6/29/11 Salvatorian Gathering and Welcome

This photo shows all of us gathered at the table in Masasi the night Sisters Jeanette and Ellen arrived.  Seated from left to right are the following:Sr. Jeanette, Fr. Deonatus, Sr. Barbara, Sr. Virginia, Sr. Elice, the Regional Superior, Sr. Ellen and Sr. Christina, the Regional Treasurer. 

6/29/11 From S. Virginia and S. Barbara

Dear Everyone Back home,

Yesterday Sister Elice left around 9:00 a.m. this morning and went to the next town, Ndanda, to do some business.  Ndanda is about a half hour away.  After that she was headed to Mtwara, which is like driving from Milwaukee to Wausau.  After doing her business there, she met the 5:00 p.m. plane on which Jeanette and Ellen arrived.

They arrived here in Masasi around 8:30 p.m.  After supper they were eager to get at their email and then head for their beds!  They did however have much to tell us during supper.  Seems like their experience in Encounter Tanzania has really been a wonderful experience.

This morning Sister Barbara began touring Sisters Jeanette and Ellen around our compound.  When she began her math class at 8:30, I took over the tour.  Sister Elice caught up with us and finished the tour of our compound as well as the Fathers' and Brothers'.  Sister Elice arranged a driver to take them to Lupaso at 11:00 a.m.; Sister Elice accompanied them.  Sister Barbara was fortunate enough to re-arrange her schedule to go with them.  I remained here to teach my class. Since I had been to Lupaso before, I really didn't mind.

As you know by now, every day I have a period of "English conversation" with my students.  So far we have done simple things like "Tell what kind of music you like and why, What kind of food you like and why, your favorite family memory and why, etc."  Since they are becoming more comfortable each day, I thought that I would get into some "meatier" topics.  Yesterday I asked them "What qualities do you think we should  be looking for in a young woman who applies to become a candidate in our congregation?"  I had them put their own ideas on paper silently, then they shared their ideas with their neighbor who sits with them in the classroom. That was as far as we got and it was time for lunch.

I told them that when they returned at 2:00 p.m., we would have something special.  At 2:00 p.m. when they arrived at the classroom,  I had a sign on the door which read:

                                          "Special SDS Meeting today, June 28, 2011,
                                                                   2:00 p.m."

When they entered the classroom they found their tables arranged in a square so that they were facing each other.

I told them that we were going to pretend that this was a Regional Chapter.  I had pretend "roles" printed on table tents, turned them upside down and had them choose a table tent.  They really laughed when they saw what they said.  One read "Regional Superior," "Director of Candidates," "Director of Novices," "Regional Counselor," etc. 

I had each sister print one of the qualities that she named on her small dry erase board.  We went around the table and each person said and showed the one quality she had written, while I wrote each quality on the big board.  If  a person's quality was already mentioned, she could choose another one of the qualities she had listed on her paper..  After all of the qualities were named, each person had to tell in English why she thought that particular quality was most important.  After that was done I asked each sister to go to the board and put a mark next to the quality that she thought was most important.  (There were two that were non-negotiable, namely, a person who applies to be a Candidate, Must be at least 18 years old and must have passed Form IV secondary school.)

Here are the qualities they named that received the most "votes:"

* Good behavior,  meaning their behavior should be an example for society

* Good relationships, meaning that she should be able to get alone with many kinds of people sop that she would be a good community person.

* Hard working - I guess that speaks for itself.  They said someone who helps in the house and doesn't leave things for the others.  (Guess human behavior is the same all over the world!)

* Polite and cooperative

* Mature spiritually

* Mature

Needless to say, I was thrilled.  I think that they did a great job.  Both Sister Barbara and I participated in this "role playing" experience.  They seemed interested to hear what qualities both of us wrote.  I did not use the word "role play."  We just "did it." I don't think that they ever did anything like this and I think they really liked it.

