By Max & Lischa Woodley
It was a Sunday morning in 2016. Our church was playing the Bakers’ EastARM video update from Tanzania East Africa when my then fiancé and I simultaneously turned to one another and whispered at the same time, let’s go! Coincidentally, following that spark of interest, Graydon & Sarah Baker later sent around an email to young couples and families inviting them to their home in rural Tanzania to teach English with East Africa River Mission to the people of Mloka, Rufiji.
When we said ‘yes’ to this proposal we had no idea the adventure before us nor that this cluster of mud houses would become our home nor that the people would become dear friends. We were sent packing lists, had long phone calls and researched all we could on this little village in the Rufiji, but no google search could prepare us for the journey we would step into.
We had a desire to chase God wherever He would lead us. We wanted to experience the Gospel outside of the North American context and we saw this as an opportunity to learn. We wanted to stretch our perspective beyond what our culture deemed valuable. We knew that we had things to offer them; we had some of the ‘world’s goods’, including a language that the people were eager to learn. However, we also knew that they would have lots to teach us: how to live in community, live in simplicity, and grow in our faith. We wanted to experience 2 Corinthians 8, ‘At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need, then there will be equality.’ We wanted to be Christ’s hands and feet. We were hungry for an adventure that would draw us closer to Jesus and His heart.
Looking back now over those 6 months – as newlyweds tackling a new country, learning a new language, embracing a new culture which had customs and faith expressions that were different from ours, I see now it was the best decision we could have made. Jumping into a foreign place certainly has opened our eyes. It has stretched our abilities, deepened our faith, and awakened new passions within us. It was a season we won’t ever forget.
I can’t tell you all that this journey held for us because then this article would become a novel, but let me give you a little glimpse of our time in Tanzania. Though we initially went as English teachers our days encompassed many aspects which exceeded that role. Our days in the Rufiji village of Mloka were seldom shy of adventure.
Sundays happened to be our favourite. In the mornings we would often walk into the village inviting the local children to join us at church. The church itself felt like home. It was a small community of about 12 people, including us, but the worship and prayers were filled with God’s Spirit. As the service began the children would trickle into the church and climb onto the benches. The drum would echo against the walls and the small chorus of voices filled the concrete block building. Max had various opportunities to teach the Bible and I was able to pour my heart into the little ones whose faces soon grew familiar.
One thing that dramatically changed at church while we were present was the Sunday School. Due to Sarah and Graydon’s promotion, the only church in the village went from having no ministry to children, to having a Children’s Sunday School that met outside on grass mats in the shade of a large tree. This grew to having weekly preplanned Christ-centered lessons, co-led by members of the church. East Africa River Mission supporters built a permanent building so that Sunday School could continue throughout the rainy season. The mission even set up the village’s first ever playground for those children! Many of these same children went to madrassa (Muslim school) during the week and were prohibited by their parents from entering the Christian church, but this new space beside the church was neutral ground. As the buildings grew so did the excitement, and each week a growing number of children heard the beauty of the Gospel message.
Sundays meant days of rest and often that meant sharing time and meals with friends. Our closest friends were a combination of those we met at church, some of our dear students from the village and mostly the local safari camp staff where the mission and we were based and with whom we spent time every single day. We often shared tea with the Maasai night guards and they told us stories of killing lions and growing up as shepherds. Most mornings we joined the camp daily breakfast meetings of chai and chapati (tea and a crepe-like pancake) with the staff sharing together Bible devotions and listening to their questions while holding each other up in prayer.
We shared the most laughter and memories with the camp staff who helped us integrate into the village life, taught us more of the Swahili language and shared many late nights cooking together over charcoal fires, telling stories. We embarrassed ourselves dancing, ate way too many lollipops, created thousands of inside jokes and lay under the canopy of stars laughing so hard with each other that we lost our breath. We celebrated birthdays, graduations, and good-byes with much soda and singing. We taught each other many things and one night, while sharing dinner, one of our dear Muslim-born friends expressed a desire to be baptised. This caused us much joy and lead to a longer conversation which then turned into baptismal classes leading 6 of our friends – many of the safari camp’s long-time construction workers who had regularly attended the mission’s morning Bible devotions – to be baptized together. Seeing these people commit their lives to Jesus Christ was a blessing we hadn’t expected.
