Tanzania Mission Build 2011

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What's this all about?

Greetings to all who have hit the web site for the first time or for the 30th time. We are getting ready to embark on our seventh construction trip to the Mission District of the Morogoro Diocese and we will be there from May 18-June 4, 2011.

The following are members of the team and request your thoughts and prayers.

• Cathy Engelkes, Peace Lutheran, Edgemont, AR

• Don Holladay, United Church of Christ, Norman, OK

• Paul Kleine, University Lutheran, Norman, OK

Travel Schedule, & Daily Journal:

May : 18-20: Leave Dallas 3:50 PM on the 18th and arrive at Dar es Salaam at 7:00 AM. on the 20th. The team will work on chapel builds, attend worship sites and monitor water well drilling.

We will again (God and the internet willing) provide a daily account of activities. Please pray for the team and check them out at: http://www.ulcsc.org and click on Tanzania Build.

DAY THIRTEEN (I think) June 1, 2011

The days go faster and faster and the surprises come quicker and quicker. A few days ago Bishop Mameo suggested that I might enjoy visiting Sokoine University in Morogoro which is known for agricultural research. I told him I didn’t have transportation that day and thought the deal was off. At 10 AM, yesterday, Raymond Dunia, showed up with a car and driver and off we went. Raymond didn’t know why we were going either, so I said to myself, “Self, this is not likely to end well”. We showed up at the university, were met by a very bright young woman name Felicia Byryn who was the communications director.

What followed was a fascinating tour of the rat training facility they have at Sokoine.and the rats are trained for two specific purposes: Land mine detection and Tuberculosis detection. The rat species is the Gambian Pouch rat that is common in Tanzania and is one large hummer about the size of a small opossum. They are gentle and have excellent characteristics for this line of work. First the rats are trained to accept human handling so they are very easy to move around. Then, they are trained in a glass box to pair a clicking sound with a reinforcement of some kind such as food. After they will respond quickly to clicks they are trained to match the click and a particular odor such as TNT for land mines or TB Sputum for TB detection. After this slow process, they are trained on a tether to locate and identify the TNT odor in a small box that is placed in an open area. Each time they move closer to the target they get reinforced with a clicker and a food re ward. Eventually, they will be reinforced ONLY when they locate and identify the actually target by standing at attention at the spot to enable the land mine folks to dig up and disarm the land mine. For those of you with a psych course or two, you will recognize this as straight forward Skinnerian operant conditioning training. And, it works very effectively.

Thousands and thousands of land mines have been buried around the world following wars and thousands of children and adults are killed and maimed each year by stepping on those mines. The rats make a rather inexpensive and safe way to remove those mines. The rats take 6-8 months to be trained at a cost of 10-12 thousand dollars per rat being trained. Over four thousand rats are currently in cages in the lab waiting to be trained to save lives. In a similar fashion, rats are trained to identify people who have TB by placing small cups of saliva in front of the rats and having them identify those with the peculiar TB odor. The handler told me that blood tests took about 15-30 minutes and the rats could identify up to 50 positive specima per hour.

I was NOT expecting to learn this when I came to Tanzania. Every day brings surprises.After lunch we drove to Mikumi Park with Herb to view the animals in this large preserve. And, we were not disappointed. While last evening’s viewing was pretty average. The early morning crew found two prides of lions and we went back after breakfast and found them again to the delight of all, especially, Herb. He loves this place and I swear he would drive around all day and night until he ran out of gas unless we urged him to the park’s exit.

The lodge itself is simple and beautiful. The thatched roof building in which we slept had a quiet charm; quiet, that is, until about a half hour after the lights were turned off for the night and an elephant started chomping on the roof of my cozy cottage. With all the abundant green grass around the park, exactly why the dry, coarse thatch seemed like a good idea to the elephant is known only to him. The crunching noises lasted for a half hour and , meanwhile, I could see lights flashing wildly from left to right and up and down. There is a young Massai man who doubles as a night watchman and it is his task to talk the elephant out of such silliness and to get him to the outback. The man was trying the silent, light flashing method and eventually it worked because the chomping stopped. We saw this morning where the critter had broken down a limb or two from a tree but, other than that, the two legged animals stayed INSIDE the cottages and the four legged ones stayed OUTSIDE.

The dinner was excellent and we all had a really good time. During dinner, Cathy and I took advantage of this opportunity to present a gift o Herb that we have been holding as a surprise for a long time. A couple of months ago I shared with those in my e-mail directory who answer to the name of Friends of Tanzania that it would be a really nice gesture if we could collect enough money to send Kirsten and Herb to the Holy Land following his retirement from the active ministry there. We were able to collect $5,000 and this will be enough to send both of them to the Holy Land in grand style. I had asked Herb just 3 days ago if he had any places on his “bucket list” and, of all things, he mentioned he would like to go to the Holy Land someday. Thanks to this dedicated group of folks this will happen sometime this fall. Herb was floored by the gift and was most appreciative. We have pictures to show our presentation of a “fake” check to him at the Lodge. What a fun thing to do for a man and his wife who have meant so much to the Tanzanian mission field.

This afternoon we drove back to the Seminary and passed the very dangerous shop of Hilary the Ebony carver. I say, dangerous, because it is hard to resist buying more stuff than we can haul home. Also, we have noticed that Don Holladay has a bit of an addiction problem and Herb was serving as an enabler as we drove by several miles of hemp baskets for sale at ridiculously low prices. Cathy and I helped him through this bad stretch of temptation and made it safely to Hilary’s shop where it should have been safe as we were only picking up previously ordered objects

Cathy and I had our backs turned for less than a minute but that was enough for Don to fall off the wagon and he caved to temptation and bought a basket. Less than a minute, mind you, and that’s all it took. He came SOOOOOOOOOOOO close.

