Arusha, Sunday, January 15, 2017

This was the day I had been waiting for since I landed.  Ray was scheduled to pick us up at 10:00 and drive us to Arusha Community Church, a place I love for the incredible mix of people who attend services there. From the moment we arrived, we were greeted by friends we hadn’t seen since last spring and exchanging news about who had returned to their countries, who had just come back from Christmas break, and who was absent because of illness or family issues. The saddest news for me was that my favorite people, Rosemarie and Edward Charles, have retired and gone to Canada. I knew they were considering that, but I thought they would still be here now, and I was looking forward to being with Rosemarie again and learning still more about her incredible life from her birth in a Congo internment camp during WWII through her years in Botswana and elsewhere. Maybe I’ll just go to Canada to see her there.

However, others I have grown to love were there, and I found out that the women’s group will be meeting this coming Thursday. I can hardly wait!  There will be so much to hear about who is doing what and which members need our help.  During my layover in Amsterdam, I was seated next to an elderly woman who was accompanied by a middle-aged couple.  I found out that the woman had lived in Tanzania for decades and three of her four children were born here.  She had been back in Idaho for 6 years, and after her husband died last year, her children decided to bring her back to Tanzania to be with them. Imagine my surprise when at church, I looked across the aisle and there she was again: Elaine Peterson, a legend of sorts here. Most likely, we will meet again on Thursday.

During the time for newcomers to introduce themselves, an older, very tall, rangy woman stood and announced she was Margaret, a vet working with livestock in a very remote place about two and a half hours drive out of Arusha. After the service, I introduced myself to her and told her I had many questions about goats because I might be buying a pair soon. She was obviously a real character and told me all sorts of facts I should have written down. Later, the friend who had invited us to go out to lunch with her also invited Margaret, so we had a lot more time to chat then. Margaret had managed to put herself through vet school as a single mother in Oklahoma. She was convinced that God was calling her to mission work, but that never panned out until she retired a few years ago and managed to hook up with an NGO working in Tanzania. I have a feeling she is self-supporting, so she is literally paying to live out in the most rudimentary conditions with absolutely no one else to talk with in English. No wonder she is willing to put in 5 hours of rough driving in order to attend church at least once a month.

There were several incredible “small world” moments.  The first was when we were introduced to the young couple sitting behind us and realized that the young man, Tarek, is the son of very close friends we had in Evanston during John’s graduate studies at Northwestern. Tarek immediately took selfies to send back to his parents. He and his wife, Laura, who is a dentist, have been in Arusha for nine months and will be returning to the States soon. They also joined us for lunch, so we caught up even more with events since we were in Evanston.

The second “small world” moment occurred when Tarek mentioned that a man we have known here for several years is the brother of John’s second cousin’s husband. Don’t laugh. This is important Mennonite connection information. I’ve often said that there is no place on earth where two Mennonites can meet and not find some connection between them. So finding out that John’s mother’s cousin John’s daughter was married to Wayne’s brother was a big deal.

Our friend Sharon took us to George’s Tavern, a place where we had never been before. We sat outside on the veranda and enjoyed a beautiful setting. I, of course, choked when I saw the prices, e.g., 18,000 TZSch for a pizza, but John brought me back to my senses by pointing out that is less than $9.  So, I ordered a lovely pizza with ham, mushrooms, olives, and green peppers, and John had a build-it-yourself salad with a Greek theme. Not only was the food delicious, but the portions were ridiculously huge. John’s salad was in a bowl almost a large as the one I use with my KitchenAide mixer, and Papa Murphey would have classified my pizza as large. We brought home more than half of our servings and had two more meals. As John made sure to tell me that was all for less than $18 with drinks included.

I’m peeved that John didn’t take his camera with us, as mine is too big and hunky to take to church.  As always the flowers were beautiful and the banners creative and colorful. Perhaps we can get some of the photos that Tarek and Sharon took and share them later. It was a marvelously good day, even better than what I had anticipated.