Working the "Shamba"

It is Annual Exam time at Idigima, which means a lot of late nights typing and printing exams . . . after trying hard all day to make sure the students have all of their notes completed and are ready to start their intense “study week” when the teachers are not allowed into the classrooms.

We’re spending a lot of salary on students right now, preparing a larger vegetable garden and fence and having an acreage worked up for corn . . . more to give the students work/income than anything else, but it may produce a profit to share as well, or some grain for students to grind for ugali. We have five exceptionally needy students working at present, and may add a couple to get the land hoed for planting. We had the power of the ox plow half of the land yesterday, and they are to return today to finish that aspect of the project. These “shamba”/farms are offered to staff to help offset the low salary; we declined last year, being new and ignorant, but this year thought it a good way to help the students have a source of employment/income. Unlike the national teachers, we are not out there barefooted, digging with jembe and chapakazi. We do work in the garden by the house . . . wearing flip-flops.

Joanne has also not slowed down on her sewing of student uniforms. We’ve purchased three bolts of white fabric for shirts and a bolt of burgundy fabric for trousers, ties and skirts. She’s looking forward to the holiday break so that she can sew day and night . . . instead of just at night after teaching all day!


Gary completed the painting of all window frames for the Pre-Form buildings (462 panes of glass), which is a lot of small inside corners and edges. He also finished this week the painting of the six blackboards (30 feet by 5 feet) in the same six classrooms. Joanne now has the best blackboards on campus. All of this was done with a 1 ½ inch brush . . . you use what is available.


We are going to student ghettos twice a week, eating ugali with greens or avocado (and once daga—a small dried fish that I think is used best as cat food), and playing UNO until it is time for the students to return to school for evening studies. This past Monday we were scheduled to be with two boys, but one had gone home to help his family. We were thinking it was going to be a bit strange playing UNO with three people in his 7x7 foot ghetto, but word got out and we had students and a couple of village kids show up. We ended up with 13 of us squeezed in that tiny room, two deep sitting on the bed mats, water buckets and stools. With only the door for ventilation and light, and it closed to a six inch crack to make room for guests, we survived a very interesting afternoon.

During this holiday season, we’d say, “Wish you were here!” but we know you probably have better plans. We at times “wish we were THERE,” when we think of family and friends and holiday parties and food, food, food, but we are content in the work and relationships here, and we thank you all for being a part of the hope and future you are giving to these people.

May God bless you in special ways as you live in His adventure, wherever He has placed you!

Love,

Gary and Joanne Grenell, your hands and feet to Tanzania

Christmas in Tanzania

Season’s greetings with love and best wishes to all,

There is no snow to be “dashing through,” but we’ve been dashing through mud and rain a bit lately.

School was dismissed on December 17 and will resume on January 17. Joanne will continue with other Pre-Form I teachers during the break for the newer students who’ve arrived . . . and continue to arrive. We expect to have 400 in the opening Form I class this January. The rest of the student body numbers 405 to put that into perspective. We’ve completed the class time-table and distributed copies to the teachers so that they can prepare for a very busy year. We are hopeful and expectant of receiving some additional (national) teachers in February. Joanne will be teaching Form I English, as the government has made edict that secondary schools cannot demand more than three or four months of Pre-Form studies.

At the school closing ceremony, we found out that the students had requested and been granted permission to have an alternative uniform to wear two days of the week. Instead of red trousers, ties and scarves, they may wear black with their white shirts. Joanne had orders to make 35 school shirts at that time, which at this writing has grown to 43, as well as five or six pairs of pants, so she had to find out the color of pants desired by the boys, and I will need to go to town to buy black fabric . . . Joanne has developed quite a system for pumping out shirts, cutting as many as 12 out at a time, bagging the pieces with the students’ names, and sewing different pieces together in stages. Those of you who know her well can imagine she is having the time of her life; getting to sew is a form of worship with her.

On Christmas eve day, the “Second” of the school and I went to Mbeya to buy supplies . . . fabric for Joanne, more blackboard paint, and new sports uniforms. As usual, planned activities seldom play out as planned. The material Joanne wanted was not available, and the uniforms were three times the cost we had expected to pay. Fortunately, the Lord got involved, not only in keeping us from spending money on fabric, but in reducing the price of the uniforms so that we had the resources needed. As it turned out, another school had ordered netball uniforms and then backed out of the deal, so the store gave us a very big reduction on that price. They also reduced the individual and total price of the order in gratitude for our buying uniforms for all three sports. In the past, the girls’ netball team (which I think is undefeated) has had only a colored shell to wear over their clothes, the volleyball team has had no uniforms, and the football/soccer team has had only enough jerseys to field a team (subs scramble into the jersey of the person they are replacing) with only a couple of players sporting matching shorts.

