Day 3: Tanzania (Usa River, Kilala)
Well, today was my first official day in Tanzania...and it was awesome!
We woke up early to get breakfast (French toast and fresh mango juice) from Mama at 7:00, and then Pastor Kleopa picked us up for church around 7:30. One astute observation I've made since last night? Tanzania is absolutely beautiful once you can actually see things in the daylight :P
So much of the land is untouched by industrialization that there is literally plant and animal life *everywhere*. It sounds like a white noise, sleep machine (crickets chirping all the time) and looks like...I don't even know since there's no place in America I can really compare it to. So, yeah, basically it's beautiful.
We got to the church, Michael suited up (robed up?), and we all entered the church as the entire congregation sang a hymn...a capella...in Swahili. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced. And the entire service was pretty much like that.
These people do not have a lot (understatement of the century). They don't have an elaborate church building with a great stereo system and screens or culturally relevant gimmicks. They have an old building (with windows and doors always open) that birds and bugs fly into and from which you can hear the orchestra of goats and roosters right outside. And still it was one of the most beautiful churches I've ever set foot in, definitely on par with the centuries old, gorgeous, English cathedrals we saw this summer.
To be in the midst of that congregation dancing and singing the same hymns, performing the same liturgy, and praising the same God, all in a completely different language was astounding. And, I'm not gonna lie, it had me tearing up a couple of times. (Aaaand no one is surprised :P)
So, the service went on, the Pastor read a couple of passages from the Bible, and then, surprise! It was time for me to get up and speak (even though we'd originally discussed that Michael would preach and *then* I would get up).
Giving my testimony felt great. I'm really glad I wrote it out in small sentences on my phone, cause there's no way I (or Rita, who was translating) would've survived if I'd just winged it.
It was so neat to see how my story affected the congregation. They empathized when I talked of my struggles, understood completely when I spoke of the peace of the Holy Spirit and sufficiency of Christ, and celebrated when I told them I was finally healed. At the end, Rita pulled me over and whispered, "It touched me." (Thanks a lot, Rita...as if I wasn't on the verge of crying already :P)
I've known for a while that God has used my disease for His own beautiful purposes and glory in more ways than one, but to see Him using my struggles to reach out to and touch the lives of these people 10,000 miles away from home was flooring.
After my testimony, Michael preached an excellent sermon on 2 Peter with Pastor Kleopa translating, the choir sang and danced some more, and the offering was received. Fun fact! They have two rounds of offering for two separate categories of church spending (I forget specifically what they were). As I said before, these people do not have a lot, but they give what they can. So if they have no money to tithe, they give something they do have (i.e. a chicken, some eggs, milk, fruit) which is then auctioned off at the end of the service. It's so cool!
So the service finished up with the entire congregation walking out in song and circling out in front of the church for a departing blessing and the auction of aforementioned offerings. I should mention at this point that during the service, there were two of the cutest little girls ever sitting in front of us. I, of course, kept making funny faces at them, which they would either return or laugh at.
Anyway, the two little girls came up to me while we were circled outside and took my hands. It was basically the cutest thing ever. They then proceeded to feel and examine my pasty, smooth skin and freckles/hair on my arms, hahah. It was adorable.
After the service ended, we joined Pastor Kleopa, Rita, a really nice man from the congregation named Paul, some other ladies from the congregation, and Dr. Rob and his operating nurse/friend, Nancy for tea in Pastor's office. This was followed by another service which following suit (robe?) as the first and then lunch (grilled goat...which I got to see...on the spit...with its head in tact...and a stick coming in through its mouth and out through its anus....yeah).
Before lunch, however, I got a great opportunity to talk with Paul (a teacher) about the education system here, which is essentially crap. Some problems similar to America (elitism in schooling/the inability to get far in life without going to certain schools) and some the complete opposite (we throw all our $$ at schools in hopes to change them and nothing improves, while they have no $$ for basic supplies such as books, desks, or even a paved floor to sit on--since they don't have desks--and suffer for it).
He told me one of the biggest problems is that students in public schools are taught entirely in Swahili (with little English lessons a couple hours a week) up until grade 7, at which point, they go to secondary school, which is taught entirely in English, so most of them fail and don't go much further in life since any well-paying job is going to require them to speak English. It's heartbreaking.
Anyway, Paul believes God has called him to bring about reform in the Tanzanian education system, and I truly pray that He has, because it needs all the help it can get.
Lunch time eventually came and went with us being served the giant goat carcass (complete with horns still on its head and grass in its mouth). As much as I hated looking at the goat, the whole process of us having the goat served to us--a gift only granted to honored guests--was pretty neat.
I also found out--while trying to chew down the goat meat--that apparently I'm teaching English for a couple of hours in the church's school tomorrow! I had mentioned to Pastor Kleopa on our first car ride to the guest house that I was studying to be an English teacher, that my parents were teachers, and that I'd maybe like to return someday to teach English here. He had said something about me teaching while I was here on this trip, to which I just laughed and said, "Maybe!" Well, apparently he took that as a yes, because I'm teaching my first class tomorrow!! I'm both excited and a little terrified and praying God will let these students learn at least a little English.
Moving on...after lunch, we drove to RiverTree's Resort (a mzungu location...mzungu is essentially the Swahili "gringo") to get some ice cream. The resort was absolutely beautiful, but definitely "mzungu" and not an accurate representation of Africa. Rather than the poverty that we drove through to get there, it was posh, clean, had a pizza oven, and was mainly inhabited by rich-looking white people. It reminded me of a Disney representation of what they thought Africa would look like (i.e. the Tiki Room).
We stayed there for a while, ordered the most mzungu of foods (vanilla ice cream), discussed/compared the political/socioeconomic environments in both Tanzania and America, and then headed back out for the guest house.
At that point, it was around 3:00PM, and I was pretty glazed over since it'd been so long since we had real sleep (only slept about 6hrs last night), so I fell asleep almost immediately when we got home.
I ended up napping for about 2.5 hours and wandered into the main house a little before 6...just in time for dinner (pumpkin soup and biscuits) :) After dinner, I had a nice long chat with the Bells, Dr. Rob, and Nancy for a couple hours until we all decided to call it a night.
Overall, it was a pretty great first day. I feel truly blessed to have experienced what I did and am excited to see how tomorrow goes!
Until then...
mjl.
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