Rice

Have you ever seen rice growing? If not, move to Tanzania and you will! Wherever there is enough water to grow it, it is a popular crop. Because growing and eating rice is an important part of people's lives and the culture here, there are several words to describe it, unlike in English, which just has "rice". There are several different words for rice in Swahili - rice when it's still growing as a plant, dry rice before it is cooked, and cooked rice. Unfortunately for me with a name like Michelle, the word for uncooked rice is mchele, which is michele in the plural. If people see my full name written out, they think I'm named after rice!


This particular patch of rice is growing in an Ikizu village. They have some trouble with birds eating it, so spread mosquito nets on top of the stalks when they mature (we didn't include the nets in our picture!). It is only partway through growing - harvest is still a little while away.

Praying for a People Group in Mara

Would you like to commit to praying for one of the people groups of the Mara Cluster? We have written descriptions of nine of the ten groups and will do the tenth one at some point (scheduling issues have gotten in the way). But if one of the nine groups about which we've written touches you and you want to be a prayer partner for them, please let us know!

Kwaya

Murondoro


Kitende


The Kwaya language group is estimated to number about 115,000 people. The area they live in borders on Lake Victoria and includes the city of Musoma. Because of this location many Kwaya men spend their days out on the lake fishing, while the women tend to be at home managing the familes as well as farm plots.

In the past, Kwaya people were encouraged to only marry other Kwaya. But, the mentality has changed. A mentality of unity in the country was encouraged by President Julius Nyerere while he held office from the mid-1960's until the 80's. This impacted most language groups, and Kwaya was one of them. They have also seen a lot of change due to the influx of various people into the Musoma area, resulting in significant diversity of languages and ways of life.

We work with two translators for the Kwaya language: David Murondoro and George Kitende. Though the Roman Catholic church is the most prominent denomination in the Kwaya area, both Murondoro and Kitende are affiliated with the Free Pentecostal Church of Tanzania. Murondoro is an evangelist in the local FPCT church, and Kitende serves as secretary. Kitende and his family (including four children of his own) have lived in the Musoma area since the early 1970's. Murondoro is younger and was engaged to be married just two weeks ago! They had a celebration in the church after the Sunday worship service.

Murondoro and Kitende both speak fondly of Kwaya villages. They claim that good fish is more readily available there than in Musoma, and the opportunity to be able to just speak Kwaya and not have to bother with Swahili is great. Though the big focus of our work is Bible translation, they are also excited about the other materials that will result from Kwaya literacy efforts. They feel like their Kwaya people will be able to take more pride in their culture and language, and will enjoy books that serve as a reminder of cultural stories and sayings.

Customer Service

Tanzania has recently changed how its driving licenses work and everyone has to get new ones. It's a rather obnoxiously long process and I could complain about how ridiculous it is (and expensive!) for a very long blog post, but I thought I'd share the positive side of the experience instead.

In order to get an eye exam for my new license (you have to prove that you can see before they let you drive, which is reasonable enough), I had to go to the local government hospital. I'd never been there before and was really confused about where I was supposed to go when I got there. I expected there to be a large building with a front door and just inside it an office with a big sign that said something like "Reception". But instead, I entered the hospital gates and saw about fifteen small and medium-size buildings and no signs anywhere. Long story short, I wandered around for a while and asked some people where to go and ended up at a woman's office. She directed me to where the eye clinic was. However, upon getting there I found out that I had to go to the registration desk and then to the cashier and only then could I go to the eye clinic for my exam. Well, I ended up back at that kind woman's office. She took one look at my lost self and left her office, took my by the hand and led me to the registration desk several buildings away and then pointed out where the cashier's office was in a different building and made sure I knew how much I was supposed to pay at each place and what papers I was supposed to pick up at each.

As part of a different stage in the process I had to go to the police station. I ended up going five times, although technically one could do everything in only one trip. I didn't have the correct papers at first, so a kind police officer told me exactly what I needed. The second time their power was out and he came out and found me in line and explained the problem and told me to just leave and try again the next day. The next day I came back and he saw my truck pull into the parking lot and went out to meet me. Instead of going into the back office and waiting, he took me straight up to the office where they actually do the work of the licenses. As a side note, that office is carpeted and so we had to take off our shoes before entering. Due to some complications of me being the first non-Tanzanian he'd done this process with, I had to go to a different government office and then come back. But he called ahead and told them I was coming and what the problem was so when I got there, they were ready for me and I didn't have to wait. Then I came back and he quickly finished his part of the job and explained all of my remaining steps to me so I would know which other places I had to go to in which order in order to get my license.

So the whole process has been a bit of an ordeal, but I've been blessed along the way with some nice people who realize that it's an ordeal and are happy to help. Neither of them asked for anything in return; they were just kind to a confused foreigner who was trying to follow their country's laws.

