I was walking to work down the steep hill into Morogoro town. It’s a steep hill and at the bottom there is always a group of women with baskets of bananas. They’re waiting for buyers to come. And they come, al through the day, on motorbikes, bajaj and vans to buy directly from the producer.
It’s a wonderful scene and I wonder how long this has been going on and whether a hundred years ago there was still a group of women carrying loads of bananas on their head from high up in the hills, standing chatting and laughing and waiting for buyers to come.
It’s still quite a long way to work to work after I pass the banana women and the next landmark is a chapel. I look at it, it reminds me of home and I wonder what’s it’s doing in Morogoro. It looks so out of place next to the other churches here.
This week something stopped me as I passed it and made me turn around. I wasn’t late for work so I decided to satisfy my curiosity and go in for a look. Inside it was a simple chapel, no stained glass windows and a mix of plastic and wooden chairs.
In the pulpit was a large “Good News” Bible opened at Paul and the Corinthians. I looked around the walls and saw several plaques at the back. I had already suspected that there was British influence because of the familiar British style design of the building.
I was right – the plaques referenced a family from England – landed gentry. The family was the Ruggles-Brise and Gurney. It was strange to come across reference to someone who has the a similar background to me, many miles from the UK. I Googled their house, Spains Hall in Essex. I tried to imagine how he felt knowing that he dying so far from home in such a foreign place.
I also wondered whether they had walked past a group of women selling bananas at the bottom of the hill. Is this the thread that connects us?