A Day in the Life (of Distributions)

I have been here in Dodoma for nearly three months now but I have yet to give you all a glimpse into one of the most meaningful parts of working with The Carpenter's Kids: the village distributions.  These distributions involve visit several villages on a Saturday in order to deliver school supplies and uniforms to the orphaned and at-risk children enrolled in the CK program.  As you will see, this past weekend John Mattaya, former CK deputy director who has been helping us with distributions, Joshua, our driver, and I experienced quite the distribution at a village called Chololo.

Backseat view as we travel through the bush

I will never get tired of looking out at the Dodoma region landscape

It's quite common to come across herds of cattle and goats being
shepherded down the dirt road.  With a little help from the
shepherd the animals usually catch the drift: in this moment,
the side of the road is the safest!

Thanks for sliding over boys and girls

The church at Chololo.  CKs on the right,
guardians of the CKs on the left

MC preparing for introductions with a couple of the
CK parish committee members looking on.  Each parish has a
committee that, in conjunction with the head office, works to
communicate with and organize the CKs in the village

One of the two choirs performing for us.  The performances
typically include both song and dance, the words being sung in either
Kiswahili or Kigogo, the language of the Gogo tribe
that lives in Dodoma region

The actual distribution itself, where the CKs receive their uniform,
school supplies, and a long bar of soap (the orange thing)

Office work is important but it's something else entirely to see
what these supplies often mean to these otherwise disenfranchised children

Spontaneous dancing while we wait for the remaining CKs
to finish changing into their uniforms

The CK students and more CK committee members to the right

And now for the shoes and socks.  One of my co-workers, Daudi,
goes out to the villages a week before the distribution in order
to get the children's measurements for their shoes and uniforms.

One of the members of the CK committee expressing her thanks to
the CK head office and their supporters abroad for helping
to make obtaining an education possible

The CKs themselves putting on a little performance as a
way of saying thanks.  See the orange bars of soap?
I still cannot get over how huge they are

A goat and charcoal; surprise gifts from the parish!  The generosity
that we come across during these distributions is really quite moving.  And
most of the time it does not involve gifts: taking tea with the
priest and other CK committee members or getting a little snack
for the road means a lot, especially when food and other
resources are often scarce in the villages

If Joshua (far left) and John (far right) received the charcoal.
I wonder what is in store for me...

The second choir giving us one last performance before
the distribution comes to an end

The CKs of Chololo, a good looking lot!

Some of the CK committee members, the gifted goat, and me

After Chololo we had one other village distribution.
Here's a shot of Dodoma Town as we head on home

Zawadi (which means "gift" in Swahili) getting
settled in at the compound

Distribution days are nearly always long, filled with bumpy roads, and do not usually feature choir performances.  But they are far from tedious.  Instead, I have found the time in the villages, however brief, to be a potent reminder of God's love: that it is everywhere (no matter the village), that it has no one form (no matter the size or resources of the village parish), that it runs through each and every one of us if we open ourselves up to His Grace (no matter our circumstances).

As Tanzanians are wont to say, Bwana asifiwe!  Praise the Lord!

The Present is a Gift, That's Why They Call it the Present!

Well folks it’s a little hard to believe but I, Andy Russell, am no longer really a stranger to this place called Dodoma.  To be sure, I don’t know everything about Dodoma, not even close.  But I know the compound where I live, my walk to work, the CK office, Rose’s (where I get lunch most days, as well as a good number of the other store fronts and spots around Dodoma.  This familiarity has brought something else along with it: routine.

The word “routine” strikes fear into the hearts of many people.  I am no exception.  The banal, the repetition of less than stimulating activities over and over again, it can make us fear that somehow we’re not living life to the fullest.  Just look at TV shows, commercials, movies, newsstands, YouTube videos: clearly we aren’t being spontaneous or adventurous or glamorous enough.  WHY AREN’T WE HAVING FUN ALL THE TIME???

For me, routine has especially settled in at work.  Emails are checked, spreadsheets are updated, CK students or their parents stop by with healthcare or tuition needs, distribution schedules are discussed, and the world gently turns.  To be sure, all of this work is important to the mission of the Carpenter’s Kids.  But sometimes, in the slower moments, it certainly doesn’t feel that way.  And during those moments it can be terribly easy to drift off into fantasy, a world that replaces spreadsheets with NFL stardom and meetings with red carpets (who day dreams about those things anyhow?  Not me that’s for sure...).

I know this desk well

At YASC mission training, we touched on the idea of “being present” several times throughout.  It was not the first time that I had heard the call to “be present,” but I did take it more seriously than times past (I think being at a monastery helped).  The Daily Offices, the Great Silence, eating breakfast, trading experiences with other YASCers: I was there.   I still had a little feeling of “great, us Christians and our vague, spiritual-sounding jargon.”  But “being present” did begin to mean something to me.

And boy does it mean something to me now.  If God is everywhere all the time, then I am finding it increasingly important to take that seriously.  To know that no matter the moment—a miraculous triumph, a crushing defeat, a day spent hunched over a desktop computer screen, whatever—God is present.  And that is a powerful thing.  God, our Creator, who lovingly sent His Son down to die for our sins in order to save us all, is there.  We just have to be there with Him.  Cut out the day dreams, the fantasy, the speculation about the future, and just be with God.

Being present is something that I lose touch of constantly, but it’s also something to which I have become determined to return.  Routines can seem like a real downer, but I’ve come to realize more and more that there is so much more to the everyday we experience.  Paul urges the Philippians to “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4 NRSV). Because He is right there with us.  Always.