Visit to Village Church

This weekend we went to a Pentecostal church in the nearby village of Lundamatwe. Almost all of the workers at the campsite are from Lundamatwe, but most of them are Catholics. One of the camp drivers is named Daniel and is a friend of Viggo’s from their weekly soccer matches (the Language school students play together with the camp staff each Friday). Daniel’s father is the pastor at the Pentecostal church. It was a very interesting experience, mostly in a good way. The singing was great, accompanied by just a big drum, with the voices filling the church building. I was able to understand some of the Swahili songs, at least after the choruses were repeated a few times. All of the men sat on one side of the room and all the women on the other, with children who were old enough to sit on their own at the back. Women with babies were all at the back of the women’s section near the door, probably so that they could exit easily if they needed to tend to their babies. We were invited to the pastor’s house after church and given sodas.

When we returned to the camp, we met a young Norwegian couple who had stopped by specifically to meet us. They had read about us in a Norwegian Christian newspaper, which ran an article about us before we left for Tanzania. They are also doing language school now, but at a different location. They will be living a little over an hour away from us in a neighboring town, doing evangelistic work with one of the neighboring people groups. They also have small children, and will be staying for at least a few years. We were excited to find out that there would be a young Norwegian family so (relatively) close by.

Viggo finally was able to register our car in town today, and we are happy that they didn’t charge too exorbitant of a fee. The officer he spoke with insisted that Viggo had to have three names listed on the registration, and so Viggo is now officially ‘Viggo Viggo Larsen’, since he has no real middle name.

Daniel is still working on learning to walk. He can take a few steps at a time on his own, but is still pretty cautious, which probably makes sense since he still loses his balance pretty easily.