Carrying the Torch in Tanzania
Philip and I recently joined Friends & Family Community Connection (FFCC) on its 7th mission trip to Tanzania, Africa. This was my second visit to Tanzania; Philip’s first. Our group of 12 San Diegans covered more territory on this trip than any previous FFCC group, visiting every site around the country that has been touched by the Lord so far through FFCC. The group began by spending two days loving the children of Light in Africa orphanage, founded by retired Brit “Mama” Lynn Elliott as a rescue haven for Tanzania’s most unwanted and vulnerable kids, first in the shadows of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and more recently in the “old west” Tanzanite-mining town of Mererani. Mama Lynn now cares for roughly 300 children at four facilities, all of which receive the Kids Against Hunger meals we package here in San Diego.
The group then traveled for an entire day to the town of Singida in Central Tanzania, home of the Singida Children’s Center built by FFCC. We stopped along the way in the town of Babati, capital of Tanzania’s Manyara region (state), for a very productive meeting with the Minister of Public Services there about placing Tanzanian children for adoption in American families. In Singida, we spent two days at the Children’s Center, loving the children there and putting some finishing touches on the facility, which is being touted by the Tanzanian government as a model for both its functional design and its service to children in need. The highlight in Singida was preparing and serving the very meals we package here in San Diego to the children there. The Center serves roughly 800 Kids Against Hunger meals every day, and JD’s photos of a couple of children taken in January 2009 and again in July 2010 show just how big a difference these meals are making in the lives of these children.
From Singida, the group headed north and west to the tiny village of Nkungi, home of the Gunda Secondary School. FFCC has been most active in this little village, supporting it with food and water-treatment supplies, advice and counsel to village leaders, and the gift of a top-10 educational institution with a first-rate dormitory to house almost 100 girls. This visit to Nkungi was primarily one of celebration – a grand-opening event for the newly completed dorm, which will open to the girls this coming September. The event was attended by a several hundred villagers and a slew of dignitaries, including the Regional Commissioner (equivalent to our state governor) for the Singida Region, Parsekus Kone, who has been a strong supporter and advocate of FFCC’s work in Tanzania. This event was a party like none we’ve ever seen here in the States, with local color, rhythms and flair abounding.
From Nkungi the group took a day trip even further into rural Tanzania to visit a group of people who are quite literally the “dirt poorest” on the planet – the Hadzabe tribe. Three years ago this particular band of Hadzabe were the last remaining hunter-gatherers on the African continent and were nearly extinct. Today, with FFCC’s help, they have put aside their nomadic ways and have learned to farm drought-resistant sorghum (millet), which is now the staple of their diet. After the wettest year in a decade in Central Tanzania, the Hadzabe crops abound, and their bodies are reflecting the change. For this day-trip, our group was joined by a dozen Gunda School students and by a medical doctor who will help FFCC build a first-aid station and dispensary for the Hadzabe. The Gunda kids were simply abuzz on the return drive to Nkungi after meeting the Hadzabe – one girl even remarked that “I have so much!” It was on this day that I most strongly felt the presence of God… and the power of the Word: “Whoever would be first among you shall be your servant.”
The “business” part of the trip ended in the national capital, Dodoma, where four of us (including Philip) met with the Tanzanian Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, to discuss the future of food-distribution in the country. In the short term, FFCC is looking for the central government’s help in alleviating the costs associated with shipping KAH meals throughout the country. In the long term, FFCC wants the government’s assistance in developing a meal recipe that can be supported entirely by crops grown in Tanzania. PM Pinda pledged his assistance on both accounts. He also took several minutes to thank Philip directly for his service in that country, and he suggested that he might have an opportunity to visit us in San Diego in late 2010 when he travel to the U.S. to address the General Assembly of the U.N. My head still spins at reflecting on this turn of events: That one day we’re singing and playing with – and applying ointment to the wounds of – the poorest people on the planet, and the very next we’re meeting – and drinking tea with – the Tanzanian head of state.
After a long bus ride from Dodoma to Tanzania’s largest city, Dar Es Salaam, Philip and I said goodbye to the group and headed back to the north for a few days of father-son time – a three-day climb up Tanzania’s second-largest (and much less famous) peak, Mt. Meru, which sits 40 miles west of Mt. Kilimanjaro. On day three we began the 6-hour hike to the summit just after midnight, reaching the 15,000-foot peak just in time to watch a glorious sunrise over Kili.
Tanzania is a beautiful country with very warm, beautiful people, and as a nation of 125 different tribes and over 200 different ethnic groups in equal parts Christian, Muslim and everything else, with almost no history of violence or civil strife and a strong commitment to education and leadership, it truly is a light for its East African neighbors. Philip already has plans to return, as FFCC has tapped him to spearhead future projects there. We are so proud – and very grateful – to represent St. Bart’s in service to our Tanzanian neighbors.
~ John David Cowart