If you don't want to read all of this...I have malaria.

Sunday was an interesting and an inspiring day. We didn't go to a village for worship, which was a change. Pastor Hafermann preached here at the seminary for the first time in about four years. It was oddly comforting going to service in a church not so different from those at home. It made me think about how many different ways and places we have worshipped over these past few weeks. The service was all in Swahili, of course, but it was almost like a traditional Lutheran service back home...only with sweet Swahili hymns. I ended up leaving the service early because I wasn't feeling the greatest.

After service was over we all headed over to Luka's brother(Solomon)'s house. It was a special occasion because it was 40 days after Solomon's burial and we were there to put the cross on the grave. We started by walking down the road to where Solomon is buried, with the cross leading us. I walked with Solomon's young son, Baraka, which Luka now takes care of. He is around 10 years old and the walk up there I had to fight back tears as I saw Baraka doing the same. I have never seen someone so young so strong. The tears that he would wipe away that had welled up and began to sting his eyes was a sobering blow to me. I can only pray that I will be as strong as him during such hard times.

Another beautiful thing about the service was that since Luka and Solomon are Christian and the rest of the family is mostly Muslim, we got to see Christians and Muslims praying and worshipping and respecting one another as human beings. There was no arguing, not bickering, no fighting about it. This is something that I am so proud to see from a Christian perspective. Christians being Christians and not fighting. Respect for the fellow human being is so much stronger than looking at what makes us different.

After the ceremony, the large party of people went back to the house and we ate. Shortly after we had eaten I asked Kyrsten to take me back because again I wasn't feeling well. She told me if I didn't feel well the next morning I should go get my blood checked for malaria. So this morning I did just that, receiving news that I do in fact have malaria. I do not have that severe of case thanks to the anti-malaria medication that I have been taking religiously since before I left for Tanzania. It still doesn't feel good and I am at times miserable, but I am thankful that it is not nearly as bad as it could be. I am also thankful that I have medication that I am taking now for my malaria. Though it is fairly inexpensive for me to buy (around $6) it is incredibly hard for many Tanzanian people to afford.

I hope all is well around home.

Peace,
PHW

The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation

These past few days have been really interesting, though not too much has happened really. Thursday and Friday were filled with Swahili and new verbs. Lots of new verbs, verbalicious verbs. It has been a little tough lately because of all of the new verbs and the tenses. Though it has been a lot of fun. This next week should be very different as well. Every week we get a new teacher so it is always kind of exciting to find out who we have each week.

Today we went to the youth prison and then to the cattle market. We went to the youth prison to drop off a microscope for the prison to have so that they can check blood for malaria. The prison was interesting because there were no gates or walls holding in the prisoners. It was almost like the prisoners were on a honor system, though the guards there are always on patrol. The prisoners are treated very well. Unlike back in the states it would appear that they are treated like human beings. They live together in a community that seems welcoming, oddly enough.

The cattle market was a lot of fun too. We had the opportunity to buy things like knives, fabric, clubs, shoes...pretty much whatever you wanted. Even though I got dehydrated about half way through, I still really thought that it was a good time. For lunch we had goat and sodas. it was delicious. We even had a couple of vegetarians with us who ate goat as well. It was nice to see everybody enjoying each other's company and having a great time. We had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow after church we are going to Luka's for a cross raising (whatever that consists of) with his family. It should be a very uplifting time seeing Luka's family and hanging out with the kids that are around. I really enjoy playing with the kids at all of the villages and the different places we go.

My brain is pretty scattered, so I think that I am going to stop typing.

Peace,
PHW

I threw my caution to the wind..

Don't worry about the title. I was listening to the song Canned Heat by Jamiroquai when I wrote the title.

These past couple of days have gone pretty well. We are starting to hit a lot of vocab, so our brains are saturated with Kiswahili. It is getting tougher as we go on, so it is providing a nice challenge for all of us. The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. It is still in the dry season so the humidity is down and it gets up to about 85 during the day. Since we are so close to the equator the hottest part of the day is indeed noon, unlike at home where it isn't until 2:30-3 that the hottest part of the day hits. Since it cools down in the afternoon, these past couple of days have been spent exploring the grounds around the seminary after afternoon tea.

