Iringa Update

I finished visiting the diocese secondary schools and our partner village of Kising'a. Life is pretty easy in Iringa with good restaurants and internet. The organization I am volunteering for has periodic Days of Grace events where pastors and evangelists from different areas come to Iringa for seminars and health checkups. 25 people from Kising'a came in early to watch our Minnesota church service on zoom at 6 PM (10 AM in St Paul). I shared some music from our church and then we logged on. They were interested in seeing how different our services are, shorter, fewer choirs, and less dancing. We recorded a video of them singing to show at church next sunday.

When I was in Kising'a I met Fanleck, a former sponsored student of ours wearing a Trump hat. He likes the way trump sounds from his limited exposure without any understanding of what Trump is about. Quite a disconnect from all the US AID signs around here. Now I may not be able to reenter the country after this, please come to visit me.

My phone was not charging because the charging port was worn out. I found a phone shop that replaced the charging port on my phone for $10. A young man opened up my phone and fixed it in less than 30 minutes. Africans are very resourceful about repairing things out of necessity.

Another interesting business is the Quick Witted Dry Cleaning and Laundry. Marium washes my clothes so I haven't had the chance to use them and try to match wits. I also always enjoy the women's hair salons spelled saloons.

I walk a lot in Iringa but took a Bajaji, a three wheel motorcycle with a cab, back from picking up my vegetable box. Here is a picture of Sue in one from a previous trip. I got in with my box and the driver could not start it because he was out of gas. He ran to get a large water bottle filled with gasoline and he and I tilted the bajaji on its side so that a third person could pour the gasoline in the tank without a funnel. Always an adventure here.

Today, Maria, the woman who was our house keeper in 2010-2011 came to get me in a bajaji and took me to her house for lunch. Her son in law took me home on his motorcycle. It was nice to see her, she and her husband are not working but are raising a few pigs in her yard.