"Mgeni means Guest."

Mgeni is the Kiswahili word for guest. Wageni means more than one guest. Surprisingly, when one looks up the English word stranger in the English-Kiswahili dictionary the word mgeni is the definition. In the Tanzanian culture, there is no difference between a stranger and a guest. If we have been planning for months for our families to visit us, when they finally arrive, we have wageni. If one person drops by unannounced, and just knows enough about us to know that Cathy is Mama Sarah (that's another cultural lesson altogether but we'll skip the details for now) and he or she wants to ask for assistance of one kind or another, then we have mgeni.

We have been blessed with the opportunity to be received as guests, and also to receive guests at our home. One is a guest when visiting a home, visiting a church or diocesan office, or even the simple fact that we are not African, we are seen as guests wherever we go. We have learned a lot about Tanzanian culture through these experiences. For example, when we first arrived, we felt badly if we dropped in on friends without calling first. We were always made to feel welcome and were told that dropping in unannounced was no problem. People would tell us "that's how it's done here."

After living here for a few months we learned how very important hospitality is to Tanzanian culture. Of course, as missionaries we were trying very hard to be culturally sensitive. However, we had to wonder if we were taking this all a bit too seriously when on one occasion Cathy met a man at our front gate who said several things in Kiswahili out of which Cathy understood "magi" the word for water. She asked him to wait and brought him a glass of filtered water. He accepted the glass, drank the water, and thanked her. He then explained (and Cathy finally understood) that he needed to come inside of the gate to read the water meter! They both had a good laugh.

We've gotten used to having wageni drop in on us and have been able (for the most part) to adopt the same attitude of hospitality. We are always ready to put on the tea and break out the cookies and make our guests feel welcome. This isn't always easy. Sometimes we had plans to spend our time doing something other than entertaining guests. Sometimes we are tired. Sometimes we don't have anything to offer except for a glass of water. Sometimes the person at the gate is someone we don't know or worse, someone we do know and don't want to see. When we are feeling negative about our latest mgeni, it helps to remember what Jesus said.

In Matthew 10:40 - 42 we read, Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple - truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. With this in mind, instead of thinking "oh no, so-and-so is at the gate," we are able to see our mgeni as "one of these little ones" whom Jesus loves or better yet, as Jesus himself! By extending ourselves just a little we have formed relationships and friendships with people. Perhaps this is part of the "reward" Jesus was talking about.

Dan and Cathy Smith

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Dan, Cathy, Sarah, Emily and Grace Smith
PO BOX 15128
Arusha
Tanzania
http://www.goodshepherdkettering.com/pages/mission.html
smithfam91@yahoo.com
or
missionaries@goodshepherdkettering.com
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