Preparations

Day 9 – Sunday, February 07, 2010

This morning we had church at 7am (gasp! So early!) at Fr Bernard’s St. Massimo’s Church. It was a special service just for us, as the regular mass at 11am will include confirmation for 100 kids from the nearby area. The church was a massive stone building that could hold a few hundred people. It was sparsely decorated on the inside but was clearly a huge luxury for the town. On the way to mass, we ran into a woman who was much to skinny, and clearly a little touched in the head. She was dancing and singing with a metallic blue garland and she followed us into the church. The alter boy, a local seminarian, chased her out with a stick…literally. I guess she had been a nuisance before. That was my first shocked moment. I have never seen anyone chased out of church before, but I’m sure they had their reasons.

After a lovely mass followed by a hearty breakfast, (thank you Bongoman – yea…that’s our chef’s name!), we got back to sorting. So far the weather had been cool (80’s) with the occasional hot day. Today was hot! It was easily 100 degrees and not yet 11am. We had a nice lunch, a break in the afternoon as we worked so quickly, then headed up to the clinics to get set up and be oriented. After finding out how the vision clinic would run, I am a bit trepidatious as everyone else was trained previously in Canada (while I was in Arizona), but quite excited to see what this is all about. Today was a day for learning words (note: phonetic spelling): ‘Mouga’ (hello) is followed by ‘Mouga Moona’ (hello) for some local slang. Also, ‘Sasa’ (how are you) is followed by ‘fit’ (fine) or ‘nzuri’ (fine but also means pretty). You have to be careful though as just ‘Sa’ means what time is it. The local children all stand outside the hotel so when we stand on the second floor, we can converse with them. Caroline is there to help us with the English; she’s a local child, but a real asset to have nearby. We had some socializing time before dinner to relax and I tried a local lager. Then we went to dinner and had a great beef stew over spaghetti (not curry!) with some local wine called ‘mass wine’ that tasted just like a white port, not what mass wine typically tastes like. We had a bit more time for socializing, then it was off to bed. I have to say it was quite odd to walk down the street and have every face staring at you. Maybe this is what it is like to be famous, and if so, I don’t want it! They are all friendly, and often smile back, but it is a different feeling.

Summary: While not used to all of the attention when walking around the town, today was a day for setting up the clinics.