I pictured us buying matching uniforms for all sports and creating “school colors,” but that isn’t how they view it over here. It was explained to me this way, “To have the same color will make us look poor . . . people will think we are using the same uniforms for all sports.” Okay, well, we are poor, but to make us look good, we got three different color combinations. I let the VP decide what would be best, suggesting we avoid the same colors as area schools with whom we compete. The resulting selections I honestly didn’t think about it at the time, but those of you in the Iowa City area should get a chuckle…The soccer team will be in West High green and yellow, the volleyball team in City High red and white, and the netball team in U of I black and yellow. (We’ll send pictures later.)

As usual, the trip going and coming is never without adventure. Going, we were in the back of a Toyota pick-up with 25 people and a large crate of chickens and other luggage. Coming back, we missed the last “transport” tuck and finally had to hire a small car, sharing the expense with four other desperate individuals. With the sun well-set 13 hours after leaving, I was met by an anxious wife.

On Christmas, I took a 2½ hour walk to Shomora. I was to go to Ikoka with one of our students, but as often happens, they decided to move the meeting to a branch church in another village. (I’m always told about these changes AFTER we are half way; I suppose they think I’ll back out.) We took the “short cut” to Ikoka, had tea and fry bread at the student’s home, then proceeded the additional 20 minute walk to Shomora. The service was attended by three pastors, lasted 3½ hours, broke for a luncheon of rice, beans, chicken and fish, and concluded with another service of special music by small groups. I was struck with the thought that some of these people are quite talented, would have promising music careers in America, but will be a blessing to just a few people during their lives. When I shared this thought with Joanne, she set me back on the narrow way, reminding me that God is being blessed by these lives, which is a far better service of worship than for the praise of man. The combined church sends its Christmas greeting to the church of America. With the sun setting 11 hours after leaving, I was met once again by a wife relieved to see me home safely and ready to hear of my adventures with God.



Joanne had a few visitors on Christmas Day, staying home to serve the students and staff of Idigima. She made two banana cakes for the teachers, each cooked in a Dutch oven on the charcoal stove. One teacher brought a dressed chicken, which we cooked on Sunday. One of our top girl students came to visit Joanne, bringing gifts of eggs, beans and passion fruit. Joanne reciprocated with gifts of rice and spices to make a favorite dish here of rice pilaf. Joanne had been sick and lost her voice for the week following the closure of the school, so didn’t want to risk relapse from the long day at Shomora, and she avoids at all costs the trauma of traveling to “town” in the back of a truck, hanging onto roll-bars while we bounce over the rocky mountain roads. Sunday night, it was my turn to feel queezy, and after a restless night and day in bed on Monday, am feeling up to some light duty on the computer and around the house.



I've arranged with the Registrar to buy the remaining glass for the classrooms, amounting to 186 panes, which we want to get installed before the students return in January. That and the renovation of the older blackboards on campus are the focus of my holiday break. I will also be serving time on the crank of the sewing machine and working on my Form IV curriculum of summarizing the Old Testament and going into the New Testament.

Busy, but joyful at this season of our Lord's birth. Please know that you, our family and friends, have been in our thoughts and comments a lot. (We’ve been singing to each other, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas, if only in our dreams.”) Our prayers for all of you, the church, is to have a joyous celebration of His redemptive love. Please let us know how we may pray specifically for you.

Love,

Gary and Joanne

Tanzanian life at Idigima Secondary School

Things are going well here. Form II students start their two-week National Exams this week, so Gary will have a few open periods to devote to lesson preparation and final exam development, not to mention assisting with student projects and his Form I and Form III classes, which have a lot of material to cover before the December finals.

As for Joanne, her Pre-Form I student count now stands at 331, nearly as big as 2/3 of the rest of the student body! They’ve been divided into five “Streams” (classes), and Joanne is the teacher for the two most advanced streams of students. Five new national teachers, who arrived just a week ago, are teaching the other three streams.

Things haven’t changed much on the home front; students and teachers line up for filtered drinking water and sewing projects. A big change is that the students have added a small store (duka) to their canteen. Students can now buy school supplies, uniforms, and household items right here on campus. Joanne is making the uniforms after orders are placed at the duka. Scarves and ties are made in bulk and are in stock at the store. She’s got the system down to a science, sewing a shirt in 2 hours and 45 minutes. (Gary is the donkey that gets to go to town and haul back bolts of fabric and inventory.) Student leaders of the project are frequently at our house wanting to brainstorm ideas of how to expand the services: kerosene for the study lamps used in the ghetto, cooking oil, and even a barber shop. It would be nice to see a permanent structure for the canteen, but that will not likely take place until a lot of other buildings are completed. We will be content; the nationals certainly don’t mind . . . it is far more than they’ve had in the past!

