I pray that all is well in West Virginia and throughout the United States. Our church is in my thoughts and prayers during the convention in Anaheim. I pray that wise decisions and actions will be taken so that our church can move forward and continue our call to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

In two weeks, I will leave Dodoma and begin my journey back to West Virginia. My time serving as a missionary for the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of West Virginia is coming to a close. I began work on October 4, 2007 and conclude on July 30.

Two weeks ago, Msalato Theological College, where I am working, celebrated the completion of another academic year with a graduation ceremony. The guest speaker for the graduation was the Very Reverend Ian Markham, dean of Virginia Theological College. Dean Markham also spoke at West Virginia’s diocesan convention back in 2008. Following the ceremony there was a banquet at which Dean Markham was presented the gift of an African shirt. At the bottom of this posting you will find a link to a picture of him with his gift. Since I was leaving Tanzania before the start of the next academic year I was also given the opportunity to speak. You can also find a picture of that by following a link below as well. Finally, you will also see a link to a picture of one my favorite groups of students. This was the Diploma in Applied Ministry class that graduated in June. Many of them are going back to villages to serve as priests and others are hoping to continue their studies at a nearby Anglican university.

I know that the economy is quite bad in America right now. In fact, I am very well aware of the situation because I am also searching for a job and it is tough. However, I must ask one more time for you to consider supporting the work I have been doing here in Tanzania. I appreciate your prayers and they have sustained me over the past twenty months. I still have some utility bills that must be paid before I leave. They total about $350 and cover my entire time in Tanzania. I would appreciate any support that can be provided. Checks can be sent to the diocesan office with “Tanzania” in the memo line. The address is: Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, PO Box 5400, Charleston, WV, 25361.

Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts. I also ask for your prayers for Msalato Theological College as they seek to discern their mission and seek to employ a network administrator. I hope to see many of you once I am back in West Virginia.

Yours in Christ,

Stephen Day

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I ask for your thoughts and prayers for my sister who is due to give birth any day now (and for her husband and two other children).

As most of you likely now, I have been serving as a missionary for the Episcopal Church and representing the Diocese of West Virginia in Tanzania since October 2007. I will be returning to West Virginia at the end of July. I am eager to return to America and West Virginia, but will miss the people I have met here and the work I am doing. I have been working as a teacher and computer network administrator at Msalato Theological College, which is located ten kilometers outside of Dodoma, Tanzania. Dodoma is about the size of Charleston and Huntington combined and is, technically, the capital of the country.

Classes have ended for the semester and students are beginning to take their exams. In two weeks we will have graduation with a special guest speaker The Very Rev. Ian Markharm, the Dean of Virginia Theological Seminary. He was speaker at last year’s diocesan convention.

During my time at Msalato, I have been able to accomplish a great deal. I have taught for three semesters - teaching courses on Church History, theology, an introduction to the Bible, and computing. I have helped to maintain the college’s computer network and maintain a somewhat reliable connection to the Internet for the campus. Also, with the help of the people of our diocese and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, I have been able to help contribute to the college’s mission. Together, we have been able to renovate a duplex used by staff members here - painting the interior, replacing the plumbing, adding a ten liter water heater, a refrigerator, a stove. Also, we have been able to purchase a new server for the school and provide numerous other computer/network related items. One of the best ways that we have been able to help is by providing a scholarship for a young woman who faced the possibility of being forced into a polygamous marriage because she had no employment options. That young woman has thrived while being a part of Msalato’s secretarial program. Just today she helped lead a service in the chapel in English, something she could not have done a year ago.

Now as I prepare to leave, I have recently learned that I need to pay utility bills for the past eighteen months. Surprisingly, the water bills are very low (this is surprising because Dodoma is an especially arid region). However, the electricity bills are a bit higher. My total bills for the past eighteen months amount to around $350. I would appreciate any help that can be provided and also want to thank everyone who has helped during the past two years. I would also appreciate your continued prayers as I prepare to return home and seek employment. Please also pray for Msalato and its continued ministry to the church in Africa and for its staff and students. Checks can be sent to the Diocese of West Virginia, PO Box 5400, Charleston, WV, 25361 and include “Tanzania Mission” or “Stephen Day” in the memo line.

