Friday afternoon, one week after we left Indianapolis for Tanzania, we were privileged to welcome over 80 teachers from all over rural southwestern Tanzania to the first ever Young Life teacher training event in that area. After cleaning and preparing for most of the day, it was easy to feel exhaustion, and until we actually heard the buses motoring up the hill to the college gate, we rested on the concrete curbs and walls, absorbing the cool mountain sun and enjoying the flowering trees everywhere.
The African wedding band hired to highlight the festivities had a few false starts; maybe they were practicing or maybe they mistook another bus for ours. But each time I heard their brass happiness, I jumped up and felt the adrenaline rush that I only feel for youth ministry. :) When it finally was time to welcome the teachers, we all lined the driveway and followed each bus to the dormitory as we shouted, 'Karibuni!' and gave high fives and smiles to the somewhat confused passengers. I was pretty sure some of them thought we were about to kill and eat them, by the looks on their faces.
I'm not sure where they all came from or how they came to be on these buses coming through the gates, but I know they were mostly from remote areas, making just dollars a month, and it likely took them great expense of both time and resources to get there. There were more women than men, and all were dressed in what I imagine were their best clothes. Dresses, dress shoes, slacks and jackets, oxford shirts. They carried very small bags with the rest of their belongings for the four day retreat. I suspect that some had borrowed the clothing they wore, and most wore the same clothing each day, carefully spot-cleaned and pressed. These teachers took their professional appearance seriously. I was humbled by their great efforts to make first impressions. When was the last time I cared that much how I looked, for the right reasons?
Martin and Alexis were dressed in their coordinating brown and white funnyman outfits...kind of like sepia-toned clowns, with loudly striped stockings, and wild brown wigs. Recalling my conversations with them in the past days, talking about living through wars and sobering things they've seen and experienced, made their funny personas even more vibrant. The wedding band led the procession, followed by Martin, Alexis and George, the local YL leader, and we cheered and jumped for joy as the buses deposited the teachers at the dormitory. Martin and Alexis delivered their welcome/guidelines talk flawlessly in Swahili and even those of us who had no idea what they were saying were nodding in agreement and laughing along.
This was really the last night I would get to participate much in the weekend...Ru-baby started getting sick that night, and I wasn't concerned much at first as I figured everyone was adjusting to the different food. However, I spent the next 50 or so hours mostly at her bedside, and by the end of the weekend she couldn't get up by herself and was back in diapers. Using a 10ml syringe, I shot rehydration fluids into her around the clock but we were losing the fight with dehydration. She hadn't eaten for over 48 hours and had not urinated for 24 hours. On Monday we decided to skip our planned safari and return with some of the group to Dar, where we could get help at the clinic. It was a good choice.
Some good things came out of this experience: I had a lot of time to pray, sitting in the room with Ru-baby between carrying her to the toilet. We learned that the clinic in Dar offers excellent care.
And the best part of the weekend was that 14 teachers committed their lives to Christ, and all of the teachers had transformational time being loved and served, building new relationships and being encouraged in the hard work of teaching kids.
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