Tomorrow we pack in the morning and head for Dar in the afternoon where we are staying at the Pentecostal Hostel The next morning at around 8:30 we are scheduled to board our plane for London. We have a long lay- over of 15 hours in Merry old London. We think we are safe there as we don’t think there are baskets to further torment Don and his habit.

I hope to write briefly from there but, in case I don’t, thanks for reading. It has been an incredibly pleasant trip and Cathy and Don are two wonderful colleagues on a mission trip. I highly recommend either of them to you.

Blessings, Paul, Don and Cathy.

DAY ELEVEN, May 30, 2011

Today was a pretty simple, straight forward day. Robert, Cathy, Don and I went on a water-issues tour in which we saw a ring-well, a conventional well and several water catchment systems. The ring well is in the bottom of a beautiful valley where water gradually accumulates just below the surface. Robert had hand dug a well 3 ft. in diameter and about 15 feet deep. Then they poured concrete rings about three feet in diameter and three feet high to slow lower one at a time to enclose the ring well. After installing a pump, the women were pleased to pump water and carry it home. With all the rains they have been having the well had water up to two feet from the top of the well so they were in tall clover.

We then went to see several catchment basins or cisterns that are now being used to collect rainwater from chapel roofs. A complete concrete 10,000 liter tank (about 250 gallons) with guttering costs about 800 or 900 dollars, a far cry from the usual $13,500 that we have been spending on water wells. Of course, during the height of the dry season these systems are useless but they do allow the people to use good, safe water during perhaps 9 months out of the year.

Enroute, we stopped to see Hilary, the wood carver to pick up our animals and, of course, to be tempted to buy more beautiful carvings from Hilary. Don and Cathy scored higher than I did but I did manage to buy a couple of little things that I think the suitcase will handle. If there were no weight limits on suitcases on airplanes I know we would each buy ourselves poor because the items are hard to resist. I call the ebony Tanzanian Cocaine.

This afternoon I did some record keeping and summarizing water well and construction accounts while the young whipper snappers were led by Robert up the mountain side for an extended hike. They reported wonderful views and a great time was had by all.

This evening, we went to see Emi, the widow of our dear friend Luka who passed away last August 27^th. Since that time Emi has delivered their second child, Herbert Luka,who certainly looks like a baby Luka and is a very healthy and energetic baby. We took turns holding him and trying to talk with the other 3 or 4 children who have come under Emi’s care during the past year. Luka and Emi had adopted 3 children from Luka’s brothers who had died and now another girl has come to live with her because she has no home. We had a lovely chicken and rice dinner and the family had devotions led by Baraka and Omari the 10 and 12 year old boys in the home. They are the most courteous and polite young men and help Emi with everything from bathing the baby to serving the food and cleaning up afterwards. It is a real treat to know that Luka would be proud with how his extended family has pulled together. How they will fare with Herb no longer on the scene remains an unanswered question.

And, now to bed after a simple and enjoyable day. Tomorrow we head to Mikumi to see a few animals in the national park. We stay over night tomorrow night so there will be no blog. I will try to write one final one when we return Wednesday evening.

Be well and be blest.

DAY TEN May, 29, 2011

Today was as short and sweet as yesterday’s was long and complicated. We took a 45 minute trip to the adolescent prison for a worship service and a brief tour of the prison facility. The road was clear and dry and a pleasant relief from yesterday’s monster trip. The church was not under the trees but in a nicely decorated church that held about 125 people comfortably. So, we enjoyed a day of contrast.

The man in charge of the prison greeted us very graciously and brought us to a large room where 35 inmates were seated on the floor. A sub set of about 15 of them sang several songs of honor and thanks to Herb and the interesting thing is that they had written both the words and the music and included in the lyrics all the things Herb had been responsible for bringing to them;including mosquito nets, pharmacy equipment, etc. etc

Then we had tea and were greeted by the pastors and invited into the front row of the church. There were no fewer than 8 choirs who sang ranging from an adult choir with some 60 + agers to, a young male choir from a nearby vocational school to a typical Massai children’s choir. Suffice it to say that this was the best collection of choirs in one place any of us has heard at any time, any where. Also, the entire church acoustically was alive and when you have an entire church made up of NOTHING but choir members except for three tone deaf Wazunus (That would be Don, Cathy and me) the entire church rocks with melodic beauty. Every line of liturgy was sung with a sense of timing and tonal quality that can not be described, only applauded. I videotaped as much as I could so, let’s hope……

The dance moves of EACH separate number are choreographed and the steps are electric. To ask a Massai to sing with out dancing is like asking a bird to chirp with its mouth closed. Sheer beauty…………….. I had tears running down my face as I listened and I think I was crying for me because that is probably the last time I will hear a Massai choir this side of heaven. God MUST give them top billing, maybe the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would be a close second.

After the service that had 285 people crammed in the seats and under the trees outside we saw all 285 of those people come to an outside compound to honor Herb. He was read accolades, presented necklaces, floral wreaths, scepters, a beautiful hemp basket, more necklaces, a sheep (I’m not kidding )and two chickens. The two chickens came home with us but the sheep had to find other arrangements because we had to put our foot down somewhere!

That’s it for now. Tempus Fugit! Plus, the trip is going very quickly.

Don, Cathy and Paul

DAY NINE, May 28, 2011

I am writing the day AFTER we survived the worst road conditions that I have ever seen. The Drive to Mabgrawere will remain etched in my memory for life as the time when I am pretty sure that everyone, including Herb (although he won’t admit it) believed that nine people would spend the night sitting up in a crowded Landrover. Doing justice to each of the mud holes in which we found ourselves would require the writing skill of an Hemingway so I will focus briefly on one on the way in and the last one on the way back when we crossed a river that was rising. Bridge you ask? Who needs a bridge?

