Pipes on PikiPikis and all that is Mwanza!

Going from the quiet of isolated living in an English village to the noise and chaos of a Tanzanian city was a refreshing shock to the senses! Suddenly landing in a community of friends, I had more hugs in five minutes than I'd had in four months! It was like waking up from a hazy dream to find myself alive and bustling on the busy Mwanza street! Almost knocked out by the umbrella of the motorbike taxi as he swerved to cut a corner. Almost impaled by the 10-foot pipe sticking out on the back of another bike. Deafened by the truck loudspeakers blaring Tanzanian music as it drove through town with young guys hanging off the back. Friendly bartering and long greetings when shopping, all the while watching where my feet go and dodging moving baskets. Squished in with an uncountable number of sweaty bodies on the dala dala (minibus) from the market. The excitement and unpredictable craziness of everyday life came flooding back and it felt so good! 

It tasted so good! Fresh juicy pineapples and mangos again! Small sweet bananas! I snacked on chapati and maandazi. Mishkkaki and samosas. The mamas prepared ugali and dagaa (tiny fish) for lunch. Rice and beans, tilapia and oh, the huge soft avacaodos! Fresh juice, sweet tea and tamarind ice lollies for 30p! 

Samosas and Maandazi

Mishkkaki (for Louisa!)

Penina and Zuena took me for a vitumbua and pilau picnic
on the rocks to take a break from the Craft Market!

Pilau and a Mama Minja feast!

Ugali and Dagaa

It felt so normal, like I had never left. Like entering a new world and the old one completely disappearing.

It felt like coming home. Only now the home was gone. And that was the strangest thing, and yes, rather sad. 

I did have to laugh, though at how quickly I had forgotten that feeling of helplessness when it seems just everything goes pear-shaped! I soon remembered... 

When I arrived in Tanzania at the beginning of November, it was just days after the election and the country was still in a fair amount of chaos with a complete media and communications lock-down. Oh the issues with trying to connect to the internet! And then the power cuts at inopportune times! 

Then the rains came. We learned the hard way that The Hive shop floods in heavy rain. Lying in bed at night listening to heavy rain, I again had that familiar helpless feeling of internal tension as I wondered what havoc it was wrecking. And then in the Land Cruiser, driving on crazy roads in pelting rain, I had that familiar sinking feeling one gets when one is well and truly stuck in the mud. While the mamas prayed loudly and fervently inside the vehicle, I was out and up to my knees in mud and water to investigate the situation and get the four wheel drive locked. And while the mamas continued to pray loudly, and guys outside pushed, I kicked the trusty Land Cruiser into gear, and off we went! The exhilarating feeling of triumph over the odds! And then the sinking feeling returning when I arrived back, wet and muddy to find the power out and no shower! 

And then there were the simple jobs that get complicated! We had some new shelves made for The Hive. I drew pictures for the carpenter, we measured the space together and wrote everything down, but somehow when the shelves arrived, one was 10cm too long which meant we couldn't shut the front door. A five minute delivery turned into a three hour fixing job! And then we had some brochures printed. I went back twice to collect them after being assured they were ready, but was always told "later" ... finally one day they were there, but had been printed upside down. Back to square one! 

It was wonderful to see good friends again! I stayed with the Guild family for my first week in Mwanza and then the Ewing family for my second week. I was a little disappointed I didn't have more time with them all, as with so much to do I was hardly home! But it was so special to come home to them in the evening! So wonderful to be back with our awesome EI team! And lovely to catch up with other friends over lunch, and a special Diwali  party at Priya's one evening! With a Charity Fair one Saturday at the International School I was able to see many of the girls friends and teachers. And with three Sundays in Tanzania I was able to worship with three churches we have special relationships with! I just cried on the first Sunday... after being in the COVID-restricted UK, it was just amazing to join in with all the enthusiastic singing and energetic dancing! 

Back with the team in the EI Office!

