June 27, 2018
WRITTEN BY KARLA KOSEL
Habari? Nzuri.
How are you? Fine. We heard and used these phrases multiple times over the last few days. The time spent in Nyanzwa was wonderful! The women of the congregation worked very hard preparing to welcome the “Easter Eagan” visitors with extra cleaning and cooking.
We stayed in the pastor’s home and enjoyed many delicious meals prepared by the women, commonly referred to as Mamas. It is more amazing when you realize that they cooked all of the food over a fire with pots balanced between three stones, babies strapped to their backs, and at one point took a break to kill a scorpion. The temperature of the fire was controlled by the amount of wood that was added or removed throughout the cooking process. They even baked delicious brown bread using this method; the crust was perfectly browned. And the rice. Not even a rice cooker can make rice as well as the women in Nyanzwa. Much fellowship occurred amongst the women as they cooked together. I was invited to join in the fellowship in the cooking room as we compared stories about cooking, a typical weekday, and tasks that must be done.
A typical weekday means getting water and heating it for drinking, bathing, or cleaning. Then they make breakfast, work in the fields (typical crops in Nyanzwa are onions, corn, tomatoes, beans, and potatoes), then return home to prepare lunch. After lunch is a short rest before household cleaning (dishes, floors, bathrooms, sweeping the dusty ground around the home, and washing laundry by hand) followed by preparing dinner. As they say in Swahili, uff da.
Luckily I was given a small stool to sit on as I’m unable to squat and work/talk as they do. In addition to the women, the cooking room was also where the small babies were fed and played with on large mats when they weren’t bundled onto a Mama or older sibling.
Not only did the women have amazing cooking skills, many shared their love of Jesus through song and dance. Yes, Lutherans dance in church… at least in Tanzania. We were welcomed by festive, spirit-filled song at each preaching point we visited, typically led by women and children. Anna, the pastor’s wife, was the first person to invite me by hand to dance in church. Later the children giggled as they led me through dance moves they had choreographed to the festive music. I think they enjoyed teaching a Mama to dance. “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” was a big hit as we continued dancing after church.
I knew I was fully accepted when I walked outside of the pastor’s home without sandals on my feet and had another person’s flip flops promptly placed on my feet. Talk about giving someone the shoes off of your feet! Sharing what you have so no one goes without seemed to be a common theme.
In the Nyanzwa parish women work behind the scenes and also lead as evangelists, church elders, committee members, and church school teachers. Sound familiar? Whether in Eagan or in Nyanzwa, women take an active role at home and at church.
May you be filled with the strength and faith of the Mamas I met.
Kwaheri (good-bye), Karla Kosel
