Flowers and Visitors

Sunday, February 10, 2019

There were flowers again at church this morning. I was glad to see them again and hope there won’t be any more services without them. A young man, who I think was probably Greek Orthodox, gave the sermon. The only hint that he was orthodox was that he walked down into the center aisle to read the gospel. His sermon had almost nothing to do with the text, but it was okay anyway.

Once again, there were lots of visitors. Some have come to Arusha for the big ECHO sustainable agriculture conference which starts tomorrow. (John plans to attend.) Others were just visiting. One older gentleman from New Orleans had quit the climb up Kilimanjaro after 2 days and was having a great time exploring Arusha. During tea/coffee time after the service, I spoke with a woman who has a son, Nathan Ziegler, who lives in Peaceful Valley in Spokane. It was another small world connection. However, there was no connection for me with several Norwegians, whose English I couldn’t decipher. Nor, did I have much intelligible conversation with a South Korean couple, who may or may not be missionaries or mercenaries somewhere outside Arusha—or perhaps Alaska.

Tea and coffee after church.

Fashion queens

ACC was having its annual general congregational meeting. Everyone, member or not, was invited to stay for the meeting and the lunch afterward. John decided that he would stay, but Mary Lou and I took a taxi back to Kundayo. Then, since we were not going out to eat as we usually do on Sunday, we ordered our lunches from Kundayo’s kitchen. I ordered rice and beans with greens, while Mary Lou decided to be very adventurous and ordered ndizi and beef stew. The bananas are not those we get from Dole but rather green ones for cooking. My servings were normal, but Mary Lou’s stew came in a bowl the size of a small fishing boat. She’ll be eating it for the rest of the week!

Our Tanzanian Sunday lunch.

The remainder of the day was spent resting, reading, and visiting with folks in the compound. I wish we could live in a similar configuration at home. Unfortunately, the closest model I know at home is a retirement village, which is not really the same thing at all. In my next life, I intend to build a big, enclosed family/friend compound, where we will all have our own space but never need to be solitary and lonely.