Last Part of June

The mission transfers missionaries every 6 weeks. We always hate to loose any but this time we lost another good one. Elder Madise transferred  to Mombasa. 

He has really learned Swahili well and that is one of the big things we need here. But we had an American Elder transfer in so we felt good about that. His name is Elder Herr. 

He is from Tucson, Arizona. He will be going home in August. We were told he did not speak Swahili but he bore his testimony in Swahili at meeting the first Sunday he was here and did a great job. The members all clapped for him. They really get excited when an Elder learns to speak their language. We look forward to getting to know him.

The first big event of this half month was another trip to Elias’ village. He had invited us to attend the circumcision celebration for his young brother some time ago. But we were unable to attend. Elias was invited to the celebration of his young Father’s boys and he invited us. We debated whether to go or not as the long wild drive last time left us with not much desire to go out there again. But we really wanted to see the celebration so we decided to tackle the trip again.

Sister R. decided to wear her Maasai jewelry.

What an experience. You may have seen some Maasai dancing on a TV documentary, but this was the REAL THING. They were not dancing for us at all. The ceremonial dancing is what they have done for centuries. And they didn’t even acknowledge that we were there.

We arrived quite early as far as the celebration was concerned so we just stood (or sat) around and talked for about 3 hours. Elias told us there would be people coming from miles around to celebrate way into the night. As we visited, men would wander in and sit or lay down on the ground and visit. They had put up a little tent sort of thing and they invited us to sit in the shade there. 

The kids were really fascinated with our camera.

Elias explained a lot of what was going on.

The village is the yard where the houses of a family are. It is surrounded by a fence to protect the people and animals at night. There is a house for each of the wives of the man of the village. Near the door of each house they had dug holes and stood trees up for the number of people of that house that were circumcised that day. 

The boys that had been circumcised were all in a little house near the entrance to the village.

They have the men cook off a ways from the village. This is the head of one of the goats they were cooking.

Women are not allowed to go where the men are cooking. But since Sister R. is a Mzungu (foreign person) she was able to go there.

Then at some point the men all go out of the village and over to that area and eat. When they are done they bring food for the women and children. We noticed several women starting to put fancy bead work on. Sister R. tried to take a photo and they got a little upset. 

They said they were not ready yet. Actually most of them did not want their photo taken at all. They would move behind something when we tried to take photos.

When we arrived we had noticed young men dressed in black laying outside the village under a tree. They started coming around and we noticed these very fancy head dresses some were wearing.

Being dressed in black signifies that they have been recently circumcised. They must wear black and not bath until the father tells them to change to the red clothing that the men wear. Elias told us sometimes the father will require a whole year of wearing black. They all gathered together on the far side of the village and started chanting and dancing across toward us.

Then we heard singing off in the distance and Elias told us the women were coming. Several groups came.

They would sing and move toward the village stopping every little bit and doing the jump and stomp thing.

Then when they came into the village they went to one of the houses and were invited in to eat. They had brought gifts of food for the house.

One of the men wandering around was wearing very fancy bead work. We asked if he was someone special. Elias explained that he was to marry one of the girls of this village. We asked where the girl was and Elias said he had not seen her. During all this we noticed a couple of girls come out of one of the houses and they were dressed in black. Elias told us one of them was the girl that was to marry that man. He said the two girls had also been circumcised that day.

After the groups of women had come into the village and visited each of the houses we heard more chanting off in the distance. Soon there was a group of men with spears and shields coming toward the village. They were chanting and dancing all the way. They came into the village and into the center animal area. Then the women with the fancy beadwork joined them and they all chanted and danced.

By then it was getting late and we decided we needed to head for home so we didn’t have to drive in the dark. As we were getting ready to leave more young me dressed in black showed up. And these young men had painted their faces with white.

Just as we were about to leave we heard this horn sound and soon another group of men came.

Elias told us they would celebrate all together way into the night. This is really a big thing in their culture.

On the way home we saw a camel herd, 

a huge giraffe and several other wild animals. The giraffe was right in the middle of the road and wasn’t going to give way to us. We whipped out the camera and tried to get a picture of him through the windshield but later discovered we did not have the camera on. It was really something to watch him trot along. It was like he was in slow motion.

