April 28, 2008 by Stephen Day.

I wanted to share some interesting observations about life in Tanzania. I was on the phone with my dear sister last night and she asked about my students. I explained that they are, on average, in their mid to late thirties and very few are younger than me. She asked if they respected me since I was younger than them. I replied yes, but explained that much of that respect might be simply due to the color of my skin.

This idea comes from past generations views of wazungu (which is slang and derogatory Swahili for white people). Back in the era of slavery and later colonialism Tanzanians and many Africans were forced to greet and respect Europeans. This most commonly took the form of using the greeting “shikamo” to whites from Tanzanians. The word actually means “I bow down to your feet” and was required to be said by all Tanzanians to all whites. Now the term is mostly used by younger people to their elders (regardless of races).

Despite the changes in the use of the word shikamo, the heritage of slavery and colonialism is to show special deference to Europeans. I would like to think that my students now respect me for more than my background.

Well, I need to get back to work. Have a great day!

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April 27, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Click the link below to view the lecture notes from a recent class with Diploma in Applied Ministry, Year One.
Lecture 3.pdf

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April 27, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Click the following link to view the lecture notes for one of my recent classes for Diploma in Applied Ministry, Year 2.
lecture 4.pdf

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April 27, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Easter Greetings!

I am pleased to say that our internet access has returned sooner than expected. So… today I got a chance to go to go to the Kiswahili church service here on campus for the first time. It was quite interesting. The service began at 10 am and ended around noon. I was a bit surprised to see how many people showed up late. Also, there were just a lot of people there. Once the pews filled up some benches were setup in the main aisle for more people. Equally interesting, I noticed that it appears the women and the men segregate themselves (women sit on the left and men on the right). As people showed up late they sat wherever there was room. It was a very nice service, although it was all in Kiswahili. I think I know somewhat what Roman Catholics experienced before Vatican II in the 1960s. Before that reform in the Roman Catholic Church all masses were in Latin, even though many Catholics did not know Latin. Like them, I knew basically what was going on in the service even though I basically do not know the language.

In other news, I will be producing my newsletter very soon that will include the past four months. Sorry for the delay - it is just a busy time. I am really enjoying teaching. I will share some of my lectures with you all soon.

Also, I thought I should let you all know that the changes in the missionary system of the Episcopal Church USA or The Episcopal Church that I outlined recently have been postponed. The Church’s committee that oversees the mission of the Church has said that more work needs to be done to determine what should be done. This is a very good development, but if you care about the mission of the Church I encourage you to let your rector, bishop, and deputies to General Convention know what you think.

One final thought… there are a lot of needs here at Msalato Theological College that just need a little bit of money to remedy. In the coming weeks and months there are several things I would like to accomplish. Some of these include getting a new accounting software program for the college’s financial secretary (the current one is outdated, unreliable, and pirated). This will cost about $200 for the software and a few helpful guidebooks. I also hope to get new hardware to create a real second server at Msalato that will help protect the campus from viruses, provide a local email system, and a backup for the main server (this might cost up to $1,000, but will work for five years or so). Also, there are two new classrooms and two offices that need to be wired to the network here so that they can have computers (I don’t yet know how much this might cost). So these and other projects need your support. If you would like to support some of these or other projects feel free to write a check to the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia (PO Box 5400, Charleston, WV, 25361) and mention my name (Stephen C. Day) in the memo line. Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Yours in Christ,
Stephen

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April 24, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Hello,
I wanted first to apologize for not posting more often this month. I have been really busy enjoying teaching. Things are great! In other news, we have run out of our alloted internet bandwidth so, I wont be able to post or email for the next week (until May 1). Keep in touch!

Stephen

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April 10, 2008 by Stephen Day.

Last week I requested permission from my supervisor, the Mission Personnel Officer of the Episcopal Church (TEC/ECUSA), that I be able to stay for the complete spring (August-November) semester instead of having to leave halfway through at the beginning of October. Early this week I heard from the MPO and was granted permission, if approved by the DCT bishop, to remain here at Msalato through mid-December 2008 so that I can complete my grading and organize the IT situation here.

In other news, I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers for my bishop, the Rt. Rev. William M. Klusmeyer, of the Diocese of West Virginia, and the Rt. Revd. Godfrey Mdimi Mhogolo, of the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, as they discuss some important things.

Have a wonderful day!

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April 4, 2008 by Stephen Day.

I just wanted to note that it has been exactly six months since I left Charleston, West Virginia. In theory I will be here for only another six months. It has been amazing. I hope to post a bigger entry later, but wanted t o point out this milestone. God bless!

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April 2, 2008 by Stephen Day.

I accidently deleted an email recently that had been labeled by my email provider as junk, but realized two seconds after I clicked delete forever that it was not junk. It was related to my work here. So if you sent me an email within the past two weeks requesting my help with pictures or something like that, please send me another email. Sorry. Happy Easter Season!

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