Immigration. That’s been a strong interest here at Holy Trinity since the church’s founding. Immigration is what led us to our Tanzania connection and it’s what brings a group of us back for a visit to Isimani this summer. Here’s how it all began.
In the late 1990s a young professor from the University of Dar es Salaam immigrated to the States to begin a career at UNH. Joe Lugalla looked around for a Lutheran church and found Holy Trinity. He and Pastor Opderbecke became friends, and he invited Pastor to travel with him to his hometown, Isimani, Tanzania. Joe’s father had been pastor at Isimani Lutheran when Joe was growing up. When the travelers returned home and told their stories, a group of parishioners began planning the next trip, and the following year twelve HT members made the two-week visit.
That same summer, Joe’s family—wife Sapiencia and sons Tumaini and Omani—also immigrated to the States and joined Joe in his Dover home. A few years later, after Joe became Chair of the Department of Sociology at UNH, their daughter Wema was born.
Sapiencia took “Sappy” as her American nickname, and she and I soon became good friends. She finished first an undergrad degree in Finance, then a masters’, also in Finance. And she became an American citizen.
After twenty years at UNH, Joe was offered a position in the international Aga Khan University as Dean of the Institute for Educational Development in East Africa. The family left Dover and moved back to Dar es Salaam. By this time, Omani had graduated from college and taken a job in Michigan, so Joe bought a home there as well for his frequent visits to the States.
As if things weren’t complicated enough for the Lugalla family, Joe developed cancer. His treatment was through Mass General which meant he’d be traveling from Dar to Michigan to Massachusetts, back to Dar, time after time. When he needed to be in the States for treatment, he often stayed at our house, driving back and forth to Mass General in the day, then on his phone with the Aga Khan University through the night.
Also during this time daughter Wema graduated from college in Michigan, found a job, and took an apartment near Omani's house. Omani flew back to Tanzania and married his fiancée Erika, then moved her belongings to Michigan.
Joe lost his battle with cancer the summer of ’23. Sappy made the decision to move permanently back to Dar where she has both extended family and friends.
Recently Sappy and I have been chatting on the phone quite a bit. She’s back in Michigan, prepping that home for rental. In June she returns to Dar, and we have plans to visit her in August as part of the HT trip. My guess is that we’ll continue our connection and friendship as she flies back and forth between our two countries on a regular basis since Omani and Erika’s son Claude is now a beautiful and very active little toddler.