Church at Lugala

This post is a little different than most.  John Kvasnicka and I are not with the group.  They are at Ruaha after a night in Tungamalenga where they stayed overnight then attended church this morning.  If they were fortunate, they got to go out to a Maasai village. It has been extremely wet, wetter that any previous January that I remember, which potentially creates famine conditions if the crops are drowned and cannot be replanted.  There is also a high potential for more than usual malaria cases due to standing water.  This circumstance meant they could not take the coaster bus to Ruaha, so they went in two 4x4 vehicles, which could allow travel to the village (fingers crossed for them).  This morning after church at Tungamalenga, the group traveled to Ruaha National Park.  They met Anne Joseph and Phil McGlave who arrived by light plane at Msembe/Ruaha airstrip in the morning.  They should all have enjoyed a great afternoon game drive. In the morning, the group will say farewell to Randy and Kari Hurley who are heading out from the airstrip and on their way home. We will let them tell more as the days unfold rather than my assumptions.

Lugala church

Pastor Gary Langness arrived this morning at the Cathedral to preach only to find he was not on the schedule.  We were all going to listen to him.  Birdie and I are more small church people, at least smaller than the Cathedral, so we did not mind.  We have an Mzungu historian with us in Iringa who is currently teaching at University of Iringa.  He is fluent in Kiswahili and was planning on worshipping at Lugala with a friend, not too far from Iringa and in a very rural area.  Did we want to go there instead?  Sure!

I am guessing you can read another account here: www.mzungucarol.tumblr.com . It was Paul Bjerk, the historian, me, Birdie, John, Carol and Gary and then we picked up Johanna to go out to Lugala.  Once we turned of the paved road, it was an off-road adventure.  Johanna called his friend Philemon at Lugala to warn him there would be more guests than himself and “Paulo.”  The service was to start at 10 AM.  We were about 50 minutes early. Eventually people trickled in and the service started about 10:40 AM.  People continued to trickle in throughout most of the service.  The congregation is about 150 people and perhaps 75 were in attendance.

Inside before service

There was a lot of music.  Since there was no electricity at Lugala, it was a capella with drums accompaniment.  We all loved it!

I am not quite sure how this works, but there were two sermons.  To quote Pastor Langness, the FIRST one was really excellent.  I don’t remember precisely how long the service was.  I think it was nearly 1 PM.  There was time for two collections.  I thought there was to be a third, but if there was I missed it.

We were invited to Philemon’s house for lunch, soda, rice and chicken prepared by Philemon’s beautiful wife, Rhoda.  Yummy!  I am guessing at Rhoda.  Between the rolled R sounds and indistinct L sounds, I cannot be sure.

We visited for a while then took pictures of Rhoda, Philemon and their 4 children.  To get to the house, we had to tramp along a narrow path about a quarter mile, not too easy for Birdie suffering from her hip arthritis.  We tramped back, observing Philemon’s lush fields.  He has cattle for their free fertilizer and the cows also provide milk.  The whole area is beautiful.  There are small mountains on both sides of the valley. As we drove back to the pavement, we passed through the village.  Historian – anthropologist Paul noted the difference in the social environment between the even more rural Lugala and this village.  We all enjoyed the entire trip, arriving home about 3:30 PM.  That is how going to church in rural Tanzania is!

Philemon's Family

John and I head back to Ilula in the morning.  The Ruaha folk will arrive Tuesday evening.  I expect we will head into Iringa for Saturday R&R and I assume we will be regaled by safari stories when the troops return.