Church at our Sister Congregation in Ihemi

11-15-15
We woke up in Ihemi and our plan today is to attend church, then leave to drive to Tungamalanga, where we would sleep before heading to Ruaha Nat'l Park early Monday morning.
The first thing we did was to visit Mama Membe for a few minutes.  She wanted us to come to her house, so we saw where she lived.  A few of the homes we visited here were more like small compounds.  There is a gate that you walk through into an open courtyard where there are buildings on all sides.  In the center of the courtyard would be a pile of wood, or a chicken coop, or a grain storage dome.  Maybe a pig would be kept in one of the buildings, there might be a kitchen in another, a choo or toilet (if you're lucky) in a third, and sleeping quarters beyond what's in the main house.  At Mama Membe's, we were not invited into any of the buildings, so perhaps the center courtyard is used as a meeting place sometimes - especially if we only were there to say "hi" quick before breakfast and church.

Bo giving his sermon

We went to have breakfast of fried breads like doughnuts, regular bread, hard-boiled eggs, and water.  The eggs were smaller than the ones I get at home, but they were some of the best I've ever tasted, but maybe that's also because I haven't had a lot of salt, and the salted eggs were very yummy to me.
After breakfast we went to church.  There is one service at 10am, and it was a short service – just under 2½ hours – which included Bo giving the sermon, introductions of course, and two offerings.
Naturally, I choked up at the introduction part.  I've been feeling all weekend very close to these people, and they didn't discourage me, as Pastor Kiwanga told me the night before that since we came to visit, we are now family.
 We gave jimbas (hoes) during the offering, and after the service they gave us each scarves. We then gave gifts to Pastor Annette, District Pastor Kiwanga, and the church. There was an auction after the service of eggs and peas, I think, and after that, we gathered children and gave out candy. We ate lunch at the district house, had a short follow-up meeting between the congregations again to discuss their future needs regarding scholarships, and were on the road again at 2pm.

We drove Pastor Msigwa home and took a short tour of it and met his young daughter. We stopped at Bo & Juli's apartment quickly to change out luggage for our safari. The drive to Tungamalinga was a few hours long over very rutted roads. There was the occasional Masai walking on the road, but other than that it was pretty desolate. We got to the lodge just as it started to rain. The rain was very nice as it cooled the air a good bit. We sat and visited for a couple hours before supper, which was a buffet made just for us. It was a very nice lodge, I thought.

Our gifts

Giving the resurrection butterfly to the church

Giving Pastor Annette her gift