I am finding these walks refreshing and I think that I may continue going on them everyday, not only to see the amazing sites around the campus but to also unwind for the day. It gives me time to think through things and a time to release inner tensions that build throughout the day. With the beautiful mountains that are just behind the seminary, it is hard to not want to go walking around and look at them. Hopefully we will get to take a weekend and scale those beauties. I really look forward to going out there, going outside of the seminary to see what Tanzania is like. It is odd, but since we really don't get to go anywhere during the week the seminary seems to get smaller and smaller all of the time. I am ready to start traveling to different places and seeing new things and begin my independent studies on interfaith dialogue.

I know that once we start doing our own things out of the seminary, that time will speed up and our experience will be over before we know it. Though I don't want us to leave anytime soon, I am comforted by what every person that has come here during semester abroad has said. It is the fastest three months of your life. I was thinking the other day, while looking at a calendar and we have hit the 1/6th point of our stay already. It honestly feel like we just arrived a couple of days ago. Funny how time is relative. Einstein...what a guy.

I know the four of us would like to hear from all of you, so if you want to shoot us an email and let us know what is up, whether it be the local gossip to keep on the DL, or it is just random news about your guys' day we would love to hear it. My email address is peter.watters@wartburg.edu so please feel free to drop me a line.

peace,
PHW

I don't like lizards

Well the past couple of days have been interesting. Friday rolled around and my brain was fried from all the swahili. Saturday I tried to study a little bit but I could barely remember any of the words, so I have my brain a break for the day. The Germans left for the weekend, so it was really quite around the seminary. I spent the morning of my Saturday giving a guitar lesson to one of the other language students here. Nothing better than playing a little Cat Stevens on a lazy Saturday in Tanzania.

Sorry that this particular entry is rather scattered, but so is my brain right now. Friday night there was some great excitement. The common room where everybody hangs was having a spontaneous "laptop party" so I went to go get my laptop to join in the fun. When I got to my room I found a 4 inch lizard crawling on the wall. Though I didn't know this before I came, I am apparently fairly creeped out by these little spawns of satan. They move way to fast for their size... and they jump. Yes, I understand they eat harmful mosquitos and flys but so does a big can of Black Flag. So I informed Tim about it and apparently exaggerated the size a bit...whatever...big, small, I don't want it climbing my wall. So brave Steve got the lizard out of our room for us. Tim could have done it but he was laughing to hard at me because I was squirming around because of the heebee jeebees. I don't care what anyone says, I will not have lizards in our place of residence. They are ok outside, but inside is reserved for larger carbon based life forms that look surprisingly a lot like humans.

Saturday we went out to eat for Kyrsten's birthday. It was great food. SO great in fact that I came close to eating it twice. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling a bit nauseous, though it was worth it.

I think that the anti-malaria medication that I am taking is keeping me up at night. I wake up drenched in sweat and kinda dehydrated from sweating, I am also starting to have those wonderful, vivid dreams that everybody else has had since we came here. Though I can never remember mine, i just know that when i have them i have troubles falling back to sleep. This cycle of sweating and dreaming has made me a little homesick. The drugs also make me tired during the day, though I am able to battle that during class, thankfully. This is a little snag in my journey, but nothing to be too concerned about yet.

Sunday was rather eventful. We went to a village today, where four choirs showed up and the service lasted 5 hours. That's just the service, not to mention the two hours prior waiting for people to show and then the auction and food after...and the hour drive both ways. When we go to church on Sunday... We go to church. It gets a little long sometimes but there is always things to do and see all day long, even during the service. Today's service was special for all of us though, because Luka's baby was baptized this morning.

well since I am tired of typing vague statements about my weekend, I am going to stop typing.

peace,
PHW

A lot to talk about...Kinda...

I haven't posted in a couple of days...as I am sure you have noticed. Not to much has really happened in the past couple of days. We have all had Kiswahili lessons all day long, which has been interesting. Because I am slow on the uptake I didn't figure out the teaching strategy that they use until today. They are slowly building our conversational skills, not just our vocabulary with random grammar rules like what we are taught in the average language class back at home. We have learned greetings, introductions, countries of origin, work and school. This is all typical stuff you say right away in a conversation. They are sneaky...alright maybe not, but I am surprisingly retaining most of what I learn. Fantastic.

