For most of us, Tanzania is a far-flung east African nation, nowhere near DeKalb and even farther out of mind. But for Mike Wadle, that is not the case.

Wadle, a math teacher at DeKalb High School, spent the summer in Tanzania, a nation probably best known as home to Africa’s highest mountain peak, Kilimanjaro.

On Sunday Wadle preached, bringing greetings from Lutheran Christians in Tanzania, at First Lutheran Church, 324 N. Third St. He gave a power point presentation on his experiences in Tanzania as well.

But Wadle wasn’t climbing mountains. Instead, he took part in the Mwangaza teacher exchange.

“[The program] was started by teachers in Tanzania working with a professor Shoonie Hartwig from St. Olaf in Minnesota,” Wadle said.

The program started in the early ’90s and emphasizes involving students more in the learning process, Wadle said. The schools operate on a European model, because of the colonization by the British.

“[This] is especially difficult because they’re very, very poor so they often don’t have the pencils and paper – and almost never the books,” Wadle said.

Wadle and his two sons, Lamont and Jacob, paid their way to Tanzania but took along $7,500 in donations to help pay for planned renovations on Tanzanian schools.

“We got into fundraising to tear out and replace old ceilings,” Wadle said.

The money was raised through First Lutheran Church, DHS, whose students contributed about $2,000, and friends and relatives, Wadle said.

By the end of his trip he had a hand in fixing ceilings in 17 classrooms, some of which only gained roofs in the past few years.

Some of the fundraising was, by American standards, done in a more non-traditional way.

But it was a system common in Tanzania and most importantly, it worked. People can donate items if they have no cash and those items are auctioned off, said Edwin Zehner, a ministry support coordinator for First Lutheran.

Poverty is a mainstay in Tanzania and locals feel its pinch in almost every aspect of life.

“Water is an unbelievably tough commodity to get locally,” he said. “It’s not rare at all for somebody to walk three kilometers to get water.”

Beyond poverty, social diversity defines the landscape of Tanzania.

The nation has at least 128 distinct tribes, many of which have their own tribal languages, Wadle said.

Those who do not speak any of the indigenous languages usually speak Swahili or Kiswahili, although English remains the language of commerce.

“They believe that to operate on the world market and such, English is the language they have to learn,” Wadle said. “So the high-school teachers are teaching in their third language to kids learning their third language.”

The nation also is religiously diverse.

Faiths include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and any one of numerous indigenous religions, Wadle said. Faith is important in the society and the government requires students to take religion classes. The students are allowed to choose the class.

In Tanzania elementary school is required, Wadle said. But high school is optional and only about 12 percent of the population completes it.

The entire nation also is combating an AIDS epidemic. The CIA estimated in 2003 that 1.3 million of the nearly 36.8 million people in the country were infected with HIV.

It’s a difficult situation, one where the locals are worried an entire generation may be wiped out, Wadle said.