Naming a Tanzanian Baby (no, not ours)

On Sunday we had the privilege of visiting our Tanzanian friend, Sululu, and his family at their home to welcome their new baby boy bringing a quilt that I had made for him. Sululu is the foreman for the construction work at the office, so Dusty is his "boss," and Sululu felt very honored to have his boss and family come to visit for chai time (mid-morning daily tea time).

Sululu has three wives and 12 children. The third wife, below, is the mother of the baby. Sadly, the family had just lost their nearly two year old boy a few months ago to a sickness which should have been preventable, so everyone has welcomed this baby boy with great joy.

We were only a bit surprised when they asked us to give the baby a name - this is not too unusual, but is a great honor, and we had not prepared anything. He already was given his family name from his mother's father, Maragesi. We decided to find a name in the book of Luke since that has been the book our project has been working on for a few years, and the first two chapters are printed in the family's language, Kijita.

Dusty selected Theophilus (the "most excellent" recipient of Luke's gospel), and I selected Simeon, the righteous man who was waiting for the Messiah and blessed Jesus and his family when Jesus was presented at the temple. The kids cast their vote for Simeoni (the Swahili version), so we went with it. Jack was curious about the baby, but definitely did NOT want to hold him.

Dusty read the story of Simeon from the book of Luke to the family and told them why we had selected the name. The family was amazed - Maragesi Sr.'s Christian name is also Simeoni! What are the chances of that? They knew God had truly chosen that name for this little baby, and we were amazed as well - it was truly a beautiful moment and a definite "God-thing" as all acknowledged. Maragesi Sr. nearly cried.Tessa couldn't get enough of holding the baby, even when he got her legs wet.

After chai, we began to say it was time for us to go when Sululu announced that the ladies were already making lunch for us. He said that giving chai to someone was nothing, but a meal must be served to honored guests. The ladies brought out the full spread: rice pilau, 3 kinds of meat, vegetables, bananas, cake, and ugali.

Ugali is the staple food of Tanzania. It is a corn-based mush about the consistency of play-dough which is eaten alongside other food and rolled in the right hand into a ball before popping it into your mouth. Our kids have never liked it; it's a bit bland and pasty, but when they saw that you can roll it around like play dough, they changed their tune to the delight of our hosts. Everyone laughed when Jack rolled it with both hands!

Finally our day with Sululu's family ended with a speech by Sululu, a prayer by his uncle, a prayer of blessing from Dusty, and a family photo. Maragesi Simeoni Sr. is sitting next to Dusty's left. It took a bit of coaxing and jesting to get everyone smiling, but it was well worth the effort - don't you think?

In the car as we were driving home, Tessa wisely told us, "Sululu's family gave us two presents today - the first was that we got to name the baby, and the second was a really nice lunch." What a great insight and attitude from a five year old!

Common Symptoms of Being a Missionary in Tanzania when...

1. You're the only person in the neighborhood who exercises for the sake of exercise, and everyone knows it.
2. You keep a frozen water bottle in the freezer to put in the fridge for power cuts.
3. You know instinctively which bumps in the dirt road to avoid and which you can pass over easily.
4. You only have one wardrobe, and it's for warm weather. Similarly, you get a bit excited when it's cool enough to actually wear socks.
5. You shop at the second hand clothing market for all your family's Christmas gifts.
6. Knowing every toilet has issues here, you ask the host what you need to know about the quirks of the toilet before you go to use it.
7. Smelling smoke in your house does not make you panic because you're keenly aware that it's just someone burning refuse outside.
8. Your language is laced with Commonwealth English. You go "on holiday." You were "in university" or even "in uni." You change "nappies." You put your trash in the "rubbish bin."
9. You know what it means when someone is taking a medicine ending in -azole. (parasites or worms)
10. You know that what looks like a squeeze mustard bottle on a restaurant table is actually filled with hot sauce.
11. You pack produce in your suitcase. (most recently butternut squash)
12. You don't think twice about seeing a dirt-colored cow lying down outside the grocery store door because you're so excited about actually going into a grocery store in the big city!
13. You arrive one hour late to a wedding and yet are still one hour early.
14. You understand why there is a sign on the toilet door saying, "Do not stand on seat." (Locals use squat toilets - ceramic hole in the ground - and aren't sure how to use a Western toilet.)
15. You can't leave your house without being frowned upon because you didn't wrap your baby in three blankets even though it is 85 degrees and sunny outside.

