start to work the next day.
The July 2007 Newsletter of Jean Wahlstrom and
Marvin Kananen ELCA Missionaries serving in
Tanzania
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 eleven 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, ten 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. Desparately 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 life- long ministry. The non-Christian tribalists will hate her and curse her; the Christians will cheer; and God, through it all, will bless.
The Second June 2007 Newsletter of
Jean Wahlstrom and Marvin Kananen
Serving as ELCA-GM missionaries in Tanzania
Let us in all things rejoice!
Dear friends,
It's with extra joy that we greet you this cold, dry, dusty, winter month of June. Allow us to briefly restate that on the 14th of June, the ELCA-GM informed us that they are able to support us in our current mission positions through June of 2010. (We had already announced to them that it is our plan to retire at that time.) We praise God and thank you for your generous giving because GM was not only able to renew our position, but this year they also started several new mission positions here in Tanzania. Mission is really nothing more than hearts touched by the Spirit of God to help make God's Kingdom a reality on this earth. We're glad to be an extension of your desire as we pray 'thy kingdom come' as we work together to make it happen.
Much has already been done, but many things remain 'in- process' and so is our sense of wanting more time to do more in the development of this educational ministry. Since that announcement, we've already sat over several cups of coffee to add to our 'dream list' of what further ministry we want to see happen in this place. This gives us a chance to leave the school in better shape, more self-sustaining. It is as if the cake is done and these have become the frosting years. In these coming years we will work to reach further, do more, teach more students, and build a better foundation for the future (sounds like a couple of politicians, eh? Perhaps too much watching The West Wing). We are grateful to you, grateful for your prayers, and we invite you to share in our joy. For those who wrote a note of encouragement, thank you.
Back in 2003 we made a trip up to an area just east of the Serengeti and south of the Kenyan (Kenya, from the Maasai word 'kinya' means "without trees") border, the most memorable bit of that trip was driving home for eight and a half hours before we saw another car. That's why it's called 'the bush.' This time we went from about two p.m. on Saturday to 5 p.m. on Monday without seeing another moving vehicle, although we did see one car, the Catholic priest's car, parked near the Catholic Church. We visited Lutheran churches. It's OK if the following names don't ring a bell with you, I'll use them for those who do know. We saw the first church Benson built in Malambo, he made it of sticks and mud and it was big enough to house the six Christians. Next to it was the block church, think of a garage twice as deep that would hold 120 worshipers. But then we worshipped in the new church, the third church, a pie- shaped wedge, 64 feet across at the back, nearly 90 feet from the back to the altar section (the wall behind the altar measuring only 6 feet wide), about 3400 square feet. Roofless. They have tarps spread over most of the area that billow like ship's sails, and they worship there because they are too many to fit in the old church. This is proof of evolution of the finest sort.
Later in Sonjo we saw a stone church Simonson had built; it would have held about ten people. When he built it he knew that the Sonjo would probably tear it down because the traditional leadership was strongly against Christianity. So he made it out of concrete. They did come to tear it down, but the concrete pews, rock altar, and raised altar wall would not fall. I asked him if he had done that on purpose and he smiled and nodded. He knew. Today they want a new church, those who try to hang on to their old Sonjo gods are out of power, the Christians are increasing again. The war to defeat the old gods is not over: maybe it never is, we just change their names to Wealth and Covetness and Fear, but in this 'bush' world the fight is less subtle. The war goes on, but the church is winning. It is not an overnight success story, but it is a success story.
We saw another church that seeks only a concrete floor; their church is run by an unpaid evangelist. In their church, the African light pours into the chapel through thousands of little holes in the mud walls so, with the powerful African sun seeping in, you get the feeling that you're looking up at the stars of creation. From this little church they send out thirteen evangelists (including two Maasai women) every Sunday to preach in other places of worship. We saw other churches built by Hagberg, Rausch, Peterson (I don't actually remember any churches Peterson built, but we certainly met his former students who are preaching). All the churches are overflowing. We visited thirteen churches, each needing some physical help. In some areas, wooden structures will not work, termites have found and eaten everything beneath the paint. In those places you must build with a metal superstructure.
I think I'm talking too much. We met a pastor whose parish is about the size of Rhode Island, he's the pastor with 30 evangelists, and many of these evangelists have other evangelists working under them. With him we had the honored Maasai breakfast that consisted only of deep-fried liver and tea made with milk. We returned after five days and two flat tires. In the bush we unexpectedly met two of our former students at primary schools who were teaching English: Nemoshon Kaipai in Arash and Mariamu Paulo at Esilalei. Everyone seemed to know about the Maasae Girls School. The low point on the trip happened during the service when the pastor of the Malambo parish gave me a belt. He put it around my waist and uttered these unforgettable words, "Oh, my God." The belt was about six inches too short. I do not believe he was actually commenting on God.
An underlying reason we were there is because the Tanzanian government is about to force (Jean thinks the word 'move' would be more appropriate) up to 65,000 Maasai and their herds out of the northern end of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and they will be driven north into that area where we visited. There will be conflict and anger. Perhaps these churches can quell some of the frustration and offer a place of peace. We honor the Lutheran churches and their leaders in this area who are trying to be pro-active, prepared for whatever will happen. My simple-minded and inappropriate analogy is to imagine what it would be like if everyone from Tacoma had to move to Seattle or from St. Paul to Minneapolis. The churches need to be there.
That was only five days of our month. Currently we have 15 visitors staying on campus. We had our first serious injury in that one of the supervising teachers rolled her ankle, fell, and broke her leg. She taught on a reduced schedule until the good orthopedic doctor at Selian Lutheran Hospital could cast it and get her on a plane back to Amsterdam. Life feels full and full of hope. We are here for this time. Someday we will leave, but in the meantime we will teach, reach out, and do as much as we can. It's the least we can do. We have the example of Jesus to follow.
This month, on our trip north, we saw giraffes, zebra, Grant and Thompson gazelles, dik-diks, silver-backed jackals, flamingoes, vervet monkeys, baboons, and many new birds (to us). At home we saw a hyena (Swahili name fisi, with the 'i' sounding like a long 'e') and some kind of long, leg-less, slithery creature whose existence I deny.
Bless you, and thank you again for your presence in our lives. There are many in Tanzania whose lives you touch but who you will never have the privilege to know and who will never have the opportunity to know and to thank you. We thank you for them. And the church, that great institution that sometimes drives us nuts but will carry the generations into the future, thanks you. Life is good and hope bountiful.
Love,
Jean Wahlstrom and Marvin Kananen
ELCA-GM missionaries serving in Tanzania
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