Then every priest he meets, he tells us ..they are my very very good friend. I think it's true he took us to see his friends mostly. ...but still....He is a friend to many. From visiting little old ladies to drunkard young men, they all know Fr. Nova.
First main stop was Father's home town. Forgive me that I omit many of the smaller stops! We arrived in the afternoon and met the parish priest....who is actually very interested in raising animals and communal life. He has some younger men living at the parish compound now with him along with the assistant parish priest. Even though they are few priests they seem to always live in twos. They need two for a parish I think as they all have between 16 to 25 outstations. They could be 6 priests and still be busy.
Then we had the delight to have lunch at Father’s sisters house. Her name is Rufina and we were joined by his other sister Ravina. They look just like Fr. Novatus. He is very proud of his sisters. Especially his youngest sister Rufina, who is a single mother. He told us over and over again how well she is doing because she works so hard at the market selling things she buys in Uganda and that also she is great farmer.
I believe there is quite a bit of stigma about being a single mother here in Tanzania, whether that is because you were not married to begin with or because you left your husband. In fact Fr. Witness told us that it can be difficult for children to receive sacraments and baptism if the mother isn't married, and that the mother herself could face a long time separated from the Sacraments even after the child is born. He said that it is because the Bishops want to strongly maintain family values and the importance of marriage. Fr Novatus confirmed that this is sometimes the case, but that he always baptizes and babies brought to the church. He has much respect for women I think. He said that in difficulties in his life or when he was struggling it was his sisters and women cousins who were there for him.
Our lunch with the sisters and a catechist from the parish was lovely.
Father hasn't seen them in a few months so they were all chatting away
catching up. They were also discussing a difficult situation within
their family that has to do with their family home which was given to
the next oldest brother. Fr Nova is the oldest and although he is a
priest and not so involved in all the temporal matters he obviously
feels great responsibility for his sisters and family. We felt so
trusted by Father because he told us all the details of what is going on
in his family and he took us to see his parents graves along with his
young brother.
On our visit to Rwambaizi we walked all over the village. We walked through his town several times as well as through all the paths off the main street which connect all the houses. We went from house to house saying hello to everyone. We also went to stations of the cross at the parish which Fr. Nova celebrated because both the priests where gone to outstations. People were quite friendly to us and didn't seem to make to much of a deal of us. Even though foreigners never go to these places people were not so nervous to welcome us right into their houses and sit with us. Of course it was obviously partly because we are the friends of Fr. Nova who is friend of all!
We got to see the computer building that Father is slowly constructing and the small shop in town that provides computer training and services. Fr. Nova is pretty dedicated to education I think. These things are his private initiatives. He is proud that he has many books, many of which are Madonna House books and that he reads every Saturday afternoon and also lends books to many priest friends. Now he sees how important it is for people to be able to know how to use a computer. Especially the young. In Rwambaizi as well as at his parish in Murongo these small computer shops house the only computers around and there is certainly no internet. People have access to internet through data on their phones if they have money and a smart phone but that's a pretty small number of people.
We had very good visits with the two priests in Fathers home town and we stayed with them at the parish house. They and the two priests we met at Mabila parish the next day for lunch were very curious about Madonna House. Under a previous bishop this area actually formed a community where lay people,families, religious and priests lived together in common. From what I gathered it was modelled on a similar community in Germany. The bishop was pretty dedicated to this idea of communal life inspired by the first Christians. After his time the community was disbanded and the community of the sisters is all that remains. There community name translates as Unlimited Love and they are the diocesan sisters and growing in number. Fr. Eric from Mabila actually grew up in this community and it inspired his priesthood. So in some ways they can kind of understand Madonna House because they compare it to this community. All the priests and even the bishop asks why we cannot open a Madonna House in their place. We tell them it isn't up to us! They'll have to ask our Directors and the bishop must invite us besides... :). Philo and I told them we aren't sure people would understand us (because we don't "Do" things like teach etc)but they respond that they would just have to get to know us and it would be fine..haha! Whether that is true or not who knows, but certainly we felt welcomed and loved in this diocese.
Before we left Rwambaizi we went to the school to meet the YCS group. It was a Saturday but they all walked to come see us! The elected executive greeted us and when we turned around the corner there was a few hundred students gathered in the yard. The teacher who is the formator for this school (a volunteer position as this is a public school) lead our meeting. We spoke to the students and they asked us questions. This school is one of the better public schools in this area. A lot depends on the teachers because all the schools are difficult to fund and teachers are paid very poorly, so many have second jobs. The kids at this school understood a little English, which is sometimes not the case in secondary schools even though their studies are in English. The teacher did translate our answers though which I was glad for. They assure us the kids can understand because they supposed to be able to but that just isn't the case. Maybe only the oldest students.
Anyhow these kids were lovely! Even though public school is free, in many ways it isn't. Still often it's too far for kids to walk so they pay to board at the school or at a church hostel. They must pay for supplies and lunch food and uniforms even if they can walk. That's tough if your family doesn't have any cash income. Lots of the kids walk for hours everyday to get to school. And actually very few kids that go to a public school will pass the national exams and cannot go on to university. But I think they are doing well at trying to establish good education. It's only been since the 1960's that they had public primary schools for all children. They have difficult geography and tonnes and tonnes of kids to educate. It seems to me that it takes time to build up this sort of system. In fact most people are literate and unless they are super far from anything I think most people complete primary school. But what a challenge to educate enough teachers and to pay them enough that they can really dedicate themselves to teaching. We hear lots of complaints about the public system from people but I say good for you Tanzania, you're doing a lot with the resources you have. Now that's not to say that the government couldn't put a little more money where their mouth is :). But Tanzanian's value education that is for sure! It's probably just not agreed upon about how to go about it...
I'm reading Sr. Chrispina's thesis on educating vulnerable children. I think the government should listen to her ideas! So far I think this woman knows what she is talking about. I probably wont get really into it until I get home but so far it's a really excellent read.
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