2010 by the Month in Pics

January - the typical excitement over opening a care package!

February - we're always trying to get decent family shots for the prayer updates and newsletters. This one is in our backyard.

March - Making Tessa's 5th birthday cake together

April - The kids love dying and decorating Easter eggs. This year we had letter stickers from a care package that worked nicely.

May - Mother's Day gifts that Dusty bought on a trip to Dar included Caesar salad dressing, a citronella candle, beet seeds, and pesto in a jar.

June - The Tanzanians and missionaries from our project came together by (ironically) playing each other in a "World Cup" soccer match, and everyone had a great time and felt more unified as a result. Since then we've had several more games with mixed teams.

July - Annual family photograph session on the Kenyan coast at our branch conference. Sometimes the best photo follows the silliest.

August - Tessa gets involved at the literacy workshop.

September - Dusty's birthday, hamming it up.

October - dressed up for the wedding of one of the translators, Shem.

November - mini-vacation at the Rondo Retreat in the Kakamega Rain Forest in Kenya. We let Tessa use our big and heavy camera to finally get a picture of the two of us together. She did a pretty good job!

December - Jack turned 4 on December 23rd, but we celebrated with a party on the Saturday beforehand. He loved his dinosaur cake, pin the tail on the donkey, pass the parcel, and musical chairs. On the 26th he said, "Now I'm almost five!"

Christmas by the year since 2005

We moved to Tanzania on July 5th, 2004. Having finished language school, and on our way back to Dallas for the birth of Tessa, we spent our first Christmas in Entebbe, Uganda but I have no pictures of it available. I do remember making chocolate chip cookies on the floor of our friends' house as they were having their kitchen built. Here is one picture from each of the following years.

2005 - We were borrowing a house after moving to Musoma from Dodoma. There were no decorations, but we enjoyed spending the day with our Australian friends at their barbecue.

2006 - Obviously a big year! We were released from the hospital in Nairobi having given birth to Jack 2 days prior to Christmas. The challenge that day was then climbing three flights of stairs for Christmas dinner with friends.

2007 - Finally, our first Christmas at home since leaving Denver in 2003.

2008 - Christmas with my parents at their lake house in Texas, followed by a massive family gathering in Dallas. It was fantastic to be with family again after 4 hot African Christmases.

2009 - We enjoyed another quiet Christmas at home. The day was a bit cooler and drizzly, so it felt more like an American Christmas. We have no chimney, so Santa came into the house by the front door, since we "left a key out for him."

2010 - The kids are putting the first ornaments on the tree. As we set up our very fake tree, Tessa asked, "Did this come from outside?"

May you have a very Merry Christmas surrounded by love and laughter, gifts and treats, family and friends, music and morsels, and the love of Christ.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas, but...

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, but now that we're in our sixth African December, I'm finally coming to terms with the reality of a Green Christmas.

What do I miss about American Christmases? Let's start with the leaves changing colors at Thanksgiving. We don't experience that here in any form, and somehow those leaves in America set the stage for the glory of the Christmas season in all its change. I kind of envy our Australian friends here who at least see nothing different in the climate here from the climate of their home Christmas. The picture below was taken on Christmas morning 2007 - Tessa put on her new dress and went out gardening, so you can see the type of weather we were having.



I miss my family and celebrating our traditions with them mostly - the less said about that the better, but also I miss seeing my breath in Colorado on a snowy or cold day and the breathtaking lights on the trees and houses of Dallas and the decorations in every home. Where does one hang stockings when there is no fireplace, and how does Santa get into the house with no chimney? We try to answer those questions every year.

I miss the holiday parties and gatherings. I miss the many scents of American Christmas - the pine of the tree, cranberry, apple cider, flavored coffee, fire in a fireplace, and turkey in the oven. And of course I miss the flavors of Christmas even if my hips don't! I miss the music in every store and home even though I have Christmas music here. I miss the choir concerts and singing carols and Christmas hymns with the congregation on Sunday mornings as there are no Christmas Swahili songs in churches here. The below picture was taken at a Christmas office party in Nairobi in 2006 as we were there waiting for Jack to be born. Tessa was not happy to see this friendly Santa!



In spite of all these things, there are many reasons to enjoy Christmas in Tanzania. For one, no one is marketing toys to our children or to us. It's much easier to celebrate simply without all the merchandising and temptation to spend unreasonably. Our kids can run outside without any thought to what they're wearing - no need to bundle them in mittens, hats, scarves, socks and boots only to have to dry those things when they return.

