So I’m freaking out a little!!!!

Six weeks from today I am leaving Morogoro!  I’m so excited for what lies ahead but I’m not so ready to leave!  

I had a great day on Friday though!  A few weeks ago I met some other missionary families and when they heard that I work in theatre at home they got very excited.  They are all homeschooling their kids and they get together every Friday and have someone from a different profession come and talk to the kids about what their job is like.  So Friday I went to their meeting and shared about Costume Design and theatre in general.  It was a lot of fun (and I hope a little interesting).  As you can imagine not too many people in my line of work come through Morogoro.  I often have a hard time explaining to people here exactly what it is that I do and how it is possible to make money doing it.  There is no concept of professional theatre here so most people end up thinking I am working in a factory making clothes...It was really good thought to talk about what my job is like and what some of the challenges are of being a christian in my world.  A couple of the older girls especially were really interested and I think I’ll get together with one of them a couple of times before I leave for some drawing lessons.  

I’ve also been sending a fair amount of time playing chaperone for a couple of my friends who are about to announce their engagement.  The rules here are incredibly strict on starting relationships and there is no “dating” like we know it.  It pretty much goes like this.  A guy thinks that he might want to marry a girl so he goes to the base leaders and asks for their permission to talk to her about it.  If they think it is good and what God wants, he is allowed to pursue her.  If she is interested, they both have to get letters of agreement from their parents and their churches.  If everyone agrees, the leaders will then announce that the couple is engaged!  But once he has made spoken about his intentions and especially after the announcement, they are not allowed to be alone together!  So I have been spending a lot of time with the two of them mostly just allowing them to spend time together.  We joke that I’m like a character in a 19th century novel and after we watched Miss Potter a few weeks ago, he’s started calling me Bibi, swahili for grandmother because of the old lady who was the chaperone in that film. I do my part by casting dissaproving glances at them every now and then and joke about bringing along my knitting everytime we make plans to go somewhere.  At first glance the whole thing seems ridiculously strict and awful but the truth is that everyone involved is praying their way through the entire process and I can see that there is some wisdom in it.  There is a lot less unecessary heartbreak.  That being said, if I’m honest, I’m glad it’s not my culture! 

here's a video of the class during our singing time.