Image Secondary School

Doug is at work this weekend so I'll add a couple entries of my own although I don't know if I can keep up with Doug's pace, wit and writing style.

One of the highlights for me during our time in Iringa was our afternoon visits was to Image (pronounced I-mah-gee) Secondary School.  I'd say it was near the town of Ilula but I think that's a stretch as we drove for at least 45 minutes on a narrow dirt route from Ilula (which is 45 minutes by 'tarmac road' from Iringa) before arriving at the school. 


As usual, we were greeted with beautiful singing which evolved into dancing.  Most of the 800 students who live at and attend school at Image where waiting for us as we arrived.  Notice they are wearing pullover sweaters while we are sweating in short-sleeves.  In every social situation in Tanzania, there was a chance that we were going to be pulled up in front to dance.  Here is our traveling mate Mary The Baptist dancing with the headmaster.  

Image Secondary School is a dream come true for many people. It was established in 2004 by Headmaster Ngogo with just a handful of students and even fewer teachers.  It was sort like Field of Dreams: "Build it and they will come".    

There is no such thing as a free public education in Tanzania so the opportunity to attend school is cherished by students and their families who work hard to provide the funds for them to attend.  It costs less than $400 per year including room and board for a student to attend Image.  It seemed like so little to us but when we remember that the average family subsists on $1 per day, it is an incredible amount of money.  In addition to family contributions, many students receive scholarships through the ELCT partnerships.  Image is an interesting partnership between church and government.  The school is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania but the land was donated by the local government.  

It was fun to bring the school supplies donated by friends, family, colleagues and students.  I was also happy to relieve myself of hauling around this 35 pound bag of pencils, pens, calculators, rulers and other school necessities in the blazing sun.  I enjoyed swapping "teacher stories" with a few staff members and we discovered that students everywhere are the same.     

Here is Headmaster Ngogo posing in his "office" from the early days at Image.  Yes - it is a small desk under a tree and he keeps it there as a reminder of the school's roots..  In less than 10 years, the school has grown to over 800 students in Forms 1-6 (roughly 8th through 12th grade).  

We toured many of the buildings on the campus.  They have a computer lab with about 6 computers run by solar power.  We take internet access for granted here but this tiny lab is big deal! 

The picture at the head of this entry is one of my favorites and serves as a great reminder.  During the welcome ceremony, Mr. Ngogo said:

When I see the mountains, I see God.

When I see these children, I see God.

When I see you, I see God.

   

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Lutherans Have A Dream

 

Back in the city of Iringa, Bill and I popped into the Lutheran Cathedral while the rest of our group was contributing to the local economy. The pastor popped out of his office and gave us a large welcome and a mini tour culminating with us signing the guest book in his office. Naturally he knew Mark Aune and Gary Langness and Pastor Nixon and every other person connected with the Lutheran church.  He said Pastor Nixon did his internship here at the Cathedral.

 

 

We gave one of the donated soccer balls to Kulwa, our English speaking bus driver in Iringa.  I think he was breaking in a new driver (named Juma) who spoke not a single word of English so it was good that we had Kulwa riding along with us all week.  Both drivers drove the bus nine hours from Iringa to pick us up at the Dar es Salaam airport.  Here we're at the Iringa Lutheran Diocese office where we met with some people from the Bega Kwa Bega (Shoulder to Shoulder) program that oversees the partnerships between the St. Paul area synod congregations and the Iringa congregations.

 

 

This was the fourth preaching point that we visited. Since we visited the preaching points during the day in the middle of the week, only a handful of church members were able to come in from the fields or their housework to meet and greet us. The evangelist who will be working here is a new guy and he rode along with us on our tour bus for the entire day visiting the other preaching point and Ipogoro.

 

 

This is Agnus and Dr. Laura Eng DDS

Laura (we did not call her Dr. Laura) visited Iringa six years ago with the "every three year Augustana delegation". She remembered Agnus and her powerful prayer style. Agnus did not fail to deliver a rousing welcome and emotional prayer at the end of our meet and greet. She said she wears the hat because her hair is very grey.

 

 

This is 20 year-old Teddy Wilson from the preaching point. He rides his bike several miles into Iringa to work "at the newspaper in the distribution office."  We gave him a ride into Iringa.  Basically nobody we met at Ipogoro or at the preaching points drives or owns a car--not even Pastor Nixon, the self described "Big Potato". People walk or bike or take dalla-dallas (shared minivan taxis) or long distance buses. That's it. The average wage in Tanzania is less than $1 / day making it among the poorest countries in the world.

 

 

Here we are (in an action shot) at Sai Villa, an Indian-esque restaurant and mini hotel near the Lutheran Center in Iringa.  I'm enjoying the fish curry and probably a Kilimanjaro Beer brewed in Dar es Salaam.  The only east African beer I've seen available in the US is Tusker which is brewed in neighboring Kenya.

As a group we did recognize the conflict between witnessing such poverty and then eating pretty nice meals complete with the luxury items alcohol, meat, rice, and vegetables.

