A Sunday in Mukinge

This morning (well actually two days ago now because of the internet being un-cooperative) I walked 10 minutes up the road to the Kyakabuka Evangelical Church. There are a lot of different churches around Mukinge but this is the closest which includes English, so as well as the Zambian people I was joined by a small contingent of ‘mzungus’ (white people).

 The praise team starts us off and fills the church with loud choruses; I begin to clap and sway, and I try to listen for Kikaonde words that I recognise … singing in church takes on a whole different form when you can’t understand the words, and the song titles that you do recognise turn out to be sung to a different tune from back home! Once my hands have got sore the preaching finally begins and we read from Ephesians 4 – on unity in the Spirit; it seems to be a common theme. My mind is beginning to get used to the interpretation style, so today I can grasp the main points of the sermon, and I even pick up a few new Kikaonde words as I compare the line by line bilingual preaching. The most common phrase I hear is ‘jizhina jowewe Yesu Christo’ – in the name of Jesus Christ. As I walk out the door, I am greeted by one church member, and then another, and then another, and then another, and it keeps going! Eventually I join the end of the line and then it is my turn to say mute mwane, muji byepi? (hello and how are you?) to each member on their way out. I love it, just one of the many awesome parts of going to an African church :D

As I walk home I am shocked by a sound that is something like a child screaming; I turn and see that it is just an unhappy goat taking a ride on the back of a bicycle!  In my few weeks in Zambia I have seen some very heavily loaded bicycles but this is the first time I’ve seen a goat on the back! Clare tells me that I’ll see plenty more animals transported this way so I’ll look out and have my camera ready next time!

For the traditional Sunday pancakes we missionaries are hosted by Michelle (head of nursing at the Mukinge Hospital here). The abundance of avocados and bananas and pawpaw here made for some good toppings!

Today was my first Sunday here that I didn’t go down to the rapids… I spent the afternoon reading instead J All the missionaries have very well-stocked bookshelves here so there’s plenty of good reading material.

At 1600hrs (we talk in 24hr time a lot here) I found myself at the hospital chapel for praise team practice; I’m not sure how it happened that I’m helping lead the singing at church but we’ll see if it lasts more than this week!

(sorry for the lack of photos- the internet connection is not coping with photos at the moment!)