This week has been full of village visits.  It has been so good to spend the majority of the week off campus actually using our Swahili.  Today was especially good.  Moreto came with us to today's village far into the pori.  The roads are impeccable. Ha.  It is a good thing we have Luka, he is an incredible driver.  I now understand why four wheel drive is made.  It is not for Palin-ite hockey moms but for the sheol-esque pits over which we cross on a daily basis.  The road was about as rocky as the current situation of the people of this village.  They have been displaced many times.  Land that is rightfully theirs has been taken by the local government to give to Waswahili people.  This is evidence of the certain prejudice against the Masai people here in Tanzania.  So now they have built a somewhat permanent church building (it is simply a wooden frame and a corrugated iron or tin roof) as a statement against their constant displacement.  It is interesting to be welcomed so heartily by a group who is something of a constant other in mainstream Tanzanian culture.  The oppression is not always evident and most people can go to school and things with Masai and get along just fine.  But they have a false reputation of being lazy and undereducated (so far from the truth! the people all go to school and value work very highly) and are often driven off their own land, sometimes physically by fire.  What is really remarkable is that, while the Masai are pushed aside by society, the Church has completely accepted them.  It is so good to see the unity that the Church has brought.  When there is a Waswahili lutheran church in the area, Masai always come and are welcomed as full members of the body.  They have really built community with each other.  The Church is all of them, and they are all fully aware of this fact!  

Today's village has many other problems besides displacement.  Many of the people are related to a young man who was recently strangled by his own tunic when it got caught in his motorcycle chain.  What's more, there have been recent murders of a few tribe member and about 400 stolen cattle.  This community is hurting very badly and is on the verge of war with a neighboring tribe.  It is very bad.  

Positively, the people don't want war.  They don't want violence.  They are hungry for a message of peace which is evidenced by the fact that so many showed up for church today and show up every week.  Weekly, the village averages about 100 people packed into this little wall-less building with about ten benches.  Which is very high.  Today there were far more than this.  People were pushing to see and sitting very close (I quarter cheeked it for the whol 3.5 hour service.)  There were so many people spilled outside the "walls." So many people that we had to hold communion outside of the building!  It was a service that would make strict high-churchers faint.  With this many people and children the noise was constant and very loud.  So loud that there were points when one could not even hear the pastor.  People really come with their full humanity to church and it is welcomed.  It was amazing, during the baptisms (there were well over ten) people crowded up front to see.  People are so eager for community and peace.  I stayed in my seat and spoke with a bunch of the primary school children (holding a conversation when the Lord is working...tsk tsk tsk, ha.)  If church really is community and is about glorifying God then it would do as God would.  Jesus spent so much time just getting to know people in their full humanity, and that is what happened today.  I spent the baptism time becoming less of and other and more of a friend to some of the kids.  They really enjoy playing with our skin and hair.  Many are scared of us until they do this, seeing that we are really similar to them.  Ha, some scream the first time we approach but warm up when we begin speaking abd showing them our stupid little body tricks.  Now that the Swahili skills are developing to a child's level it is very nice to get to know them.  They have so much hope for th future, they all want to do amazing things. It is a shame that money often prohibits kids from receiving the schooling they so deserve.  Money in their family and in the government.  Worship was really worship today!  We really existed as community.  It is amazin to see how quickly being welcomed as the other turns into being enjoyed as a friend.  The vulnerability of welcoming really opens one to end fear of the other and join together in commonality and a common curiosity concerning differences.  Hospitality is such a radical thing that destroys fear and distrust.  In the villages hospitality is constantly shown as we are given food and drink right away (a normal place for formal hospitality), we are spoken to as honored guests and friends and then enjoy ritual hospitality as songs are sung to welcome us during church and we are cheered upon introducing ourselves.  God is so present in all of this.  The destruction of fear is made manifest in how much we are trusted around children.  We act kind of like babysitters during our stays which is amazing.  

Before the service we were given food, which kind of lightens us up and is a real good indicator of our humanity and our willingness to be culturally sensitive and reliant upon them.  This opens up conversation very quickly.  We spoke with a boy today for a long time, Saani, who just finished primary school and will head to secondary school next January.  He wants to be an evangelist (a formal job here) so we spoke a lot about theological training.  We also got to know an Islamic man, Sebastian, who is from Dodoma but works near Morogoro.  He knew a little english so helped us speak Swahili, correcting us along the way as we attempted to discuss life near Morogoro.