The next big item was a trip to Nairobi. Elder and Sister Tuttle were having their farewell party and we wanted to attend. 

They were the couple we had ridden with when we went to the couple’s conference to Lake Nakuru in Sept. We have stayed with them in Nairobi and they have visited us here in Arusha. We also had been invited to teach dance to the YSA group there in Nairobi.

While there we decided to see a couple of the highlights of Nairobi. There is a Baby Elephant project there where they rescue baby elephants from the wild when their mothers are killed by poachers or die of some other cause. They had some very young ones.

And some older ones.

They feed them human baby formula and they drink a lot of it. They would empty these containers in just a few seconds.

The babies require a lot of care. One of the caregivers has to actually sleep with them at night and feed them every 2 hours. They keep them there until they are about 3 years old, then they try to reintroduce them into the wild.

Then Sister Rydalch’s highlight of the day. The giraffe park.

On Friday we taught dance to the YSA. They really had a lot of fun.

We taught for 3 hours. That’s a long time for a couple of old people. The next day we were pretty tired and sore.

We really enjoy our visits to Nairobi. The couples that serve there all stay in an apartment building they call “The Nest”. So when we visit we stay with one of the couples and get to know them much better. And it is such a boost to our moral. We get lots of ideas and a spiritual lift every time we go. The couple replacing the Tuttles are on their third mission. And this one is right back to the same mission, same apartment and the same assignment as they had last time in this mission.

First Part of June

Started off the month with a couple of big bangs and it just got better from there.

The Missionaries had talked about another street board session and we finally got it together on June 2nd.

Street boarding is rather interesting here. There are street vendors all up and down every street on both sides. Even some of them on the road. So we just sort of blend in. But there is pretty good interest and a lot of people stop by.

Then that evening we had a birthday party for Elder Mpahlele. We had a good time together. 

That’s a candy bar by the way, not real money. 

This group of missionaries really laugh a lot when they get together. They seem to really enjoy each other as a group.

We have wanted to go to Zanzibar since we arrived here in Tanzania and this month we finally got to go. We decided to save some money and take the bus to Dar Es Salaam rather than drive.

In whom do we trust?

That was quite an experience. We have learned that the rule here is, the people earning a living from driving (mostly transport of people) have the right of way. And we do mean, “HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY”. They pass on the right or on the left with no regard for whether there is room for them. If you are in their way they will honk and you better move or they will run right over you. If there is a line at a light they will pass the whole line and run the light. Just a day or so ago we were turning right (which is like turning left in America) and a DolaDola (look up Matatu on the internet) came around the facing traffic and crossed our line turning and almost hit us head on. Well, we have also learned that the bigger they are the more right of way they take. Several times on the bus, the driver would pull out to pass with oncoming traffic. If they had not pulled off the road there would have been a head on collision. And in most cases there is not much road to pull off on. Motorcycles travel most of the time on the edge of the road so big buses don’t even consider their right to travel. They will pass them and force them off the road with no regard at all.

We had the 2 front seats so we could really see what was happening. It was interesting to note the front windshield.

The whole thing was held together with that sticker. And when it rained the water would come streaming down the inside of the windshield.

But we were still able to relax and enjoy the fact that someone else was driving. It took 12 hours to get there so we didn’t arrive until way after dark. Then Elder Noll was caught in traffic and didn’t pick us up for another 45 minutes after we arrived.

The next day Elder and Sister Noll had a full day planned for us. We visited the fish market. What an experience. The fishing boats come in early and unload 

and people gather to clean the fish and sell them to vendors. 

They even have auctions for some of the bags full of fish.

Elder Noll is always talking to people about the church wherever we go. And he usually gets a referral or two for the missionaries.

In one area they cook and sell fish of all kinds.

And we saw some really interesting shells.

We then visited the Cultural Center. They had houses of several of the 120 tribes here in Tanzania. And the guide told us all about the customs of each tribe and how differently they build their houses.

Then we were entertained by some native dancers. They were really energetic and made us a little nervous at times.

That evening we got together with Elder & Sister Worthen and Elder & Sister Noll and played some games and visited about our missions. That is always a boost to hear what is going on in their assignments.

The next morning we were off to the airport to fly to Zanzibar. It was a very small plane like the one we flew on to the Masai Mara. 

