Something new with our mission trips

This is the third installment talking about the Mauldin UMC mission trip to Tumaini Evangelistic Pre & Primary School in Kiruani, Tanzania.  This installment I want to talk about some of the bigger changes we planned for this mission trip from some at my previous site.

First the biggest change in location is the tribe we deal with.  My new area is mainly a Maasai Tribe area and the majority of people our team comes into contact with at the site are Maasai.  So, I thought a prepared presentation on their culture would be a good thing.  We had Lucas who donated the land to the school and is one of the most respected Maasai men in the area along with our Headmaster Fredy talk about Maasai culture and then take them on a tour of traditional Maasai homes from the days they were nomadic.  They also talked about why the feel the school is important to the future of their tribe. 

I was not sure what I was going to get as Fredy continued to ask me questions about what they should do even the day of the presentation.  But they did a fantastic job.  This was not the tourist typical Maasai presentation where they wear all the jewelry and jump up and down a lot.  No, they told us about why they have the circle brands under their eyes and how early they might do something like that and some of the old folklore that went with those things.  They talked about why they are only cattleman and the roles of husband and wife.  Some of the things they told us about even would shock most people on their first trip to Tanzania.  I asked the safari operator, Heff, what he thought about the presentation and he said it was much better than the normal ones because it was raw and honest, which is what I was hoping for. 

We even got to see a husband—wife argument when Lucas’ wife got upset that he invited our team into the house, and she had only agreed to let them see the outside.  Many of the locals came over and talked with our people and got their pictures taken.  This was the first time I think our team ever got to really connect with the community (this includes all the team I lead or hosted at the previous site) so I was very thankful for the community’s help.

Another new feature that the team worked on was a Friday presentation for the parents.  Again, I was not sure what I was going to get because even the day before Fredy was still asking if he should really invite the parents or not.  But again, it worked out better than hoped for.  We had around 30 parents show up which cover the majority of local parents and a good number from areas that had to travel.  We even sent out our truck to get some of the parents to help them get there.  Normally from what I have seen from Tanzanian schools there are not a lot of Parent presentations so I really wanted our kids to get that feeling of pride that comes from performing in front of a parent and for the parents to get that same  pride for seeing them perform. 

Our first problem happened when the teachers decided to do their own skit for the parents at the last minute and decided to do the same story, we were having the kids do.  Fortunately, one of the team members had a great idea:  let them do their skit in Kiswahili and ours would stay in English.  It went great.  We had each class of children perform a song they had learned during the week.  We did a skit of Noah’s Ark with all the animal masks both in Kiswahili and English.  Several of our Standard I and II students read the bible story for the group.

In mixed stages and emotion about the hokey pokey

We even had the parents join the students outside in a big circle for a round of hokey pokey which had everyone laughing at the end.  I got to say I felt this was a great addition to our week of VBS programs and everyone:  missionaries, student, teachers and parents got something out of the event.

Next week is the last installment with their safari so all the animal pictures will be next week.