The first Sunday Laura and I took a duladula ride to the Arusha Christ Church Anglican Cathedral. It is a splendid church with even a pipe organ!
The service we attended at 11am was mainly in English. There was lots of hymn singing (although I suspect my father would have preferred the organist to go a little more quickly!)
Pipe organ at front leftPainting of the cathedral inside the church itself
The second Sunday I was staying at Usa River so I went with Helen, Mary and Ian to a Lutheran church in Usa River township.They have 5 services on a Sunday morning. The English speaking service is at 7am. There is no generator so the church was lit by candles. (Electricity supply is a worsening problem in Tanzania). There were no instruments, so singing was started by the "choir" (Helen and Ian) singing the first line of the hymn.
That Sunday was Youth Sunday so a choir from a local school sang Lord I Lift Your Name on High. The preacher was a young teacher from St Jude's (Nicholas) who is Tanzanian by birth but was raised in Australia. He did very well especially as he was able to translate some of the more difficult concepts like "covenant" into Kiswahili.
This church I attended is one of the five Lutheran churches in Usa River
The kids from the local school who sang on the morning
After the service, we were treated to breakfast by one of the local church elders at a nearby cafe. We ate what looked and tasted exactly like potato soup (served with a chapati) but was in fact made from green bananas. I was told there was a "surprise" at the bottom of the bowl which turned out to be a knuckle with a little bit of meat on it. I tried to look surprised and pleased!