With Bhatendi, Esther and Aikande at BMCC Church

Lunch with these lovely ladies!

A Diwali Party

With the wonderful folks from Mkuyuni Church

Two weeks was not enough in Mwanza! There was a constant sense of urgency and racing the clock (which is not a thing in Tanzania). We didn't get everything done that we wanted to at The Hive ... but we definitely did all we could! I had not had such dirty and tired feet for a long time! I had not felt so exhausted or hot and sweaty for a long time! But breathing in the open space by the lake then listening to the noisy insects and croaking frogs from my bed at night ... and the howling dogs and screeching roosters ... I savoured every minute!

And here to close was my last day in Mwanza. Some of the mamas were at The Hive, others at the workshop. We were packing up products to go to Dar es Salaam and the UK and finished with this special time together! 

I'll take you to Dar es Salaam in the next blog post!

A sad update since the last blog post ... our friend, Jade passed away on Monday afternoon in Nairobi. This is such a devastating shock; please remember Julius and their three boys in your prayers over these difficult days. Also this afternoon was a day to remember Emma, as her family and friends said goodbye. 

And in the midst of the sadness, today we got the keys to our new place in Monkton Combe. It's still empty at the moment, but we can now start to make a home here ...

Tidings of Comfort

I was planning to blog today about my time in Tanzania. But right now, my heart is just too heavy. 

While I was in Tanzania, it was the funeral for an amazing and special young man, Oli Williams. We have known the Williams family since we arrived in Tadley in 2002. I have wonderful memories of teaching Oli piano and watching him grow up in our church youth group. But a tragic car accident took his young life so suddenly, so much too soon. 

Last week, while I was in Tanzania, I received a message from Amisadai with the heart-breaking news that her friend had passed away. She was just sixteen years old. Emma and her twin sister, Michelle started school with Amisadai at Aldermaston Primary. When they were in Year 6, Emma was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma and over the following 6 years, Emma continued to be an inspiration to so many with her brave and cheerful determination. 

And now, just a few days after returning from Tanzania, we received the news that a dear Canadian friend, Jade, in Mwanza, a young and healthy mom, suffered a sudden stroke. She and her husband do an amazing job as directors of Village of Hope, Mwanza, working with vulnerable children. Jade and I were chatting at The Hive as she picked up her coffee just the other week. Now she is fighting for her life in Nairobi as we pray for a miracle and my heart is breaking for Julius, her husband, her three boys in Mwanza and all her family in Canada. So sudden. In an instant everything has changed.

Life is precious. I was reminded of this over and over while I was back in Tanzania. People are precious. Every person, regardless of age, gender, colour, race, wealth or status. Time with people is precious. We need one another and were not created to be independent. One of the things that hit me as I was back in Tanzania was the precious value placed on community. Life in Tanzania is never lived alone. It is so different to the current situation in the UK in which it feels like community has been threatened.

In Tanzania I was confronted daily by so many needs and hardships, by pleas for help and the struggle to know how to respond. The burden can feel so heavy. So much time spent with people, which, yes, can be exhausting. But precious people. Less precious time. The way it should be. And in it all, we walk together. Life is precious. 

Today is the first Sunday of advent and the heaviness of waiting feels that much heavier this year. Waiting for light in the darkness. Praying for comfort in the darkness of the night. Our own weight of sadness of losing home and belongings and community this year and waiting for a new one, pales in light of the weight our friends are now bearing. But I keep thinking about tidings of comfort. Yes, there will be joy, but right now, it is time to embrace one another, to value what is most precious and bear tidings of comfort. 

Now to the Lord sing praises

All you within this place

And with true love and brotherhood

Each other now embrace

This holy tide of Christmas

All other doth deface

O tidings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

Upendo wa Mama Products in the UK!