Today my students took  their first big practice test.  On some things they did very well and other areas they didn't do so well.  When it comes to vocabulary, it's really a guessing game.

That's all for now.

Love to all,

Sister Virginia

A few days past (S. Ellen/S. Jeanette)

On Saturday we visited a private clinic as well as the general hospital in Morogoro. We then stopped at the Cathedral where a wedding was taking place (so no inside pictures). Some of the Lay Salvatorians had outfits made by a local tailor. I have included a picture that shows the "shopping plaza" where the tailor shop is. 

Shopping "Plaza"

The general hospital in Morogoro

A private clinic in Morogoro

Clinic Doctor: Morogoro

Dispensary: Morogoro

6/27/11 S. Ellen and S. Jeanette Start "Phase 2" of their Experience

(The Immersion Program places Sisters Ellen and Jeanette in Morogoro for two weeks, where they participated in a variety of classes, sessions and experiences to introduce them to the cultures and language, history and experiences of Tanzania. Next, they will spend a week with the Sisters in Lupaso, where they will help in whatever way they are asked.)

We arrived here in Masasi at about 0830 PM. We had a restful day in Dar and went to the airport at 1:15PM Traffic was slow and congested for the first part of the trip, but then was good so we got to the airport with ample time to spare, S. Mechy did a wonderful job of negotiating awful traffic congestion. Our flight was less than an hour and S. Elice and Father Deonatus were waiting for us. We had a three hour ride from Mtwara to Masasi, including an outstanding sunset. After supper, Barbara had two computer set up for us and they are (surprise) working well.

I got good pictures of the kindergarten in Dar, which we will be forwarding soon, I hope. We will go to Lupaso at noon tomorrow after Barbara finishes class, so she can go with us and see it.

Ellen is going to try to send some pictures tonight, but they won't be of the last three days, because she hasn't had time to prepare them yet. I'm going to try to find and read the blog tonight. We haven't seen it since the animal postings. Everyone says it is terrific and asks if we really saw those animals. We sure did and many more.

Jeanette

PICTURES from the past several days:

Wise man we met while visiting

Brother Polycarp, SDS

Dr. Kasimila, Political Science Guest Speaker

Campus Sign with web address: www.morogoro.sds.org

Campus at Jordan University College, Morogoro

6/27/11 Photos from S. Virginia and S. Barbara

Sister Elice left this morning for Ndanda, a small village about a half hour away.  She has some shopping to do and then she is heading to Mtwara, which is like driving to Wausau.  She will do some business and then at 5:00 p.m. she will pick up Sisters Ellen and Jeanette.  They will arrive here about 8:00 p.m., have a little supper and spend the night.  Tomorrow they will be taken to Lupaso, about a half hour away, where they will spend a week.

Here are some photos.

Sister Virginia and her class; an additional member has since been added.

Sister Beata, Sister Amani and Sister Edisia discuss an assignment in a small group

Sister Virginia preparing stir fry on a kerosene burner.

Sister Agnes teaching songs from new English song book.  (Sister Jenada had a parishioner re-type their old song book.)  I brought one new book along; the other 49 are coming in the container from Brother Regis.

6/26/11 More Photos!

With a special thanks to Frater Emmanuel, who figured out how to upload S. Virginia's photos!

Sister Virginia and Sister Barbara playing the dice game, Farkel with the girls in the Hostel.

Sister Barbara teaching math at the board

Sisters engaged in English conversation about their "favorite color" as they colored eggs.

6/26/11 More Photos from S. Virginia and S. Barbara

Sister Elice, the Regional Superior, presenting Jordan's Diary to Sister Agnes.

Frater Immanuel and Sister Barbara assisting Sister Elice in learning how to operate her new laptop computer.  (This laptop Sister Jenada was instrumental in getting from a donor.)

Sister Barbara helping Sister Angela with English conversation.  (Sister Angela is in charge of the Hostel.)

Hard at work learning and practicing English.

