This morning I went to an area of the city called Ikageng [(ee – ka – cheen)---Setswanna has a guttural “ch” sound]. It’s a black township where we visited an all black church. The congregants were so pleased to see me and my German neighbors (Sabastian, Uta and their three children) that they made special arrangements to have part of the two-and-a-half-hour service translated from Setswana. The first attempt was to translate into Afrikaans, thinking that was our native tongue, but the black woman who took us explained that we didn’t understand Afrikaans, so they switched to English translation. The older women wore a certain kind of dress (all black skirt, black long sleeve blouse and a white collar) as did the group of women 51 years old and younger. The later wore white long sleeve tops. I was glad to wear a sleeveless dress and be written off as a foreigner who didn’t know better. It was 87 degrees outside, hate to guess the inside temp.

The text for the sermon was Exodus chapter 3 but the preacher told the whole story of Abraham leaving the listeners with a question, “how do you respond to the Lord when he calls you?” He was so excited that he hardly left time for the interpretation. There was a lot of singing, dancing in the isles (particularly with the older people), clapping, and arms waiving. Perhaps the most touching part was when everyone stopped to sing a song especially for the white visitors. It was a prayer that our names be written in the Book of Life. Reminded me of the biblical tradition at the Feast of Trumpets when the same request is made.

This picture shows an older couple in front of a fund raising table. Maze is sold in many different varieties, here it's simply corn on the cobb. I'll find a better way to post photos so you can see more than one at a time!