 

 

Here's a map of the Iringa region, which is what we would call a state.  This shows all of the partner congregations.  Augustana, the first to partner up with an Iringa congregation in the early 1990s can be seen just south of the word "Iringa".  There are currently more Lutherans living in Tanzania than there are in the United States of America.  We heard and read various stats on the percentage of Tanzanians who are Christian (30-70%), Muslim (30-50%), and Tribal Native religions (30-50%).

 

 

Another awesome program sponsored by Lutherans is the "One Million Trees" initiative.  This is the tree nursery at the diocese office. They were in the process of transferring this years saplings to all reaches of Iringa diocese for immediate planting.

 

 

And would you believe that St. Paul area Lutherans also sponsored and helped build Tumaini University in Iringa. It's true. Pastor Nixon completed his divinity degree here.  Mark Aune in his first trip to Iringa in 1999 was a guest lecturer for three months. This was when Ingrid his daughter both got malaria and was cured of malaria.

 

 

Nixon's wife Prisca got her university degree at Tumaini University and now works in the accounting office.

 

 

Traditional Tanzania food anyone?  the white stuff is ugali, a pasty lumpy substance made from cornmeal.  On the left is a stewed spinach and in the bowl is basically pinto beans.  I poured the very liquidy bean over the ugali only to have them fully absorbed by the sponge-like ugali.  Ugali is mostly tasteless so one must rely on some other flavor to make it palatable.  I was not able to finish this large pile of ugali but my tablemates applauded my heroic effort.

 

 

The Lutheran Cathedral in Iringa

15 Cheetahs

 

In the overcast morning that we were in Ndutu on the edge of the Serengeti we came across 15 cheetahs grouped into 4 family units. This was the first group consisting of a mother cheetah and 4 cubs that are almost her size. Adult male cheetahs are solitary and elusive and also a lot bigger than the females.  Kisami our guide seemed surprised that we saw so many cheetahs in one morning. Cheetahs are the fastest creature on earth with top speeds of almost 70mph but we didn't see any running or hunting. We saw them stand around, slouch about, slowly walk, look here and there, act bored, etc. The guides say that if they see cheetahs hunting, they give them a much wider berth to not disturb their hunting maneuvers. The Thompson gazelle is their meal of choice.

 

 

This is sunrise over Ndutu Lodge

 

 

 

Here's a giraffe munching on one of a seemingly limitless variety of African acacia trees.

 

 

 

In Ndutu, the giraffes we approached noticed us and then started moving away form us. We saw one of them break into a full-on giraffe gallop--I've not seen that before.

 

 

In Tarangire, every giraffe that we saw stopped what it was doing (eating mostly) and just stared at us until we moved.

 

 

Several of the guys in our group were true birders.  This is a Secretary bird.

 

 

a silver-backed jackal

 

 

a bat eared fox

 

 

and a spotted hyena carrying a pork chop or a warthog chop or a spare rib or a gazelle rib

Birds of a Feather Push Together

 

The diameter of Ngorongoro crater is around 10 miles. This view of the lake where the flamingos stand around on one leg was pretty far away.

 

 

These photos of multiple forms of wildlife are especially good. I forget what kind of bird this is.

 

 

I tried to catch this rumbling elephant's ears in mid-flap.  We were told that with each flap of the ears, the elephant can lower his body temperature several degrees.

 

 

Here's your endangered species of the day: the black rhinoceros. We saw three of them in the crater and all from an extreme distance. Our guides were really good at spotting animals from an extreme distance. I looked at this with my naked eye and only saw a darkish blob. Daudi gleefully declared, "it is a black rhino!" These creatures are protected around the clock from the ridiculous poachers working for old men who think the tusk has aphrodisiac properties. There's a little blue pill for that--leave the rhinos alone.

 

 

Who doesn't like a lioness on the prowl? This gal was in the extreme distance, too. I never would have seen her on my own. I think she made the kill (maybe a wildebeast?). . .

 

 

enjoyed some lunch (her mouth looks a little bloody), and is now waiting for her pride to show up to have their fill. She probably can't leave it unattended or the spotted hyenas will move in for sloppy seconds.

 

Here's Brandt, John, Bill, and Mark pushing the Land Rover to get it to start while I photographed the whole process.  The next day Daudi and Kisani replaced the starter at the lodge.  This was the day that the men and women split into separate vehicles.  I think this was done to give some of the wives some time off from their annoying husbands.  I scored some points by asking the guys, "does anyone else miss his wife?" They laughed at me of course but then told the ladies.  Advantage Doug.  There was another incidence of engine trouble with this same vehicle on the way out of the crater.  Some gear got stripped making it only possible to drive with the four wheel drive on and only at a limited speed.  We ran into another guide from our safari company at a petrol station who happened to have the correct replacement part in his truck.

 

 

The male ostrich is black because the he sits on the eggs at night.  Apparently the female takes her turn sitting on the eggs on grey and overcast days.

Makiko Plays With The Neko

 

We had some Dickey's BBQ tonight and the bag was perfect for a session of cat play.

 

 

Last night we had Matt Burgers, tater tots, salad, and some red and blue flavored Jello.

 

 

Wheel-san

 

 

Every cat should have his own Makiko for play time.