Day 62: The Assembly

          Today was the first day of our two-day spiritual assembly in Dar.  Since there aren't many English speaking groups in Tanzania, all of them congregated together at Dar for the two-day.  The assembly was being held in Mikocheni, a ways away from Kigamboni.  My dear, sweet, cousin Upendo estimated that we would have to leave at five in the morning in order to get there on time...
          Which is why I got up before dawn to take a shower and get ready.  It was then that Baba told me that it wouldn't take nearly that long, and that I could go back to bed and get a few hours more sleep.  There must be a way to thank people like my cousin Upendo, I shall devote some serious thought to the matter...
          I woke up again at half past seven, got dressed, had breakfast, and was still ready to go way ahead of time.  Unfortunately our ride, Fred, was not here yet.  So we waited.  Finally Mama Faraja, fearing we would be late paid a taxi to take to the ferry so that we could cross and wait for Fred on the other side.  That was when Baba's phone died.  The power had been out, so there had been no opportunity to charge it.  I had thought, on coming to Dar that here, at least, the power would be more regular than out in the country.  Boy was I wrong!  If anything, the blackouts here are worse, as they often last longer.
          Fred finally showed up and took us to the Assembly (we only had marginal trouble finding the place).  We were still early, amazingly.  Actually, when I consider that we're usually late everywhere, arriving half an hour early despite all that happened was nothing short of a miracle.  It also meant that we were able to get good seats (on the aisle in the back so Baba could get up whenever he needed without disturbing to many people).
          The assembly was awesome, I epically loved the talk about the qualities of a spiritual man.  After about the third talk I got the great idea to take pictures of all the Brothers who gave talks, so you'll probably get to see those too, some day...  I must apologize, as I did not get a picture of the one baptismal candidate standing up during the Baptismal talk.  I was unexpectedly delayed in the bathroom by a lack of toilet paper (why is it that you never notice these things till it's too late?).  I probably should have known better, as the toilet was lacking a plunger, but I had been in too much of a hurry to notice when I entered.  I did, however, get a video of the water baptism.  There was only one, a Sister, and I'm pretty sure I won't post that till I get back to the US, as the upload rates will just be too slow.  We hadn't brought a lunch, but this proved to be no difficulty.  Baba ran into the younger sister of John Palankyo.  Baba had been the one who had preached to John long ago before Baba left for America, and had seen him get baptized.  She was only to pleased to have us for lunch, and invited us to come visit sometime while we were in Dar.
          After the assembly we meet John Palankyo at a "hotel" and visited for a little while before heading home.  There we were meet by a surprise visitor.  Ebenezer 's daughter, my niece, came over to see us.  I have a niece, as well as a nephew!  Even more scary is the fact that she's like 15, less than ten years younger than me!  She didn't talk much to me, but she did teach me a new greeting.  It involves a hand over the eye closest to the person you are greeting and turning your head away slightly.  I'm not sure if I mastered it quite right, but I think I got the basics.  I'll show it to you all when I come home.


E’ya! - Tate


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