Coloring Eggs offers Conversation Practice!

6/26/11 S. Ellen and S. Jeanette

On Friday we went to a game park (it was originally scheduled for Monday but we are taking the bus at 10 a.m. with Fr. Michael. Here are some photos.

Electricity has been off whenever we had free time the last few days. I got connected (on the computer) immediately after supper and it has been about an hour to get this message opened. I got a second computer opening the jubilee message (or at least trying to).

 

S. Ellen

 

6/25/11 From S. Virginia and Barbara

---

Greetings to Everyone back home!

Today is Saturday so we have a few minutes to get to our e-mails!

I have completed teaching six days of class.  This is not more than a half of quarter of work, if a student would be attending high school in the states, taking English one period a day.  Class is 5.5 hrs. per day.  As far as English is concerned, the students are working hard.  The vocabulary is difficult enough, but when you try to teach poetry and similes and metaphors, that is another extra layer of difficulty for them.

Another student was added to my class, so now I have nine students.  I duplicated 10 copies of everything before I came, so I was prepared for her.  I have only sisters in my class this year; there are no girls from the Hostel in the class.

As an English assignment, I had the students write a letter to either Sister Jane or to Sister Jenada.  In looking over the letters I noticed that each one of them talked about the subjects they were taking in school and they each indicated that math was their most difficult subject.  Since we have a math teacher right here in our midst, I asked Sister Barbara if she would be willing to help.  She immediately said yes.  The sisters had one of their Form I math books and one Form IV books with them.  With those books and with the materials Sister Barbara found on the internet regarding the Tanzanian National Exams in math, she was able to plan some lessons to assess the skills and needs of the sister in the English class.

For two days this week Sister Barbara taught them concepts from the Form I books.  Everyone wanted to attend that class.  Even the students in Form IV told me that they did not feel confident of the the math concepts in Form I.

Today is Saturday.  Sister Barbara said that she would be happy to work with the students with concepts from the Form IV book if anyone was interested.  Three students out of nine were eager for this opportunity, so this morning she is having class.  

 

While she is doing that I volunteered to wash the floor in our bedroom, which is totally covered with fine red dirt from the path we take several times a day from the Hostel to the chapel, dining room, etc.  Washing the floor here is quite different from how we do it at home.  The floor is cement, so you pour soapy cold water on the floor, using a scraper with a long handle, like we use on windows, and drag the water out of the room into the drain outside.  Then you fill the bucket with cold water and rinse the floor.

Some of you know that at the Dollar Store I found and bought a small dry erase board for each student to use. (They are like the "magic slates" we used as children.)  I thought that we would need to use two rooms to teach and only one rooms has a board.  As it turns out, we are using the same classroom, but at different times.  However, the dry erase boards have come in very handy.  Sister Barbara asks the students to do a math problem on the board.  When they are finished, they hold up their board and she can immediately see if they have done the problem correctly.  

 

In English class I taught the students  how to write a thank you letter and how to write a letter of invitation.  (The national test usually asks them to write one or the other.)   After we composed a letter of invitation together, inviting people to a final vow ceremony on August 15th, they each had to make their own invitation about another event, graduation, a wedding, etc..  Each student used her dry erase board to prepare her invitation.  Then we put them on display so everyone in class could read the invitations of the other students.

Sister Barbara is also working on English with a few sisters individually.  Now that retreat is over, she hopes to have a small class of sisters who want to learn English, but who don't have to worry about taking a national exam.

Every day in English class I spend about some time on "conversation."  Each day they have various topics to talk about, eg.  What kinds of books I like to read, What kind of music do I like to listen to, What is my favorite Bible story, What is my favorite family celebration memory, etc.  Yesterday I told them that conversation would be held at 2:00 p.m. up at the Regional House.  They were really curious as to what would be happening.  