I am happy to share with you now some Upendo wa Mama products that I was able to bring back from Tanzania to sell in the UK! Some festive Christmas face masks, lovely lip and body balms (including the popular Neem Balm), a variety of candles, sets of Kitenge BeesWraps...

Please take a look and see if there is anything you would like! Stocks are limited, so it is first-come-first-served, and when it is gone, it's gone! Message me and we can arrange how we get it to you and sort out payment! I have listed suggested prices for products, but if you would like to donate more, I am starting to fundraise to enable Aikande to continue working with the mamas and managing The Hive through next year! Your help will be so very much appreciated!

And if you haven't heard of Upendo wa Mama and are not sure who these women are, you can read our story here...!

Take a look and give a gift that keeps on giving for Christmas! And please do share with your friends! Thank you! 

Hugs at The Hive

Sunshine and warmth! Real live hugs! Yes, it was wonderful to be back in Tanzania! So wonderful to see good friends again! There is so much to say, but now I want to focus on the Upendo wa Mama women, who were really my main reason for going. It has been such a whirlwind of so much activity, working hard from early until very late, that I hardly know where to begin! I will save some of the adventures for the next post!

It was three weeks of time in Tanzania, but probably six weeks worth of work and 1.5 weeks worth of sleep! But I was able to spend precious time with the women in Mwanza and then in the final week with the group in Dar es Salaam. I can't begin to say how wonderful it was to see them all again ... the shrieks and hugs on the first day were very special! 

Mama Fatuma and Monica working on candles

Mama Laurencia preparing fish for lunch

Mama Rose working on labelling products

Aikande working in the new office

Time for a little hair styling when business was slow!

The Mamas Group in Dar es Salaam

Our family left Tanzania just a week after the opening of The Hive (Beeswax Shop and Honey Centre). There was so much left undone, so much still unknown. And so it was incredibly encouraging to return four months later and see how well they were all doing there! Even in this, the 2020 COVID year, they have not considered giving up and have been able to continue to support themselves from local sales. 

Yes, things are drastically different for them with the collapse of tourism which shut down all their markets to lodges and gift shops in the Serengeti, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and Arusha and means few visitors to Mwanza. Things are different with the borders closed, making it impossible for products get to Masai Mara or Nairobi and impossible for supplies and materials to get in. Things are different with the effect all this has had on the local economy which has hugely discouraged their entrepreneurial efforts to generate more income. But despite it all, the mamas remain as resilient as they have always had to be as albinism mamas... and they are working hard. And working with them somehow puts things in perspective ... definitely a better view of a bigger picture, which leaves much less room for grumbling!

While I was there, we worked hard together on developing some new beeswax products. Amisadai had been getting some good ideas, and while we all really missed her presence with the group, we were grateful for her ideas! So we now sell a Baobab Cramp Balm, a natural massage balm for period relief. Made with pure beeswax, baobab oil and shea butter with essential oils, it is good for massaging on the abdomen or back! And our new big Kili Climb Bar, a brilliant lotion bar with neem oil, for rock climbers to treat and protect their cut, dried hands. And the new Paw Balm just for dogs and the fun number candles for birthday cakes! We were busy making these and so much more to sell at the craft markets opening up for the first time since COVID hit. 

Number and Birthday Cake candles

Our new doggy treat!

Kili Climb Bars

Honey and Coconut Lotion Bars

We were busy working on improvements to The Hive. We had more tables and shelving made and have just started a Community Table. We wanted to help local artisans and those making specialty foods to be able to market their products and are excited to get people involved. We were also working to see what other services and products we can serve the Mwanza community with. And are making plans for some new community ideas as things open up more. It was fun to back with all that is buzzing at The Hive! 

New shelves in The Hive

Every Saturday while I was there, we had a different Craft Market! First the Mwanza Pasha Fair, then the Isamilo School Charity Fair, and finally, the Artisan Market in Dar es Salaam. So good to see markets in action once again! 

