Sunday in the Village

I wish I could take my camera to church so I could record the singing I heard this morning. It was absolutely beautiful. We went to church with the children around 9 in an empty classroom that they transformed into a place to worship with benches and tables. The kids led practically the entire service. They would take turns leading songs up front, and every single child sang and danced and clapped their hands for half an hour. Tiny little 7 year olds with their hands clasped and eyes shut tight sat still better than I did! Mama Jane preached about Isaiah 43 in English for us and one of the older girls translated into Swahili for the children.

 Once their service was finished around 10:30, I walked into the village with Mama Jane to go to another church that had apparently started earlier but wouldn’t be finished until 1. By walked I really mean hiked... it has been raining for the past 48 hours and the streets are rivers of mud. There is only one road here, so when you walk out of the City of Hope compound you have limited choices: left or right. The road is the main hub of activity for the village and is always packed with villagers milling around, children playing in the dirt front yards of houses on either side, various cows, goats, sheep, and chickens running all over, or women selling fruit. Today we veered onto a side path off the road that I hadn’t noticed before. Since bushwhacking through the Tanzanian village countryside isn’t exactly the best thing to do by yourself, none of us had strayed from the main road before. Luckily I had Mama Jane to lead the way so I waded through a river of mud for about 20 minutes in my long dress! The views were incredible. I was able to see Ntagacha from a different angle, and see many more village houses that are tucked back away from the road. I could see the church in a valley up ahead, and could hear the pastor the entire way there.  Once we arrived Mama Jane kindly kept up a running translation of the sermon for me. I have never seen such an enthusiastic pastor. He was jumping and yelling and never took a breath for about 40 minutes. And we were an hour late! I didn’t catch what the scripture was, but from what Mama Jane told me he was discussing how to be rich spiritually, and how to not run from your troubles but to have faith in where God has placed you and to trust in Him. Applicable to the City of Hope organization in many ways- these children are proud to be Tanzanian and they want to make the lives of others around them better. One little boy said he wanted to be the President of Tanzania so he could eliminate child poverty here. Another little girl wants to be a nurse. I am amazed by their grateful spirits, faithfulness, and their willingness to give. 

After the sermon the church suddenly erupted into song and dance. People started filling the aisles, little boys were break-dancing at the front, and I ended up in a circle of little girls from the village. The children at City of Hope are used to volunteers coming in and out, but the other village children are not used to interacting with visitors quite as much. As soon as the songs stopped I sat down with the children in the front of the church and they crowded around me and starting playing with my hair, examining each of my fingernails, and touching my dress, sweater, bracelets and necklace. They didn’t speak any English, but I was able to figure out that one little girl was named “Nice!” By the time the service ended around 1 it was pouring rain- I ended up just taking my shoes off and wading through the mud to get back to City of Hope. Needless to say I definitely needed a good old bucket shower tonight! We fixed a big Sunday meal this afternoon and spent the rest of the day teaching the kids games and trying to learn how to dance like they do- it’s still a work in progress.