Creating a community

     Last week we set out to Arusha for a retreat with the Dar volunteers. Our nine-hour bus ride from Dodoma was prolonged when our bus overheated, probably from the overzealous acceleration it made up the steep inclines of the mountains we passed over. Arusha was filled with green. Trees, bushes and grasses fill the countryside and add more brightness to the already colorful city. Plant nurseries line sidewalks and roads, giving the feeling of a year-round springtime to the area. As you know, I lived in Arusha last year when I traveled with a service-learning program. There was some time to walk around the city again during an afternoon outing and the eight of us snaked our way through the shops, hotels and markets lining the downtown area. Arusha is the hub for tourism in Tanzania, as it is centrally located between the major national parks, the most well-known of these being the Serengeti and Mt. Kilimanjaro. As a result, Wazungu abound in Arusha and many businesses, like cafés that sell avocado milkshakes and bookstores filled with classic novels, cater to the normalities of many Western lifestyles.

Retreat center in Arusha

     For retreat we stayed with the Conossan Sisters in their Spiritual Center, positioned directly next to the Jesuit novitiate of the East African Province. The second-year JVs led our retreat, beginning with a day of reflection on what in our lives has brought us to JVC. The second day we focused on community and how we envision living out the JVC values together, and on day three we shared thoughts about the greater community of Tanzania, including cultural gender expectations and ways to work for social justice. After an afternoon of silence, we concluded the retreat by joining the Jesuit novices first for evening prayer, then dinner accompanied by a welcoming song, then an hour of competitive games of Foosball, darts, and pool in their rec center.

      Nearly everywhere we go, people graciously welcome us to share in their experience of living in Tanzania. Polepole (slowly, slowly), I am becoming quicker at initiating and responding to greetings in KiSwahili to people who pass me in and around town. Greetings are quintessential to Tanzanian culture; they reflect the ideology of Ujamaa (familyhood) that the first president Julius Nyerere instilled in the people of Tanzania. He attempted to unite the many tribes here, believing that by joining together and working for the common good the country could overcome poverty and achieve economic sustainability. The importance placed on greetings- taking time to both greet and respond, often an exchange that lasts several minutes- appears to be one of the ways in which Ujamaa is still carried out.

     Two weeks have passed since arriving in Tanzania and each day our JVC community in Dodoma becomes a little bit stronger as we learn more from each other. In our own way we too, are striving for Ujamaa so that we may share in this experience of Tanzania together. The retreat in Arusha enabled us to share personal reflections and begin our first conversations of how we can live in community together. Creating an intentional community is not an easy task. It requires the sacrifice of personal time, patience as we learn about each other and gentleness with ourselves as we reveal and realize the monsters that are not always so hidden in our own selves. But with community we can challenge long-held beliefs and values to help each other learn a new perspective and become more culturally sensitive to the belief systems that create Tanzanian culture. Dorothy Day, a co-founder of the Catholic Worker House in the United States, understood the importance of community. She wrote,

The only answer in this life, to the loneliness we are all bound to feel, is community. The living together, working together, sharing together, loving God and loving our brothers and sisters, and living close to them in community so we can show our love for Him.

My running/reflection route during retreat.

Her words are a guiding power as the stages of community building begin here in Tanzania.

MLS

P.S. I promise to post pictures soon.  We are in transition of simplifying our lives by means of giving up our convenient, though usually weak, internet access at home.  The parish office nearby has a reportedly stronger connection and should make uploading photos a less tedious task.  

P.P.S. Pictures finally posted. Enjoy!

A magnificent ravine on the running route. Also served as a great place for reflection.

People washing clothes in the river at the bottom of the ravine

My feet after walking the dusty path to the ravine.