Arusha, Sunday, February 5, 2017

As usual on Sunday, Ray came soon after 10:00 to pick us up and take us to church. For a while it looked as if we might be late because the road construction had blocked the route we usually take, and Ray had to back track and try a different way.  Fortunately, however, here “late” is a very relative concept, and we were just fine. I was especially looking forward to today’s service as Dave Sullivan, a Catholic priest who teaches in a seminary in Njiro was giving the sermon. Last year, he gave one of the best sermons I had heard in years on inclusiveness, and this morning he gave an equally wonderful sermon on what it really means to be salt and light, which is very different than being “churchy.” He is a very slight, older Irishman, and I could listen to him all day.  When it was time for communion, he got in line with the rest of us and took communion served by Lutherans and Presbyterians. He lives the Gospel.

After the service, I took some more photos of the people having tea and coffee, and introduced myself to Rogers, who seems to be the head usher.  I wish I were a better photographer, as his face fascinates me. I managed to take one decent shot of him without calling attention to myself—I think. In pursuing Rogers, I forgot to get a photo of the flowers, but they weren’t particularly spectacular today anyway.

Time for tea, coffee and conversation

Three of the many children

ACC Church Ladies

Our friend Sharon, asked if we had plans for the afternoon, and since we did not, we joined her and three very young other Mennonites for lunch in Njiro. Of course, I ordered Indian food since it is far better here than any I’ve found in Spokane. My big splurge was a tall glass of coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. Utter decadence. With all the food and good conversation, it was 4:00 before folks were ready to leave.  John and I stayed behind so that we could do some shopping in the Village Supermarket, where there are items one cannot find anywhere else.  However, we only needed very ordinary groceries such as Wheetabix and some pasta. Well, I also picked up a few items we didn’t actually need such as a small bit of cheese and bottles of passion fruit Fanta for me and  Stoney Tangawisi for John.

Neither of us felt like doing anything more when we got home, but I started a bucket of socks and did some mending.  Later, when I went to the garden terrace to connect with the internet, Noriko, who was having dinner there, asked me if we had gone to church again today.  She said she wants to go with us again next Sunday.  Then, we began talking about what we have or haven’t seen in Tanzania, and she wanted to see pictures of my women’s group. One thing led to another pretty quickly, and soon I was showing her photos of my granddaughters and garden back home. Finally, John suggested it might be time for our dinner, so by 9:00, we were having a meal of the remaining leftover beef stew and fruit. John had finished the sock laundry and had them all rinsed, wrung out, and hanging up from our mosquito net frame. This was another excellent day.