July 7, 2010

Out of Africa: DWU returns from mission trip

MITCHELL — Mount Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti and Lake Victoria – beautiful sites often associated with Tanzania, East Africa.

Learning, leadership, faith and service – reasons Dakota Wesleyan has sent three mission teams into the country.

DWU students traveled to Tanzania in May for a mission trip where they performed community service projects, became acquainted with the local community and visited AIDS, HIV and cancer patients in the local hospice program.

DWU counselor Sally Wickware-Thompson has taken groups to Tanzania in 2006, 2008 and this spring; a trip that is worth three credit hours to students for either cultural awareness or travel seminar for religion. This is a faith-based mission experience to East Africa, with pre- and post-learning components on the DWU campus. Several aspects of Tanzanian history, culture, religion and current conditions are explored. Using lecture, research techniques, class discussion, experiential learning, journaling, service activities and reflection activities (discussion and written), a service learning experience is the ultimate goal.

This year students Misty Cochran, of Armour, Charity Kear, of Mandan, N.D., and Michael Lynch, Omaha, Neb., participated, as well as DWU math professor, Dr. Rocky Von Eye, and Wickware-Thompson.

They set out on May 6, arriving at Kilimanjaro International Airport in Northern Tanzania on May 7. The trip lasted two weeks. Their stay began in Arusha, where they spent a couple days getting acquainted with the community, time change and altitude change (Arusha is 5,000 feet above sea level).

“We spend the first week travelling around the city of Arusha and nearby rural areas,” Wickware-Thompson said. “Each day we focus on a different aspect of life in Tanzania.”

They spent one day visiting schools, another at hospitals and hospice patient homes, and they also learned about economic development through the Heifer Project. Then they mixed business with pleasure and took a three-day safari to Manyara Wildlife Preserve, Ngorongoro Crater Wildlife refuge and Tarangire National Park.

The safari was followed by three days of service projects – painting dorm rooms at Olkokola Vocational School for the Disabled, where Kear also painted murals in the dining area and on outside walls; and then the group painted classrooms at the MaaSae Girl’s Lutheran Secondary School in Monduli.

During the part of the trip that focused on economics, they also met with five Tanzanian women who came together to promote and sell their weaving in order to support their families. The mission team also visited a Woman’s Basket Cooperative and the Maasai Craft Market, where they could see how many of the locals support themselves through their craft.

“Two evenings we ate with a group of orphans, all of whom go to school on scholarship and live as a family in a small house,” Wickware-Thompson said. “The 20 children range from age 6 to 17 and each older child cares for a younger one like a brother or sister. When there is electricity there is always music playing and when the electricity goes off, the candles are lit and studying and playing continues. It is a wonderful place to feel the positive power of family.”

On the first and last Sunday the group attended the Arusha Community Church and participated in the service. More than 28 nationalities, and many languages and denominations are represented within the church.

“Cross-cultural mission trips are valuable to students to help them realize that the rest of the world does not live like we do here in the U.S.,” she said. “It helps students learn that cultures vary in their traditions and expectations, but also that many similarities exist within families and cultures everywhere. Staying in another country, even for a short time, gives students the opportunity to listen to the residents, hear what they need or would like help with and work together to achieve the goal.”

Wickware-Thompson’s enthusiasm has grown for this particular mission trip and she loves to share with students and DWU faculty and staff what she describes as a “powerful experience.”

“The best part is seeing students grow in their appreciation of the challenges people in Tanzania face and then take an active role in becoming part of the opportunity to help them,” she said.

The next mission trip to Tanzania is scheduled for 2012. For more information on how to be involved, e-mail Wickware-Thompson at sathomps@dwu.edu.