From Chicago to Kissongo...and back again

A couple years back our Pastor visited a small community in Tanzania named Kissongo and discovered that their school desperately needed teacher housing. Attracting quality teachers to rural school districts is difficult in Eastern Africa (and America, for that matter), so small communities like Kissongo rely on offering teachers decent on-campus housing. When Pastor Laura shared stories from that trip, our church overwhelmingly responded, sponsoring 80 kids from that community through World Vision and in the process paying for new housing at the school. As a result of our two communities crossing paths, LaSalle Street Church just sent a small team of folks to visit Tanzania and bring back some real encounters with our brothers and sisters in East Africa. Amber's a part of the team, so Sam and I have been flying solo since Wednesday. There have been some rought spots, but we're managing just fine on a steady schedule of pizza, football and Elmo. That may be overstating things, actually...there's some Thai food too. Anyway, Amber's been sending an update e-mail once a day, so here are some news flashes from Kissongo:

- There is no shame in publicly picking your nose in Tanzania - even while giving a speech. At least, that's Amber's assessment after this took place three times during their first day there.

- Everyone asks them about Obama. They've even seen several bumperstickers. So, clearly, Tanzania would not vote red. Of course - given the latest polling number - fewer and fewer states here would vote red either.

- Cold showers remain every bit as unpleasant as they were during our time in Tonga. It's good to try this practice every couple years, just in case anything has changed.

- The team met our church's sponsored children. The Masai people tend towards being strong and silent, so this visit consisted of much more bubble-blowing, soccer playing and singing than actual conversation. This reminds me of Tonga...but eating would have to be added to the list.

- The team attended church today. Multiple congregations gathered in a mud-and-dung hut for services. The music was lively, as there were choirs from the Catholic, Lutheran, and Pentecostal churches. Which is definitely a difference from America. Catholics, Lutherans and Pentecostals wouldn't gather together here very often, even if there was a mud-and-dung hut large enough to contain them all.

- Amber has been named and wardrobed as Masai. Since she's not sending pictures, it's hard to say whether this involved neck rings. One can only hope.

You might be wondering what updates Sam and I have from Chicago. Well...the fall petting zoo at our local park had some pretty scary goats, pumpkins look a lot like basketballs, cookies are even better before they're baked and the Bears won today. See? We keep ourselves pretty busy.