The
Tsegulas constitute one of the two large extended families who live within the
boundaries of the Zingwangwa Branch.
Together the elder Tsegulas gave birth to 11 children, 8 of whom are
still living, about what one might expect given the national mortality rates. Like some large families back home, the
Tsegulas have, in essence, established a family compound on a large, level
parcel, several acres in size, close to the Three Ways Market (so called
because three roads converge) in Manga.
Below is the first photo we took of the Tsegula family: Brother and Sister Tsegula on the far left, Innocent on the right, and two grandchildren in the middle. Neither Alex nor Theresa is pictured.
At least four or five of their children live, with their families, in
homes scattered around the family property.
The homes are surrounded by numerous outbuildings, maize fields, mango
and avocado trees, cassava plants, garden plots, and sand piles, with a small
stream cutting through the upper fields, supplying a ready source of irrigation
water. There is a well right in the
middle of the site. By careful
husbandry, they can, we imagine, grow enough produce to feed the family, and
their property, which is flat, arable, and well watered, is far and away the
nicest parcel of any owned by our local members. But, like many in the area,
they are cash poor, and while they won’t starve, there is not much excess
product available to trade for other food stuffs or commodities. They must be careful to rotate their crops
from season to season to avoid depleting the soil. Crop yields can be bolstered through use of
the fertilizer, but fertilizer is expensive and not always available. Their property is a few hundred feet off the
dirt road running from East Soche to the Three Ways Market, and off a second
dirt road coming up from Manga into the market, affording them ample privacy,
but complicating the delivery of building materials.
Carole and Sister Tsegula on the family compound. Mount Soche in the distance, and the Three Way Market, though not shown here, is off to the far left.
Given the
size of the family, someone is always home when we drop by—some eclectic
combination of parents, children, grandchildren, spouses, in-laws, cousins and
neighbors. Often we are not quite clear
about the relationships. Malawians can
be somewhat casual when identifying how folks are related. Visitors may be introduced as brothers and
sisters, when in fact they are half-brothers and half-sisters, or
brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, or, on occasion, even more remotely related
as the brothers and sisters of uncles and aunts. More than once Carole and I have found
ourselves totally bewildered. Sometimes
the confusion is due to language barriers—while most of the family speaks
English, it is not their native tongue.
I remember
vividly the first time I saw Brother Tsegula (James), who at 62 is close to my
age. He was standing at the top of the
flight of stairs, leading down to the Zingwangwa chapel, across from the
infamous broken truck used as a landmark to identify the Church’s
location. Even though slight in build,
short in height, with cropped gray hair, he stood very erect and had a
commanding presence. He was dressed in
what is commonly referred to in the Church as “Priesthood” attire, a white
shirt, dark slacks, a light blue tie, and I thought he was probably a district
leader coming to visit the branch. We
have come to know that he is very much the patriarch, in mostly good ways, in
his large family. His English is
refined—he taught school for a while and then worked as an accountant and
executive for the government for many years.
He has a wonderful mastery of the scriptures, including the Bible and
Book of Mormon, is blessed with a spiritual sensitivity, and has great
faith. When we first went to console
him and his wife about the partial destruction of their home, his first
response was that Lord is great and they were richly blessed. Not a word of complaint was voiced.
James Senior and I on the family parcel. With the recent rains, the parcel is lush and green.
He has a
keen mind and breadth of knowledge, both about Malawi but also about the
broader world, though I don’t think he has ever set foot outside of the
country. He is one of a handful of
Malawians, to whom I can turn to get insights about life here, not only because
his English is easy to understand, but also because I trust his judgment. Perhaps due to the similarity of our ages, he
and I have much in common, and I genuinely enjoy visiting with him and hearing
what he has to say. He was considered
“less active” when we first arrived, and apparently had been for a few years—the
only member of his family who came regularly to Church was one of his last
sons, Alexander or Alex (more about him later). We have never gotten the full story, and
perhaps that is as well. But somehow his
feelings were bruised and he stopped coming to Church some time ago. Before that he was active, and had been one
of the stalwarts in the branch.
President Chikapa speaks very fondly of Brother Tsegula, saying they
were good friends before his mission to Kenya but had found him inactive upon
his return. He and his wife joined the
Church in about 2007, making him one of the longest tenured members in the
branch, and contemporaries of Brothers Mwale and Munthali, two of the other
seniors in the area.
Fortunately,
something has touched him recently, and he and his wife are now usually out for
the Sunday meetings. Elder Barnard, the
last zone leader (now back at his home in Oakley, Idaho), and his companion,
Elder Mwangi (from Nairobi, Kenya), went to considerable lengths to visit the
family, and no doubt rekindled in Brother Tsegula a desire to come back into
full activity. He is an active participant
in classes, and his comments are invariably insightful. A preacher by disposition, he can dominate
discussions and needs to remember to give others, who are less confident and
less informed, a fair chance to have their say.
Whenever he is asked to give a prayer in Sacrament Meeting, we must
steel ourselves for a mini-sermon. But
his prayers are so heartfelt and so articulate that once one can get by their
length, and somewhat theatrical delivery, they are very inspirational.
It is much
harder to get a read on Sister Tsegula.
She is a few years younger than her husband. Often they are both at Church, but they don’t
seem to come together or rarely sit together as a couple during the
meetings. While that would be odd in
the United States, signaling a rift in the family, neither of those things are
strange here. Families come and go to Church,
individually, and often at staggered times.