 

When they came I told them that we were going to talk about our favorite colors and why we liked them.  We did this while dying eggs.  They had never seen this before and really seemed to like it.  Sister Barbara help too.  Sister Elice came in to see the project and in her excitement began speaking to them rapidly in Swahili.  They quickly reminded here to speak in English because it was conversation time.  The chickens here lay only brown eggs, so the eggs had a different color than we are used to seeing when we dye white eggs for Easter.

This week I cooked supper two nights in a row.  Since most of the sisters were on retreat, only Sister Elice, Barbara and myself were here at the Regional House for supper.  The first night I made grilled cheese sandwiches and soup.  Sister Elice had never had grilled cheese; she like it very much.  The soup was actually a package of dried Knorr beef broth.  I diced up a few carrots and onions and it was fine.  

 

The next night the cook left one pot of hot rice for us and that was it.  Again, I diced up some carrots, onions and some leftover  meat.  I beat three eggs well, added it to the other ingredients, including the rice and behold, fried rice.  With a little sauce and some "chili sauce" ala African style,  it was quite tasty.  Right in the middle of frying the rice, the gas on the little three burner gas stove gave out.  Sister Elice started an ancient  tiny kerosene one burner stove and I finished frying the rice.  She called Brother Michael over to install a new gas tank for the kitchen stove.  It's a good thing that I like camping and have had experience. It is also a very good thing that the Salvatorian fathers and brothers live next door.

The sisters, priests and brothers who made retreat all seemed to like it very much.  The retreat director was a Precious Blood priest from Dar es Salaam.  Since retreat ended last night, today is filled with many departures.

This year we brought some games for the girls in the Hostel.  (There are about 10 high school age girls who board in the Hostel.  It is the same building where we sleep and have our classroom.  After supper we played some card games and a dice game with them.  They really seem to enjoy it.  I also brought them a frisbee, which they love.

We are trying every possible means available to us to send Sister Patrice photos to use on the blog, but so far we have had no luck.  Today may be our lucky day.  Brother Immanuel, the computer teacher here, is helping us!

Lunch is ready, so I have to go!  That's all for now.

Please know that we are very conscious of the fact that today is Jubilee Day in Milwaukee.  Our prayers go heaven ward for the Jubilarians and for all of you.

love,

Sister Virginia

 

6/24/11 Photos Galore! (S. Barbara and S. Virginia)

With a special thanks to Frater Emmanuel Bonaventure, the local "computer guy," Sisters Barbara and Virginia send these glimpses into daily life...

6/23/11 From S. Jeanette

Hi again!

 

The computer is still functioning and we are having a free afternoon, so here is more info on our experiences:

 

From the pictures I'd seen, I had no idea how large "Jordan University College" is. The buildings are well constructed. The grounds are lovely. We had a presentation by Fr. Bernard Witek, SDS on their future dreams. He left Wednesday for a fund raising trip to Europe and the US. Everyone praises Father David Brusky, and Brothers Donald and Bert for the initial work they did here. I tried to take a couple pictures to give a sense of the size, but that is not really possible. (Those have not yet been sent.) We have had some excellent lectures. Dr Kasimila spoke on the leadership crisis in Africa. Brother Polycarp, OSB spoke on the geography of Tanzania.

Salvatorian Parish of Mkuranga (S. Jeanette and S. Ellen)

Tailor School

S. Ellen and S. Jeanette with two SDS Sisters

Carpentry School

Parish Church

Encounter Tanzania Group at Mkuranga

On Thursday June 17th, we took a trip north of Dar to the Salvatorian parish of Mkuranga.  They have many ministries. We visited and took pictures of Ellen and I with the two Salvatorian sisters, the carpenter school, and the parish church (note the drums). One of the sister's is the sacristan. There is a picture of the whole encounter group,our three seminarian guides and the paster and two brothers in front of the sister's convent. The sister's gardens were impressive. They have kindergartens that were on winter holiday. We toured the dispensary with Brother Jeramiah, a recently graduated nurse. They have a tailor school and masonary training. We ended the visit with lunch which included a German volunteer doing his year of service.