The flight was only about 20 minutes. So we were in Zanzibar quite early.

We hired a van to take us around to see the sights. We went to a monkey park and were so close to the monkeys we could have touched them. 

But the guide told us not to.

Then we visited a Mangrove area. They are trees and shrubs that grow in swamp areas close to the coast.

Then a forest of Mahogany trees.

We then visited a spice farm. That’s what Zanzibar if famous for. The guide would pull off a leaf of a plant and twist it and ask us what spice we thought it was. We only guessed correctly a couple of times.

We learned a lot about spices. We even learned about lipstick.

Then one of the guides climbed a coconut tree and we had fresh coconut milk.

They made all kinds of things for us out of palm leaves.

In the afternoon we went wading in the Indian Ocean.

We stayed at the an American Government house. There is a member of the church that lives in Dar and works for the government and he was there on the island and invited us to stay with him. Beautiful house on the edge of the ocean.

Wc could walk down the cliff and be right on the beach.

Then we had a great evening eating on the water’s edge at a nice Italian restaurant.

The next day we went to what is called “Stone Town”. It’s the old part of town established in 1830.

It was a trading center for spices and slaves. We visited a church built over the slave market. They have preserved some of the chambers that slaves were kept in.

We learned a lot about how badly the slaves were treated.

Zanzibar is also famous for it’s doors. 

We noticed these spike things on the doors and when we asked about them they said, “They are to keep the elephants out”. We laughed and they said, “No, really, that was what they were for”. They kept the elephants from pushing on the door.

Had lunch there in Stone Town.

Then we headed back to the house to get luggage and on to the airport to go back to Dar about 4:30. What a great experience and a great get away. We were really able to relax.

On Friday the Noll’s had planned another full day for us. We went up the coast to a town called Bagamoyo where the YSA Conference is planned to be held. Another slave center area. We visited a church and museum there. 

We really enjoyed that as we had time to take in the whole history of the slave thing.

On Saturday we headed back to Arusha. Another exciting bus ride. Didn’t get home until about 8:30 PM. But what an enjoyable week. We get such a boost from our visits to other couples in the mission. We learn so much and come home with renewed ideas and enthusiastic to try them out.

The next highlight was that we were able to pickup the passport for Tausi, our Sister going on a mission. We told her on Sunday that we had it and she was so overwhelmed with emotion that she just broke down and cried. She wouldn’t even take it. We found out later that she had pretty much given up on the idea of a mission because the passport process had taken so long. She has been working on it since February. She had been saving money for quite some time to pay for the passport and when the process seemed hopeless she spent the money on something else. She works cleaning for a company here in Arusha and like most of the people here she barely makes enough to survive. When we finally got the paperwork done and she needed to pay for that she didn’t have the money. We advanced her the money and she begged her mother for money to pay us back. She told us it was really tight at their house but she was able to pay us back. We really saw the sparkle come back into her eyes when we gave her the passport.

The next week was pretty much our regular routine. We are spending a lot of time at the immigration office trying to get passports for the members preparing to go to the Temple in Johannesburg. We also have 3 other members that are preparing to go on a mission. So between getting our lessons ready, giving the lessons and the time spent at the immigration office we come home every day totally exhausted.

The volunteer group from Provo, Utah is here for the summer so our Sunday meetings are really full. We barely have enough chairs in the whole building to seat everyone for Sacrament Meeting, not to mention that we don’t have the room. But we love it because a lot of the members come more regularly just to meet them.

We have had some really good lessons at our Missionary and Young Single Adult classes. We see some of them becoming much stronger. We just had 5 young members graduate from Primary into Young Women. We have not had any young women age members since we came last year. So Sister R. has been trying to get that program off the ground here. The President of the Y.W. has to work on Sunday so she has only been to church once since the first of the year. And the First Counselor has been sick and only comes once in a while. So the whole load has fallen on the Second Counselor. And she is actually a young woman herself. She just turned 17. But she has been attending our Institute/Seminary class and has really become strong. She has really taken over with the Y.W. and we feel very good about that.

We are loving the work here and REALLY loving the people. The Gospel blesses their lives in so many ways. It make us appreciate more each day what we have in the Gospel.