Day 22 - Church and Shopping

Habari,

Taz, Tash, Bellinda, Henriikka and I decided to attend a local church service today. We were told that the service started at 9am so we arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 8:30. The taxi arrived at about 8:45 (Tanzanian time - pole pole). He took us to the local Assembly of God church in Moshi. When we arrived we walked in and found some seats. There was a parade of people walking down the isle and around to the front of the of the church. We soon realized that the parade of people were then heading back to find their seats and we were sitting in some of them! They didn't say anything and the service resumed so we decided it was best not to move now! Looking back, I assume they were receiving communion. There was one Pastor speaking to the congrigation in Swahili and everything he said was repeated by another man in English. They asked that anyone attending the church for the first time stand up. We stood up and were welcomed to the church. The pastor then invited us to come down to the front of the church and we were welcomed again. After being welcomed again and again we were then taken to the front row of seats and our information, such as name, address, occupation etc. was collected. Then the service ended. This is when we realized that we had arrived at the end of the service! When we asked about it we were told that the English service was held from 7-9am. A Swahili service would then be held from 9-11am. We decided not to stay for the Swahili service. As we were leaving we ran into Anna, one of the nurses from Pasua, and had a chat with her. She was very excited to see us there! Even though we turned up late and sat in other peoples seats they were all very accommodating and happy to have us there. The people in Tanzania are generally very friendly. We are often told 'karibu' which means welcome.

We left the church and walked into the centre of town. Sundays are much quieter in town so it makes shopping much easier. The tourist shops are always open on Sundays whereas most of the local shops close. We did some shopping and then went to Union Coffee for lunch. I bought two scafes for 5000 shillings each ($3 AUD) and a fridge magnet for 7000 shillings ($4.20 AUD).

Tomorrow we have been given the day off work so we can visit the Rau Day Care Centre and the Hot Springs.

I am having fun but missing you guys heaps. I hope you are having fun too! Love you<3