The reason we were worried about our return trip is that we had sent around three hours negotiating our way through mud holes and river crossings to get there. Emmanuel, Herb’s trusted assistant did yeoman service on the way in by running barefoot in front of our landrover and pointing Herb left or right or straight ahead as he tested the ruts for depth and squishiness. Before the day was up Emmanuel logged nearly three miles of fast pace running through six inches of water and mud. On the way IN we had 4 or 5 places where we just flat out could not move backward or forward with a four wheel drive vehicle. The clutch was starting to smell of graphite and the batteries seemed to have less and less interest in turning over the heated diesel after repeated starts and stops. We had to shut off the engine to keep from gassing the helpers who were digging mud out from under the wheels with a machete. (Shovel? I thought you put in the shovel.) An additional concern of mine from other trips was the possibility of ebony stumps that can shred a tire in seconds. Sure, change a tire with a bottle jack in six inches of mud and sand, no problem, or as they said in Animal King,” Hakuna Matata”.When it was clear that the 3 or 4 strong helpers could not move the vehicle they began calling for help on cell phones. One after another struck out but one tall Massai evangelist who held his phone 3 feet over his head and shouted into it, raised somebody somewhere and they promised to send help. No one came. So, the same three or four guys cut branches, put them under the wheels, pushed, pulled and prayed and we gradually eased out of that spot crossways and partially in a cornfield.

I could repeat these details about 4 more times but I think you get the idea. When you’ve seen one mud hole in Tanzania you’ve basically seen them all. And, so we arrive to be greeted by a dozen or two Massai worshippers who were delighted to see that we had made it. I thought I heard a local herdsman laying 8-1 odds that we wouldn’t show but, Herb has not missed a service in 50 years of negotiating these non-roads and he wasn’t about to start in the last month of his tenure.

The service itself was a very traditional Massai gathering and totaled 176 brave souls who had, no doubt, walked for miles to come to this service because they knew that Herb was making his last trip (for now) through his beloved Mission District before it is folded into five other districts in the Diocese. These people came to worship and to honor Herb. We were greeted with the customary tea and warm greetings. We were surrounded by children and others who were pleased to be a part of Herb’s “Michael Jordan Tour” as I call it.

An unusual occurrence at this service was the large number of Massai warriors or Morani, the 16-24 year old group, who often herd cattle or otherwise occupy themselves rather than attend services. They may have smelled goat roasting on an open fire or they may have wanted to be a part of the festivities but they, really turned out in huge numbers. After the service, they gave gifts of necklaces and other gifts to Herb and to us and Cathy received bracelets sewed to each of her wrists (well, not sewed TO her wrists but you knew what I meant). In general, Cathy receives most of the attention from the Massai and they seem to enjoy that a woman is along on a building trip. Don and I stand around serving as convenient book ends as they take turns lavishing gifts on “Mama”. But, who’s jealous…………….Don and I can always buy nice necklaces in Morogoro sometime, anyway.

But, I am dodging the question of our return trip. I had so hoped to hear Herb say, “Let’s go back by way of the expressway. It’ll save us a good half hour”. We had started the worship service very late (Late IS a relative concept), continued long and finished later. We begged to start our return as soon as possible because the sunset doe3 hous NOT follow Herb’s suggestions and the river was rising. Yeah, like THAT would make a difference. In for a penny, in for pound is an old English expression which meant that come Hell Road or High River, we were going to finish the service, down to the very last line of liturgy. Even thought we had been fed when we arrived, served roast goat before the service started, we were served a complete meal when it was over. The concept of hospitality that includes three me Oals in three hours does not include room to allow people to leave early to avoid being devastated by floods and impassable roads. Or, at least Herb, wouldn’t suggest that possibility.

We knew that we faced the same 4 or 5 mud holes that had our names on them plus the river continued to rise. The Massai warriors sent about 3 or 4 people on a short cut route to meet us the first time we would get stuck to help us out; and, they arrived about the same time we did. The first mud hole we negotiated with the help of about 8 people in all and Emmanuel continued his “pace car” status by jogging ahead of us at a fast clip. We hit the bad spots and actually had better luck making it through them with the help of the additional pushers We struck out though when we hit the river. Herb accelerated just hard enough through the gap to make it tantalizing close before we slipped back down and could make it up either bank, forward or backward. The muffler was about to take water and we waited as additional local folk came out of their bomas and negotiated a price up front to help push. Five thousand Schillings (three dollars) here and ten thousand Schillings there and we had a few more pushers. We still couldn’t make it up either side and the sun was bailing out on us rapidly.

They would not allow us Westerners to get out of the car and we sat there providing more dead weight to push until Gallant Don rose to the rescue He watched the sun starting to set, thought about the possibility of spending all night with 8 other people crammed sitting up in the Landrover and made a command decision. He pulled off his shoes and socks, gave us his watch and billfold and went over the side. The 200 lbs. less weight and the 200 lbs. more push was just what we needed. By the slimmest of margins we made it up the opposite river bank and didn’t stop for the next 3/ 4 mile as Herb wouldn’t lose the inertia he had going. We waited just before we hit the dry road and finally Don and the other 11 pushers came up covered with mud from stem to stern. That’s right, it took 12 pretty husky guys ALL they had and we had nothing to spare. We made it out of the muck with 15 minutes of daylight and very little else left. Emmanuel was really spent after his pushing a dond marathon effort

So,……………….we made it back to the Seminary and none of us had anything left to write or do anything but hit the shower and go to bed.