Yours in Christ,
Stephen Day

Well, I thought I might share a few stories, since it has been so long since I posted. The first is entitled the “Blues Brother Experience.”

This story starts off about a year ago when I decided to figure out what the college needed technologically. I realised that the college had been given a wonderful gift from Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street (in NYC, obviously) in the form of a grant a few years ago that provided for a new server and 24 client computers. However, those 24 computers had dwindled to about twenty due to theft and there were still many other needs. The grant that I wrote included money for forty new client computers (to add to our existing lab, to degree classrooms and to go into staff offices). Also, I included expansion to our server, a new printer and software to manage printing throughout the campus. This grant request totaled nearly $40,000 US and you can view it here. Well… the grant had no where to go, so it sat in a preverbal drawer.

A few months ago the communications director learned about the opportunity for a grant from the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming. She spent a good deal of time working on a grant request with someone from that diocese and included the huge technology grant that I came up with. Before the diocese even reviewed the grant request officially, a parish in the diocese volunteered to provide $4,567 US for the printing system. This money provided for a new colour laser printer/copier/scanner made by HP, software to manage the printing throughout the network, and a computer to run that software and function as a printer server. This money was wired to the school’s bank account and all was well, right? Well, sort of…

The parts for the new computer were somewhat specialised and therefore needed to come from America; however, many Internet-based computer parts stores have problems with credit cards that have billing addresses located outside of the USA (even when it is a USA bank) and so the missionaries here could not order the parts needed. Also, the stores often have a problem with shipping orders to locations other than the billing address of the credit card holder. So… this added further complications. In the end what I had to do was have my father order the parts and have them shipped to himself. He got them and then mailed them to Georgia where the Msalato’s communications director was staying for two weeks. She then sent a personal check to my father to reimburse him for the purchase of the parts and shipping them. Then she brought the parts with her to Msalato and got reimbursed by the college. We had to do the same thing for the print management software, but it, thankfully, was a download from the Internet.

So we had out computer parts and software, but what about the printer/copier/scanner? That took more work. Tanzania, like much of the developing world, is a cash based society. In Tanzania they use the Tanzanian shilling which comes (in bill form) in denominations ranging from 500 to 10,000. That sounds big, but the equivalent of $1 US is about 1,320 shillings. So the highest denomination bill is the equivalent of about $7.50 US. The printer/copier/scanner costs $1,250 US and I was also buying spare toner cartridges and a few other things that brought the total up to about $2,200 US. How many shillings does it take to equal $2,200 US… three million (that’s three hundred bills). So we had the money… but the store that sells the printer/copier/scanner is in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania. Dar is located about 500 kilometres from Dodoma and is a seven hour bus ride away. So I got a ticket on the bus from Dodoma to Dar for a Friday morning. I got picked the first of three daily buses to Dar with the hope of getting into downtown Dar by 3 pm. Unfortunately when I got to the bus station at 6:30 am for the bus that was supposed to leave at 7:00, I was told that bus was cancelled because it had broken down the day before. So I went back to Msalato and waited around for a couple of hours and then caught the 9:30 am bus. So I was on my way to Dar with three million shilling in my over stuffed pocket. The college’s bursar had wanted to give me a huge manila envelope to put the cash in but I opted for a small cloth bag because it was less obvious.

So I am on the bus to Dar. Once we get near Dar we hit traffic and it slows down. We end up pulling into downtown at 5:30pm. I jump in a taxi and race off to the computer store to buy the printer/copier/scanner and get rid of all that money in my pocket. However, I get to the store and… it is closed. Also, no business hours are posted so I don’t know when it opens (I had called previously to find out when they are open, but never got through and my emails were not replied to in time). I get back in the taxi and then am off to the guest house where I stay the night. I plan to get up early the next morning and call the store and hope it opens early.

On Saturday I start calling the store at 8:00am. No answer. I keep calling until shortly after 9:00 and no answer. So my taxi picks me up and we try a few other stores, all closed. I buy some groceries assuming that I will have to stay until Monday. Then on a whim I call the store around 10:00 am and… they answer. I rush over (it took 30 mins to get around town… traffic) and order what I need. I finally got rid of all that money. Then I rush over to the bus station and got a ticket on the early bus from Dar to Dodoma for Sunday. And when I say early, I mean early - 6 am. That is the earliest a bus can legally leave in the country.