Thank you for sending us here as your hands and feet of hope and service. We continue to feel a strong sense of purpose and belonging here.

Love and grace to all,

Gary and Joanne Grenell, your ambassadors in Christ to Tanzania

New classrooms

A very excited student body assembled at 7:00 Saturday morning to “fire line” the stacks of burnt bricks to the locations around the foundations of the four new classrooms that will be built in the next couple of months on the west side of the campus, nearest the road. As some of you may have heard, there is a shortage of construction funds with so many schools in need, so it was such a relief to find out that we will get enough cement to erect the walls and not lose the bricks to the damaging rains. We have the timbers and metal sheeting on site for trusses and roofs. This next Saturday is the date scheduled for the start of the building; we hope and pray the cement arrives. The students have been working after school this week to haul fill for the floors and walkways, and water for the cement-mixing.

Next year’s bricks will be used for the foundations on the east side of the campus complex, earmarked for science and computer laboratories. There are also smaller foundations in place for a medical clinic and storage building.

Buildings going up makes for an exciting atmosphere, but the real “building up” are the lives these walls represent. It is so exciting for us to watch these students grow in their self-worth and confidence, social skills, language development, and awareness of God’s goodness, purpose and love for them.

For being a part of this work in your prayer and financial support, we say, “Asante sana!” (thank you very much) and, “Mungu aku bariki” (God bless you!).

Love and grace to all,

Gary and Joanne Grenell, your ambassadors in Christ to Tanzania

The Mbuzi Cup

To all of our sports fans, the students had an internal sports competition over the past couple of weeks: The Mbuzi Cup, consisting of competition between the Forms in boys’ soccer and girls’ netball. Joanne’s Pre-Form teams were feared contenders with such a large body of students to draw from (330); their fans certainly overwhelmed the others, and Joanne was in the midst of the cheering crowd. However, Gary’s Form III (although he couldn’t really show favoritism as a teacher for all Forms) dominated due to their years of experience playing as teams. Something to note, however, is that an all-star team was formed, and quite a few Pre-Form players were chosen. They traveled to Mlowo, but the match was stopped short of completion because the other team was getting a bit hostile (European soccer?). Although we have some very competitive types, I was proud of their self-control and good sportsmanship.

The winner of the Mbuzi Cup (Form III) got a big, 7 hour celebration, complete with mbuzi (goat) dinner. As it turned out, many students from all Forms attended. There were speeches, congratulations, dance competition (boys and girls separately, not as couples), and food. They also had a fund raiser for the athletic department; people offered money to see a student or faculty member perform. If the person didn’t want to do what was asked (sing, dance, do push-ups, etc.) he or she had to pay a larger sum. It was well attended and was still going on hours after we went home.

As a side note, the balls used in competition were donated by our wonderful supporters in America. The balls they normally play with would be passed over in an American garage sale, so “thank you very much” to those who sent the World Cup replica and other sports balls. The students literally freaked out when they were brought onto the field. It made them feel . . . wonderful.

Thank you all for making some very special contributions to the lives of these students.

Love and grace to all,

Gary and Joanne Grenell, your ambassadors in Christ to Tanzania

Language barriers

A girl came to the house with a cut on her foot, and because Joanne was busy with three students on some sewing projects, she told me to have the girl wash her feet. I gave the girl a basin and directed her to the kitchen area where the water bin is located. When she poured three pitchers of water into the basin, I said, “My goodness, girl, that’s enough for a bath. Are you going to haul water for me later?” (Water is precious during the dry season and has to be carried from the river.) She just smiled and took the basin to the wash room. I went back to what I was doing, Joanne treated the girl’s cut, then the student disappeared with one of our buckets. She was back in minutes and returned to the wash room. Shortly, we heard splashing going on and the other students began to chatter and laugh. Obviously, the girl had understood me to say that she should haul water for a bath. The girl came out a bit later wanting to know if she could borrow lotion (they “oil down” after a bath). We all had a good laugh and teased her about maybe wanting Joanne’s eye liner and lipstick as well. Like Joanne says, “These are our kids.” Well, some are getting quite comfortable with the idea.

Love and grace to all,

Gary and Joanne Grenell, your ambassadors in Christ to Tanzania