Konde Partnership Newsletter

A publication of the Konde Diocese Committee of the Lower Susquehanna Synod, ELCA

February 2009

Editor: Jacob Maser cpo.jake@verizon.net

Pastor Kumbuka Mwasanguti arrived in the United States on Friday, August 28, settling in at Gettysburg Seminary August 31. He will be living in Aberly 112 at the Seminary. His wife and children remain in his hometown of Kandete in the Mwakaleli District. His wife�s name is Veronica. His children are: Reuban, age 12; Catherine, age 8; Irene, age 5; and Robin (a son) age six months.

Karen Poe and her husband Fred Hait are now in

Tanzania

. They are from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Carlisle. They are serving at Mbeya Teacher�s College and working with Pastor Mwankenja. They both have internet blogs. Their address is http://karentanzania.blogspot.com

The following is a selection from one of the more recent entries. �16 October, 2009
I had already written in my journal and put it away for the evening last night when we had a knock at our front door. Ebitha and Eunice, Mwankenja�s wife and five year old daughter, along with Hiari had come for a visit. We talked and enjoyed each other�s company for a while. Of course we served tea. That is one thing I enjoy about Tanzania, the importance of visiting. No big calling ahead and making plans, just dropping in. Time moves much more slowly here, and as a guest, you know that you will be �most warmly welcomed�, a phrase that is common here.
This morning, Mwankenja himself stopped by to see us. His meetings in Iringa had gotten over earlier than expected, so he came back to Mbeya before heading off to Dar Es Salaam for another meeting. Look on a map if you are confused about the location of any of these cities.
Had asked Ebitha where she thought I would be able to get my hair cut � it has gotten a little straggly in the past two months. Mwankenja suggested that we ask the Pakistani woman at a little grocery shop where she goes to get hers cut. The woman does not speak English, so Mwankenja would be translating, I am concerned what might be lost in the process. Especially since Mwankenja keeps referring to having a shave.�

In May 2009, Webelos scouts from Pack 125 from Grace Baptist Church on the Marietta Pike in Lancaster collected youth-oriented magazines to send to Manow Secondary School in Tanzania. They committed themselves to the service project after hearing about the school from Jake Maser, then Assistant District Commissioner of the Harvest District of the PA Dutch Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

Bottom row (left to right): Josh Ciccocioppo, Christopher Detwiler, Henry Womble, and Zack Hoopes

Back row (left to right): Co-leader Kathy Williams, Anish Mahadeo, Den Chief Tyler Miller, Josh Pezzulo, Ethan Williams, and Co-leader Brad Hoopes Not pictured: Max Grove, Kevin Going, Derek Stoe

Manow is a rural privately-run school located in Mbeya District, located in the Southern Highlands of

Tanzania

. The scouts learned that Tanzanian youth first learn their tribal language, and then learn Swahili in primary school. For the two percent of the students that are able to attend secondary school, the subjects are taught in English. The magazines were collected to give the students at Manow a fun way to supplement their English classes, helping them to learn.

The magazines were hand-delivered to Manow by Mr. Maser in September 2008 when he visited the school as part of a mission planning conference he attended as a representative of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

The project was developed by Mr. Maser as part of the Wood Badge leadership training course administered by the local BSA council. �The need is real,� commented Maser. �The Manow students deal with insufficient and outdated textbooks. These books will form a mini-�library� of English-language reading material that will help to increase their reading comprehension.�

Webelos Leader Kathy Williams was enthusiastic about the project as soon as she heard about it. �This is exactly the kind of activity that the Webelos 1 den wants to get more involved with. I think it sounds fascinating.� After discussing how they would collect the books, Maser met with the boys to tell them about Manow and the conditions at the school and in the country of

Tanzania

The boys met with the principal at Rohrerstown Elementary School to obtain permission for a magazine drive. For six days the boys took turns over the intercom to give facts about Tanzania and Manow School. Another scout collected books from Landisville Elementary School. After the drive ended, the boys had collected 70 magazines for the students at Manow.

�I think this was great for the scouts. They not only learned to care with a global point of view, but they also helped to plan and organize the drive,� said Maser.

The visit to Manow was scheduled on the way from Itete to Tukuyu. Pastor Masiba, the headmaster, gave a tour of the school, which lies in a valley beneath a dormant volcano. The road there is lined with banana trees, and a huge tea plantation run by the Konde Diocese is right next to the school grounds. The school consists of many buildings sprawled out over a large tract of land.

Along the tour, Mr. Maser saw various classrooms, some finished and some where construction has only begun. A new dining hall and library were also part of the tour. After the tour, Mr. Maser arranged to �hand over� the collected magazines to some of the Manow students.

The youth were intently reading them while pictures were being taken, and an hour later many were seen still pouring over the pages. The magazines will make up a reading section of the new library, that doesn�t have a lot of recent material for the children to read.

Since December 2006 I have been exchanging e-mails with Deborah Sweger of Zion, Newville, because we both have Ngamanga as our companion congregation in Konde Diocese. Since she has never had the chance to go to Tanzania, and I have been several times, I was always happy to share my experiences with her. In 2008 I was able to report that I had seen a photograph of her women's group pinned to the wall in the house of the women's secretary in Ngamanga. We have joined in supporting projects such as school uniforms for orphan children or the purchase of two dairy cows and a calf.

There was great excitement when Deborah wrote that she would be coming to Germany with her husband and two friends in May 2009. We met face to face in Heidelberg on 23rd May 2009. I gave her lots of pictures of Ngmanga and Konde Diocese and she gave me a wooden model of her church in Newville, which was founded in 1795. My church in Munich is only about 100 years old. Deborah tells me that she and her husband would like to go to Tanzania soon. I hope they make it because then we would have even more to talk about!

St. Paul's Benevolence Committee (West York) has approved the request of St. Paul 's Mpuguso Lutheran Church & Konde Diocese Committee for construction funding of the Mpuguso Youth Hostel.

During recent years, Elisha Mwamwaja and the Mpuguso Lutheran Church developed architectural plans for the youth hostel, designed to provide housing for forty (40) young ladies attending the secondary school which is in close proximity to the Mpuguso Lutheran Church . The projected plans call for a nine (9) stage construction project which will cost approximately $63,000. St. Paul 's has now approved the nine (9) phase project in its entirety.

Members of the Mpuguso Lutheran Church will provide substantial portions of the labor as the work progresses. It is anticipated that members of St. Paul's will be able to participate in the construction project next summer, at least in a limited fashion, in conjunction with an anticipated visit to Tanzania.

Benevolence or general questions: Pastor Cliff Eshbach, Assistant to the Bishop, LSS. Email: ceshbach@lss-elca.org

Companion Congregation program: Pastor Sally Gausmann, St Paul, Trinity Road, York. Email: Pastor.Sally@comcast.net