Friday, February 6, 2015

A Day In The Life of a Tanzanian Missionary

As most missionaries, or anyone working in a third world country know, you make your plans for the day and then walk out of your gate to some issue that needs to be addressed immediately, interrupting the goals you had for the day. Also, things rarely go the way you have planned in your mind. I wanted to share with you such a day (experience) of making plans and then having "Tanzania" happen, placing obstacles before you that try to prevent your accomplishments for the day.

Monday afternoon I had an appointment at World Vision. Our ladies at Shining a Light (www.shiningalight.org) have been using Sawyer Water Filters as part of our health care program.  I have witnessed first hand how the benefits of having clean water in their homes have increased the quality of life in their lives and the lives of their families. Because of this, I became a distributor of these filters in Tanzania so Shining a Light can share clean water within their community and all over Tanzania. My meeting with World Vision was to figure out how to partner with them and their many projects to get clean safe drinking water out to the rural areas of Tanzania.  

My appointment was at 4:00pm and in the back of my mind, I knew that Tanzanians operate on “Africa Time”, although I was going to be on time to this meeting if it killed me. My mother says, "If you are on time, then you are late". So I usually show up early to most any place I need to be, here or in the states.  Earlier that day I had given the Shining a Light vehicle to our shop manager to travel to Moshi (an hour away) to pick up the leather we use to make our sandals.  As I handed him the keys I said "Elisha, I have a meeting at 4:00 please be back by 3:30 so I can have enough time to make it there. By 3:20, I was out the door with my water filter in hand, along with a five-gallon bucket and bag full of information on Sawyer Products. The 100-degree weather hits me right in the face, as I’m all dressed up in my best business attire the heat is already beginning to make me feel deflated.

Its now 3:30 and I begin to call Elisha. Because of the phone service here in Tanzania I can't get through and must repeatedly redial which is frustrating me even more and starting to try my patience which I lack in a big way (it’s a constant prayer item, I assure you). All the while feeling more and more deflated because of the intense heat and inefficient phone serviceI now have only twenty minutes to make it to my meeting, which could potentially bring clean and safe drinking water to many people in Tanzania.

I turn to Angie, my volunteer who is joining me on this sales call, and say in shear panic say, “What should we do”? At this time you need to try and imagine complete stress on my face, panic in my eyes, and sweat dripping down my forehead. I tell her we need to call a taxi. Now, no taxi's are in the area around my house so we are going to have to walk/run a good distance up a steep hill to the main road and hail down a taxi all with 5 gallon bucket, water filters, and a bag full of information packets all dressed up in my best "TZ professional attire".

We begin the trek up the hill, repeatedly redialing Elisha's number. I also need to find a taxi to call so after digging through my phone contacts finally find a number for a taxi driver I have used in the past and still trying to get through to Elisha's phone while running up the hill carrying all my baggage and sweating to no end. The Taxi driver f
Freddy picks up and in my best, non-panic Swahili, I beg him to hurry and come pick us up. You have to imagine that hurry in Swahili which is “haraka” but does not often get put into action. Freddy meets us at the top of the hill and I realize that after not seeing him for many months I must be charming, sweet and inquire about how life has been since we last met. All things I am in no mood to do at this moment. But I do the only thing I know how to do in times like these, pray. I Pray that I will be kind and courteous to Freddy and greet him as an old friend even though my clothes are soaked, my hair looks like I just stepped out of the shower and I am mad as heck at Elisha. Freddy has the one thing that can redeem this situation at the moment (besides a ride to my meeting) AIR CONDITIONING! So as I am cooling off and taking deep breaths to calm myself Freddy and I catch up.  My Swahili isn’t fluent on a good day, let alone a stressed filled one but we get through it and all is well.

At this time, I finally reached Elisha on the phone, only to find out he is still thirty miles away. I ask him, “what happened to you” to which he replied, “I’m so sorry Jennifer”. But me being who I am, I'm looking for an explanation of why he didn’t inform me that he was running late. I know after living here for 7 years that this kind of thing happens often (people running late) but why not call me? I'm trying not to yell or say things I would later regret but I continue to ask for a reason of why he didn't just call. His response is still "I'm sorry". No reason why. No explanation just sorry. Like I mentioned before I couldn't get through on his line but I feel he could have found another phone to use for this important call. Finally, I just ask him to meet us at World Vision and we can figure it out later.

As we are driving out to the meeting, I take a deep breath and enjoy the air conditioning. We are going to be on time, a pure and simple miracle after all of that. We are two miles from our destination with five minutes to spare. I am ready to share my passion and desire of clean and safe drinking water accessible to the people of Tanzania.