So it turned out okay, but was quite an experience. So why the title - “The Blues Brother Experience?” Well, my mother told our vicar (or rector) about me having to go to Dar and do all of this with a bunch of cash. He emailed me and said that he envisioned me in a black suit with a briefcase handcuffed to my wrist with the money in it (hence the Blues Brothers reference. I felt at many points like I was standing out so much that I could have been dressed that way and was so nervous about having all that cash (that belonged to someone else) on me that I was getting a bit paranoid. Anyway, I laughed at the image that my vicar’s story gave me and so I share it here. I also thought my college best friend would get a chuckle out of the Blues Brothers reference since he is a bit of a fan.

Well, I shall share another story soon. Hope all is well with alls y’all.

I wanted to post today because it has been so terribly long since I have posted. Well, this has been an interesting week. Msalato has two weeks off for Easter so that our students may return to their homes and churches. It takes many of our students two days each way to reach their homes. This also serves as our “Fall Break.” Only about five to ten students are still on campus. Many of the Tanzanian staff have returned to their home villages as well. Also, the New Zealand staff members have left for Arusha in far northern Tanzania to met up with all NZ missionaries in Tanzania. So it is really quiet here.

I have used this week for many different things… First, I have completed some job applications and sent them off to two possibilities (a teaching job in Dallas and a campus ministry job in Arizona). Also, I have hunted for more possible jobs/careers. Second, I have gotten some much needed rest (it has been a chaotic semester thus far). Finally, I am using this time to try to make my final revisions to my history masters thesis. I am hoping that the thesis can be all finished and defended when I return to the US in July/August.

I will be spending Easter in Dodoma, which is actually 10 kilometers away from Msalato and when you don’t have a car 10 km is pretty far away. I will be able to go to the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit on Easter Sunday and spend time with other people. I am looking forward to that after a very quiet week. Next week I will be working on preparing for the second half of the semester. Next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the staff of Msalato will be meeting to deal with a number of issues. Many of them will be pretty mundane, like planning for graduation and updating the syllabi and curriculum. Others things to be done relate to the future of Msalato….

As I think I have already mentioned, Msalato is in the midst of several transitions. We are shifting from a mixture of English and Swahili language programs to English only. This shift was mandated by the bishop of this diocese and the board of the college. The goal is to make Msalato a center for studying theology and leadership in English. Another school within the diocese will focus on training church leaders in Swahili. Msalato’s last class of Swahili students will graduate in June. Who will replace them? Well, that is a little more complicated. Msalato plans to start two new programs in August. First is a one-year certificate program for English. There is a great deal of demand for learning English in this country, even though it is not an official language. All education from the secondary level and onward is done in English. The second program is going to be a teachers college. Now this is a little bit confusing… at least to me. This program will be designed to teach students to be primary school teachers; however, the real focus is on teaching the students how to teach and not what to teach. This program has required a lot of work on the part of Msalato’s administration to setup. New administrators and teachers have to be hired and a room had to be converted into a lecture hall. It is hoped that this program can subsidise many of the costs of running the theological programs here.

Well, I better run for now. I will share more later. Have a good Good Friday, but try to remember what it is all about - not just a day off or the beginning of a long weekend.

I am teaching three regular academic classes (two Church History classes and one theology) and a few other courses. This is a bit less that my previous two semesters, but is still quite challenging and engaging. I am really enjoying teaching. The computers are more troublesome, but I am making headway. I have a lot of work to do this next few months.

I will be returning to the USA in July this year and do not yet know what I will be doing. I would very much appreciate your prayers on this matter. I am currently looking at some lay chaplain jobs at Episcopal schools because that would combine a lot of interests including pastoral care, youth ministry, and teaching. However, most of these jobs require ordination. If you have any advice please feel free to contact me. If you click here you can find my resume in Word format and PDF format. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

I will post more about things going on here at Msalato and Dodoma very soon!

