Holy Week: Field visits, Footwashing, and a Baptism

Spotted eagle owl roosting in a tree next to our house.

It has been about 10 days since my last entry, and that is partly because it is sometimes hard to find a good 'break point' between different sets of events to group into one entry. The end of Holy week is a good catch up point.

MCC Tanzania has been, since the East Africa regional meetings last week, hosting the East Africa Area Directors-- Ken and Laura Litwiller. They are here for an extended annual administrative visit and to see some of our projects.

This past Wednesday we took them to Step-by-Step Learning Center, a partner we support who runs a school for severly mentally handicapped children in Arusha. It is always inspiring to visit Margaret and her team of teachers and see the work they do to help these children develop to their potential in such a resource poor setting. Mental disability is considered both shameful and a terrible burden on the family in TZ, particulalry the mother who is often blamed. These children can be severely neglected and hidden in the home away from any social contact. Everything from cerebral palsy to autism are treated the same by many Tanzanians, and are presumed to be unteachable and useless (even if they are of normal intelligence).

Laura and Sharon talking to Margaret

Margaret's school not only works to provide remedial academic education, but also social education, work therapy--including helping with simple chores, gardening, feeding chickens, collecting eggs, and even reflexology and massage for those with physical challenges. Childern also learn to make simple handicrafts  like beads and weaving which is therapeutic, educational, and generates some income as well. Many of the children are coming from a rural setting so the work skills they develop help them find a way to be more accepted in their home environment. (Sadly, Margaret reports that many students who 'graduate' end up regressing considerably once they leave the school environment because they cease to receive the intensive attention they get at the school.)

Laura asking William about chicken coop and fish pond

The day we visited it had rained heavily the night before and the road into the school was extremely muddy. Mud here in the rainy season is a serious road hazard and it is not uncommon for cars to get stuck. We (Sharon our CR, the Area Directors, and me) drove as close as we could but had to walk the last 100 meters to the school. Despite this, the visit was very satisfactory and Ken and Laura appreciated hearing Margaret's vision (which came out of raising a severly mentally disabled daughter herself and leaving a career in Chemistry). The ADs also got to see the way MCC has supported the school including building a fish pond, purchasing therapy toys and supporting some of the teaching staff. We spent several hours there and visited some of the classrooms to watch the kids working with their teachers as well.

The office has been busy with 2 extra people around this week, although Rebecca has not been around at all. This is because the kids have been out of school for term break. (It lasts more than 2 full weeks.) Having them home from school at a time when we cannot take a vacation is quite challenging. She has been trying to do some work at home as well as entertain kids. Last Tuesday she went to parent-teacher day at the school with the kids. It took the whole day to visit all of their teachers and discuss their grades.

Generally we were quite happy with their grades, Oren is getting As and Bs in math, science, history, and English, and Cs in Swahili and French. (no surprise there) He has Cs in art, drama, and phys ed. as well, but I will say that there is a lot of focus on achievement and even in art there is a high expectation that they will develop a high level of technique. (They have been doing figure drawing this quarter.). I think I was most impressed with his A+ in math and a note that said he was the top student in the class. It is becoming more and more clear that Oren has a good mind for abstract reasoning. He was very happy to have his mom talk to his teachers in math and science who sang his praises.

David is not exactly graded in year 4, but did receive a good report card on his conduct, effort and achievement in various subjects. His teacher said he is a very nice kid, but could raise his hand more in class.

The visit to all classes took at least one of their holidays. Other days Rebecca has had some friends over, baked cookies, played games and done her best to find activities that are not oriented around screens. This is not always easy.

We have also been heavily involved in Holy Week activities at our church. Beginning Wednesday night, we had our last choir practice for our special music on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Sadly our pianist had to have emergencys surgery just days before Good Friday so the choir director has had to jump in and learn all of the music on the piano and try to conduct from the keyboard. Despite this, we learned some beautiful anthems for Sunday and more somber selections for Good Friday.

Rebecca and I were also in charge of the Maundy Thursday service. She was in charge of the music and I was the worship leader. We did a service of Taize music and Rebecca was able to recruit a trombonist and flute to join the guitar and piano on the music team. The songs were quite beautiful. Particularly memorable for me was the footwashing ceremony. After a sermon by our friend Mike Taylor about the last supper, we invited people to come up and wash each other's feet. It ended up being very moving in this ethnically diverse group. I especially was impressed by the children who participated and happily washed the feet of their grandmothers.

We got home late but since Good Friday was a holiday, we watched part of the The Return of the King with the kids on the computer. (We just finished listening to it on audibook.) It was good to sleep in a bit on Good Friday, but the service was at 10:30 am, led by some other Mennonites (Neal and Christy Miller). They did a very nice contemplative service in which our choir sung 2 songs that sounded very good.

After the service on Friday, we went out of town about 45 minutes to visit our friends the Taylor's--Mike, Katie, and their 4 kids. We have been hoping our kids would make a connection with them because their oldest is the same age as Oren. We have worked very hard to find kids his age he can interact with. He craves social interaction, but is extremely introverted and shy when it comes to meeting people. David makes friends with everyone and really liked the other 3 who are all closer to his age. We had a very good time talking with Mike and Katie. (Mike teaches at an Anglican seminary in the compound where they live.) We also had a fabulous lunch with a leg of lamb, taziki, hummus, pita, tabouli, finishing off with cake and icecream. This ended up being our Easter celebration meal because we knew we had so much to do on Sunday for church that we would not be able to host anyone on that day.

Saturday was another social day where we got together at our club, Gymkhana with some other church friends, Lindsey and Jeremy, and a new family who will be working with Young Life here who just arrived from Texas. It was nice to not be the newest people around for a change! We were even able to give them some good advice about schools, transportation, and different neighborhoods around town.

We also dyed Easter eggs on Saturday afternoon. We made some really exceptional ones using oil pastels (high quality crayons) then dipping in food coloring and vinegar water. Since the eggs were brown  they all came out looking very Victorian, the oil pastels created a stained glass effect that was much better than crayon. I highly recommend it.

Sunday finally arrived and it was busy for us as far as Easter services go. We had 2 choir pieces, but Rebecca also had a baptism. It was her first one to officiate at here in Arusha. They have a kind of pit style font just outside the church for immersion. Rebecca led Malvery, a peace corps volunteer who has been here for several years, through the vows and then immersed her. They then changed quickly and joined the choir for the 2 anthems we sung.

We took Sunday afternoon easy having felt that we had done our Easter feast on Good Friday with the Taylors. Honestly, it was nice to have the afternoon off. The internet even ran out so the kids played games inside and outside. We finished The Return of the King and I finally have been able to get something written for this blog.