Day 10 – Church and an Orphanage.

                I started my day late by sleeping in until 8:30. Today we have church at a nearby congregation at 10:00 so I wanted to get a little done before then. Church was certainly a new experience. The service was in Swahili so I wasn’t able to understand most of it but they did have us mzungus introduce ourselves to everyone. I am proud to say that I was able to stand up and greet everyone, tell them who I was, why I was there, and where I was from entirely in Swahili. They all applauded and then continued with the service.

                I had no idea at the get go that the service was going to last an entire TWO AND A HALF HOURS! There was frequent singing and dancing from the church choir. They perform to a track that is a little annoying since it’s so loud and has voices on it but the dancing certainly had a Mwanza flavor. Men and women from ages 6 to 50 were a part of the choir and they sang and danced to songs in excess of 15 minutes. I wanted to get up there and sing and dance with them since it was basically the closest thing I was going to see to a show choir while in Africa. I think I’ll ask tomorrow if I can do a couple of songs with them next weekend. The best part of the singing and dancing was when the power went out. The city generally tries to keep the power on until most services are over but since this was a later service it was cut off, right in the middle of the song. The whole choir just kept on singing and dancing as if nothing had happened and it was some of the most pleasant singing I have witnessed. On boy, who is probably the most talented in the bunch kept a completely peaceful expression on his face throughout the entire service. The choir would get up and sing four separate times throughout the service.

                I could understand very little of the service but you could tell the minister was talented. I felt like the guy in The King’s Speech when the main character watches Hitler on TV and his son asks what the man (Hitler) is saying. The main character responds with, “I don’t know, but he seems to be saying it rather well.” There was a lot of passion behind the sermon and it was complimented by the crowing of roosters every few minutes. This was the first time I had worshiped with a rooster. It was also the first time to ever accidentally turn around to see a woman breast feeding in the row behind me. Good ol’ cultural differences! They take offerings three different times throughout the service and when an offering is taken everyone files down the center line to place their contributions, kind of like we do during communion. I liked the way they did the offering.

                After the service I was surprised to find out that the roosters in the church were actually offerings, along with fruit and a pumpkin, that were to be auctioned off outside the church. The minister gave the benediction and the choir led the congregation in song out the back door into a circle where one of the older boys proceeded to auction off the offerings. When we were dismissed we were immediately greeted by almost everyone there. They came up to shake our hands and saying, “karibu” which means welcome. The people here might even be friendlier than those in Kansas. Everyone seems delighted to meet us and is curious to know if we like being in Tanzania. And of course, we do.

                We got home just in time for the skies to open up and begin to pour. It is extremely late in the year for the kind of rain they have been getting but it only lasted an hour and after a quick lunch we were off to our friend Carly’s orphanage to play with the kids.

                The orphanage was a lot more impactful than I thought it would be. At first the kids were very shy but then slowly they warmed up and wanted to read. I saw a boy named Joseph reading by himself across the room so I decided to go over and sit with him. These children are fairly young and are outstanding readers for being 2^nd graders. Joseph was particularly talented but it was difficult for him to pronounce English words. You can see a picture of him to the right. I read with Joseph for a while and taught him what a long “I” sounds like, how a “c” can make an “s” sound, and helped him learn to pronounce “h’s.” I tried to challenge him a lot. When he would graze over a word we would stop and sound it out until we reached a pronunciation that we were both okay with. I can now better see why so many people want to be teachers. Joseph was a great learner and would smile from ear to ear when he would catch himself about to repeat a mistake he had made before and would then say a word such as “Alice” perfectly.

                Of course you can’t keep a child inside all day so when we finished our book it was soccer time. Wow I’m out of shape! When you combine being in college for four years with high altitude you get a prime mixture for a sweaty, winded Kyle. When our goalie had to take a break I stepped in and was shown by a couple Tanzanian boys how much better they are at sports than me. We then said goodbyes and took pictures before making the 30 minute walk back home.

                I have never enjoyed walking by complete strangers so much in my life! Every time we turn a corner there is another group of kids that call out to us, “Mzungu!” Some have learned a little English and ask us how our day is going. They really like to be chased and the whole village will watch and laugh as the children giggle and run.

                Tonight is the last night in town for three more medical students. They are a lot of fun and we all went downtown to the New Mwanza Hotel tonight for a nice dinner. The 15 minute cab ride only costs us $6 split between 4 people. Not a bad deal. The hotel restaurant has Indian and seafood. Most of the people got Indian but anyone who has eaten out with me knows that I’m not that adventurous. Instead I had the poached tilapia. It was some of the best fish I have ever eaten. I had to do a little guess in check to figure out how to eat it since it was served as an entire fish with the head still attached. I had a full plate of tilapia, rice, and vegetables, a side of French fries, and 7 different drinks for 16,000 TSH or about $12 after tip. This place just keeps getting better!

                I have to get to sleep now though since tomorrow is Monday and it is time to get back to work on my assignment. I also was given the task to make a charcoal grill over the next week for a 4^th of July celebration. I’ll let you know how that goes.