First, Happy Feast Day for yesterday, when we celebrated all of our saintly examples, both recognized and unrecognized. It’s always good to be reminded of the Beatitudes and yesterday during the Small Christian Community meeting when we were sharing about the scripture reading of Sunday, the ones that people picked out to comment on were “Blessed are the merciful” and “Blessed are the meek of heart”. Those qualities are ones that I already find in so many Tanzanians, and they are nice ones to have.
And on Saturday evening I went to visit a former student who I happened to meet in town earlier in the week and who invited me to supper with her and her Mom. More about that later, but the taxi driver’s wisdom is what I want to share now. I took a taxi home because I didn’t want to walk from the bus stop in the dark, and as usual the driver and I started talking about life, about how long I’ve lived in Tanzania, about how I like living here. His comment was that, although most Tanzanians live a very simple life, they generally love each other and that makes for a peaceful and good life. That also is true; I never fail to get some insight in how people think from the taxi drivers around here.
Yes, visiting with Asha and her family was a real blessing. Many times it’s hard for us teachers to see concrete results or to know how we impacted the lives of others. It’s a blessing to have confirmation that I have been influential in her life and an example that she aims to follow. She has recently finished an education degree at the University of Dar es Salaam and left yesterday to report to the school to which she’s been assigned to teach. I think she’ll be a fine teacher (of Economics and Geography) and hopefully will influence her students for the good as well.
And today we remember all of our loved ones who have gone before us. I know they’re praying for us and watching over us and we can continue to rely on them for support.
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