Tanzania Water Well & Construction Team, September 20, 2009

What do Speed Racer, UFOs, Marching Bands and Sothebys have in common? A Sunday in New Land, Tanzania!

A few of us had a good night’s sleep while several team members suffered through hours of wakefulness. It was probably because they were concerned about arriving at breakfast on time. Breakfast was really important this morning as we only had three other meals during the day and were too late to receive evening tea at the seminary. Thankfully, the staff allowed us to have coffee and tea with our dinner. Whew! There will continue to be more bad jokes about our eating but the real story is the giving nature and service of the Kami people.

Today our team was joined by more familiar faces, Luca and Pastor Haferman, and two Korean-American ladies. We reacquainted with Pater Haferman yesterday but seeing Luca today was a good surprise. Robert Schaffitzel immediate recognized him as he walked toward our meeting place. We exchanged smiles and warm embraces before we divided into two vehicles and set off for New Land.

Our group cheered Robert Spitaleri as he donned padded racing gloves for the drive. We knew the seven of us would help him steer through the troubles and set a new speed record across the ravines and bumps in the “good road” from the highway to the village. As we bumped and jostled our way along Mike Mastraccio called off our chiropractic session for the day as we had just received our physical therapy.

All the other villages have Swahili names. This one gets its name from the people who took possession (being from the Sooner state we know what that means) after a sisal plantation failed. The land became unoccupied; therefore was new land to settle. A short while later other peoples (Arab background) stated they were going to move onto the land. With the help of some wise friends, the Kami’s solicited a well known political person to come lay the cornerstone on their building. This cemented the relationship between the new village and the Tanzanian government and the Kami’s stayed on the land without any further problems.

The village church is in good shape with new wood doors and a building campaign to add (brick) decorative windows. The water well drilled through Asbury’s help is five years old tomorrow and is still providing life giving water. The local bee hives, a good source of opportunity and revenue, have had a significant setback. One if not many bee badger attacked the hives, tearing off the lids and stealing the combs. These animals have the ability to emit a scent similar to a skunk that not only protects them from the bees, it can kill them. Therefore, much concern and frustration arises from the New Landers as they don’t know how to fend off the badger. As Pastor Haferman so appropriately stated, “every worthy project has its enemy.” Robert Spitaleri and the local evangelist spent several minutes talking about options and they will visit with some experienced bee keepers to determine solutions.

Sadly, this is typical as the villagers are smart but without education in new methods and without resources to counter act local problems. We Tulsans would just go to Home Depot and buy a six foot steel post, put it in the ground and place a new bee hive on top. Not a single one of these steps can be accommodated here without significant effort and funding.

We obviously had some time to visit and play this morning as we waited for the people to arrive for church service. Robert Schaffitzel and John Greenhaw discussed water well drilling with our group and others. Alan Roark reminded us of Frisbees and nerf footballs (American style) that we brought and got us started playing with the kids. The Frisbees turned out to be of high quality as one was stuck on the roof of the pastor’s house for a while before someone got it down. The kids learned quickly from Mike and John who played with the kids across the village. Earl Stutzman ventured around the village and leapt up the rickety ladder to the top of a large water tank that was installed by Italians in 2005. Mary Ann Smith worked the crowd as many people were glad to greet her and converse in broken English.

The service was good with the Mazizi choir marching into the village just as the service had started. The 21 young people had walked the 10 kilometers this morning to assist with service and show their appreciation for us, their guests. Their music was wonderful and several of them had large smiles and joyful animations moving in rhythm of the songs. During the service the pastors inaugurated one new girl into the congregation and baptized a baby. Pastor Haferman introduced Mary Ann as the midwife for many people in the area. He praised her for raising so many good children – a way of stating she’d helped so many people come to Christ. He is correct in stating this, but all of you who have helped over the past decade plus need to share in this comment as through your wonderful works, the Word is being spread and accepted!

The people are poor and this year’s rain was small so crops did not provide much at harvest. Neither did the trees with their normally abundant fruits. But even in the drought the villagers brought forth money, bags of corn, sunflower seed, fruit, eggs, sugar cane, chickens and a goat and her kid. After we filed out of church and enjoyed the customary process of shaking each person’s hand we were provided seats in the shade for the auction.

The auctions are a jubilant affair with people crying out, helping others bid, driving up the price between friends, and in some cases shouting out a price then saying “going, going, gone” quickly so no one else could bid. Obviously, the auctioneer wouldn’t let the person get a low bid but did keep the auction fun and lively. Our team is now the proud owner of a goat, kid, chicken, few sacks of corn, sugar cane and some other items. Except for the chicken who will be our lunch tomorrow or Tuesday, all the other items were donated back to the villagers through the pastors and evangelists. All in all, a wonderful afternoon of fun and Spirit raising.

Each day here has many activities and too many stories to tell in such a condensed manner. It would be great if there were time to compare this season before the short rains with its bare trees and brown hills with the season of last May after the long rains when everything was green or blooming in full color and fruit was ripe on almost every tree. But that cannot be done here, so please ask any of this or previous team members to tell you a story about Tanzania. They will no doubt smile, tell you something wonderful, then cry and tell you something even more amazing. Perhaps the best way to end for this night is to pass on the Butterfly Effect to you. The theory states a simple act in one part of the kingdom can make a tremendous impact on another seemingly unrelated part. We who have been blessed to come on this trip have seen your works and are grateful of the effects you are making in Tulsa, Tanzania, and around the world.

By Brett Tabler