Let's see...yesterday Tim and I went to the Wednesday night communion service, which was in English. We were told that other language students would be there as well. This was definitely not the case, because Tim and I were the only people there from the language school as the seats were quickly becoming filled with secondary students. It was a great time nonetheless. It was interesting hearing everyone try to sing what a friend we have in Jesus. It reminded me what it is like whenever a typical mid-west choir tries to sing African songs... butchered. I liked it none the less. The interesting thing about the music was the fact that the pastor would say "form (kinda like grade, only different) 5 sing first then form 6, etc." and they would all just sing. These secondary school students just radiated music. There is nothing quite like listening to people sing in Africa. Everyone can sing and everyone has every song memorized. Just amazing.

Moving on, I think the four of us are feeling a tinge of homesickness. It's the simplest of things that we find so valuable. I found out that I have the first and second season of the Office on my computer (thanks Cheeks) so we have been watching the occasional episode every now and again. It's just a nice way to go home in our minds for 20 minute segments. None of us regret coming here by any means, but since we have become fairly close to each other, when one of feels a little blue, so do the rest of us. I think it is settling in that we are going to really be here for three months without solid, voice to voice, face to face communication with our families and friends. We are starting to face the music and I think perhaps it is a little unnerving.

On a happier note, we are starting to make friends with some of the language teachers that are our age and also some of the other students our age. These next three months are going to yield some very interesting friendships. Especially with the teachers, both sides teaching each other their countries slang. By the end of our stay we are going to have three languages learned. Kiswahili, Swahili slang, and a new hybrid of Swanglish (a mixture of english and swahili slangs). Should be good.

One final note. I have posted links to Tim's and Steve's blog. Check them out, it all may be a little redundant but it's nice to have different points of view on the same subjects.

Peace,
PHW

So much time, so little to do... Strike that, reverse it

Today was our first lesson in Kiswahili. It was refreshing to finally understand what people have been saying to us all weekend and learn how we should have responded. Apparently Jambo is not a greeting whatsoever, unless you want to send out a large beacon that says you don't speak Kiswahili.

This past weekend was amazingly hectic and fun. Saturday we went to a wedding in a very poor village. We got to see first hand how weddings go in Tanzania. In the US the wedding day is typically reserved for just the wedding and nothing else, but on this day there was not only a wedding but also two baptisms and communion. The bridal party did not seemed fazed by this whatsoever. It is just a part of life. The people here in Tanzania live as a community and share in everything. I felt honored yet awkward during the meal afterward because we sat at the main table with the bridal party, but again they didn't seemed fazed by this one bit.

Sunday we took a two hour trip out to a Masaai village for worship. For those of you that are reading this that went on last years May term trip you will be happy to know that Moreto came with us. Moreto (a teacher at the language school) and Luka helped us along all day letting us know what was going on and who was doing what. Moreto and especially Luka have been most helpful whenever we go some place, and are always ready to help us out whenever we need it. The church service went on for about 4 hours. After it was all said and done, the Masaai people ended up feeding almost 300 people spiced rice and goat. The head male of the village let us have the honor of eating the goats' liver, which tasted a lot like beef jerky.

Through out all of the festivities this weekend we definitely learned the "hurry up and wait" mentality. We would arrive to a place, which we thought we were late to mind you, and end up waiting 2-3 hours before anything starts to happen. The sense of time here is very relaxed, which at first I found fairly frustrating because I was still in the mid-west idea of punctuality but by the end of the weekend I kind of enjoyed it. I mean what else have I got to do all day?

Jumping to Monday evening (which is right now as I am writing this) we got to know some new students at the seminary with the same level of Kiswahili as us (none). They are mostly all from Germany and we sat around, playing guitar and singing songs. You should all be happy to know that they loved the fact that I knew Cat Stevens :). Come to find out another German student also really likes Cat Stevens and brought along Harold and Maude... therefore Americans + Germans + Cat Stevens= Grrrrreat times to be had.

Anywho... Tomorrow is another day of learning and living, so one must sleep to restart their brain.

Peace,
PHW

Hospitality

Today was a special day for all of us. We went to our first Maasai village. It was quite an exciting experience. On the way there I had the pleasure of sitting next to a Maasai cattle herder and a pastor that was also Maasai. We headed down "the road" (By "the road" I mean that there is literally one main road going north and south in Tanzania that will take you to where you want to go. There is also a road that goes east and west.) Stopping along the way to drop off the cattle herder and a microscope donated by Wartburg to a secondary school. Then we took a long and winding dirt path to the Massai village where we were greated as though we were heros.

