David is the son of the late Martin Msseemmaa, a leader in the Northern Illinois Synod serving on the synod council, various committees, sub-committees and task forces. His great love was Global Missions and our relationship with the Arusha Diocese in Tanzania.

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NI Synod Martin Msseemmaa Scholarship: brochure or bulletin insert

Contact David at msseemmaa@gmail.com

David Msseemmaa's Year in Tanzania

March 9, 2007

The curse of diversity

I visited a Christian school in Tanzania's Kilimanjaro Region not too long ago. Simply enough, it was started by a pastor with a vision. Now it's scores are among the best in the district.

The pastor and I were later talking about the curse of diversity. I think I understood most of the conversation. Here's his theory: There are too many tribes mixing here: the Meru, the Maasai, and the Chagga. Each tribe comes with its own social laws. When you mix people, these social laws break down and people become free. This freedom is abused and wherever you find such mixing of people, you find the evils of society thieves, alcoholism, prostitution, etc. He said Kilimanjaro Region is No. 2 (or maybe No. 3) in the country for HIV/AIDS prevalence. And this place, Hai District, is No.1 in Kilimanjaro, he said. This is directly a consequence of the mixing of people.

Not all social laws are good, though. Some encourage the spread of HIV/AIDS. Polygamy is acceptable for non-Christians from many tribes. This practice, for example, puts all the wives of a man at risk. Maasai men have a bit of sexual freedom, which also can contribute to HIV/AIDS rates in their communities. The coming of Christianity to this area must have upset some social laws, too. So did the liberation of South Africa 15 years ago. And the American civil rights movement of my mother's generation. Sometimes its good to shake up social law.

But pastor has a point, that these things that cause HIV/AIDS to flourish are not blessings they're curses. I brought this up with Heff, the fellow that took me to this place, on the drive home. I proposed that education might be part of the problem, too, because the educated are especially likely to leave home and return (a big part of the HIV transmission problem) and to challenge social laws. Heff said that my thought is wrong because those who go to college are not so much the ones that are jumping into the lifestyle that breeds HIV, thus they arent the ones bringing it back to the village.

I don't know what to make of all this. I have seen women who lay on the ground in front of you to show gratitude (the Wamanda, from southern Tanzania), and men who slap each others butts when they've done something good (basketball players). I've seen hippies dance free barefoot and braless in Southern Illinois, and Norteo men in denim and cowboys hats step in perfect time with their ladies in tow. I love the things that make people different. Its hard for me to think of diversity as being a contributing factor in an epidemic.

Could diversity have been a curse to folks from LaSalle-Peru, the ultra-white town of my childhood? Were they better off before the arrival of my family and the other blacks and Mexicans that followed? Maybe, but the social order now seems no worse than it was when there were only a couple brown families. It doesn't matter, though, because there's no going back - there's no purging of the "others". People move.
 

12 February 2007

Hello from Arusha. I am writing from my father's hometown in northern Tanzania, where I am getting to know my extended family, learning good Swahili, and working on a few projects.

My last project was simple, but it was really fun and I hope it does some good. I spent a few days in Kilimanjaro region, photographing children and making an audio slideshow for the web. Each slide has a photo of a child, the name, and a few facts about the child and the family. There are 88 children in the Under-4 program. Many are supported by members of a large church near Atlanta and have not seen pictures. So I can help them connect a little bit. The Under-4 age set is largely ignored by the government. There's no national early-education program in this country, where providing universal primary education is a problem itself.

I hope to do more projects like that one in the coming weeks. Soon I will go to Moringe Sokoine Lutheran Secondary School in Monduli town, where there is a girl named Happyness who is being sponsored by the scholarship in my father's name, the Martin Msseemmaa Memorial Scholarship fund. I'd like to show the people who contribute to this scholarship a little about the girl they are helping educate (If you're interested in donating, please visit http://www.nisynod.org/resources/msseemmaabrochure.pdf ).

The last 12 days were spent visiting an aunt in Kenya. She lives with her family on the campus of Egerton University. I can't believe I went through 5 years of college and never studied abroad! Egerton is near Nakuru and it is at about 7,200 ft. The altitude makes it cold there, even though it's very near the equator. I learned that Kenya and Tanzania are similar in some ways, but they each have many problems that are unique to themselves.
I'm sure the same thing could be said about different localities in Tanzania - that similar places might have a very different set of problems. That means they might have a very different set of needs and solutions, also.

One of those problems is AIDS. I visited an orphanage on the lower eastern slopes of Kilimanjaro last month that was started as a ministry of a pastor and his wife. A few dozen children use the services of the orphanage. There are 25 children that sleep there - many sleep on the floor because there are few mattresses. There's a nursery school that meets in a wooden shed. They drag pews over from the church to use as seats because there are no chairs or desks. The orphanage keeps them safe, gives them lessons, and feeds them. It has no budget, no reliable funding.

Eight of the 25 who live here have HIV. We visited a very sick 8-year-old. His limbs were reduced to skin and bone and he was too weak to speak, even too weak to cry. He had a large, ugly raw sore on his lower back. People were afraid to take him to the hospital because they were afraid they would "catch" AIDS from him. The boy, Winston, eventually went to the hospital. He died five days after our visit. While we were chasing around a soccer ball on a grassy hillside, I couldn't help but think that seven more of these orphans who stay here will eventually suffer similar torturous deaths, too.

Please pray for Winston's classmates. And the millions, yes millions, of his brothers and sisters on this continent who have lost their parents to AIDS or who have it themselves.

Msseemmaa
12 February 2007
 

January 9, 2007

I just wanted to tell you a little about my time in Tanzania so far. Internet access is rare for me, so feel free to reply, but please understand if it takes me a while to get back to you. Also, please feel free to share this with anyone.

I arrived in Arusha just before Christmas. The family of my father's cousin has taken me in, and I feel very comfortable and safe here. They make sure that I'm well fed and that I join them for tea in the morning. The parents here, Mama Eliza (Beatrice) and Baba Eliza (Godsave) lead the family in devotion every night. Last night, we took turns in a prayer of thanks for the day and its events. We're staying just on the edge of town in an area called Sakina. The place is populated, but most plots are big enough for little banana or spinach farms.

A few days ago, I went to meet with Bishop Laiser. He was gracious enough to give me almost half an hour of his time. He was reelected to another term as bishop, so he has been very busy preparing for his installation ceremony at Ilboru tomorrow (Sunday). He's helping me find work while I'm here, possibly as a teacher for computers and English.

The weather has been a bit crazy. There was too much rain in December and many places flooded. I think Arusha is blessed with volcanic terrain that soaks up the water quickly. The streets become rivers when it pours, but two hours later there's just some mud remaining. This week has been a bit dryer. It gets to be about 75 degrees during the afternoon, but it's a bit cool in the morning and evening.

New Year's Eve was fun. We went to church and danced for hours. They've had problems in years past, but the streets were peaceful as 2007 began.

I haven't been able to update a blog or upload photos because of problems with internet access. Even at the internet cafes, the connection is so slow that I wouldn't dream of uploading photos. Intermittent power failure is also a problem. This is a problem that I'm working on. I expect to solve it within a month and find a place with good bandwidth.

Take care.

Love David