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Roanoke youth says mission trip strengthed faith

By Jean Denton
Special to The Catholic Virginian

Blessings that multiplied from the merciful, compassionate heart of one man have transformed life in a small Tanzanian village over the last two years, and a Roanoke teenager’s life was changed, too, when he arrived there last month with 200 pairs of sneakers.

Roland Macher, an 18-year-old senior at Roanoke Catholic School, returned home February 6 from Tanzania. He and his father, Roanoke businessman Roland “Spanky” Macher, had tagged along with three other Americans to the east African country to help install a soccer field at a brand new school in the remote, impoverished village of Sanya Juu.

They took with them nets and orange marker cones they bought, along with 200 of the nearly 500 pairs of sneakers Roland’s RCS classmates donated. They also brought a load of soccer balls and pumps donated by Dick’s Sporting Goods of Roanoke.

Until the school was built last year, the village of Sanya Juu “had never seen brick walls or actual floors,” Macher, a member of St. Andew parish in Roanoke, explained.

“Here’s the school,” he said, showing a snapshot he’d taken of a new stucco-covered building with a metal roof and concrete foundation.

He pulled out another photo and added, “And here’s what all their houses look like.”

This picture showed a vast plain dotted with tiny, simple thatched-roof houses.

A few years earlier one of the village elders, Gabriel, lost his brother who was struck and killed by an automobile driven by a young white Englishman.

Gabriel, assisted in legal proceedings by another Tanzanian who spoke English, realized that his brother’s death was an accident and the driver was suffering enormous anguish and pain. He decided to drop the charges and let the young man go free.

In gratitude the Englishman’s father built a house for Gabriel and his nine children, including his brother’s three.

Gabriel’s newfound “wealth” brought him respect as a village leader and he became committed to improving life for the people of Sanya Juu. His interpreter, Joseph, was so moved by Gabriel’s compassion that he also dedicated himself to the needs of the village, especially basic education for the children.

Macher’s own part in the story unfolded last fall when his father was on a business trip to Chicago. Here he met Kelli O’Brien who told him about a recent safari she’d made to Tanzania.

Wanting her trip to the poverty-stricken country to be more than recreation, the devout Catholic arranged also to spend time with the Franciscan sisters at their convent in Sanya Juu and to find a way to help the people they served. They introduced her to Gabriel and Joseph who explained their need for a school.

On returning home, Ms. O’Brien, who Macher described as “wealthy and very, very generous,” raised the necessary funds and within a year the people of Sanya Juu had completed construction of a three-room school building. It serves 500 children, Macher said.

In her conversation with Spanky Macher, Ms. O’Brien mentioned that she was returning to Tanzania to see the school and hoped a soccer field could be added.

“My dad jumped on it,” the younger Macher said.

Father and son flew in late January to Mt. Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania where they met Ms. O’Brien, her son and daughter-in-law and traveled by car to Sanya Juu. They stayed at the convent and completed several small improvement projects such as installing rain gutters to collect water and providing families with mosquito netting. Roland Macher’s task was to put in the soccer field.

“It was fairly simple,” he said, explaining that he built frames for the goals with lumber that was already there and attached the nets. He marked off the field with cones in grass that was two feet high.

“But the next day after I got the nets up, there were 90 kids out there at six a.m. sickling the grass,” he laughed, shaking his head in amazement. “Until that day, they were the only village in their state that didn’t have a soccer field. They had been anticipating our arrival a long time.

“When we were leaving they thanked us,” he noted, “but I told them, ‘I need to say thank you to you. You’ve given me a new view of life — a new beginning.’”

Back home, he explained, “It gave me a new respect for people who have nothing, but think they have everything, because they are just so thankful for their lives.

“They were so proud of the little they did have, all they wanted to do was give because they were grateful for us being there,” he continued. “It was truly an amazing feeling.”

In a country where the average income is $1 a day, Macher pointed out, “They only eat meat about once a month — usually they just eat rice. And yet they fed us everyday, and everyday they gave us meat.”

Admitting that some of the meat was far from what he could stomach otherwise, he said, “The food was horrific. But there was no way you could not eat it because of their great, great generosity.”

He said he learned from his hosts that, “Material things don’t matter, but giving to others what you do have does.”

The eldest of three children, Macher said his mother, Margaret, was a strong influence in forming his Catholic faith. But he said his experience in Tanzania “seeing how God has blessed the people with such a respect for life,” has deepened it.

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