Farewell to ACC

Arusha, March 18, 2018, Sunday

It was the best of days; it was the most difficult of days. ACC had asked me to give the sermon for this morning, and though I had carefully prepared, I was still quite anxious about how things would go. Not only would what I was going to say be acceptable but also if I’d fall flat on my face as I climbed up the steps to the pulpit platform. I didn’t want to rely on John to help me up, so I was on my own. Fortunately, all went well. I didn’t stumble and fall; I didn’t have any blank moments; and I stayed within the time frame of 15-20 minutes. What surprised me was that the congregation clapped at the end. I’d not seen that happen before, and my first thought was that they were as relieved as I that I have managed to get through it without a major flub. The two comments I liked best were one from a Catholic sister who said, “Now, that was a real homily.” (I’ll have to find out more of what a homily means to Catholics.) The other best comment came from Africans who told me that they could understand everything I said because I enunciate clearly and speak at a moderate speed. As, I told a friend, that’s the pay-off from all of the years I spent teaching international students.

Yellow roses are my favorite.

After church people dispersed more quickly than usual because of rain. It wasn’t really raining, just spitzing, but it looked as if it would pour any minute. Deborah and Joe Troester asked if we wanted to go to lunch with them, and of course we did. So, they drove us our to the Njiro Mall to eat at Whispers, the best Chinese restaurant in Arusha. Being with the Troesters was bitter sweet, as they are being reassigned to Zambia and will not be here when we return next year. They will be greatly missed by many, and Deborah will leave a big hole in our women’s group.

Once we were back at Kundayo, we took time to rest for a bit and then got to some serious packing. I’m always surprised at how long it takes me to pack so relatively few things. It’s also odd that since we use up or give away so many items we pack from home, we still have almost too much to fit back into our suitcases. I do buy some gift items, but not so many anymore. Everyone I know is now pretty well supplied with kitenge placemats and napkins, beaded coasters, and small tinga-tinga paintings.

Now, our big task is to eat all the perishable and leftover food we still have. I made spaghetti bolognese for dinner, and we worked on eating our frozen raspberries. Not such a bad combination. That leaves us with some leftover coconut beef stew and two Russian sausages, which is more than enough since we’ll order from the restaurant here for dinner tomorrow when our friends Eric and Bernice Rowberg come.