6/22/11 Visit to Orphanage (S. Ellen and S. Jeanette)

One of the things we did yesterday (Wednesday, June 22, 2011) was to visit the Mgolole orphanage run by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters (a Morogoro Diocesan community). We brought them dolls and dresses made by people in California. The children liked to be held and try on our glasses and hats. Although the orphanage was close by, it took quite awhile over the sandy road. Mgolole orphanage run by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters Children at the Orphanage Sisters with babies at the Orphanage Orphanage Dorms with Mosquito Netting

6/23/11 from S. Jeanette and S. Ellen

Yesterday all the servers to internet connections were down. Slow computers, electricty being off and full schedules are reasons you are not hearing from us more often.

 

Every morning we have a Swahili class for 39 to 50 minutes taught by one of the seminarians. Today we did numbers. Clearly S. Barbara in way ahead of us. Monday was greetings, Tuesday - animals, Wednesday - days of the week.

 

It rained very hard last night, so we got stuck coming back from our class with an elder wise man on ancient African traditions and customs, especially from his Luguyu tribe, from this area.

 

Greetings to all.   Love,  Jeanette

 

FROM S. ELLEN:

Trying to catch up on pictures.

This batch is from Fr. Jordan's birthday at the SDS-M provincial house in Dar es Saalam and our visit to the Cathedral when we first got here. Sorry they are out of order.

 

 

SDS-M Provincial House in Dar

Cathedral at Dar es Salam

Grilling meat to celebrate Father Jordan's Birthday

Sisters, Fathers, Brothers and Lay Salvatorians at Fr. Jordan's Birthday Celebration

Our bus

6/21/11 From S. Barbara

Wednesday, June 22, 2011, Masasi, Tanzania
 
I am now into my second week with our sisters in Masasi, Tanzania.  My work here is going --- some days going well, other days going very slowly.  This being my second time in Africa, I'm not surprised.  Here the focus is on relationships more than on tasks.  For a high-achieving North American who tends to measure progress by work accomplished, this is at times frustrating.  However, I am coming to understand the reality of our sisters here --- and learning a lot!

My teaching here is going well ... but slowly.  What I am doing here is a new thing, and the Sisters are gradually warming up to my presence and my teaching style.  English is used in secondary and post-secondary education and in business --- but otherwise, everyone speaks Swahili.  So the Sisters have asked for help in learning conversational English, and in improving their written communication skills.  The style here is basically lecture, but I don't believe that one can learn conversational English by lecture only.  So there is a kind of clash of teaching-learning expectations.  I am working with several of the sisters one-by-one, and helping each one toward her particular expressed goals.  One wants help with verb tenses, another with sentence structure in written communications, and so on. 

Teaching conversational English one-one-one is its own challenge.  At meal times, we try to converse in English, but this can be challenging as everyone else is most comfortable conversing in Swahili. 

I'm trying to learn a little Swahili while I am here, which is actually helping me to teach English as I understand where some of the misconceptions that can occur.  For example, in Swahili every letter in a word is pronounced, and pronounced the same way every time, similar to languages like Spanish and Portuguese.  This is certainly not the case in English.  We have all those silent “e”s at the end of words such as cake and like.  And consider the pronunciation of “ou” in the words thou, though, and thought.  Swahili has no articles (words equivalent to the, an, and a). Also there is just a single word in Swahili for our third-person singular pronouns (he, she, it).  I find it helpful to be aware of these things as I am teaching English.

Making an effort to study a little Swahili before coming here is beginning to pay off.  When others are talking, I can recognize and understand a few words, occasionally even a full sentence.  My reading and listening comprehension is increasing (slowly), and yesterday I even wrote a short paragraph about myself.  My speaking is very slow and very weak.  When I open my mouth to speak, I can sometimes remember the correct words for an appropriate greeting, and the correct response when someone else greets me.  I have “thank you” (asante or asante sana) down pat!  I also recognize words for numbers (is anyone who knows me surprised that I recognize numbers?!!). 