Truly, it was an opportunity to visit a very remote Massai village and see the warmth with which they greeted us and, especially, Herb. What else did we learn? I’m not sure. We may have learned the difference between courageous and foolhardy is in the eye of the beholder, but, we probably already knew that. One subtle message that was NOT lost on the Massai is that the Gospel and the Lord’s Supper must be something very, very valuable if people are willing to risk so much to bring it to them. If it could be mailed it, it may not be worth much. We definitely did NOT mail it in.

That’s it for now. Don’s valor put him well beyond All-Star status and has me thinking he may be ready for consideration as an Hall of Fame Candidate. But, there are still a few more days.

All is well. Cathy (the sought after one, Don (Or, Hero Don, as we like to call him) and just plain Paul

DAY EIGHT, MAY 27, 2011

Today was a simple day of worship spent in Mugaha. We arrived with Herb about 10:30 after he had driven from Dar leaving at 5 AM. He has spent the last few days on Zanzibar with Wartburg students from Waverly, IA and will now be with us for the rest of the time. He still teaches three days a week so he will be occupied some of the time.

Mugaha has a partially completed chapel that they have started and have run out of money They walked us a quarter of a mile through the woods to see the brick walls of a pretty sizable building (27 ft by 52 ft.). Luka and Thomas had begun this building also before Luka died and the congregation is, of course, hopeful that we will help them with it. They have paid for all the materials up until this time and they are worshiping in a public school.

The primary school has 620 children and all the children in Tanzania wear uniforms designating their age. Primary kids are in sharp white shirts and blouses and blue pants and skirts for boys and girls, respectively.

The church service had an interesting contrast of music. On the one hand they ran a small gas generator to crank up cheap speakers and amps and sort of blew us all out of our small classroom/church. On the other hand, there was a trio of two women and a man who sang three numbers with the most beautiful blended voices you have ever heard. The younger folks, bless their hearts, are trying to emulate the western world and the pop music culture and I can’t blame them for trying.. but……………………as the trio finished their second perfectly blended number, I turned to Don and said, “Try improving THAT with amplified sound”.

Tonight, we were invited to dinner at Raymond Dunia’s home in Morogoro. Raymond is a good friend of many of us who worked with us as we built chapels since 2005. Bishop Mameo and his assistant Tengengeza were there as well as Robert and Linda Spitaleria. We had a lovely dinner of potatoes, rice, fried chicken, peas with water melon for dessert. Really, really good

Mameo had lots of ideas for future plans with Ark-Ok Synod for building and water wells and I told him we would have to see how these plans could be worked out in the future.

Tomorrow, we worship under the trees so more adventure awaits us.

All is well, Cathy, Don and Paul

DAYS SIX AND SEVEN, May 25 & 26, 2011

ICE…..ICE……

Pepsi’s for lunch…………..3 ice cold Pepsi’s for dinner…………..Oh, oh, There goes that darn alarm clock. Is it morning already? That was a dream?? Sigh!

We have just returned from two days spent building on our second chapel at Msota. The weather was clear, no rain, no flat tires and a fair amount of excitement, but I am getting ahead of myself. Robert and his wife, Linda, took turns reassuring us that the lodge where we would be staying would be quite nice. But, as Don has pointed out to us, in this country we live with a high degree of uncertainty EVEN in situations where certainty is predicted. Robert thought he had heard from someone else that the new lodge at Msota was really quite nice. Linda said, “That’s nice dear, but I would still take a towel, toilet paper and soap..”

Our build was to be exactly as it was at Ubena; we were to build and install 5 trusses, again without a power saw and cutting everything with Don’s Magic Saw that was starting to lose some of its magic. Gnawing through wet, tough 2 X 4’s that actually measure 2 inches by 4 nches was bad enough but a few of them had been used for concrete forms and that will take the magic out of any piece of equipment.

We sailed along nicely yesterday and built about 3 ½ trusses. We headed for our lodge and found it to be quite nice, sort of. It was new, relatively clean, had a shower, Squatty-Potty, and wash basin all in the same, small “bath” room. And, it DID have towels, a little toilet paper and soap so Robert won that round. We set out on a long, muddy walk to town from the motel to find dinner. I will share you the excitement except to tell you that we had lunch at the best place in town and where we were served brown rice and meat sauce. We went back there to check the dinner fare and were told they had white rice and meat sauce. A couple of us couldn’t stand that abrupt of a menu change so we pursued another spot. We wound up with some nice fried potatoes and eggs plus an adult beverage to ward off our “tiredness”. I like that phrase. And, it was nourishing.

The hotel had a generator with power only from 7 until 11 pm so I fired up the ceiling fan and went to sleep at 9. The power, fan and everything else quit at 11 (I suppose since I was sleeping) and I awoke at 6:06 to beat my 6:15 wake up buzzer on my cell phone. Which reminds me…..A couple of mornings ago at the Seminary I was awakened to hear my cell phone crying frantically for me to awaken. It is pitch dark until six AM so I reached through my fuzzy mosquito net, grabbed my cell phone in the dark and punched every button I could find and kept turning it around in my hand trying to find the off button. Finding no success using the fumble and punch method, I turned on the lights and found to my embarrassment that I had been fondling my 2 inch diameter tin of breath mints rather than my cell phone. Sigh!!!

