Here are a few shots of Nixon and Prisca in and around church. The title of today’s blog entry refers to Richard Nixon’s 1970 trip to communist China to meet the dictator Mao Zedong. John Adams wrote an opera on the subject in the 1990s called Nixon in China. Not a great reference I guess but when can I start working as a lyricist? This photo was from the congregational potluck dinner last night. Sue and I wore our soccer jerseys in an attempt to look as put together as Nixon and Prisca.
Last week we visited my hospital and met with two of our chaplains, Bill (on the left) who works as a chaplain in the ICUs and Jacob who works on some other units in the hospital. Jacob is from Kenya, Tanzania’s neighbor, and is a Swahili speaking Methodist pastor. There was some Swahili spoken. Jacob gave our guests some good insights on what it’s like to live and work in a super-multicultural America city. When Nixon asked about Muslims, Jacob said, “we have everything here!”
Somehow in our dinner last night, I ended up sitting next to the Queen or the evening, Prisca. Everyone else at our table was on the 2013 trip to Tanzania. Laura and her sister Mary were not there. Nixon sat at a neighboring table with Don Marsh, representatives of The Youth (aka teenagers), and Pastor Torgerson and her family. There was tater-tot hot dish.
Prisca and Nixon gave these printed, decorative pieces of cloth. I cannot think of what they are called but Sue will know. . .
Apparently you can wear them or use them as table cloths or in our case, make a bead spread out of them.
Pastor Mark-au, as Nixon pronounces his name led the question and answer session.
We practiced a few Tanzanian songs with the choir. Here Prisca is “getting her groove on”!
Before church on Wednesday, Mark-au paraded the guests around to the various rehearsals going on before the Lenten service.
Here’s Nixon talking about a Tanzanian drum. He said that drums in Tanzania are as common as pianos in homes here.
This dinner was probably my favorite event of the week. Nixon and Prisca gave some really heartfelt answers to our congregation’s questions.
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