Iringa Hope visits 2015: We arrive and head for a wedding.

We flew into Dar Es Salaam late Thursday evening. We were tired from our 28 hour trip and were looking forward to seeing Daniel (our driver) who was scheduled to take us to our hotel. But TIA (this is Africa) our car had broken down along the way and was in Morogoro waiting to be repaired. Itiweni (our senior SACCOS coordinator in Iringa) had learned of this an hour earlier and came up with an alternate plan. A university professor who had traveled from Iringa to Dar that day for a funeral had been contacted and met us at the airport with his driver. His driver would take us to our hotel and to Iringa the following day, and the professor would go home by bus. So, to Itiweni and Professor Ilombo we extend a hearty “asante sana”!

Friday’s drive to Iringa was very slow. There were army vehicles traveling the roads, making periodic stops, and generally holding things up. We never did find out what was going on – but the army must have added one or two hours to an 8 hour drive.

Arriving in Iringa we found Itiweni waiting for us. What a great greeting! She had the keys to our apartment and had gotten our car ready for us. We are looking forward to going to work. She also came bearing an invitation. Dr. Saga from the Ilula Hospital was getting married the next day.

Today we had some errands to do to get set up in our apartment. We wanted to be on the road by 11:00 for the noon wedding, but errands took longer than expected and it was noon before we left town. Since we had heard through the Iringa grapevine that the Bishop, who was officiating at the wedding, was still in town, we thought it was a safe bet that the wedding wouldn’t have started before we arrived. This proved to be the case, and as it turned out, we had timed it just right.

After we had greeted some of our friends the Bishop arrived at the church and the procession began. As we entered the church, people that we knew kept shaking our hands and giving us hugs. When we sat down in our pew we discovered that were surrounded by old Tanzanian friends. The wedding ceremony took about 2.5 hours – and it was extremely warm until a cooling rain passed through and sent some welcome breezes through the open windows. The dancing, singing, and ceremony were very interesting, so the time passed quickly.

As were left the church we continued to meet and greet old friends, all of whom greeted us like long lost sons returning home. We did not realize that we knew so many people here. It seemed like we knew half of the 400 Tanzanians in attendance (we probably knew a forth of them). We had a brief meal at the church, skipped the reception, and headed back. Tomorrow we will plan to have a day of rest, get settled in our apartment, and prepare for our busy schedule to come.