ICE…………. An ice cold Pepsi for breakfast…….2 ice cold

Meanwhile, back in our Msota motel, we assembled outside in the courtyard where they park all the guests’ vehicles inside the locked courtyard. The night before they assured us those two menacing vehicles behind our trim little landrover were workers who would be up and gone by 6 AM. Bet me! At 7 no one was moving and we started trying to rouse someone, anyone, to get those hummers out of our way because we had chapels to build. The truck immediately behind ours was a Tonka Truck on steroids. It was a big earth moving vehicle and had to have been 14 ft across 12 feet high. The owner was said to be “bathing”. He didn’t come down for a half hour so I said, mostly to bluff somebody into action, “Robert, jump into that thing and get it out of here”. Robert asked for the keys, the “bather” yelled down that the keys were under the floor mat and Robert climbed up into the monster truck and with much help from all of us, inched the vehicle out into the yard. And, so we were free at last! Ask and ye shall receive. Our day of building ended well but had some excitement. The trusses are lifted up one end at a time and placed up on 10 ft. high brick walls of the church. They are allowed to hang there, inverted, until we install them one at a time by trying to get the heavy side to defy gravity and be put in place and braced. This is not an easy task. The trusses are heavy, awkward, and our poles that we use to flip the trusses over backwards are heavy 18 ft. 2 X 4’s. It takes 10-12 people of reasonably good strength and skill or 24 Americans and we didn’t meet either of those requirements. We struggled valiantly to get the first one up and finally did so, but it wasn’t pretty. Thomas located several young men and hired them to help and gradually a system fell into place and the remaining trusses were installed by 2 PM.

The joy and satisfaction that we all felt when this tough job was done is hard to explain. Thomas said that he would have the purloins up and the metal roof installed by Saturday. The congregation could and probably will worship there on Sunday with a dirt floor and no altar until they can raise enough money to pour a concrete floor and build some benches and an altar.

As we were trying to drag our tired selves to the car, the evangelist of the congregation and an elementary teacher who is a member there, asked me to please take a picture of both of them in front of their current church. It is a stick and mud structure about 10 feet X 20 ft and they have worshiped there for several years. I took the picture and then asked them to stand in the door way of their new church and they proudly posed under the blue sky and newly installed trusses.

And, boys and girls, THAT’s what it’s all about. Why do we spend nearly 40 hours in airplanes or terminals flying to Africa? It is to see the look on the young evangelist’s face and the school teacher’s face, and, perhaps, particularly, the smile on the six or 8 year old boy who squeezed into the picture between the two men. Maybe he will get the most out of this church. I would like to believe this will be the case.

The school teacher wanted me to know that they really appreciated all the Americans who were sharing their funds with them to help make this chapel become a reality. They KNOW you have given them this gift and I hope you will all take a deep bow. You deserve it.

That’s it for now. Don, Cathy and I are doing well. And, as I told them the other day, not only do they both have All-Star potential, they may be a “lock” even at this mid point of our visit.Stay tuned. Cathy………………Don……………………………..Paul

DAY FIVE, May 24,2011

There is absolutely no way that I can do justice to all we have experienced today. We experienced the highs and lows of an entire trip to Tanzania all in less than 12 hours; We experienced the joys of creating the possible and also felt that pain and anguish that is common place in our region of Tanzania.

We began the day by stopping by a church that was on the way to Ubena where we are building a chapel. Robert had heard the sad news that the evangelist of this region and his wife had been expecting their first born child and then lost that young infant child. Apparently, the mother had contracted malaria and when this happens during pregnancy the baby will be born suffering from malaria also. The disease was too much for the baby to survive and the parents’ joy was turned to the sadness of planning a funeral for later in the day. The mother is still struggling with malaria and will need our prayers.

Moving on to our building site, Cathy reminded us of the maxim that “Death is a way of life around here. And, how true it is! I am reminded of my Mother’s comments as she saw one of her fortunate friends, “Yes, she didn’t lose any children.”

Saddened by the brief visit, we returned to the task of the day which was to finish three more trusses and then get at least two of them mounted on the 10 ft. brick walls. First order of business, however, was to pick up the lumber we had stored for safe keeping at someone’s shed in town. A light rain was falling and the 2 X 4 boards are already treated and weigh a ton. We unloaded the lumber on the busy highway and then schlepped them all up the slippery slope again as we had done yesterday. There seems to be a rule that you have to handle each piece of lumber 4 or 5 times before it can be used.

With everyone working double time we got that five trusses finished and then began the death defying feat of mounting them on the brick walls. The assembled trusses are really well designed and well built but are they ever heavy! We lift one end with poles and sticks and every thing imaginable and then get that end on the one wall. Then, we really get all 12 or 14 people involved in lifting the other end on the opposite wall. Now, repeat this stunt 4 more times Truly, these can be scary times because a 400 lb. truss is just waiting to swing around and whack a half dozen unwary workers.

Our lunch was some fantastic fruit that Robert had purchased along the way. We had osage apple, mango to die for, and a couple other surprise varieties of fruit. The fruit when they are in season taste like nothing I have ever had.

We mounted trusses between 2 or 3 pretty heavy rain showers. We moved close to the brick walls of the church to shield us somewhat from the rain but we still got soaked each time.

Then, the sun came out and we went at it again. At quitting time we had mounted two trusses and were pretty pleased to pick up the remaining 2 X 4’s and load them back on the truck for the 3rd or 4th time and take them back to the little lady who was keeping them safe.

We THOUGHT we were on our way home but NOOOOOOOOOOO. When we were traveling about 55 miles per hour with several people on the back of the truck and four of us jammed in the front we blew a front tire. Robert kept it on the road but there was absolutely no place to pull over so he got as close to the ditch as he could but we were still about 2 feet on the high way. We cut branches to strew along the road to warn on coming traffic. The traffic was heavy and large buses and trucks came whistling by way to close to our truck for comfort.

Of course, we had a spare! But, the jack for this big truck won’t lift the axle high enough so they had to do it in two stages and finally got the big tire changed. Two Muslim truck drivers passed and stopped a quarter of a mile past us and walked back to help. One of them crawled under the truck and worker like crazy to help us get going again. We thanked them profusely and we were on our way. They clearly saw the Lutheran name on the side of the truck and that didn’t matter to them. I really appreciate the examples of Christians and Muslim cooperating in Tanzania because there is no reason those two religions should be at war with one

another.

