5 December – Radio Maria, a scary mzungo and a mended pancha

We were up for 7.00am Mass today. The Church was packed and the choir was particularly adventurous. We learned later that the service was being broadcast across Tanzania on Radio Maria. Francis will be gutted he missed it.

We had been at least twice, before we realised that there is a fairly strict gender division in Church – men on the right, women to the left. Children in church sit with either parent but, as they are nearly always silent and there is no ‘kiddies’ room for restless children to play, they literally can be seen but not heard. Not heard, that is, except for the little one who turned, caught a glimpse of me and then screamed so loudly, she gave everyone around her a fright. Her mother thought she’d been stung; then she saw me, turned the child away from me and smiled.

It is my fascination with the sounds of Swahili, the harmonies of the choir and the colours in the congregation that keep me enthralled. I don’t understand a word and have asked two priests now if they can find me a missal in Kiswahili, but it has not materialised. No-one in the congregation uses a missal, a mass sheet or a hymn book and the entire congregation participates as one, throughout.

We’ve done a fair bit of cycling today; up to the market, twice, down to the beach and finally, I got a ‘pancha’. I’ve tried telling them to pronounce the word correctly, but they won’t have it. Just as we thought we’d have to trudge all the way home, two guards sitting in the garden of a rather plush house called us. They had a little fundi s business going – repairing shoes, repairing bicycles, and if I’d wanted a rat catching, they could probably oblige. They passed two chairs over the fence and we sat and chatted in broken Swahili and English whilst they fixed my pancha. After lunch, which cost us 20,000 shillings, the smallest note I had was 10,000 (equivalent to about £4.00). That’s about what these guys will earn in a week, so I had to cycle off and get change to pay them their 500 shillings (about 20p) for fixing my bike.

After a hot and salty day in the sea air, the cold water sitting in my bucket which I used for my shower, was the sweetest end to the day.