All of the Singing

                   This weekend, Mikkel and I went to church with Lughano and Neema for the first time.  Saturday night, we asked Lughano what time church started and he said 9AM, but he also said we would leave at 9AM which made Mikkel and I a bit confused. He added that church would last a long time. Mikkel and I were dressed and ready to go at 9AM but Lughano and Neema were not ready to leave until 10AM – the concept of time is a bit different in Tanzania and if an event is actually going to start on time, people will specify “mzungu time” (“mzungu” is used to refer to a foreigner/traveler).  Anyways, we arrived to church an hour and a half late and walked in as a family to the stares of most of the church audience since Mikkel and I were the only white people in addition to the only people over 6’ tall in the entire congregation of roughly 200 people.  The first hour of church consisted of songs, some in Swahili and some in English, including “When the Saints go Marching in”.  The words were projected at the front of the church and there was a lot of vigorous clapping as well as passionate singing from the congregation for all of the songs.  Mikkel and I sang along for most of the songs and the mood was very celebratory.  Next, any guests to the church were asked to be introduced, so I introduced myself in front of the church in Swahili, saying that I was an American University student staying with Lughano and Neema studying in Usa River to work in hospitals next month.  The congregation clapped a lot for Mikkel and I and Lughano and Neema were both visibly proud that we had introduced ourselves in Swahili, which was a fun moment for the family.  After the introductions, the preacher came on to give the sermon in Swahili, which lasted 90 minutes and included lots of “amens” from the congregation.  We finished with a few songs and prayers before church ended around 1:30PM.  Had we arrived on time, the service would have been around 4.5 hours, which is actually fairly typical in Tanzania from what I have heard from fellow EWH program students who have gone to church with their host families.  After church, we went out as a family to an “African lunch” in Arusha of goat leg and potatoes.  The meal arrived as a huge pile of meat for the family and we all ate with our hands, per usual.  Lughano told us that they never take any of the meat/fat/gristle off of the leg before they cook it at Tanzanian restaurants like this one, so that when you get the food all of it is still there.  My years of eating Outback ribs certainly helped out for this lunch!  

                   After another delicious dinner made by Neema, Lughano, Mikkel and I walked to the bar so Lughano could play pool and meet some of his friends to hang out.  Mikkel and I have nicknamed this bar “Chicken Bar” since they sell kuku (chicken) by the kilogram.  On Sundays, there is live music at the bar, and the singer of the band asked if I would be up for singing at the karaoke, so I had my first bar karaoke experience singing “Jambo” in Swahili at the bar (lyrics - but with Tanzania not Kenya) – fortunately it’s a popular song so I had learned the lyrics in Swahili classes last week!  

I've been bad at taking pictures this week, so here's a picture from
the Indian Barbeque we went to for 4th of July in Arusha!