We drove about 5 miles when someone yelled from the back of the truck that the tire we had just installed was leaking air like crazy. Robert headed for a shallow ditch on to a dirt road that kept us away from the traffic this time. Our helpers attacked the problem logically. We have two tires on each of the back wheels so we will borrow one. The problem was that the studs started spinning and the lug nuts could not be removed. O.K. we’ve got two tires on the other side and we will borrow one of those. About that time our Muslim friends passed us, recognized who we were and honked and waved wildly…………..but didn’t stop this time. I guess they thought one good deed per day was sufficient.

We had better luck with that dual tire and put in on the left front and made it back to the seminary. Whew! The day felt like a week but we had arranged to take Robert and Linda out for dinner and so we did. Fighting our way through cold showers, we changed quickly and we had the best Indian food in Morogoro that I have eaten in a long time. We also added an adult beverage for medicinal purposes after such a difficult day.

Tomorrow, we drive 2 hours to Msota, where we will do much the same thing.

EXCEPT, we are to take a change of raiment and stay in a lodge in that village. We have no clue if they have water or electricity but Robert thought he had heard it was pretty nice. Linda, the pragmatist, told us to bring a towel, some soap and, above all, a roll of toilet paper. Doesn’t sound like 4 Start accommodations to me! And, there will be no blog tomorrow night. I do not believe those Spartan facilities are likely to be WiFi equipped.

The group is really getting along well and bonding. Today, Don looked at a truss being built and offered this gem, “If it hadn’t been for law school, I’d be on welfare.” You don’t get that kind of honesty at Walmart’s

Blessings, from Cathy, Don and Paul.

DAY FOUR, May 23, 2011

Today went as advertised……………….pretty messy but we achieved nearly everything we needed to do. First off, we went to Morogoro to make a brief visit to the Bishop’s office to meet his staff. That took about 15 minutes and then we went back to Seminary to get the BIG truck and head for the work site. We stopped along the way for bananas and tangerines for our lunch and also picked up 3 Tanzanian helpers and also picked up 18 sixteen foot 2 by 4’s that in this country really ARE 2 inches by 4 inches. The lumber had to be stored at someone’s home to keep it from getting swiped.

Forty five minutes later we arrived with our lumber and then the fun began. We parked the big truck on the side of the road inches from tipping over in the ditch and inches away from the highway. We had to schlep every 2 X 4 up a slick, muddy embankment because there is no road that gets to the church. Also, the tools and also our lunch and also our water bottles.

Before we started working we waited for a worker to cut down a 25 ft tall tree that they left grow INSIDE the walls. It is interesting to watch them attack the limbs and then the trunk with nothing but a machete that looks like the old corn knife that we used on the farm. We dragged the limbs outside and we were ready to build trusses.

The first truss always takes very, very long, especially here. Much discussion goes into each measurement and it is important to get it right. We put up stakes and stretched string to mark the outline of the truss. Then, we cut and spiked it together and used it as a template for the remaining four trusses.

None of this should have taken all day except that every cut had to be made with a hand saw that Don Holladay was tasked to bring with him. He has been requesting extra points for bringing the most valued piece of equipment on the site. He even asked for a picture as he formally presented his Magic Saw to Robert. In some ways, we have reverted to where we were 7 years ago. At Lubungu we cut every truss with a handsaw. Then, I had purchased two Milwaukee battery operated framing saws that made light work of truss building. Now, it appears both chargers have been blown out; Suggestion was made that people confused the 110 volt and 220 volt out put of the transformer, and, YEAH, that might make a difference. So, we are back to square one, chewing our way though much lumber with a baby hand saw. Sorry, Don, the Magic Saw that you were so thoughtful to bring with you.

We had two trusses just about done and the rain came. We tried toughing it out but we soon got drenched and ……………………yes, we carried all five of the unused 2 X 4’s DOWN the slippery slope that now really would have made a great mud slide for kids.. We took the lumber back to the storage shed and, drenched and muddy beyond words, we oozed our way back to the seminary in time for a shower and 6 PM dinner.

The shower was rather interesting in that the first 5 gallons or so that came out of the shower head was completely muddy. It soon cleared up and I threw my jeans on the bottom of the shower and stomped them relatively clean. Hey, you do what it takes.

A couple of quick humorous asides happened. When we picked up the stored lumber a sweet looking Tanzanian woman looked at me and asked Robert in Swahili, “Does that old gentleman have enough energy to do this kind of work? Of course, Robert translated it accurately when I could think of a dozen ways he could have told me what she said and I would never have known the difference. Robert mumbled something about always valuing honesty in all things but I told him this honesty thing can get you in serious trouble sometimes. Does the question, “Do these jeans make me look fat” sound familiar to you?

Then to top off the story, I told Robert to tell the lady on our return that the “old man had collapsed and fallen in the ditch so we just left him there” And, so he did. To her credit she looked very concerned and said they would go look for him until Robert told her he was joking.

NICE!

Another lovely touch indicating our team chemistry occurred when I was trying to negotiate the slippery slide with an arm full of tools in both hands. Delightful Don insisted I put down one armful of tools and he held on to a tree and took my hand and said, gallantly, “Paul, I’ve got your hand and I won’t let go, trust me”. I survived the event and Don admitted on the way home that it was so rewarding to have me trust him because, as an attorney, he was not accustomed to that.

I hope you can detect the total joy and camaraderie that we have in our small group. Everyone of the three of us has made a minimum of 5 trips to Africa and that means a great deal.

While our progress might seem slow, you would need to be here to have seen the 6-8 Massai leaping to do each and every task. They anticipate what needs to be done and each will tackle the dirtiest or heaviest job without flinching. The pastor who just yesterday led a large congregation in a joyful and worshipful service and honored Herb Hafermann for his 48 years of service joined us. He rode up on his Honda motorcycle and has excellent carpentering skills. He grabbed the Magic Saw and handled a 23 inch cut on a brace and completed it without stopping.