Our poinsettia and amaryllis bloom all year around in our garden. We sing hymns on our back porch every Sunday night, so during December we sing Christmas hymns. We decorate the house with a very fake and tiny tree we bought in Nairobi and hang small carved gourds on it. We've even found pine cones at the convent up the trail from our house, and the gardener there lets me collect them although he must think I'm quite odd. I've never seen pine trees anywhere else here. And our neighbor has a juniper tree, so I trim some of the branches to make an Advent wreath. The Jesse Tree and it's stories from the Old Testament and New Testament have brought a special emphasis on the history of Christ into our house in the last two years.

Below is a picture of our tree on Christmas Eve in 2009 after Santa had come (assisted by many care packages from the kids' grandparents). Looking at the bounty made us feel a bit appalled when we considered how few other homes here have any gifts at all on Christmas morning.



I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
Just like the ones I never knew.
Where the mongeese chatter
And pumpkin matter
Is cooked into pumpkin stew.

I'm dreaming of a green Christmas
Looking at Lake Vic through the screen.
May your joyful spirit be seen
And may all your Christmases be green.

From our cheery green home to your white one,
Kim

What we've learned since Friday

We just returned yesterday from a brief visit to Kenya. The first part was a mini-holiday at the Rondo Retreat, a beautiful garden with cottages in the middle of the Kakamega Rain Forest. The second part was spent at Tenwek Hospital having check ups. Here are some things we learned during that trip.

-Driving in Kenya is very dangerous due to rough roads, speedy drivers who have no awareness outside of their own vehicle, narrow roads, pedestrians and animals on shoulders, or a combination of all the above.

-In spite of very bumpy roads with lots of speed bumps, a hungry three year old boy's state of exhaustion may make him fall asleep in his car seat while holding his lunch in his hands. When said lunch is covertly removed, he may awaken.

-Lush green tea farms in the highlands of Kenya are beautiful to see, but not so pleasant to smell, especially when one is the owner of a bionic nose due to pregnancy.

-The famous resident Blue Turaco bird is an expert at hiding whenever we are at Rondo.

-Our healthy singular baby is an expert at hiding gender when an ultrasound machine is present.

-Trying to make a corrupt person see the light of day is an exercise in futility.

-Being patient when a situation is beyond my control, even if I think I could control it better than the person in control, is still beyond my grasp.

-It takes more than one parent to handle two children receiving vaccinations when one of the children is held in the grips of terror, and is terrorizing her sibling, all waiting patients, and all seven shocked observing nurses.

-Children should not be strapped immobile into car seats for hours following a vaccination in the thigh. The result of this action is that they will cry or at least limp when movement is required for a period of more than 24 hours - even in their sleep, and will be unable to go to school.

-Email and laundry multiply exponentially when we are away from home.

-Rich red Kenyan soil does not easily wash out of said laundry.

-The seemingly small amount of items in a shopping cart in Kenya do not necessarily fit into the refrigerator/freezer/cabinet in Tanzania.

Thank you to Rondo for the relaxation, Tenwek for the good health care, Nakumatt for the shopping, and God for all the above plus safety on the roads.

On the Road...Again

We just returned from a weekend visit with friends who live about two and a half hours away. Dusty drove, so I got to write down a few more observations of roadside life.

-a welder wearing knock-off designer sunglasses for critical eye protection
-flocks of school kids in uniforms walking home for lunch
-a motorbike taxi driver wearing a boater's life vest to meet the new standard for wearing fluorescent/reflective driver identification vests
-a boy on a bike carrying a bike on his bike
-smoking fires set by farmers to prepare the soil for the next crop
-mosques
-massive piles of rolling cabbages as we drove through one village
-pairs of men holding each others' hands, a common practice
-lathered bathers in small brown streams
-children and women doing laundry among purple water hyacinths covering the surface of the water
-mango trees absolutely dripping with green mangoes
-spiky sisal plants planted as natural fencing and boundaries
-mountains of rice drying in their husks which look like construction piles of sand
-As we drove past the Serengeti, we saw wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, and baboons.

And our favorite - Spiderman! Or, at least a young boy in Spidey pajamas. We occasionally see adults and children wearing pajamas that come from the Western world and are mistaken for regular clothing.

I wish I had photos to go along with all the sightings, but at 100km/hr the camera just can't get it all well. You'll just have to come out and see for yourself!