Wensel Family Visit

The first weekend of January, I had the opportunity and privilege to visit the Wensel family. The Wensel family consists of Lena, Patrick, Susanna, and Gavin.

If the name ‘Lena’ happens to stick out, or rings a bell, it is because she is one of the people from the MS-TCDC group that was so special to me during the two weeks I was there. This is the place where I was exposed to the basic, fundamental, building blocks of Swahili. The ELCA had us enroll in a two week, tailor-made, beginner Swahili course there shortly upon taking down in TZ while they figured out our site placements.

Lena has a bright laugh. This laugh, coupled with the quality of conversation she brings to the table, all contribute to helping to infuse any and all places she happens to grace with her presence with light and melodic sounds of warmth and joy.

Lena happens to also be a missionary, a long-term missionary, with a commitment of at  least three years. In comparison, she makes my short-term missionary commitment look puny. HA!

Her primary sending agency is Christian Veterinary Mission. She has a training and background as a vet. The agency while they’re here in Tanzania is Christian Missionary Fellowship. They plan to renew after this year. Wow. The missions life seems to be a good fit for them and their family! So fun, and very impressive.

After getting the inside scoop from Lena regarding a delightful little café/bistro at the Sable Square compound called ‘Butter & Scotch’ outside of Arusha, in route coming from Monduli (with a name like that I reckon it’s somewhat difficult to be anything but airy and pleasant and delightful. HA!), we arranged for me to be picked up there. This place has what I imagine to be a French vibe. They play smooth jazz and other mild music.

The Wensel’s, with a friend of Gavin’s in-tow, Luke, came and picked me up direct from Butter and Scotch, for us to go to a friend of theirs named Jude house that she has been house-sitting for quite some time now. This residence happens to be one of the nicer ones I’ve ever been to here in TZ.

Lena and I made what came to be a strategic decision to sit on the backyard patio area, in the lounge furniture there, for what turned out to be most of the evening. We caught up, drank wine, and were privy to a ridiculously choice dinner spread, chef-ed up mainly by her husband Patrick. The man can do wonders with meat.

After dinner, I continued to sit and converse with Lena, Patrick, and Jude. It was a special night with grown up, substantive, rich conversation. The original intention or rendezvous centered around the idea of a game night. With that in mind, we finished our visit at Jude’s friend’s house (lol) with two rounds of Codenames. This is a super fun game and worth checking out if you are a game’s person.

Back on the Christian Missionary Fellowship (CMF) compound, Lena and I shared a cup of tea together before each retiring to our sleeping quarters. The next morning, I had breakfast with Patrick and Lena. We had pancakes and talked about far out concepts having to do with reality and the extension of life by inserting these consciousness chips of sorts into the base of your neck. Patrick is a bit of a jack of all trades and knowledgeable about a lot of things. He has a mechanical engineering background, but then also contracts himself out to do programming work for businesses. He’s super cool. No surprise, considering how fantastic Lena is, but still. Right on.

Eventually the little ones came down and we spent some family time with them. As children do, Lena and Patrick’s little ones got a late start to their day. HA! The Wensel family visit concluded with Patrick and I going into Ngaramantoni (town outside of Arusha where they live) to do some shopping for his son Gavin’s birthday party. His son was turning 13 that upcoming week, but they chose to celebrate that day because of his actual birthday falling square in the middle of the following work week. Tough. Young Gavin officially left his adolescent years and transitioned into the life stage that is being a teenager. AH! So fun, so exciting, so scary for the parents lol.

Again, I cannot say how rich and refreshing and life-giving it was to spend what amounted to less than 24 hrs (HA!) with these people. Their children are perfectly well behaved and a delight to be around. They are self-resilient, self-reliant, respectful, and conversationally competent. They are the ideal archetype for what are good children.

Of course, this does not originate from nothing, and is an extension and reflection of their parents. Rest assured valued reader, I will be paying the Wensel’s another visit before too long. Praise Jesus for there being such decent human beings, specifically Americans who know my culture and who happen to share similar values and hold similar opinions to me, not so terribly far away.