When the deluge hit he rode off in the rain on his motorcycle after assuring us he would return tomorrow. This same pastor let us in a deep felt prayer as we began our labors.

I must admit we all missed Luka very much.. Each of the last 6 years, Luka has been there to spearhead the operation and to spread joy to each of us. His death leaves a tremendous void but…………………THE MINISTRY CONTINUES.

Tomorrow, we jump back in the crowded truck (four of us in the cab of the truck) and have another go of it. We were stopped today for having too many people in the cab but Robert very humbly reported our mission and our need to get to work and he waved us by. That could have cost us 30 bucks. Let’s hope a different state policeman is on duty tomorrow! Blessings to all from, Cathy, Don and Paul

Day Three, May 22, 2011

I knew it would start getting interesting and today it really did! Sundays, of course, are days of worship and sometime after breakfast (which is as definite a starting time as Herb ever gives you), the 20 Wartburg students, their 2 instructors and our stalwart team of three joined in a circle and Herb asked me to offer the prayer. I thought I had a pretty good prayer and had covered most of the possible things that could go wrong, however………………after we piled in Herb’s Landrover, he noticed a low and leaking tire and we had to get out, stand in a steady drizzle as Emmanuel changed the tire. However…………..(notice a trend here), the spare was flat. Not to worry, Emmanuel went to the shed where Herb keeps 3 or 4 spares and picked up a live one and got the tire changed.

The road was terrible which is as good as roads get in this part of the world. The grading scale for roads starts with Terrible at the top and works through Miserable, Impossible and You’ve Got To Be Kidding at the very bottom. In a about an hour or so we arrived at Lulenge which has a well established congregation that has been in operation for around 15 years. It is an excellent church building that should house approximately 180 people but, today, it had to be pushing 280-300. The service was very full with several choirs singing 4 or 5 numbers each. Again, the impeccable pitch quality of the young singers amaze me. I told Don to point out the first kid he heard singing off key and he couldn’t find even one. I don’t understand that uniform singing quality. There MUST be a tone deaf Paul Kleine or John Bredeson somewhere in the Mission District but I have yet to find them. What a treat!

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Each journal should have a lead article and I’m torn between two candidates. I could tell you how Herb was richly honored by the congregation for his undying devotion to them for the entire life of the congregation. Or, I could tell you about the calf I saw that had six legs. O.K., let me tell you about the calf with 6 legs!

About a half hour before church MAY have started, Herb tapped me on the shoulder as I sat having tea, milk and flies with Cathy and Don. He simply said, “We need to go with this man. It won’t take long”. These invitations never end well. After about a hundred yards through the bush with two local Massai, Herb asked me if I had ever seen a calf with 6 legs. As I recall, I haven’t even seen a calf with five legs but, I digress. We walked one half mile up and down hills, through the pasture, over a small creek and past a couple of herds that I had so hoped had been blessed with the calf with multiple wheels. I could not be that lucky. We walked and walked and I learned that my humor plays better cross-culturally than it does at home. I was having trouble keeping up with Herb and these two marathon running Massai so I yelled up ahead, “Herb, if this dumb calf has six legs and I have only two, couldn’t the critter come to ME rather than the other way around?” Herb translated this comment to my Massai cowhands and they laughed pretty hard so I may try some stand up comedy later in the trip.

But, the calf was something to behold. I say it was a calf but it was actually a young bull of about 60 pounds and it had four perfectly formed legs working as they should work. Plus, the bull had one leg growing out of its left shoulder and it was flung over its right side and a corresponding leg growing out of its right shoulder and was flipped over its left side forming a perfect X on its backbone. In no way was the animal impaired by these two “spares” that it carried around.

The second truly beautiful part of the day was the service itself. There were many men in attendance which is somewhat unusual.. The Morani (age 18-28) group are difficult to attract to the church but there seemed to be a good range of ages of men in attendance. Children were everywhere and there were about 20 baptisms today. The pastor of the congregation really seemed to have great rapport with his parishioners, using humor and many effusive comments and gestures to involve all age groups. Herb did his usual scintillating job in the sermon and is truly a joy to watch. He moves around the crowded sanctuary stepping around and over young children jammed in the center aisle. He preaches, cajoles, jokes with, challenges, smiles, frowns, strokes his beard and, based on the rapt attention of his audience is really reaching them where they live.

Following the lengthy service there was a time of celebration for Herb, and then the pastor motioned for me to come forward and, feeling like a dufus, I came and stood in front of the altar while the Pastor said many things and I heard the word Americanos a few times so I gather he was talking about our trips of chapel building and water well drilling. Herb whispered to me to come sit in the chair next to his at the altar and that they wanted to honor both of us. We each received gifts of necklaces and bracelets and Herb received a beautiful scepter with beads around an ebony carved scepter. They then opened a lovely elder’s cloth and wrapped it around both of our shoulders to signify that we are brothers. I guess age has some perks. And, it was a beautiful gesture.

Tomorrow, we start building at Ebena. We have seen the worksite and it’s not a pretty site on which to build trusses. There is a lot of loose dirt and after today’s huge rain we may be schlepping around in the mud. We have to load up 16 ft. rafter material on the big truck, bring it across the highway from the site and then carry those 16 footers across the highway and up a muddy slope where we hand them to others on the high side who take them the rest of the way. Sound bad? Yep, I think so also. Stay tuned for much moaning and groaning tomorrow night.

That’s it for now, love to all and Don and Cathy continue to be, quite possibly, All-Star Material.

We’ll see how the week proceeds.

