African Religions and the Moshi Experience

One of the classes that the students can take while they are here is Intro to African Religions.  There have

been several different cultural opportunities to experience, and I have chosen to learn right along with the students. I took a World Religions class back in undergrad, but it has been a few years! Different regions have different religions, just like anywhere in America. On the coast near Dar es Salaam, there was a pretty strong Muslim presence. Here in Moshi, it is about half Muslim, half Christian, and a little bit of other religions.  Last Sunday, we went to a Catholic mass. Although there are other Christian denominations, Roman Catholic is probably the biggest as there are 3 churches here in Moshi.  The mass was in Swahili, but everything felt very similar to what I have experienced growing up Catholic in the states. The homily was a bit longer, but you could tell that the new priest was a great speaker and that the congregation enjoyed his teachings.

On Friday of this week, we had the opportunity to go to Friday prayer at a local mosque. I have never been to a mosque before, and it was quite the experience. The prayer only lasted about 10 minutes, but the lead up “sermon” lasted almost an hour. This was also in Swahili, so we really didn’t know what was being said. The men and the women are not allowed to be in the same room, so us women folk headed up the stairs and washed various body parts three times. After that, we adjusted our head garb and were ready for prayer. The hardest part of the day for me was actually getting dressed for prayer. As many of you know, I am not a skirt or dress wearer and haven’t been for years. I had to borrow two African kangas (big pieces of fabric that are essential to women here and have a multitude of uses) and have a Muslim woman help dress me. I don’t know how they do it, wearing that on their head all day long and having to have all body parts covered at all times. I was sweating pretty heavily by the time we left the mosque and couldn’t wait to change clothes. The men weren’t let off easy either.  They had to wear long white prayer robes and the traditional Muslim hat on their heads. Our UGA boys reminded me of the three wise men.

Early on the trip, we visited a Maasai village where we learned a bit about their religion as well. They are a more spiritual people, and don’t really have organized religion. They pray to God for rain and abundant crops and find their spirituality in nature. That makes sense as they truly live off the land (and their animals), mainly eating cow and goat meat, drink cow/goat milk and blood, and trade for a few small crops like beans and maze. Although I don’t want to have that particular diet, I can relate to finding spirituality in nature. That is definitely where I feel the most at peace and connected to the world in which we live.

Other highlights from this week were visiting an African hot spring and spending more time at the orphanages. The hot spring (more aptly named luke warm spring by our students) was an incredibly beautiful place. Aquamarine in color and a very tropical feel. Considering there were several vervit monkeys playing around above us in the fig trees, we could feel we were in a very special place.  We all had a great time swinging on the rope swing and trying to keep the little fishies from nibbling on our legs.

I have also really enjoyed spending time at several of the orphanages in town. Our service learning students

have spent almost all of their time at the orphanages, even when my group was away.  They just finished up their big project which was figuring out which orphanage to help out. They chose to spend their $300 at the  Kili Centre orphanage (more like a group home) on educational materials that will help the 8-17 year olds learn English, math, and science. One of the other orphanages, Upendo, is run by several nuns and houses Newborns to 5 year olds. OMG, they are so cute. Dr.  Moshi, who is the Director of this Study Abroad program and from the town of Moshi, is trying to raise money to start another orphanage that will give the 5 year olds a place to go after leaving Upendo. Right now, there are not many places for older children. So many kids, so few homes.

This will be my last post for a while, as we are starting our hike up Mt. Kilimanjaro tomorrow morning.  Hopefully, my next post will be one celebrating our successful summit of the tallest freestanding mountain in the world – woo!