Choir Album Dedication

Paradiso Choir, ready to sing


Paradiso choir singing and dancing


Neema

Later this week and next week we'll do the final two posts about Mara language groups (Kwaya and Zinza). For now, though, this post is about our experience last Sunday at a dedication for a choir album.

Neema, one of the Jita translators, is part of the choir at her church, the main Mennonite church in Musoma. She loves to sing and spends a lot of her free time working with her choir on singing and choreographing the dancing to go with the songs. Choirs in Tanzania don't just stand quietly in rows and sing; they put on a show to go with the music! In fact, quite a few choirs just play a CD and lip sync while dancing.

Neema's choir, which is called "Paradiso", recently made a DVD and CD (also available in VHS and cassette tape, which many Tanzanians still use) and Sunday was the big dedication event. Since the invitation card said it started at 2:00pm, we showed up at 2:15, knowing things often begin a bit late. Sure enough, at 3:00 people started arriving and things began.

Several choirs other than Paradiso were there and each sang a song or two. Well, some of the choirs sang and some lip synced. One choir from a town about an hour away really got into the dancing and it was like watching a full-on aerobics routine - they were really working up a good sweat as they were kicking and jumping and snapping their arms around in unison!

A very important part of events in Tanzania is the honored guest. There must be one important person invited to be the honored guest, and that guest is treated like royalty throughout the event. For this choir album dedication the honored guest was the mayor of Dar es Salaam. We weren't sure if the had flown him in just for this event or if he had other business in Musoma, but whatever the case, we were impressed they'd gotten such a big person to be their guest! As the role of honored guest requires, he had a very long speech and cut the tape covering the DVDs/CDs.

Fundraising, Tanzania-style, was a big part of the afternoon. People were called forward to speak into the mike and say their name, what organization or group they were with, and how much they were giving. Some shockingly large amounts were donated! We weren't entirely sure if the money was going straight to the choir for their needs (new speakers, a vehicle for transport when they have events, choir outfits, etc.) or towards a youth building for their church. What we were giving towards wasn't the big point, it was who you were and how much you were giving.

Raising money this way is very common here, whether it's money for a wedding or a church or something else. If a church needs to pay their electricity bill or buy new chairs, they'll extend the service by having a fundraising time where people are called forward and asked to announce how much they give. The very public nature of this giving can encourage people to give a bit more than they might if nobody knew how much they were giving, so it's pretty effective! It also makes us very uncomfortable as outsiders who aren't used to doing things this way.

So all in all it was a pretty good afternoon, albeit a bit long and with more fundraising and less singing than we would have liked, but it was a decent cultural experience.

Kuria

Kuria kids


Two of the Kuria Bible translators

The Kuria people live in both Kenya and Tanzania. There are a bit over 600,000 total, 435,000 of which live in Tanzania. This makes them the most populous group in Mara Region.

The Kuria are part of the Mara Cluster in a different way than the other nine people groups. Thanks to the hard work of the Bible Society of Tanzania, they already have the entire New Testament (published in 1996) and translators are making progress on the Old Testament. The JESUS Film has already been produced in the Kuria language and there are even some audio Scriptures available. However, not much literacy work has been done. The Bible is available, but people don't know how to read their own language! And while Scriptures are readily at hand, there is a great need for practical Scripture use work. So while the Mara Cluster won't be translating the Bible into Kuria, it will be involved in literacy and Scripture use work among the Kuria people.

Historically, the Kuria were pastorialists living in what is now Kenya. When the Luo people (a Nilotic tribe) began pushing the Kuria south and the Maasai people started pressing in on them from the east, the Kuria ended up fractured and scattered. What had been one large tribe formed two smaller tribes (the Gusii, who are in Kenya) and the Kuria (mostly in Tanzania, some in Kenya). Being confined to a smaller land area and facing attacks from the Luo and Maasai, their pastoral life became more limited and many Kuria, particularly those in Kenya, took up agricultural life.

There are often issues with cattle theft between the Kuria and other groups. While tensions aren't always high between the Kuria and other people groups in Mara Region, they are certainly present. The Ikoma in particular have a long history of problems with the Kuria. The other people groups in the area look down on the Kuria as being agressive hunters and a bit "behind the times" since many still practice a pastoral lifestyle in the bush. Across the country, the Kuria have a negative reputation as fierce, violent people. They are known to be good soldiers in the military, though!

There are a variety of churches in the Kuria area. As with the other people groups in the region, there is a mixture of Christians, Muslims, and those who follow traditional religion. While the Kuria are not considered unreached, they have a great need for good biblical teaching and stronger churches.