Women's Group Meeting

Thursday, January 31, 2019

This morning I got up much earlier than I needed to because today, finally, my women’s bible study group was going to meet. It had been on hiatus since before Christmas, when Linda left to return to the States for a couple of months. I can’t figure out why one of the other women couldn’t have called a meeting, but no one did. Then, on Sunday morning, it was announced from the pulpit that we would be meeting this week—no one seems to know how that happened—and so we did.

Ray came for Mary Lou and me just after 9:00 and drove us to the church, where the group meets now. We were the last to arrive, and all the other women were in a bright and airy Sunday school room. After the usual effusive greetings and introduction of Mary Lou and another newcomer. Then, the ladies took a while to agree where they had left off in the Book of Acts last December. Finally, they decided we should resume at chapter 8, so we got to explore early Christian persecution and the magician Simon. I made a point to nudge the women toward how they as Africans saw magic and witchcraft, and a fairly interesting discussion followed. Some really want ask-and-get miracles, while others are more accepting of dealing with whatever happens in their lives. All agreed, however, that witchcraft is both very real here in Tanzania and very bad. There were stories of curses and poisonings, and fear and duplicity. Margaret was also indignant that now some Christians are charging for special prayers for others. Later, Mary Lou remarked to me that Catholics have been doing that for centuries.

The group is much smaller than it used to be. I remembered that there were 22 women the first time I attended at Grace’s house. Now only 9 were present: Miriam, Mary Bura, Margaret, Sifa (Margaret’s neighbor), Grace, Terry, Mary Lou and I—and then Ruth, who arrived just in time to eat with us.  Still there was plenty of interesting conversation and intimacy, which is difficult for a mzungu like me to find in Africa.

Left to Right: Miriam (Indian), Atula (Mongolian), Mary Bura (Tanzanian), Margaret (Ugandan), Sifa (Rwandan), Grace (Tanzanian)

Sifa and Ruth (Finnish)

Terry, who was sort almost acting as the group leader, while I was taking notes for the prayer requests, closed the meeting without any prayer, which is a HUGE no-no. The ladies were very uncomfortable and didn’t get up to begin lunch, so I offered to pray and went down the whole list of concerns. Only then did people feel free to serve themselves from the potluck of snacks or small bites all had brought to share. There was everything from roasted peanuts to watermelon and Miriam’s special fruitcake, as well as plenty of bananas, both fresh and dried. Mary Lou and I had had our cook, Msuya, make bagia for us to take, and everyone seemed to enjoy those.

After the gathering was over, we caught a ride into town with Margaret, She dropped us off at Perfect Choice Supermarket, which is a dingy hole-in-the-wall across from the Anglican cathedral. (It used to be a Japanese restaurant.) Mary Lou had a list of items she wanted to buy and, of course, I wanted to explore. There was some interesting stock to examine; most of the items looked as if they had been stuck on the shelves for at least several years and had a good covering of dust. I found a light thingie beneath the packets of raisins and decided to buy it to see if it would help light up our kitchen better. it was beginning to rain when we emerged from the store, so we called Ray who came and rescued us. Once I got home, I immediately washed my grimy hands.

The rest of the day I tried to wind down from the morning’s excitement and wash our dark socks. For dinner, we had leftovers: eggplant stew and rice, kuku, zucchinis, and broccoli. There was still enough ice cream for some of that with fresh mangoes. Yummy!