Paul, Cathy and Don

DAY TWO

The second day in country was a very leisurely one that allowed us to visit the cattle auction. Don Holladay was particularly taken with all that was happening and he wore out his camera batteries on animals, humans and a combination thereof. The cattle auction occurs every two weeks and people bring their cattle to buy sell or swap. Big time buyers from Dar es Salaam bring their 18 wheelers to buy prime Massai beef for the restaurants of Dar. But, the main function of the market is to bring together the small cattlemen to swap stories and cows and attempt to improve their herds. Also, stuff from China is also for sale alongside nicely done crafts of knives, scarves, fabrics, etc, etc.

Cathy and I enjoyed hearing Don say that he was not interested in buying anything and before the day was up we waited while Don did all his Christmas shopping for the whole family.

In another clever attempt to part us from our money, Hilary, the ebony carver, came by the seminary to bring his wares of ebony animals, bracelets, religious figures, etc. All three of us dropped a few coins in Hilary’s lap before the hour was up.

And, to end on a really high note, the electricity that had been announced to be off from 7 this morning until 11 tonight came on magically at 7 pm. Of course, we all had taken ice cold showers BEFORE 7 but who’s complaining. Let’s see if it lasts through this writing.

Now, lest you think all we came to Africa for was to buy stuff and go to the cattle auction let me assure you our play time is over. Tomorrow is Sunday even in Tanzania and we will go to a distant worship place with Herb. Then, starting Monday we have 4 straight days of building so we’ll see how that goes. This old man may need a nap in there somewhere.

Following our never ending plane trip, it was a joy to report that we all said we slept wonderfully last night. I know that I was in bed at 10:30, hear a light rain at 12 and the next thing I knew I was late for breakfast. I love when that happens.

Blessings from the triad. I think I have more data on the question of why three person groups are so dicey in the social psychology lab. I’m kidding, the three of us are getting on fabulously and all are enjoying our first days in country. Let’s see if we are still speaking to each other as the days go by.

Paul, Cathy and Don

DAY ONE, May 20, 2011

The Three Musketeers arrived in Dar es Salaam in reasonably good shape considering we were in airports over 33 hours from Norman To Dar. Robert and Linda Spitaleri were there to greet us and our luggage which all arrived at the same time! Miracle of miracles. Robert drove us to the Seminary where we were greeted by Herb and other folks we recognized from other years.

Don, Cathy and I are getting along TOO well. Yesterday, we decided we needed a truth censor because each of us is capable of making up stories and it is exceedingly difficult to tell when each is kidding and when each is telling the truth. I have volunteered to serve in that capacity but so far I have only one vote but I may be gaining an ally in Cathy.

We unpacked and took a couple hour nap before we were to meet Rose and Bishop Mameo at lovely outside dinner at the Seminary. There were 14 Wartburg students, their teaching staff, several fascinating people from Germany who tolerated my Frankenmuth, Michigan stories reasonably well. We had a chicken dinner with mushroom soup and ended with a choice of pineapple, watermelon, ice cream and cake. I pounced on the ice cream because that is the last we will see until we return to the states.

Tomorrow we hit the ground running with a visit to the auction which is a combination of the old OKC stockyards, a rural Walmarts and a garage sale or two thrown in.. These are held every two weeks and provide the men a chance two get together, swap a cow or two and tell a few stories before they pick up a pair or two of shoes for a wife or two. The shoes are plastic straight from China and will last about as long as it takes to go to the next auction in two weeks. Herb is usually greeted as a long lost relative and we need to pry him loose to go see an evangelist’s house built by a missionary from Bavaria. Then we rush back to the seminary to meet Hilary the ebony carver and to place or orders for animals and other goodies.

We are all dead tired since I didn’t sleep a wink in the 33 hours away from home. I just can’t sleep on planes any more but I did get several hours rest because the American flight from London to Dar was only about ½ full and I had a whole row to myself.

We do have electricity but no internet access so this may be a sketchy blog unless that problem gets straightened out. The problem is there are simply too many people using too little bandwidth. A few years ago there were only a couple of us running around with laptops. Now, they are everywhere.

Don and Cathy send their regards. All are well and eager to get started.

Blessings, The Three Musketeers

Paul Kleine, Cathy Engelkes and Don Holladay.

Here's What We Do and Have Done:

We will be building chapels together with our fellow Lutherans of the Morogoro Diocese of Tanzania. The first picture shown is of the original church and the second picture is of the church that we constructed several years ago to replace it. Our current chapels are built with concrete blocks or bricks and represent very substantial improvements over earlier models. The cost of each church remains approximately $6,000 because the local help make the bricks and concrete blocks on site. And, the local congregation provides about half of the final cost. I want to thank any and all who contributed to our fund raising efforts this year. For those of you not familiar with our trips, each of the team members has paid $3,000 of his/her own money to make the trip. In addition, we have worked to raise money for construction costs, well drilling and famine relief. Every penny collected will go to the particular purpose for which it was given. Individuals and congregations all across the Ark-Ok Synod of the ELCA have contributed and, once again, Thrivent for Lutherans has provided us with matching funds of $1,200 for which we are grateful. We hope to have around $8,000 for building materials that will allow for the construction of two chapels in the Chalinze District that borders on the Mission District where we have worked for the last 6 years.

And…………………..this is a current model. Quite an improvement wouldn’t you agree?

In addition to chapel construction a great deal of effort has gone into raising funds for water wells. While the wells are drilled by professionals as you can see from the size of the rig below, our financial support and over sight provided throughout the year is vital to the water well ministry. And, as you can see from the completed well, the villagers are thrilled with the gift of safe, clean water.

And, here is what we are aiming for in village after village:

If you wish to contribute to any of these causes, please contact Paul Kleine at pfkleine@ou.edu.