Pasha Craft Fair in Mwanza

Isamilo School Charity Fair

Artisan Market in Dar es Salaam

Finally, if you are in the UK, look out soon for a catalogue page online where you will be able to order some of the Mamas products in time for Christmas! I was able to bring back a selection of products in my rather overloaded suitcase! Let me know if you are interested and we can arrange delivery and payment! We are very grateful for all the support for the these mamas right now! 

Home. Abode. Abide.

Home. It's a word I've been thinking about and a word that crops up in conversation more obviously these days and probably more frequently. Laura Ingalls Wilder says it is the nicest word there is. Charles Dickens says it is a name, a word and it is a strong one...

Where is home? While the four of us think that we just left home, many people here think we just came home. Is home where your heart is? Is it the people you are with? Is it a house (a humble abode) with cosy, familiar belongings? Is it a feeling? CS Lewis says "the fact that our heart yearns for something Earth cannot supply, is proof that Heaven must be our home." 

I know it is possible to miss home when I am home. I know it is possible to feel at home in a foreign culture... and not feel at home in my own culture. And we can laugh at this too! I could write another whole blog post with all the funny things we are adjusting to moving from Tanzania to England! From learning what blazers and bungalows are to packaged meal deals and eating with a knife and fork. From person-less shopping (yes, Louisa and I actually said goodbye to a machine in a grocery self-checkout) to trying to stay warm when it gets below 22°C.

I haven't moved house very many times in my life. I think I count only about 8 proper "home" houses in all my 43 years (10 including Magozi and Kimande) although we have had numerous months in multiple temporary "homes." But I have moved overseas across the world four times in rather significant cross-cultural transitions. I was born in England but grew up in Canada. Our children were born in England but grew up in Tanzania. (So yes, that "where are you from?" new friend conversation opener sometimes trips us up!) All to say, this time now of moving to an unknown place with no ties, no friends, no job, no house and very few belongings is not completely foreign and I do know all these things will eventually fall into place. But that doesn't mean it's easy! And this time seems to be particularly harder (thus the rather long delay in blogging as I try to sort my thoughts out!)

Our beautiful temporary home in Chapmanslade

Our last house in Tanzania

I have been looking through our past blogs and this post tells of the last time we moved house! https://themongers.blogspot.com/2014/06/keeping-joy-alive-when-house-is-home.html

Our Magozi house ... a truly special home to remember.
And I could write another post here on the very little a house really needs to make a home!

https://themongers.blogspot.com/2011/06/house-hunting-in-tanzania.html

While we have been looking rather unsuccessfully for a house for a home in the UK for the past two months, we are not homeless. After 2 weeks quarantining in the beautiful converted stable at my aunt and uncle's in Chapmanslade, we had 2 weeks well looked after at Tim's mum's home in Sherborne St John. We were between these homes during the summer months and now with the start of school, we are so thankful for our temporary home here in Chapmanslade while we keep on top of the ten different estate agents we are registered with while we wait to find a house. A neighbourhood... a community... a home. 

Wait for a home. The word "abide" means to wait. Abode is a verbal noun from the thirteenth century  word "abide" meaning to remain, to wait, delay, dwell on ... to bide. To stay with someone or remain in their service. To endure, to sustain and stay firm under. Wow! So I am abiding. Where am I abiding?

The word made me think of the famous hymn, "Abide in Me." It was written by an Anglican minister, Henry Francis Lyte just before his death from tuberculosis in 1847 after a lifetime of poor health. He knew what it was to lose and find "home." Henry was left an orphan when he was 9 years old. He was taken in by an Irish minister, Robert Barrows and his wife, who gave Henry a home with their own five children and paid for his schooling which led him to Trinity College with poetry scholarships and prizes and then ordination with the Church of England. Lyte's hymn is a plea to God to remain (abide) with us through every stage and all trials of life. It alludes to the words spoken by two friends of Jesus following his crucifixion. The two friends are walking in their troubled confusion (sound familiar to anyone?!) to a place called Emmaus and do not recognize Jesus as he comes alongside them. Jesus listens to them tell of their struggle and grief. And then, after Jesus essentially tells them the whole story of God's redeeming purpose for history, the friends urge him to “abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” (Luke 24:29)

