MISSIONER NEWSLETTER – Summer 2026

Mike Lattanzi and Susan Silveus, Tanzania

About a week and a half ago, on Thursday, May 21, I was walking home from St. Pius X Seminary Secondary School in rural Makoko, Tanzania, where I teach math. The students had just written their end-of-semester math examinations and my backpack was full of their answer sheets. I was preoccupied with the prospect of spending the next few days grading the exams, hoping that my students had somehow managed to navigate successfully the state-prepared test. About twenty minutes into my walk, my thoughts were interrupted by the sight of a gathering at the side of the road on the left. Tents had been set up and an unusually large group of people were in attendance, many of whom, I later learned, had come from well outside our corner of Tanzania.

Walking home past the funeral site one week after the event.

I knew what I was seeing only because I had been prepared for it by Daniel, one of my fellow teachers at Makoko Seminary. It was the funeral of Mchama Maregesi Mongu, a Tanzanian national who, on May 3rd, had been killed by a suspected Iranian bomb while working on an Emirates-registered tugboat in the Strait of Hormuz. In spite of being prepared for what I was seeing, it was still a shock to be confronted so close to home with events from the international news.

I imagine that Mr. Mongu must have counted himself fortunate to have secured work outside of Tanzania – the pay for which would likely have dwarfed what he might have earned from work at home. He would never have dreamed that he would fall victim to the distant calculations of world powers, all too ready to resort to violence.

It would be a mistake, however, to presume that Mr. Mongu will be the only Tanzanian casualty of violence in the Gulf. The rise in gas prices has hit hard here: about two months ago, the cost of a liter of gas went up 33% overnight (followed later by smaller price hikes) and there has been a knock-on effect on prices in general. For me, the most noticeable increase has been the 43% rise in the fare for a ride on a Bajaji (Tanzanian tuktuk) – which is how I get to work most days. This followed an earlier 40% rise – meaning that the fare has increased 100% over a few short months (1.40 x 1.43 = 2.00).

This is equivalent to an increase from 20 to 40 American cents and, while this might not seem like much, it is the difference between affordable and not affordable for many Tanzanians. You can see the effect on, for example, the women who travel to Makoko every morning to buy fish from fishers to bring back to market in Musoma. Or on the Bajaji drivers themselves, who are experiencing a drop in customers. And it is not hard to imagine the possibly fatal consequences for Tanzanian families of having less money to spend on health, nutrition and education.

The bajaji stand across the street from our house.

I suspect that most of us watching news from Washington and the Gulf would not imagine how far the negative consequences of violence would reach. And it is certain that the implications for Tanzanians living in and around Musoma were never considered by the perpetrators of violence. But the violence has reached here nonetheless.

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