And Then It Happens

 We get a flat tire. UGH! I could cry. In fact I can't believe I didn't.  I look to Freddy who looks at me with a mixture of yikes, I'm so sorry and what should we do? He knows what has happened in the past 40 mins. and he knows this meeting is important to me.  His giving me this look just sitting there there for a few seconds (felt like an hour) looking to me for an answer. I shout, “Freddy go change the tire”. He jumps out and starts the process. Now thoughts are rushing through my mind on what I should do. Do I wait? Do I get out and run the two miles to the office? Or do I just give up and go home after the tire is changed.

I start to contact James, the World Vision employee, to let him know we would be late. After the 12th ring, he finally answers the phone (I'm pretty sure I was praying then too). I tell him my situation, to which he replied no worries I will be waiting here. But now Freddy can't get the spare out of his trunk. It's locked in so tight he can't remove it. I get out and I get the same look of his from the car looking to me for answers on what we should do. I pray again. I pray for understanding, patience and that I could possibly make this meeting.

Just then a school bus comes roaring down the dirt road. They stop to check on Freddy and I noticed it was near empty with only a few girls left to be dropped off. I run over to the driver and plead for a ride to World Vision. The driver waves us on the bus, so we say a quick goodbye to Freddy and pay him for a memorable taxi ride.

We finally arrive to World Vision, which is headquartered in Arusha. It’s a rather large complex and it took some time to find James’ office. It was exactly 4:06. I gave him the short rundown of events and he says to me, “You aren’t even late”. A little piece of me laughs inside because I know Africa Time. I tell him that God wants this meeting to happen, so nothing was going to stand in my way. Not time-challenged shop managers, 100-degree weather, flat tires or Africa Time.

The meeting was wonderful. We got to discuss the awesome project that James and his colleague Linda are working on out in the bush, to create jobs. They were impressed by the products of Business Connect (www.buisnessconnect.net), whom I’m partnering with here in TZ to bring life enhancing products to those in need.

Sawyer Water Filter sold through Business Connect
By the time I got home and relaxed, I couldn’t wait to jump in the shower and clean up. As I went to turn on the hot water, I noticed we were out. Lucky me, I got to experience my very own ice bucket challenge, Africa style. I couldn’t wait to just fall asleep and forget the craziness of this day. Around 1am, I wake to a knock at my window. Normally that would scare the “bejeebies” out of me but since I was so exhausted it didn’t really phase me. I rushed out of my bed as I heard my guard calling out to me in his Swahili/Maasai mix. He is about 58 years old and is our village leader. He comes prepped with bow and arrow, blow horn to alert others of trouble and a blanket so he can nap on my couch outside until if and when trouble comes. I have no idea what he is trying to tell me but I get up, pull on a sweatshirt and go outside to find out what is so important to wake me up. But since I can’t get a clear understanding, I call Elisha our shop manager (who is always there for me and protects Shining a Light, like its his own). By some miracle he is awake or at least woke up to answer my call. I hand the phone to the guard and he explains to Elisha what is going on. The guard hands me back the phone and says "sorry Jennifer" and goes out the gate.

I discover that a lady in the village is sick and needed to go to the hospital. They wanted me to drive her to the hospital and most likely pay the fees. Elisha told him there are others in the village with a car and it doesn’t always need to be me. Because I am the only mzungu (white person) in the area and I tend to never say no to this sort of thing, he came to me. Now I have no problem helping my community out, this is why I am here. It's not just to empower the women and teach them to empower others but to shine the light to the entire community. In saying that, it doesn't mean that every time there is a problem they get to come to me for an easy fix. Empowering means to teach them to handle issues and fix problems themselves. Of course, if nobody else would step up I wouldn’t pass at the opportunity to help.

Once Elisha gave our guard other options, he found a neighbor to help. It was wonderful to see other community members step up and care for others in need. The only other time the guard has ever knocked on my bedroom window was when he first started. He knocked at 6:00am his first night to tell me he was going home. Precious! 


Having Shining a Light in this community is not to solve all their problems and give handouts. We are here to give a hand up and to teach them to solve their problems. That is true empowerment. I managed to go back to sleep that night. Before I did I spent time in prayer. I prayed for that woman, I prayed for knowledge to know when to step in and when to let them figure out a solution themselves. Lastly, I prayed that I would have patience to slow down, take a deep breath, and carry on with the calling God placed in my life.

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