And it is in that abiding, us in Him and his love in us, whether we understand or not, we know there is a purpose. A very big purpose. And in this abode, despite whatever stage or trial we are in, it is possible to endure and be sustained, stay firm from our worries and doubts, to remain and rest ... and realise that we truly have a forever, eternal abode (which means no more goodbyes or moving away!) While I am not very good at waiting and resting, I am learning during this time of waiting in the unknown, something about abiding.

And for a beautiful traditional rendition of Abide with Me, check out this tweet from Monkton School where Amisadai and Louisa are settling in so well! They both went to join the Chapel Choir this week and yes, this is what they sang! You can also see a bit of panorama of the school's lovely setting!

Monkton Chapel Music

And for a different version of the hymn with all the lyrics, listen here to Indelible Grace...

EI Goes to Tanga

It's now official! Emmanuel International is beginning a new partnership to work in the Tanga region of Tanzania. This is such exciting news and is something that has long been in our prayers and well over a year in the planning!

In May last year, Tim went with Ibrahimu (EI Iringa Team Leader) and Duncan Ndimbo (EI board member) to Tanga. For some months prior, we had been thinking and praying about the future and growth of  Emmanuel International's work in Tanzania. There had been a sense that we were to be more "EI Tanzania" than simply EI Iringa and EI Mwanza and there was also a sense that EI was ready to give birth to something new! And so we had been seeking what this meant. In that time four churches in four very different parts of the country contacted us about partnering together. Emmanuel International agreed to send teams to visit all four of them in May and June last year and thus it was that Tim went to Tanga to visit Bishop Stephen and his team in West Tanga. 

Tim, Ibrahimu and Duncan with Bishop Stephen and Tanga pastors

The church warmly welcomed the EI team and shared their heart and vision for touching their community and took them to see the projects they had begun. Kilindi and Handeni, the rural districts that make up West Tanga, are among the poorest in Tanzania with extremely low literacy rates. The vast majority of people are from the Zigua, Maasai and Nguu tribes and are subsistence farmers or pastoralists. As EI, we seek to partner with churches to empower them to meet community and physical needs while satisfying spiritual needs. Some of the village churches here have been struggling to survive often with fewer than 15 members and not knowing how reach out to their community physically and spiritually. Life for many village pastors is very hard, and Tim and the team visited two, who with little training and education don't well know how to engage their communities. The West Tanga church asked us specifically for training in this area, already recognizing they needed a holistic vision for mission to reach out with the love of Jesus to care for people's total needs. And after all four locations across the country had been visited, and after much prayerful consideration of all reports, it was decided that EI would begin to work in Tanga!

A traditional West Tanga village house 

Tim has been working hard over recent months working with the board, drafting a partnership agreement, and thinking through the key steps towards forming a partnership. Last week, just a few days after we left Tanzania, the partnership agreement was signed as the TAG Tanga Bishop, his secretary and some of the EI Tanzania board members met with Joel and the team members in Mwanza! We are also working with the TAG national missions department to find a team leader to head up the EI Tanga Office. The plan is to select someone or a family who has gone through the mission training school. Then they will go to Mwanza for training with EI and then be sent to Tanga!

Signing the partnership agreement

Taking the Tanga team to visit the Girls Health Project in Igombe

Top-Bar-tendi in Action at the Hive

The best person to introduce you to all the honey and beekeeping action at The Hive is Bhatendi! Julian, (our Bees Abroad beekeeping trainer) nicknamed her "Top-Bar-Tendi" or Top-Bar for short! I am so going to miss Bhatendi and working with her! She is gutsy with a great sense of humour, has a beautiful heart for people and a prayerful sensitivity. We have had some crazy times together beekeeping; hard, frustrating, funny and fun times! She was over at our house recently making sure she learned how to bake bread and cakes (both in my oven and also in the wonderpot) before I left! Bhatendi is now managing the EI Beekeeping project, working with the current three groups of beekeepers in Malya, Ngudu and Kayenze and now starting training with a fourth on Kome Island. 

