Day 15

We had a very busy weekend with the funeral and church service. Before I discuss that, I realized I forgot to write about my trip to the main market close to TCDC, called Tengeru.

We learned about types of food and bargaining methods in the morning last Wednesday. Then, they gave us each TSH (Tanzanian Shillings) 1,000 to spend at the market. This is only about 80 cents, but it seemed like a lot of money. Our job was to buy vegetables and fruit for the kitchen. I ended up buying 4 tomatoes (TSH 200), three bell peppers (TSH 100), two groups of string beans (TSH 100), three lemons (TSH 200), four limes (TSH 100), and two avocados (TSH 200). Kids running around the market also sell bags for TSH 100, so I spent all of my allotment. It was really fun bargaining for the items. They would always start with about double the actual price, but they would definitely inform you if your suggestion was too low. It became somewhat competitive, even though we were literally bargaining over 10 cents or less. Still, it was amazing all the items I could buy for less than 1 U.S. dollar.

On Saturday, we had the funeral. Before the funeral, Hugh and I went into Arusha on our own. It was nice being in town alone for the first time. We met up with friends at a restaurant, and then ran errands around town. We also stopped by a coffee shop, where we had REAL African coffee for the first time. Eastern Africa is famous for its coffee beans, but since it's all shipped abroad, you only find instant coffee. Luckily (for a fee) we were able to find real coffee. After we returned home, our host brother took us to the funeral. The funeral (and subsequent burial) were held at the house where the family lived, which is typical. When we arrived there were at least 200 people sitting waiting for the ceremony to start. The family is Roman Catholic, so there was white and purple everywhere and a priest. Hugh and I decided to stay close to the back, but our host brother took us to the very front of the seating area where we had reserved seats. The 200-300 attendees were seated facing the priest, the altar, and a much smaller section of chairs. This smaller section of chairs was where the immediate family (brothers, sisters, mom, etc.) of the deceased sat. Our reserved seats were also in this area. So, not only were we sitting with the most immediate family members, but everyone in the crowd stared at the wazungu for the entire funeral. Since we couldn't understand what was happening, we managed to pray when everyone seemed to pray, stand when everyone stand, and be silent when people sang in Swahili. It was fairly typical of most funerals.

After about an hour and a half, the priest said something in Swahili, and several men picked up the casket and took it away. This was probably the most uncomfortable part - because instantly all the women sitting around us started screaming and shrieking. Then all the men in the crowd followed the casket out, and the women followed. We walked to the back part of the property, where there were a lot of banana trees. We stood there for quite some time while they dug a grave and buried the casket. After the casket was buried, all the different family members (there were a lot) were called to plant roses in the dirt. After that, we left the area and had lunch at the house.

On Sunday, we attended the church service with our host brother. The rest of the family didn't attend since they were still in the mourning period. The church was really nice, but there were so many people sitting inside, the church also had outdoor seating with TVs set-up to view the proceedings. I would guess there were between 2,000-3,000 people there. The proceeding (also completely in Swahili) was interesting, but it took about 4 hours! It was an ordination celebration, so there were a lot of priests in attendance. They also had a small band which performed at the beginning and end of the service. It definitely helped the celebratory atmosphere. After mass we returned to the family's house (where the funeral/burial were held) and ate lunch. We had some free time so Hugh and I explored the village. It was very interesting walking around - we came across some unbelievably large houses (even large by American standards). We asked some locals who lived there, but they didn't really know. That was about the extent of our time in Kwa Mrefu (the village name). We returned to the house and talked with our host siblings.