First, I wanted to let people know that I have posted a sermon that I delivered in January at one of the parishes that support my work here in Tanzania. I wanted to share this so that others could hear about my experiences. It is available in both a Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF format.

A little over a week ago I arrived back at Msalato Theological College in Dodoma, Tanzania. It is nice to be back but a lot happened while I was gone. In early January there was some kind of very serious electrical surge or spike (either due to problems with the electric company or a lightening storm - I am unsure which) that fried the computer network here. At least seven LCD monitors have been killed (those cost about $350 here in Dodoma). We also have several computer power supplies that have been fried as well, but those are only about $15 here. The wireless network has been off-line which has not pleased many people. This is all amazing because there is a huge voltage regulator protecting all of those things - it is rated for 10,000 volt-amps.

Anyway, it appears that there was not much rain here in the Dodoma area during January. This is the only time of the year when rain is even possible; however, since I have gotten to Msalato it has rained considerably almost every single night. That is very good. The people of Tanzania rely on rain to grow the food they live on.

The new semester will begin in one week and I am eager and nervous. I will be teaching two church history courses that I taught last year. Also, I will be teaching a couple of computing courses and an introductory theology course. This will be a busy semester.

I am also going to be working to finalise my master’s thesis for my history degree and try to seek employment for when I return to the United States on July 31, 2009. I would appreciate your prayers for me during this time and also for the people of Msalato, the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, and Tanzania.

PS - you might notice in this and other postings that I am “misspelling” some words. In actuality I am using British grammar because that is the standard used in Tanzania. I have changed my computer’s dictionary to conform with the prevailing standard so that I do not confuse the students and staff here.

Enjoy! I go back to Tanzania on January 30. I appreciate your continued prayers and support.

Check out pictures from London.

I am travelling by train. This is the fourth train trip I have been on in a week. It has been a very busy week, but enjoyable. In Paris, I was able to go up the Eiffel Tower, visit the palace of Versailles, toured the city of Paris, cruised down the River Seine, quickly visited Notre Dame and the Louvre. Paris was nice. It was a good bit warmer than London and sunnier, which made it a bit more pleasant.

I am very eager to get home and share my Tanzanian experiences with my friends and supporters. Also, I have some work to do… have to prepare a presentation for my visits, prepare for next semester’s courses, finish grading a few papers from last semester and a few other things. Well, by for now!

Right now I am quickly approaching Rotterdam .

Right now I am on the train from London to Paris and we have just come out of the Chunnel in France. We should arrive in Paris within about an hour or so. We will be here for two full days (after today) and then we will go to Amsterdam. I will be in Amsterdam for about 15 hours before flying home but my mother, because of some confusion in our plans, will be there an extra 24 hours. I look forward to being back in the US after so long away.

My “day” started at 8 am on Friday in Dar Es Salaam (that is in the East African Time Zone, or EAT, which is 8 hours ahead of the east coast of the USA). I awakened at the Passionist Fathers Guest House. I didn’t do much during that day - I went into town for a very nice brunch at the Movenpick and stopped by the main shop for the cellular provider I use to stock up on minutes. Then I returned to the guest house and rested. I left the guest house at 8:30 pm EAT for the airport. The plane did not actually end up leaving until about fifteen minutes after midnight on Saturday, December 13 (EAT). I was surprised by how many people got of the plane that I eventually boarded. The plane came from Amsterdam, landed in Arusha/Kiliminjaro and picked up new passengers and dropped off others. But it seemed like the plane completely emptied out in Dar, which is surprising because ti is not a very popular tourist destination (Arusha/Kiliminjaro are popular because of the mountains and the well publicised safari circus in that region).

While I was waiting to board the plane to Kilimanjaro I was pleased to meet a nice older man who had worked on development projects in Tanzania for several years in the 1990s. He had just been back to the country to help his son with a project. It was wonderful to hear his stories about the country form that time period and much earlier. He had some familiarity with DCT and its bishop and we shared stories. I am always happy to learn more about my new home.

Anyway… The plane that went from Dar to Amsterdam was a new one (at least to me). It was a Boeing 777 and is the most comfortable plane I have been on. As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a large man and often find some planes very uncomfortable, but this plane was quite roomy - lots and lots of legroom. I enjoyed the flight, but it was a long 9 hours or so. I didn’t get any sleep except for about 15 or 30 minutes.

