SUNDAY

Sunday
The children began to rehearse for mass at 05:30.  Since I was going with Fr Mueller to the out station villages I was not planning on attending but I can’t resist the African voices.
I grabbed my camera and again recorded the singing.  I can’t describe the experience of African singing, and I’m sure my recordings won’t do justice.
Sunday we had eggs for breakfast and brown bread..A treat.
Fr Mueller was saying a second mass after breakfast so we waited for him to finish before leaving for (Mshabora ) The truck was filled with 14 people in the bed of the truck.  They took pity on the old person and I got to ride up in the cab.  The church we were going to was about 40 k.  We passed many out stations on the way. . Out stations are the decentralized parts of the mission parish.  We arrived to the singing having already begun.  Before getting inside we had to shake hands with about 50 people.  Again the singing was amazing.  It is hard to determine exactly when the services starts and ends, because the singing and witness talks just keep going.  3 hours later we stepped out of the church, to another round of hand shakes.
There was another level of poverty here and many more elderly people.  Today an elderly woman gave the witness talk about her deceased husband.  Despite the language barrier I could feel the emotion of he talk.  After she sat down she continued to wipe her face of tears.
As we returned to the truck there was a new batch of passengers.  Steffi and I were asked to walk so the family could direct Fr to the gravesite for a blessing.  Some young people escorted us through the fields a short cut if you will.  When we arrived they were singing and poring water over the cement graves.  At the completion we crossed the field to the home.  Fr and Steffi and I were escorted inside to places of honor.  We were served food and drink.  We were given mounds of rice, a small chicken wing and some sauce over the rice and a watered down orange drink.
I felt so honored to participate in such an intimate family event especially being white and not speaking Shona.
Fr Mueller shared in Shona what I had been doing the previous 2 weeks in Harare.  One of the family members has a daughter with an unrepaired cleft lip.  So I promised to alert the family through Fr Mueller of the dates when Operation of Hope returns in August.  So my coming was a gift to me and a gift to this family.