An Interesting Sunday

February 24, 2019

An interesting Sunday…

First of all, the children from Sunday School sang a song with hand movements during the service last Sunday. I mention this because kids are always cute and I happen to have a photo of them. (Their Sunday School teacher is kneeling in front of them with his arm in the air.)

Second of all, John did the preaching at the service last Sunday. Since it’s a community church, the community takes turns preaching and doing everything else. John’s sermon was on the temptations of Jesus from Jesus’s perspective. He presented it very well. Here’s a photo.

Every Sunday after church, we go to lunch someplace. Often we are joined by other church-goers and occasionally we end up dining by ourselves. I look forward to these lunches because I get a taste of Tanzania that I can’t get in my own kitchen and I get to meet new and interesting people.  Last Sunday after church, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant called Herbs and Spices. I walk by this restaurant every time I go to the sewing workshop and I’ve wondered about it. John’s friend, Eric, told John that there was some kind of fashion or art show at this restaurant on Sunday so that’s why that restaurant was chosen for this week’s culinary adventure.

When we arrived, the restaurant was practically empty. No fashion or art show was in evidence. We ordered one of those menu items where you get a little bit of everything to share. We also learned that the ART show was the day before, on Saturday. John was sure that Eric had told him Sunday so we had a good laugh. I was looking forward to eating Ethiopian food. Finally, our server set before us a huge round tray with small dishes of food.  She then proceeded to dump each dish onto the tray in little piles. She left us with rolls of this spongy flat white bread called Injera which we used as utensils to eat with. I’d eaten this way before so I knew that the fun was about to begin. The food was good.  Some of it was spicy. In fact, the lentil dish, I know, must have been made with wasabi. Now that cleaned out my sinuses.

While we were adventuring with our meal, other people came in—some looking for the art show. Eric had done a good job of promoting it. One large table gradually filled up with a mix of people and that’s where Eric and his wife sat when they finally arrived. John and Janet went over and greeted them. By this time, we had finished eating and were waiting for Ethiopian coffee (me) and chocolate mousse dessert (John and Janet). Eric’s wife came over and invited us to join them. 

What an interesting group of people! First there is Eric who is a successful businessman.  He grew up in Spokane but ended up in Arusha, got married, had children…… His daughter goes to Evergreen State College near Tacoma. I don’t know much about his Tanzanian wife but Eric is a tech guy and provides internet and other technology services to businesses in Arusha. He also has a big brick factory with a huge kiln. He probably has other ventures going too. Another man, also named Eric, makes wine, goat cheese and does something with rabbits that I didn’t quite catch. He’s also from the United States and has been in Tanzania for years. Sitting next to him was a young woman named Erica—do you see a pattern here? She is visiting from Los Angeles for a couple of weeks.  She works in the movie industry as a costume continuity technician (or something like that). She makes sure that all the actors look exactly the same from one scene to the next. You know….like if blood is dripping from the left shoulder in one scene, it isn’t dripping from the right shoulder in the next. Erica sat next to her Uncle Peter, who has also lived in Tanzania for ages and ages.  He started a community center and is involved in education of some sort.  He used to be part of the Black Panthers back in the day so I suspect that returning to the States could cause him some problems. Paul, his son, was next. Paul retired from the Air Force. When he did, his wife joined the State Department so now, while he takes care of the kids and house, his wife gets to boss people around (or something like that).  The last person at the table was Ephram (??spelling) who is the owner of the restaurant. This was obviously a group of people who knew each other well and enjoyed ribbing each other and bringing up past adventures and mis-adventures. I thoroughly enjoyed the repartee as I sipped my Ethiopian coffee (guaranteed to prevent sleep until Wednesday).  As the group was breaking up, John went to get a taxi and returned just as a storm let loose. Lucky us that we weren’t standing out in that mess with the wind and side-ways rain.

So we arrived home safely knowing that a good time was had by all. (And next weekend we’re invited to Eric’s house for homemade pizza from his homemade brick oven.)