Surprise Sunday

Sunday, March 10, 2019

We were looking forward to a very ordinary Sunday, with church in the morning and lunch at a nice restaurant. Church seemed fairly normal, the usual singing, prayers, and announcements. The sermon was given by a young African-American Lutheran minister, who is based in South Africa working on a program to bring young adults from America to live and learn during a year in an African environment. Parts of his sermon sounded good to me, but at the end, I wasn’t at all sure what he had said. Still the flowers were lovely, and I was eager to see my homies and others.

Sunday's flowers

Some of my homies in an after service gathering.

 So, I was totally taken aback when Mrs. Olson—who I later found out is really Mrs. Oredsson— came up to me and said how wonderful it was that I was coming to her house for the afternoon. The dinner was all prepared and the women were excited to meet me. Indeed we had spoken about me visiting her on a Sunday, but the date was to be March 17, not the 10th. I even had the notebook in which she had written her name, phone number, and date, March 17. Poor Mrs. Oredsson. She was stricken! She had mixed up her dates and had something big planned that I absolutely had to attend. So, I found John, told him what had happened, and when he said of course I needed to go, I went back to Mrs. Oredsson and said I was ready. I asked MaryLou if she also wanted to come, but since she wasn’t sure what was going to happen and thought it was perhaps a women’s prayer group, she declined the invitation.

So, I left John and MaryLou, who were going to go to a Chinese restaurant with Sharon and Terry, and followed Mrs. Oredsson—call her Penina—to a big Land Roverish vehicle, and sat in front with the driver, while Penina, her 10-year-old daughter, and a young Masai woman named Monica sat in the back seats. A Swedish young man named Philip, who is motorbiking around Africa, followed us on his motorcycle. First, we went straight to Shoppers, where I was horrified to see a new Pizza Hut being built. This is the first American franchise I have ever seen in Arusha. Penina and the others went in to the store to buy bottled water.

American franchise pollution

From Shoppers, we drove clear across town and out to the highway which goes right past Kundayo, out to the airport and on to Usa River. Somewhere along the way, we stopped so Philip could store his bike at a pentecostal church and continue on in the vehicle with us. Philip was worried about being stopped by police when he had lost both his driver’s license and his license plate. Once the motorcycle was safely stored, we all continued on to Usa River and beyond. When we turned off the highway, I really started wondering what was ahead. The countryside was very barren with no planted fields or gardens. Only a few goats and donkeys were out.

A very barren landscape

Then, in the middle of this wasteland a compound with the usual elaborate gate appeared, and we were at our destination. As the vehicle pulled through the gate, there was loud ululation and whistle blowing from a group of women who had already gathered to greet us.  We were ushered into a typical upperclass African house with enormous overstuffed furniture in the living room area. There were several young kittens lounging on the sofas, and one in particular caught my eye. I would have loved to have taken it back to Kundayo with me.

Me with Penina and Monica

I really wanted to take this kitty back to Kundayo with me.

 After a few minutes, we were called outside and the Meru women began to sing and dance for me. Almost all wore shukas, and some fastened noise makers to their legs, or wore Masai necklaces. The most surprising accessories were two Colobus monkey hair headpieces. There were also several beaded rods which were passed around between dances. Although there was one primary lead singer, at times other women also would lead some songs. It was interesting to me how much they were enjoying themselves. They smiled a lot, which isn’t what I usually see Masai/Meru women do.

First dancing

Before long, Penina called me and the two young people to a nicely set table on her front terrace and served us a very generous meal of rice, stewed chicken, beef stew, and mixed steamed vegetables, with mixed fruit for dessert. The big surprise for me was a small dish of guacamole beside my plate. Penina said she knew Americans liked it. I was touched.

Check out the kitten in the right bottom corner.

Philip, Monica, and Penina

After we ate, we were taken to where the women were meeting under a tent top. By this point there were perhaps 30 to 40 women there. I was seated on a sofa, and the women began to sing and dance again. At first almost all the dancers were older adult women, but gradually, some younger women also joined in. After perhaps 30 minutes, Penina called a halt to the dancing. She lead Philip, Monica, and me up to her “hide-away” where there was coffee, tea, and cookies for us to enjoy, while the women had a meeting.

More dancing under the tent

Perhaps the oldest woman present

This dancer, who is quite elderly, sat by me for much of the dancing.

I already knew that these women were a group of widows who were meeting to form some sort of support structure or cooperative to help themselves economically. Often widows here have few if any rights, and as they age, they become isolated and very needy. Some don’t even have a secure food supply. So, since the first of this year, Penina has been helping these women to meet together on Sunday afternoons, for singing and dancing, and enjoying a meal together. They were all served the same meal that I had enjoyed earlier—without the guacamole though.  Then, they had a kind of brainstorming meeting to discuss what they could do together. Currently, they are considering raising money to buy a tent like the one they were under for their meeting and then renting it out for parties and family festivities. The initial investment seems high to me (nearly $2000) but the income would be good and steady.

Having a meeting under the tent

Penina's upper room

Up in the loft

Those of us up in the hide-away suddenly noticed it was almost 5:00, and we would need to start back to Arusha if we were to make it before dark. So, we walked down the 12 steps (symbolic?), and found that the women were having a closing prayer. Penina called for the vehicle; we posed for a group photo; and within a few minutes we were bouncing out to the highway and back toward Arusha. Once again, we had to stop at the pentecostal church so Philip could retrieve his motorcycle, but this was quickly done. The traffic seemed much lighter, too, so just after 6:00, we pulled into Kundayo. I thanked Penina for her very gracious hospitality and rushed into our apartment to prepare for our usual Sunday video chat with Peri.

The final group photo

Crystal wasn’t ready for our call because she hadn’t realized that Daylight Savings Time had arrived during her night. So, we waited a bit longer while she corralled Peri and got her seated in front of the computer. Peri seemed far more interested in eating her cheese toast and drinking apple juice than she did in talking to us, but we always love seeing her no matter what she does. This time, she was the one who told us good-bye, and that was that. In only two weeks, we see her and give her real hugs.