Day Three

I decided (perhaps foolishly) to start the Fast today. I had today and Monday left (or just today, depending on how you count – I tend to be liberal with it), but I decided I should quit messing around and just do it. The Sabets seemed to be pleased that I’d made that decision. While I can’t be sure, I think (for whatever reason) they were expecting me to start the day after. Today wasn’t as hot as the first day I arrived, or maybe I’m just getting used to the heat. Nevertheless, it was hot enough and I’m about to die of thirst. I could care less about the food, I just want some water!! And yet I suppose that’s how I should be feeling as it’s the whole point of the Fast. There’s only an hour or so left anyway.

Today was Sunday, so we went to the Bahá’í Center. Dr. Sabet had an LSA meeting earlier this morning so I went with Mrs. Sabet later in the morning. We arrived and one of the friends inside was saying the Long Healing Prayer, so we had to wait for 5 minutes or so before going in. For the Sunday morning devotional the friends gather in the main hall of the Center in a circle on those white plastic chairs that I suppose are lawn chairs. They randomly say prayers, sometimes in Kiswahili and sometimes in English or Persian, and then they sing. The singing is wonderful! It’s in Kiswahili so I have no clue what they’re saying, except the occasional Bahá’u’lláh or `Abdu’l-Bahá, but they still sound great.

After the devotional, we began studying the 27 December 2005 message from the Universal House of Justice. For the benefit of the few of us who don’t speak Kiswahili well or at all, we broke into Kiswahili- and English-speaking groups to study the message. I was able to relate some of the things we were doing in Little Rock, which was still relevant even though Dar es Salaam is a stage of growth ahead of us. We studied that for about 2 ½ hours, which seemed to fly by. There were probably 40 or 50 friends at the Sunday morning program, and maybe 30 or so children attending children’s classes. They were complaining about not having enough room, and I told them they should try doing things at our Bahá’í Center!

After the Sunday morning program, I stayed with Dr. Sabet and met with the National Teaching Committee, which was also fortunate enough to have Mr. Shabbani Seffu, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, in attendance. The Committee was meeting with one of the friends who wanted to be a home front pioneer. He made the decision after attending the National Convention, which apparently inspired him quite a bit. He’s somewhat elderly, so his family objected to him leaving his home and going to another part of the country, but he told them he felt in his heart that it was something he must do. That was something highly inspirational for me.

Speaking of inspirational, I’ll wander off on a tangent here. Yesterday, I met a non-Bahá’í who is being tutored in one of the Ruhi books by Mrs. Sabet. His name is Barnabas, and he’s a fisherman. He seems to put effort into being well-dressed and groomed, and his English is very good. He’s a polite, friendly, and enthusiastic guy. Mrs. Sabet introduced me to him yesterday, so I shook his hand, exchanged names, told him where I was from, and then wished him well. Later, Mrs. Sabet related that after I left the room he said that there is just something about those Bahá’ís that no matter where they’re from when you touch them you can feel there’s something different about them. I thought that was really a wonderful thing to hear.

Back to the meeting: Dr. Sabet only speaks a little Kiswahili and I speak none, so the conversation between the Committee and the home front pioneer had to be translated. It really bothers me that I don’t know what they’re saying, so I hope to make a real earnest effort to learn Kiswahili. Unfortunately, languages have always been difficult for me to learn (one of the few subjects I truly struggled with) so I think it will take me a lot of time, practice, and embarrassment. After the meeting, Dr. Sabet introduced me to the rest of the Committee. Half of them didn’t even know who I was! They just knew I wasn’t part of the Committee, yet I was at their meeting. So Dr. Sabet explained that I would be coming to all the meetings and taking notes, as well as helping them organize their work and files. He related that already the LSA and other agencies are asking for my help, but the Committee seems to be content thus far using me for their own purposes. I’m sure later they’ll feel more comfortable letting me loose. It’s nice to be in demand, though!

While I was at the Bahá’í Center, I met one of the Persian friends whose name I can’t fully remember right now. I want to say Hormuz, but that’s the Strait of Hormuz so I don’t think that’s right. Anyway, he asked who I was and where I was from. Then he related that some of his family had moved to the United States after the Iranian government had executed their spouses for being Bahá’ís. He said he went to visit them in San Diego and Los Angeles and found America to be a wonderful place. He was insistent in letting me know that America was fantastic and he enjoyed his time there. He said that a lot of the stuff that people outside the U.S. see on television and newspapers is distorted to make them hate America and Americans, but if only they would go to visit they probably wouldn’t want to come back! It’s hard not to identify yourself as an American when you’re in a “foreign” land, so I felt good to know that not everyone hates us.

After the meeting, we took two of the friends to one of the American Bahá’ís’ home, I guess for a study circle or something. Dr. Sabet tried to take a short cut, but we just ended up getting lost. We also stopped at the duka la dawa, which is a chemist/pharmacy/drugstore to get some penicillin for one of them. So that’s one more Kiswahili word that I know. I also learned that ya is “of” and na is “and.” I learned the word for “peace” from one of the songs this morning, but now I’ve forgotten it. I don’t know why but for the past five years or so, my memory has really gotten very, very poor. I can’t remember a lot of things the way I used to, and it seems foolish to think that at my age you could blame it on aging. Also, Dr. Sabet has revised his “two months fluency in Kiswahili” plan to four months now.
This whole servant thing is still unnerving me a little bit. This morning I left my room and came back to find that one of the servants had picked up all my dirty clothes, made my bed, straightened the room, and cleaned the room and the bathroom. I was a little apprehensive about having to take the bus to work, but now I sort of welcome it. It seems like it’s the only thing I’ll be doing for myself! It’s a small wonder that one of the drivers isn’t picking me up and dropping me off.

There’s thirty or forty minutes left until I can drink something. I think I’m going to go stare at the clock.