Village Schools Tanzania Founders Visit Idigima Secondary School

“One thing is for sure; nothing is for sure!” A routine day of teaching and chapel services was pleasantly interrupted by a early morning call to the Headmaster’s office for a staff meeting with the Director and Secretary of Village Schools Tanzania (VST).

Following the meeting, the co-founders of the VST mission that started in 2007 and now encompasses 28 registered schools visited with students at the end of our chapel services. They encouraged the students to fulfill their goals in education and contribute to the betterment of Tanzania as pastors, doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, policemen, or whatever it is God is calling them to become.

Their visit ended with a visit to our home. Mr. Hiari shared future plans for Idigima and the development of new schools in the Mbeya Region. Mr. Masumbuko purchased some of Joanne’s sewing items (book bags, uniform ties and scarves) to share with students at their home school of Madisi Secondary School in the Iringa Region.

As you consider the incredible sacrifice and dedication of these men, we hope you will join us in praying for their physical safety as they travel all over this country, their spiritual strength and insight as they select and train leaders and teachers, and the growth of leaders in the organization to lighten the loads of these wonderful servants.

Living in God’s grace,

Gary and Joanne Grenell

When mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy ! ! !

The title is misleading, because seldom does anyone in this culture get really mad and disagreeable. There are times, however, when the nationals get pretty frustrated with our lack of Swahili language skills. We get frustrated also. One area that frustrates us is that students will change their names almost on a whim. Headquarters and the Registrar will have one name on their records and the teachers another. The student may put one or the other name, or different spellings of the names, on his or her test papers. We enter the scores of examinations into the reports prepared at Headquarters; maybe you can imagine the result as we sort through hundreds of names. Here is a humorous story to illustrate where both frustrations came together in a head-on collision.

One day a student’s mama came to our door asking about a uniform for her daughter. She spoke no English, but we could tell that she wanted her student, Pendo Mwampashe, to have a black skirt, shirt, scarves and socks. We listed the items on a piece of paper with their corresponding prices and explained that the student must come with the money to be measured. The mama talked on and on, indicating that they had come and already had the scarf, or scarves, but needed the shirt, skirt and socks. We went through the drill again and got nowhere. She finally left, saying she would talk to a (Tanzanian) teacher.

A few moments later, Mama was back with Sarah, our new Second Headmistress. Sarah explained that during exam week in March she had brought this woman to Bibi (Joanne) with Pendo Mwampashe, that Bibi had measured her and that they had paid the money for the uniform. We went through the order book repeatedly without finding any reference to Pendo Mwampashe.

Finally, I thought to look at just last names, and found a Loveness Mwampashe. I asked Sarah if the student might now be using the name Loveness, instead of Pendo. She answered rather matter-of-factly, “Well, yes; Loveness is English for Pendo.” (We know pendo means love, but had never heard of a student interchanging those two particular names.) We pulled the skirt from storage and delivered it to a now very happy mama.

As Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the rest of the story.” We had been sending notes to the Teacher-On-Duty for weeks that Loveness’ skirt was finished and ready to be picked up. Could it be that the student failed to come because she wasn’t hearing her name . . . or the name she was currently using?

Serving our Lord with a smile in the midst of it all,

Gary and Joanne Grenell