Iringa Hope visits 2013: Sunday at Ihemi

We met many old friends – after all we have been coming here for 12 years now. First we had tea. As we talked and drank coffee (well, Tom drank coffee, everyone else had tea with milk) the congregation gathered. Soon it was 10:45 and we were still chatting – church should have started 45 minutes ago. No problem pastor Askali told us – everyone is happy to wait.

We went over to church – it was packed. Pastor Askali told me that they had told everyone on Wednesday that we were coming and had moved in more pews because they knew it would be full. We all had to say an introduction. First the Ihemi Pastor extended a greeting; then the district Pastor, followed by Brown and his wife. We were last and it was heartwarming to hear the applause, ululating, and shouts of “Amen”. We feel very at-home here.

When the service started there was a lot of singing and dancing, followed by announcements (just like the old town meetings) and a 50 minute sermon by their guest preacher. There were two offerings today – one for the church and one for communion (some days there are three or more). One old man danced his way up to the offering basket because, as he told later, offering is a gift and it is customary in his culture to dance when presenting a gift. The three-hour service closed with communion and the congregation danced its way out of the church to the sound of the choir out in the courtyard.

Today as most Sundays there is an after-church auction. Many of the members bring their crops and livestock (chickens) instead of cash. These are then auctioned off after church in the courtyard. When the first chicken came up for auction Immanuel Kingazi (the secretary of the IHESA SACCOS) bid “4,000 Tsc for Tom.” Not knowing what to do with a chicken, Tom bid 5,000 Tsc for the pastor. Immanuel raised the bid to 6,000 for Tom (about $4). The bidding was closed when Tom raised the bid to 10,000 and everyone got a good laugh (the chicken is worth about 4,000 in town).

When the auction was over we had dinner at the pastor’s house and it was 3:30 when we headed back to town. While we ate the SACCOS treasurer came over with some information for us. They had checked their records and found that the Ihemi SACCOS benefits 898 people – with close to 400 children going to school from their profits (they estimated that this is 200 more than would have gone otherwise) – amazing! They also checked their records and found that their offerings have increased by 200%. While not all of this is due to the SACCOS, they believe that most of it is.

We had one more stop to make before we could be on our way. Aloyce told us that his wife had a little gift for us so we made a stop at his house. When we got there Mama disappeared shortly after welcoming us. We heard the squawking of a distraught hen just before Mama reappeared with a bag containing our gift. We thanked them for our chicken and headed back to Iringa.

A poorly functioning gas tank indicator made our trip back to town a little more interesting, as we ran out of gas about five miles from home. One wonderful thing about Tanzania is the helpfulness of the people we meet. Brown and Tom went walking for gas, met a couple of young men who had a car and were very willing to come to our rescue. 45 minutes later we rolled into Iringa Town.