Celebration and Sheep
One of the interesting and good things about being here in Tanzania is that we are not reminded about Christmas and how many shopping days left until at every turn. I have not seen any Christmas decorations in Kasulu at all. Apparently they don’t get them out until Christmas Eve. Even in Dar as Salam we saw very few Christmas decorations.
Today we went to a confirmation celebration in Msagara Parish, which is very close to the Burundi boarder (time to get out your atlases and see exactly where we have been traveling). The drive took us about 90 minutes and we passed through some beautiful country, a number of villages and farms. There where many banana “trees” (banana plants are not truly trees) with corn plants, and in the higher elevations, coffee plants growing in their shade. The Tanzanians are good at mixed crop farming.
We were greeted by Bishop Makaya on our arrival and led into breakfast. “Second Breakfast” in our case, as Mama Askofu (Mama Bishop) had already fed us breakfast at her house before we all set out. After breakfast, the priests put on their robes and everybody went over to where a new house was being built to house the district director to dedicate the foundation stone. The major celebration of the day was confirmation of a very large confirmation class and the installation of the new district director. 
There were four choirs – a Youth choir from Burundi, a Mother’s choir and two other Tanzanian youth choirs. Each choir sang (and danced) a song welcoming the Bishop to start the service. There were lessons read, Bill and I sang two different times, and included choruses that the congregation joined in with us. Bishop Makaya preached and then confirmed about 60 folks, most of them young, but a few of them quite old.
Following the confirmation, the new district director was installed. The district director acts as the Bishop’s assistant in an area. He is responsible for a large number of parishes and churches in an area of very poor communications. He accepted his new ministry to the district and was prayed for by all the priests in his district.
All three youth choirs sang during the offering time and they needed to: it took an HOUR for everyone to come forward with their offerings. The dancing of the choirs was so infectious that I wanted to go down and join them!
After the offering, there was gift giving. this is a tradition and Bill can remember traveling back to the diocesan compound on a previous trip here with the results of this gift giving from two parishes in the back of the truck. They gave the Bishop a small sheep, who had a lot to say about it (the sheep that is). Then they gave gifts to the district director and his wife: another small sheep, who wasn’t to eager to be lead up the chancel steps, a few household goods and lots of lengths of cloth.
Two hours or so into the service it started to rain. It rained HARD. Although it was not raining as hard when the service finally ended it was still raining, so getting to the hall (the original church), where lunch was served and then into the car was a damp experience. 
The Bishop left quickly after eating to go to a smaller parish that is on the road back to Kasulu for another confirmation. Originally we were going to go with him, but it had gotten cold with the rain and Bill and I had not brought warmer shirts with us this morning and were feeling chilled, so we headed back to the compound with Mama Askofu and changed into warmer clothes that we did not expect to wear again until we were headed home.
Tonight we enjoyed spending time with the Bishop at dinner and are looking forward to Tuesday when we area scheduled to meet with him again.