One very interesting thing is that Swahili-time starts at 6:00 am (daybreak).  So 7:00 am is "one" ("saa moja" in Swahili), and 8:00 am is "two" ("saa mbili" in Swahili),... and so on.  They use a 12-hour clock, so essentially Swahili time is 6 hours off from English time.  Actually, this six-hour difference is rather convenient for making the conversions as you don’t have to add/subtract six hours to convert the times, rather you can read the number across the diameter of the watch.  For example, 10:00 in English time is “saa nne” (4 o’clock) in Swahili time; the 10 is opposite the 4 on the diameter of a watch.  However, I find that I need to be very careful when I set a time to meet with one of the Sisters, that the time she tells me is the same as the time I assume she means.  Sometimes a sister will ask me to meet with her at 3:00 pm, and then say “Let’s meet from 3 to 11.”  So I check to make sure whether she means from 3:00 to 5:00 pm or 9:00 to 11:00 am.

Sr. Virginia and I each have a bottle that we refill with drinking water when we are up at the Regional House for lunch or supper.  The drinking water tastes vaguely of wood smoke, assuring me that it has been boiled.  The smokey taste is not bad, but it is quite noticeable.  For me it has become a comforting taste.

Yesterday the electricity went out in the early afternoon, and was out for most of the rest of the day.  Among other things, the water pump runs on electricity … a fact that became apparent as I was washing my hands for lunch.  I turned on the water to wet my hands and got the soap lathered up, and then the tap went dry.  So there I stood with soapy hands until Sister poured water over my hands.  One has to keep a sense of humor in these situations!

Let me close here, and leave some stories for another day.  You are each in my heart and prayers in a special way. 

Peace, S. Barbara Reynolds

6/20/11 S. Ellen Writes

We are welcomed by the villagers.

 Sunday was the first anniversary of the death of Frank Clark, SDS. Sharon donated for a well in a village about two hours from Morogoro. The Encounter group was invited to the dedication.

Clean water! The well is the blue structure, center left.

Sharon Dedicating Well in Frank's Memory

The villagers gave Sharon a gift of bananas. They also gave other gifts such as two live chickens, maize, melons.

6/20/11 S. Virginia Writes

(Background: The Sisters in Tanzania have only a handful of computers, though recent improvements in electricity and internet connections have made a big difference in how they can use them. Two laptops, one via S. Jenada, and one via the Province, went over to the sisters recently, to support their technological needs. S. Virginia, meanwhile, is learning how to, hopefully, transfer photos from her camera to the computer.)

Tonight Barbara and Elice took the chip out of my camera, so maybe you'll get some photos via e-mail, or maybe not!  Barbara helped Elice prepare her monthly Newsletter today, photos and all!  She also helped her with two thank you letters.  Elice was thrilled.

Would you believe, I made supper tonight!!  There were only three of us here, Elice , Barbara and myself.  I made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Elice had never had grilled cheese; she  loved it.

6/20/11 S. Ellen Writes

Traffic jam.

The road.

 On Saturday morning we traveled to Bagamoyo, the first place where the missionaries came. We also saw the ruins at Kade where Islam came to Tanzania. We then took a dirt road for two hours (not counting the 40 minutes waiting for the truck that was blocking traffic to move) and a paved road another two hours to Morogoro, arriving at bedtime.

Housing along the way. Notice the maize in the foreground.

Along the way we saw many shops and traditional housing still being used.

On Sunday we had mass in the parish church. It was very interesting and the music was beautiful. The afternoon was the dedication of the well that Sharon Clark donated in Frank's memory.

 
Today we had Swahili class and a presentation on the history of the SDS in Tanzania. This afternoon will be an update on the new Jordan College.