The plane landed in Amsterdam around 7 am local time which is six hours ahead of the east coast of the USA or 9 am EAT. So when the plane landed I had basically been up twenty-four hours. I was very impressed with the Amsterdam airport… it is beautiful and huge. The immigration process was quite easy. After I got my luggage I went to an ATM to get some Euros and was quite surprised and displeased when it gave be 100 Euros in the form of two 50 Euro bills. Imagine going to an ATM in the USA and asking for $100 and getting it in the form of a $100 bill, when you need to buy a bottle of water. It appears that no one wants to take 50 Euro bills…. This is quite a big change from Tanzania where the highest denomination bill is 10,000 or about $8 US. Often when you go to an ATM there and ask for 200,000 TSh (about $150) you get that money in 5,000 TSh bills (about $4).

After I went to the ATM I found the train ticket offices and was pleased to be able to get a ticket to London on a train that left directly from the airport. I have to applaud Europe’s use of trains and especially the Netherlands. The international and local train routes are built around the international airport in Amsterdam. That leads to a smooth and seamless blending of air and train travel. Very impressive. Unfortunately this is just too foreign of an idea for America - the country that invented the idea of suburbs and the two-car garage.

I have enjoyed travelling by train for the first time as an adult. It is more convenient (here) and more casual than flying. On the train from Amsterdam to Brussels a man who was from Nigeria saw the ring I was wearing (which is from Peterkin, the camp and conference centre of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia) and the African print shirt I was wearing and somehow assumed I was a Catholic priest from Africa. I explained the truth (very briefly) and told him how glad I was to enjoy winter.

In Brussels I went through customs and British immigration since that was my final destination. This was an interesting experience… I went through several different customs and immigration conversations in the past day and a half and this was a unique experience. The British immigration officer asked me why I was going to Britain, where I was staying and how long I would be there. I answered those questions pretty easily. Then, I think out of curiosity, he asked where I had been coming from and where I would be going after Britain. I explained that I would only be in Britain for four days, three days in Paris and a night in Amsterdam. He asked what I had been doing in Africa and I explained. He asked how I supported myself and I briefly explained that I was a missionary for the Anglican (or Episcopal) Church in America. He then asked what I did for a living in America and what my job qualifications were… these were tough questions to answer. I found these to be very interesting questions and I assume these were out of curiosity… since I stated I was not staying in Britain or seeking employment there. But it reminded me of my interesting situation.

Well I just wanted to jot down some notes. I will arrive in London within an hour and will then take a taxi to my hotel, meet my mother, get a shower, drink a lot of water and SLEEP. I have now been up basically for 33 hours at this point. A long day.

Have a wonderful day!

Updated… we have emerged on the other side of the tunnel and it is 3:36 pm GMT and it is dark here…. I am starting to understand all that I have heard about England having somewhat bleak winters… oh well. I am really happy to experience winter for the first time in two years.

So I am excited to see Europe and get home. I am spending a week in Europe with my mother who is flying to meet me. I have been many places on this amazing planet, but never to Europe. I will spend four days in London, two or three in Paris and one night in Amsterdam. I will arrive back in West Virginia on December 22. I am quite excited.

I have tentatively scheduled visits to parishes on the first and last Sundays in January, which only leaves two Sundays available. I am eager to share my amazing experiences with others.

When I got into Dar I went to a supermarket so that I could get some bottled water (Dar is hot and humid right now) and some snacks and was quite surprised by a few things. This is a supermarket much like those back in America, but still the similarities I saw today were quite eerie. The sound system was playing traditional American-style Christmas carols, their was a special aisle in the store dedicated to Christmas decorations, and all of the employees were wearing Santa hats. Most of the customers and all of the employees here were Tanzanians . It was amazing to see a scene so familiar so far from home.

Well, have a wonderful rest of advent. I will post more once I get home.

Truly, a Thanksgiving Miracle!

Well… the miracle was short lived… sort of… the power disappeared after about an hour of the storm and did not return until 3 pm Friday. Anyway… the rain was very needed and welcomed by the students.