Such great hospitality from people that we have never met before and may never meet again. They showed us their village, giving us the grand tour of their handmade pond, their school and their church. We worshipped with them for three hours, which is a pretty short service considering they can be up to six hours long. There was much singing and praying. Their choirs were outstanding, something that you can't quite duplicate in the states. The Maasai people feel rhythm in their heart of hearts and that beat just spews out of them when they sing. It is powerful and exciting to see, yet relaxing and delicate.

After the worship service was over, they fed us rice and a very tasty tomato and potato sauce to pour on top. As a special treat they gave us bottles of Pepsi and 7up. This astounded me, what great generosity for people that they may never see again. The Maasai people are not rich by any means, and for them to spend what little they have to feed us and treat us to something as expensive as soda makes me want to understand more about this grand hospitality that not only is held by the Maasai but by the people of Tanzania. People go out of their way to greet you and make sure you are comfortable. The respect for their fellow human is something straight out of the Bible.

That is something that has really hit me today and really ever since we landed in Dar es Salaam, the Bible. At times I think that we miss the importance, the significance of the great hospitality that is shown in many of the Bibles different stories. I think that we (by we I mean me) forget that these are stories for people who are in poverty. The gospel was not written for the rich to get richer, it was written for the poor to have something to hold on to...eachother. What better way to have connections and friendships in hard times than to give to and depend on those around you.

Well that's all I have for right now. I may be posting photos up in the next few days... but until that happens...

Peace,
PHW

We Made it to Africa

After very long flights across the globe and mind boggling time zone changes through out tuesday and wednesday, we made it to Dar es Salaam around 9:30pm Dar time. That would make it 1:30pm in the Central Standard time. The flights were not too bad, but got a little tiring from sitting in the same position for eight hours.

After staying at the Catholic guest house for the night, we took off from Dar this morning to make the three hour journey down to Morogoro. The ride was very interesting as the standards for driving are sketchy at best. A lot of risk taking was had by the other drivers around us, but our driver was very safe I will have you know :) . When we reached the seminary we split up into rooms and got unpacked. The rooms we are living in are great. Tim (my roommate) and I have two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom. Steve has his own bed, bath and living room and Sara has her own two bedrooms living room and bathroom. It is nice that we don't have to share a bathroom with people and wait in lines and things.

On the way to Africa and even here at the seminary, we have run into people from Iowa...Iowans are everywhere and they all are connected to at least one of us in some way shape or form. On the plane from Amsterdam to Dar es Salaam we met a man whose daughter worked with Steve this past summer at Riverside Bible Camp. There are a bunch of little stories like that throughout our journey here.

We met a few of the teachers that will be leading our lessons of the next few months. It was nice to put faces with some of the people that we had heard about from friends that have come over May term. I can't until the lessons start and I can begin my journey in Swahili. It should be challenging but fun.

Tomorrow we head out to a Massai village with Pastor Hafermann. Then on Saturday we are going to a wedding, which I hear are quite the sight to see with so many people attending, and then finally on Sunday we are headed to yet another Massai village. This is all happening before we start our Swahili classes on Monday...so the four of us will be jumping into deep cultural emersion with only a few words we have picked up along the way. All of us are very excited and can't wait to go.

Until Later,
PHW

It's my birthday

So it's September 3rd again, and here I am one year older. To think that one week from today I will be on the other side of the world blows my mind. I don't know if I have fully grasped the concept yet. It scares me to think about it and it makes me very nervous. I have been told that this is a natural feeling and that if I had no fears whatsoever then I would be kidding myself.

There are so many different thought and expectations that I have about this trip and this experience. If I can take one thing back home, it would be a renewed (actually just new) sense of humbleness. I do not want to be boastful or elitest about my experience over in Tanzania.

When I come back I want to be able to talk about my experience in such away that it is encouraging and relaxing, not a Blitzkrieg of pictures and "you had to be there" stories. I want to be able to show great hospitality, and not because I learned it in Africa, but because I learned it in my heart.

I am going with three other people. One a great friend, one a friend that I would like to get to know better, and finally someone that will become a friend. These three people will be my family, will be my comfort and be my springboard for the next three months. I hope that we can share our thoughts, dreams, and fears with one another. All of us feeling comfort from the presence of the other.

We ask God to guide us on our journey, and to keep us safe. For in God we lay our trust, our faith, and our life.

-PHW