Of course, at this point you’re probably wondering if we did actually spend any time teaching English at all? Agreeing to be the ‘guinea pig’ teachers of The Rufiji Lighthouse presented us with some unknowns. How many people would come? What ages would they be? Do they know any English? Are they even literate? We soon found out. We walked through the village sticking posters on motorcycles, stores, trees and boards inviting every soul from young to old to come. Then we waited. We sat outside the school over the next three days and signed people up with a short questionnaire to help us assess abilities and create classes of similar levels.
The first month we had over 150 students pile into our English classes eager to pick up the language. It certainly was quite the experience trying to handle all the different levels from non-speaking to practically fluent students. The ages of students ranged from 4 to 65 with just the two of us as teachers, but it was a blast. Thank God for our close friend, teacher and translator Moses, who carried us along the way. Over the months, the numbers decreased but the committed remained. Our students were determined to learn more. We saw people improve their English skills, grow in confidence and through it all, we built friendships with our students. We had one class of largely camp staff, another of teachers from the government village primary school, two teen classes and a children’s class which often spilled over the benches – the same benches Max built in preparation for the school opening our first week in the Rufiji, long planks of African Cypress wood. The youngest students were always losing the pens we provided them but filling up their journals like no other class. Max’s significantly smaller, advanced class met at a student’s house for a shared meal, where conversation was in English only. This helped us always grow closer to the culture and build relationships. It was a neat experience, teaching and learning from these people. We honestly felt privileged to teach them. We are so thankful for the opportunity the Bakers gave us to invest in these people’s lives through teaching English.
‘English’ may seem trivial in a Swahili-speaking nation, but to the animal-rich setting of Mloka tourism is big business. To everyone who wants to be an animal safari guide, a driver, or work at a camp, English is a must-have skill. Along with writing resumes in our advanced class, one of our students secured a job inside the Selous Game Reserve, which is a huge achievement. Not only is English a skill for trade but if children want to succeed in school beyond grade 7 they must have a good understanding of English, because all of their high school career will be taught exclusively in English, causing many children to drop out or fail due to their Swahili-only primary education.
The standard English class the children do attend in their school career in Tanzania does not create fluency. Further, it is taught by Tanzanian teachers who know limited English themselves (this is especially true for rural schools). It’s a complicated matter. English is a required tool for many people living in the Rufiji and yet they have limited access to its learning. The people are desperate for English and we (you especially) have the chance to share our knowledge and more with them!
Our eager student (and occasional supply translator), Omari said to us as we left, “You came as teachers and left as friends.” This touched our hearts deeply because we had tried our best not to come as overpowering Western know-it-alls, much like the other tourists that flew in and out. We wanted to be and live among the people. And I believe we did just that.
We learned many things over our time in the Rufiji, one being that we very much dislike baboons and scorpions! But more important we learned that our time is not really ours. Our time belongs to God when we surrender it to Him. All we are called to do, and can do, is fully trust in Him. We drew closer to Christ, read through the Gospel with new eyes, lived in a culture that is closer, in a practical sense, to the time of Jesus, and often we just sat in the dirt loving the least of these.
There are many stories untold, some left in our hearts and some that will stay in the bush. There were times of joy and times of mourning. But God gave us the strength each day, patience and a love for his people, and that encouraged us to carry on. We embraced the opportunity to walk among this people, to cook new foods, to speak a new language, to hold newborns and over Christmas 2017 to initiate a group of North American university students to the wild Rufiji on project with the mission (Hello Cosperville!).
We are beyond thankful that the Bakers let us invade their family for the last half year as we worked alongside them with East Africa River Mission making an investment in the community and engaging the unreached Rufiji people. It was a blessed time and it has changed us forever. We would do it again in a heartbeat.
Editor’s Note: East Africa River Mission in Tanzania is based in a village called Mloka, within the wild bush setting of a larger area and a people known to outsiders as the Rufiji. The mission itself is built and hosted in Mloka at Baker & Sons Safari Camp, with an English school building, called The Rufiji Lighthouse, and lodging for visiting teachers. Max & Lischa Woodley came to serve with East Africa River Mission Tanzania between August 2016 – March 2017, serving as the first teachers of the school. The mission at the safari camp is established and growing as a Christian outpost to the Rufiji, a people and area once listed as unreached by the Gospel of Christ.