Wonderpot lemon cake and oven-baked banana muffins

It has been fun working with Bhatendi to set up and kit out the honey processing room! It's something we have dreamed of and wanted for quite some time and thanks to Andy Mayers, overseer of Sherborne St John Meeting Room Trust, generous funding has made it possible! Until now, processing the honey from the beekeeping groups has been done in my kitchen or in our container... and time seemed to be running out to get something in place before we moved out and before the honey harvest started! Words are somehow not enough to express how relieved we were to get The Hive up and running when we did ... even if it did get a little down to the wire! 

So in the middle of June, just a few days after the tables were installed in the processing room, two weeks before the Hive opening and three weeks before our flights to leave Tanzania, the honey started coming in! Malya beekeepers got on with the harvesting of their hives on their own (which was great), but then rather than bringing the honey to process, without any warning, they just put all the honey buckets on the bus and sent it our way! 

We became a little overwhelmed by honey buckets in the midst of the Hive shop set-up that was also going on at the same time! Trying to organize workmen coming to fit furniture or fix electrics was a little tricky when the Hive was sticky and literally buzzing with bees after honey! Amisadai came on board to help out! 

Amisadai put in the honey hours

Hive action!

When Malya reported they had more honey harvested, we made it clear that a member of the group had to come with the honey .. and what a joy it was to welcome Mathias to The Hive and get more honey going through the filters and presses and into jars! Mathias returned to the beekeeping group in Malya with the exciting report that they had delivered over 80kg! The biggest harvest yet!

Bhatendi working with Mathias! Happy faces!

And with the next honey that came in, Bhatendi worked on training Monica in honey processing. Monica loved it ... and is now resident Hive expert at filtering, bottling ... and cleaning up the sticky mess at the end!

Monica in training on the job

Honey jars filled!

After processing the honey, Bhatendi and I got onto processing the wax. After pressing all the honey out of the comb, the combs were washed and put in the solar extractor for all the wax to melt and drip through. 

In the ensuing busy days, the solar extractor got rather forgotten and it wasn't until midnight on the night before we flew to the UK that I went outside to take the wax out! It was a lovely bittersweet moment, listening to the night sounds one last time in the still darkness. All our beekeeping has been done at night, a red torch spotlight with the crickets backing soundtrack. I will miss that smell of the wax heated in the sun, and even the stingers from the dead bees pricking my sticky hands!

And so we hope and pray that in years to come, The Hive will help and support more EI beekeeping groups and other rural beekeepers to better process and market quality honey in Mwanza. We hope it can become a centre for honey and beekeeping in this region, that people locally could learn more about beekeeping and the honey process. We hope that new beekeepers will find information and training and equipment in order to support livelihoods in the villages from the income-generating through honey sales and crop yield increases through pollination ... and as well, the natural environment will benefit from the bees and be protected through more sustainable beekeeping! 

Top-Bar-Bhatendi is doing a great job ... this week she was asked by Bees Abroad to go with Monica to a Beekeepers Seminar in Urambo and be part of training in hive making and honey processing while Monica taught groups on making products with beeswax. Both of these women are fantastic!

With the beekeepers at the Bees Abroad training seminar

Monica teaches balm and candle-making to a group at the seminar

We still have hurdles to jump as we navigate government regulations ... please pray for favour as Bhatendi and the team work things out! But we hope that The Hive will flourish and buzz for years to come! 

Bhatendi shows our colleagues, Peter and Laura, her processing room at the Open Day!