Sunday, January 30, 2011
Lat night Amy, Kelsey and I had a great time with the Fultzes and the Langnesses, talking smart and laughing a lot. Following some wine or beer and popcorn, we had dinner where Gary and Carol lived a half-dozen years when in Iringa. They sold it and now it is a small guesthouse and a big, great restaurant. Oh it’s nice to be on vacation!
This morning, I went to the Lutheran Cathedral church in what to me is downtown Iringa. But then, I consider Tumaini in the ‘burbs. When I got back, Kelsey asked me, “How was church?” “I don’t know. It was in another language.” Well, I did figure out when the offering was occurring, at least the first time. I also did OK with communion, recognizable in many languages, I am quite sure. Here is another problem with my Swahili. Even when I have the correct words, they are virtually incomprehensible to the Tanzanian on the street, even when I say the words louder. These people are so polite, they rarely smirk at me.
The church is very beautiful, not exactly in a St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome way, but definitely compared with the several rural churches I have been. Interestingly, though the Cathedral choirs were good, the rural churches have no equal! They are enthusiastic, in tune and have their music memorized. I certainly do not wish to take anything away from the big church. Consider this an endorsement of the rural churches.
We went to Isimila this morning – church was 7 – 9 AM, so we went around 10. It is just as astounding this time as the first two. The massive spires are yellows, reds and rusty oranges. There are stone-age tools, knives, scrapers, spear heads, chisels, hammer stones and round rocks for slinging that were fashioned 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. The University of Chicago had a team out here in 1957 or so. Ah yes, I remember it well. It is definitely on the list of must-sees, unless you are over 80 years old or fossilized. There are some parts of the trek that are a bit treacherous. No untoward events befell us, however.
Coming back from Isimila through the Iringa suburb of Ipogoro, the escarpment is obvious. This reminded me that I should say something about the road up the escarpment. They were working on it in 2008 when we were here. It is now complete. It is a great new road. The trucks, cars and pedestrians aren’t any different, however. They are where Steve Martin got the idea for “wild and crazy guys,” I’m pretty sure. We had a good cab driver, “Jay 4.” There’s a reason for his name, but I cannot remember it.
We got the fixings for guacamole, so we are going to invite ourselves over to D&E’s for happy hour. Hasty Tasty ran out of chapatis, so we are chipless. We will improvise.
It is back to Ilula tomorrow and work. It will be good after this little respite.
Ken
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