So long, farewell...

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the Sound of Music reference. Sorry again if the song is now stuck in your head!

On Sunday, 14 December, Sarah and I went to our friend Andrew Russell’s sending service at his church, Chang’ombe. Andrew is a USPG missionary (www.uspg.org.uk) from England who’s been here in Tanzania for the last three years working for the Anglican Church of Tanzania as the Project Officer for the Tanzania Anglican Youth Organization (TAYO). We actually met Andrew on our very first full day in Dodoma and we’ve been happy to have him as a friend since then.

The morning actually started in a rather entertaining way. Andrew’s church is not the easiest place to find. Andrew had told me that he had to be shown how to get to the church about three times before he was actually able to find it on his own and I can definitely understand why! We arranged to meet Andrew on the side of the road and then follow him to the church building. The last text message I had from Andrew giving me directions to the meeting point ended with the words “look for my bright blue beetle.” It felt vaguely spy-movie-esque. Vaguely. Work with me here.

Callum and Laura agreed to drop Sarah and I off at Andrew’s church before they had to get to the Cathedral to lead the music for the English service. We made it to the meeting place and saw the blue beetle (VW) with no trouble. We could actually see the beetle from quite a distance away. We then proceeded to follow Andrew’s car through more twists and turns than I could have imagined and we were glad that we were following him and not trying to make it to church on our own. We might still be trying to find it. We finally arrived at Chang’ombe just as the service was starting and were ushered over to the church door by an elder of the congregation. Callum and Laura tried to get the Land Cruiser to start again so they could get to church but the vehicle didn’t want to cooperate. We were led into the church before they got the Cruiser started again, so we tried to listen for the motor from where we were sitting, which was, of course, the front of the church. We finally saw Callum and Laura driving away about 10 minutes or so after we arrived. They made it to the Cathedral, but were about 10 minutes late for the service. According to a friend who was at the service, Laura went straight up to the front of the church and led the congregation in the first song! That's dedication.

Meanwhile back at Chang’ombe, we enjoyed a service that felt very much like an Episcopal service back in the US with one obvious difference of course - it was in Swahili. (Ok, two obvious differences, there were multiple dancing choirs at this service as well.) Thankfully, I’d remembered to bring my Swahili prayer book and hymnal with me so I could follow along. I had to listen carefully, but I could actually understand enough Swahili that I could pick up on the readings for the day so I could follow along in my English Bible. Aside from Sarah and me, some of Andrew’s other friends came to the service as well: Josh, an American who works for the Mennonite Church, Andy, from Switzerland (I can’t remember where he works) and Lianne, our friend who works at the Dodoma Deaf School and lives at the same housing compound as Sarah. Bernard, Andrew’s successor at work, was also there. We were happy to see him again as we’d met him during his first week on the job several months ago. He was the official photographer for the day and also helped translate for us.

Andrew was the preacher for the day and spoke in Swahili for a good 20 minutes with no problem. I can only hope that I’ll be able to speak Swahili that well at some point. I manage about a minute and a half now if I speak slowly. I didn’t catch much of what Andrew said which was unfortunate as he used on of my favorite passages as the basis for his remarks (Philippians 4:4-9 in case you’re interested), but I could get a few words and phrases here and there. I was even able to understand one complete sentence at one point. It was an exciting moment! The most entertaining moment of the service came when we had to introduce ourselves. We were all sitting at the front of the church and literally just as Lianne stood up to introduce herself it started pouring outside. The church has an iron roof which is held up by wooden beams. There is no insulation or anything between the roof and the ground other than the beams and air, so, as you can imagine, it was a bit loud. Poor Lianne got all the way through her introduction only to be told that no one could hear her! She tried again with a microphone, but between the static from the microphone, the noise of the rain and her rather quiet voice, no one was able to hear her. The rest of us where just told to shout our introductions. That seemed to work.

After the service was over (it was about 2.5 hours long), we moved to a room in a building next to the church and sat with the priest and his family, Frederik, the former priest of Chang’ombe (who had introduced Andrew to the church) and his family, and some other members of the congregation. Frederik had me move across the room away from Sarah, Lianne, Josh and Andy to sit by Bernard so we could sort of mix things up and not have all of the visitors just sitting together. So, Bernard and I chatted about where he’s from, the Diocese of Mara, his work and living in Dodoma. We also chatted about Barack Obama and the United States. It turns out that Bernard’s home diocese is actually linked with Andrew’s diocese back in the UK. It’s a small world.

During the course of the hour or so we all spent sitting and chatting together, we were asked some questions about Barack Obama by several people. It was an interesting experience, as so far everyone here has been very excited about Obama’s election. That didn’t really seem to be the case here. Basically, several people wanted to know if we thought Obama would do a good job and if we thought we could trust him. The trust question was specifically related to press about Obama and his relationship with Muslims. It was a bit awkward, but our responses seemed to be good enough. We were told, though, that if Obama does a good job we can rejoice, but if he does not, it’s our fault for electing him. So there you go!

After we’d chatted for a bit and everyone drank a bottle of soda, we went back into the church for the second part of the send off. The church had been redecorated and a table set up at the front for Andrew, the two priests and their families to sit at. This second part of the send off was a bit less formal than the church service, though really still quite formal all things considered. There were more speeches and opportunities for people who hadn’t spoken at the service to talk. I should also mention that the send-off was also for Pastor Frederik and his family as he is now working or studying (I can’t remember which) at St. John’s University in Dodoma.
The church women had prepared lunch for everyone-no small feat as there were about 100 people there! One of the women had baked Andrew a heart-shaped cake which was presented to him before lunch and then cut up into small pieces so everyone could have some. After lunch was finished, it was picture time. I have no idea how many pictures were taken, but believe me, it was a lot.

Despite the fact that the day was a bit longer than we’d anticipated (we didn’t get home until almost 4pm), I really enjoyed going to the service. It’s always great to meet new people and visit new churches here in Dodoma. Everyone was very welcoming and told us we should come back. It was also really great to see the relationship that Andrew has built with the congregation at Chang’ombe. Everyone wanted to say goodbye to him with a handshake, a hug or a picture-often all three. He’ll obviously be missed!

While it was great to be a part of Andrew’s send-off, it was also sad. Andrew was one of the first people we met here in Dodoma and will soon be gone. We certainly didn’t see each other every day, but it was nice to run into each other around town and have lunch together occasionally. According to my mother, I haven't liked saying goodbye to people since I was little. Obviously, I haven’t grown out of that.

I’ll have to figure out a way to convince Sarah to stay…