Glimpses of Africa 3 United in Christ

United in Christ.
Church and Sundays go hand in hand for the half of the population of Tanzania that are Christian. Its what you do! From the small Corps in the tin shed at Kipunguni to the large Moravian church the has 2 congregations of over 300 on a Sunday morning or the AOG style church with its keyboard, guitar and singers whose African service is translated from English into Swahili, there is joy and sincerity in their worship. We have worshipped in 5 different congregations since arriving in Tanzania – 3 Salvation Army, 1 Moravian, and 1 AOG style. Each has accommodated us as English speakers with a translation of some form.
In Mbeya you walk, catch a crowded bus (daladala) or if you are one of the privileged few - drive to church. It seems like Sunday mornings is one of the busiest times to be out. (Mbeya doesn’t have many Moslems even though half of Tanzania’s population is Moslem.)
Singing, (including a number of choirs per service), with beautiful harmony, perhaps with a choir leader and a drummer, have featured in most of the worship we have enjoyed. Some of the singing, especially at the Moravian church, included old hymns sung in Swahili and in the Winners Church (AOG), they sang one chorus, (He is a Mighty God), in English. The choirs on a number of occasions danced from their seats to the front where they sang as they moved together to the music.
Tanzanian preachers are animated, and if amplified, can be quite loud. The expectation is for long sermons and longer services than we are used to. Last week we had a 3 ½ hour service, the longest we have experienced here. The first hour was just music – probably partially to give people time to arrive. There are no bus timetables here. The bus runs when it is full. People walk varying distance to get to their church. As with us they may pass near a number of other churches before they get to their’s. And there area an abundance of churches of all sizes and varieties here in Mbeya. A walk around our small block takes you past 4 plus a mosque. And there are many more nearby.
Prayer is alive and vibrant in these churches. A number of times in the service, and this was across denominations, everyone would pray fervently at the same time. This was for a number of reasons I guess, but I noticed that when praying for others this was often the case. Each would pray their own prayer, and a loud muddle of words but clear and sincere requests, no doubt, would be wafting up to God at these times. Life is fragile here. Daily food is not guaranteed. Worship and thankful praise are part of life.

The Retail Fix !

The retail fix.

We've just been for a walk to the market a block and a half away. We buy 4 carrots at 100 Tanzanian Shillings each, (about 10c ea), from a seller we haven't bought from before. Luckily between us we are able to communicate with a little English, a little Swahili and some sign language. As we wander we smile at those who catch our eye. Ladies adorn the edges of the unsealed road with their square metre or two of space to try and sell a few vegetables to those who pass by. We pass many but will we buy peas and from whom? Eventually we are lured by the seller of some fresher looking peas. 100 shillings for enough for the 2 of us for tea. She has made a sale. We try to communicate. They laugh, we laugh as we enjoy the transaction. Not often that you make a sale to a mzungu (white person). Now to find the children selling fried cakes of dough that vaguely resemble donuts. 100 shillings each. I buy from one of the girls and Graham from another. We say, "Asante sana" (thankyou very much) as we walk off with our donuts which have been hygienically placed in pieces of newspaper with a fork. We also need tomatoes. Our favourite saleswoman has provided us with good quality tomatoes often and so we visit her again. Her friends laugh as we try to communicate. Knowing that her tomatoes are 200 shillings for 4. We make our usual purchase and thank her, "Asante sana". As we wander the short distance back to Shukrani some schoolboys greet us. They are standard 7, ( year 7 primary school). We converse briefly with them in English and wonder whether we will be their topic for show and tell tomorrow. We wander the remaining distance along the potholed road. Chooks scratch around in the rubbish on the corner, bikes and people share the road unless a car or the occasional truck wants to get through. Another successful visit to the market.

A Trip to the mountains - an hour and a half away.

A drive in the country.

The major highway is sealed and busy. Busy because it not only services cars, 4WD vehicles, trucks and buses but motorbikes or scooter, bicycles, lots of pedestrians, and handcarts. The horn can be a useful accessory for your vehicle here. Along the side of the highway crops of maize, beans, tomatoes, potatoes etc are growing in unfenced plots and in some cases being harvested.
As we leave the main highway we leave the sealed roads. Luckily it isn't the rainy season or some of the roads, which today the 4WD navigates, would have been the topic of fervent prayer. The two bridges on our route are only recent additions and stories are told of hours spent stuck in mud, of water invading the passenger section of the vehicle, of women praying as the driver passed through the waters. (The promise of 'the Lord our God to be with us' comes to mind here) We pass through farming areas observing the mud brick houses that are well laid out and tidy with brush or corrugated iron rooves and crops in neat rows. Individual or small groups of cows, goats, sheep, and chickens are all part of the scenery. We notice some different crops, coffee and pyrethrum. The white daisy like flowers of pyrethrum being harvested nearby.
Occasionally we pass through a town with its more dense collections of houses, small dukas (shops), and increased pedestrian and animal traffic. The women, always in traditional dress, are often carrying something. (Women carry the wood, the water, the groceries, the clothes....men, well they push wheelbarrows or carts sometimes). The men are in trousers and shirts. The many children are watching all that is happening, its unclear who they belong to unless they are babies (mtoto) on their mother's backs. Utes, trucks and 4WDs are often loaded up with passengers. Our own vehicle, a 4WD ute, had about an extra 12 passengers in the back as we headed back to Mbeya after our day out, the sky darkening as the sun went down.