I am still enjoying life in Mwanza but I
have to have the timing right to update you on the internet to fit around bad
internet connections and no electricity.
It sounds like they happen a lot but actually they just happen in the
evening when I am not at school….. So inconvenient!
I have just got back from church so I
thought I would give you a little insight into what it is like.
Although it is easier to get up early
here as the sunshine streaming through the curtains wakes you, getting up for
church that starts at 8am is still a bit of a shock on Sunday mornings. The
other option is to go to the 10am Kiswahili service but even though I have
started learning Swahili
I think understanding 1 in about 100 words would be hard work.
Kirumba Valley Christian Centre Church is about
a 10 minute walk from my flat on the other side of the market where we do our
shopping. It is always an interesting walk we lots of weird and wonderful
sights and smells to pass on the way.
The Church services are held in a big
warehouse type building which is normally full of about 300 people by the end
of the service (Half the congregation work on African time!). The worship is
lead by a 20 strong African
choir singing out beautiful harmonies. The songs are mostly British
worship songs but in their own style. Oh
Lord my God, How Great is our God and Majesty in full on African Gospel style
makes pretty powerful worship. One of our favourite songs is ‘Awesome’. Here is
a link to a church in America singing it just to give you an idea of the style.
The swaying, passion and sound is the same but imagine a choir a quarter of the
size and a few mosquitos buzzing around to get the true experience of church in
Mwanza.
The Pastor is very passionate but luckily
doesn’t talk for the typical hours and hours like in most of the churches here.
You have to be very ‘unbritish’
when every 5 minutes he asks you to repeat a question to your neighbour or
shouts Hello! For you to say back to
check you are still listening! As I am one of about 8 white people at the
church we kind of stand
out so we are made to feel very welcome with lots of hand shaking and cups of
delicious Tanzanian
sweet tea! Here is a link to a Blog that someone from the Church has set up so
you can have a look at what it looks like and what they do. The photographs
must be fairly old as they now have flashing fairy lights behind the stage and
a proper screen for the words!
As I have started having Swahili lessons
I better practice by saying…….
Kwaheri! Niwasiliane!
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