Sunday, September 27. Today Mwankenja took us to yet another Lutheran congregation, this time to the oldest Lutheran congregation in Mbeya. We arrived late and attempted to sit in the back, but we were invited to come to the front. During announcement time we were introduced and as always asked to say a few words. It was a special day to honor children and Sunday School teachers, and the children had several presentations, including one boy who recited the whole of Genesis Chapter 25. Adults in the congregation presented him with monetary offerings afterward (apparently traditional). The service lasted almost three hours, but this is unusual. Once again after the service we were invited to the pastor’s office and then to his home (adjacent to the church) for lunch. The pastor and Mwankenja are old classmates but had not seen each other for a while. After church we purchased some English language newspapers in an effort to find out what is happening in the world, but the international news content was sparse. We finally arrived back at our house around 3 PM.

Saturday, September 26. We spent the afternoon with Verywell and his family. He had invited us to lunch, which by the time we walked together to his home in the warren of dusty streets and footpaths north of the highway took place late in the afternoon. He told us his home is about 1.5 km from the College, but it seemed to be longer. There are no street signs and I question whether we could find our way there again on our own. His home is on what appears to be a large lot by local standards—perhaps about the size of our property in Carlisle. It is surrounded by a wall somewhat higher than the waist, with a wooden gate. The yard, where he raises bananas, ducks, and chickens, is hard packed dirt—no dust. He told us that we were the first white people ever to visit his home. Verywell, too, has an extended family. In addition to his wife (for whom he paid three cows and still owes a fourth) and his three children, a nephew from his side of the family and a niece from his wife’s side of the family live with them. A second nephew was visiting. On the way to and from Verywell’s home young children whom we passed would greet us with “shickamoo”, the traditional greeting given to someone who is older and higher in status, to which we would give the traditional reply—“maharaba” . The words have no specific meaning. It is merely a societal convention. We told Verywell that in the U.S. children would never greet adults whom they had not met. We walked back to campus afterward, despite Verywell’s expectation that we might want to hire a taxi. He insisted on walking back the whole way with us despite our telling him that we could find our way back once we reached the tarmac road.

Friday, September 25.

I presume I am finally an “old age pensioner” because my first Social Security payment was to be deposited this week. The brief rain last week must have wrung all remaining moisture from the atmosphere because this week there has been no dew at all in the mornings. Previously there had been some. I finally got to teach the first lesson in the unit on oral communication on Wednesday, but then mid-term exams started on Thursday so no classes Thursday through Monday, with morning prayers at 7 am instead of 7:30. As a result we have spent some long days in the library. Cataloging is going more quickly than we had envisioned at first. Yesterday we started cataloging the books that are kept in a locked cabinet because supposedly there are “special” but I am not sure why. Mgogo, the academic dean, nearly had apoplexy when he came in and saw those books spread out on a table, but we assured him they would be put back in the cabinet once we cataloged them. I think may changes must be made to library procedure if the school is to succeed in obtaining university status. Last evening we experienced the third power outage since we arrived, but the first that happened during hours of darkness. We were pleasantly surprised when the Principal’s wife arrived from next door with a kerosene lantern that she lent us. Power was restored shortly after 9 pm but by then we had decided to go to bed.