On Wednesday I and a fellow volunteers attended a birthday celebration of a Tanzanian woman who has recently completed 100 years. It was quite a celebration. We started with a mass attended by 21 priests, 20 or so nuns, a large choir and about 200 guests. Fortunately the mass was held outside so we didn't have to kneel a lot,but there considerable bouts of standing and sitting. The choir was wonderful, very gay and rhythmic and the women's trilling added a special flavor to the service. We were lucky to have been invited by and insider so after the ceremony we were joined the family inside to sit and celebrate with Mama Yetu Maria (the centenarian) and her family and all the priests and nuns. There was incredible amounts of incredible food and lots of beer and hard liquor that everyone enjoyed. It was great fun to see nuns drinking St. Martin and beer and Mama Maria had two large Kilimanjaro's(a local beer) herself. There was singing inside and lots of rituals (sharing of meat and drinks, gift giving, grandchildren presenting dances). We were there for seven hours and it seemed like a few minutes.
The party was in a district near ours, a few kilometers up the mountain so it was lush and cool. A very lovely day. Tomorrow is the grand graduation ceremony at St,. Theresia's. Nick and I will be giving short speeches in Swahili and we have bought geometry sets for all the graduates (most hope to continue to their A level studies after they take entrance exams in October.) It will be, we are told, and all day affair with more than 300 family and friends attending. We watched students rehearsing songs and dances this afternoon, and it looks like it is going to be a fabulous affair. More on that to come.
Hope you all are doing well.
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