It is not uncommon to see husbands, wives and children descending the
stairs to Church at different times on a Sunday. [The windows to the chapel open up to the
stairs, so the arrivals and departures of those who attend the meetings are
very public, especially in view of the fact that most members and visitors come
late to Church.] Men often sit on one
side of the chapel, and women congregate on the other, resulting in gender
based segregation in the chapel. The Church,
we know, is anxious to help Malawian couples work on being more evenly yoked as
partners in a marriage. Public displays
of affection are rare, no holding hands, sitting together at Church, or
acknowledging one another publicly. If
you didn’t know who was married beforehand, you won’t find yourself much the
wiser after attending a meeting. We have
not seen evidence of male domination or spousal abuse, but we understand it is
a societal problem. But far and away the
greatest obstacle to our getting to know Sister Tsegula is the language
barrier. She speaks virtually no
English, and how much English she understands is unclear. About all Carole and I can do is smile and
greet her, with the occasional pantomime.
Often, when we suddenly drop by, she and her husband are found working
in their fields and gardens, and there is no doubt but what they are
hardworking and committed to supporting their family, even though they are of
retirement age and certainly should be looking to their kids and grandkids to
shoulder more of the load of providing for the greater family. Sister
Tsegula can’t be happy about the recent property damage to their home, because
the rooms exposed by the collapsed walls were their private chambers.
You may wonder how the recent storms destroyed these walls. The water penetrates the bricks (which are often unfired and not adequately protected by the plaster), and once saturated, they get heavier and heavier, placing too much pressure upon the lower bricks, finally collapsing. The home destroyed is the one the Brother and Sister Tsegula use as their primary residence. They have now relocated to another building on the site.
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Alexander
(often called Alex), at 27, was the first of the Tsegulas we met at Church. The branch mission leader, he is in charge of
running the weekly missionary coordination meeting, held on Saturday
morning. He is soft spoken, so much so,
that Carole and I must strain to pick up his voice, and often can’t hear him at
all. The Saturday meeting sometimes
comes off, sometimes doesn’t, a frustration for the full-time
missionaries. There have been more than
a few days when no one had an idea where Alex was when it was time to begin the
meeting, since he could not be reached on his cell phone. Serving as a missionary would have been a
blessing in his life, but for some reason, he has chosen not to serve. Alex is paradoxically a foil to his father,
whereas his father is direct, bold and assertive, Alex is quiet and unassuming.
He is hard to understand, even in
private conversations, because he speaks so quietly and can be
self-effacing. But it would be a
mistake to think of him as a poor man version of his father: he has at least
five years of college-level training, most recently pursuing a degree in
computer sciences, a very popular course of study in Malawi; he has studied for
years French and Portuguese, and though we find his English hard to understand,
he must have an aptitude for languages, for once he toyed with the notion of
becoming a linguistic. Like many others
of his age, he is in and out of school, because, from one semester to the
semester, he struggles to find the money for tuition.
Alex showed
us some of his other skills when he came with us to help distribute food
supplies to the flood-displaced victims in the Chikwawa District of southern
Malawi. He really took ownership of the
distribution process: working with the local tribal leader, and the government
official, he worked with the list of designated camp members, organizing and
calling out the ones on the list to ensure that the aid supplies were only
given to those entitled to receive aid.
If aid goods are indiscrimantely distributed, there is a high risk of
chaos and rioting, because one is always surrounded by large crowds, many of
whom are in need. They understand
however the concept of lists and are prepared to accept the system, but only if
it is surreptous followed. Amid all of
the commotion, Alex was tireless and on task, from the beginning to the end, of
what was an exhausting and hot day. Frequently,
he was called upon to arbitrate disputes, resolving discrepancies, soothing
tempers, moving the process along, all in the heat of the day, and under the
relentless sun. He kept meticulous
records and was the perfect steward, showing a side to his personality we had
not seen before.
Alex was our interface with the government agent (the woman with the purple blouse), the community leaders, and the aid recipients, and tirelessly worked to make sure that the donations got to the right people.
Innocent
Tsegula, the youngest son, in his early 20s, is very handsome and
well-pleasing, with a mild mannered and quiet demeanor, much like that of his
elder brother Alex. In appearance, he,
like Alex and Theresa (the youngest daughter) takes more after his father than
mother—family members has a strong familial resemblance. We see him more at Church now than we did
when we first arrived. Several weeks ago
I, together with Brother Tsegula, gave him a priesthood blessing; he suffers
from some ill-defined nervous disorder that leaves him restless and agitated
and sleepless. The family has taken him
to the hospital several times in the recent weeks, but we don’t know if his
condition has been diagnosed or whether he is getting any medication to calm
his nerves. I fasted the day before the
blessing and then walked the better part of two miles to their home, in the
late afternoon heat, to meet with the family. I was surprised to find James
senior dressed in full priesthood attire when I arrived, showing his
faithfulness, and at the same time reverence for the ordinance that was to be
performed. Before proceeding with the
ordinance, I reviewed with the family what we would be doing, both for training
and to help them be at ease. James
senior anointed, and I sealed the blessing.
And both James senior and Alex stood in the circle for the priesthood
blessing. It was a sweat experience, and
I hope a comfort to Innocent and the family.
Alex, Innocent and James Senior have since told me that Innocent is
doing better, but the treatment of mental disorders is tricky and usually
requires a carefully-prepared, and carefully- monitored, regimen of medication
to stabilize those who are suffering, not the kind of care that one is apt to
get from the government hospitals. The
faithfulness of the one being blessed, and that of his family, is critical to a
blessing of healing, and at the end of the day, it is also in the Lord’s hand,
but the Lord still expects the family to do all it can to take advantage of the
medical care that is currently available.
Of the Tsegula
children, the last with whom we have had any contact is Theresa, the youngest
child. She is 18 and a beauty. We have seen her frequently at the family
compound, and a few times at Church. I
was surprised to see her at the funeral of Esther.
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