Yep, that’s right, many of you who know me well may not believe this because I haven’t actually been to church in probably over 12 years. But you heard me correctly, I did in fact attend not just one full service here, but half of another, all on the same Sunday. Many of you, might still be in shock and wondering why I went to church, so let me address this. There are a few reasons why I decided to go to church last Sunday. The first reason was it’s a great way to meet people in the surrounding bairros (villages). It has been about a week and people are coming up to me and my roommate saying that they saw us in church and some just wanted to introduce themselves, others just yell my name as I walk down the street or passed their houses. I guess that´s better then them just yelling Akunya (White people). The second reason I went, it was a cultural experience I figured I should have while I can. When else am I going to get to experience a Catholic Church service in Africa? It was also a good chance to listen to Portuguese and the local language Makua. There is never a bad time to practice either of those. And finally the third and probably the main reason is because we met these two guys who thought we should go to church with them. Ok mom (and everyone) relax, it’s not what you are probably thinking… they are helping us get this secondary project started and thought we should go to church and be introduced to the community and see what they think of this project and if they think they would need/want it. The guys think, as do we, that the church might be able to help us and we may even be able to use some of their land to build something on.
Now what is this secondary project, I’m sure you are wondering now. Well none of it is for sure yet, but our idea is some sort of community center in one of the local bairros near where we live. There is still a lot to work out, but our hope is to have a library with a literacy program for kids and hopefully adults, a sports/activity club for the kids in this bairro, and maybe more. This is something both my roommate and myself as well as the two guys, seem very passionate about getting started. There is still a lot to work out and it’s pretty ambitious, but the community seemed pretty interested in this, and we got the support of what seems to be some influential members of the community, so that is the first step. I will keep you posted on the progress of this project, but for now it’s still just an idea that we are working with and have a lot to work out.
Now I guess it’s time to share a little bit about my experience at church. The first service started at 7:30am and was mostly the young people in the bairro. This whole service was given in Portuguese so I was able to understand a lot of it. The men sat on the right side of the church and the women sat on the left side. When people entered the church they knelt at the doors and seemed to say a small prayer or something then stood up and found a seat on one of the wooden benches in the church. The service seemed pretty typical of other churches I have been to. There was singing only instead of an organ or piano the only instrument that accompanied the voices was a drum. I’m pretty sure I’m in love with live singing here...ok at least acapella group singing, each time a group of people sing I seem to get chills, it’s amazing that I don’t even need to know what they are saying for that to happen. There was a lot of standing and reciting things and sitting down again. There was even a collection plate that at one point was set in the center and while people were singing and clapping, some people stood up and walked to the center of the church and placed a few Mets into it. Then at the end of the service, it was time for us to go to the front and introduce ourselves and explain about what we had in mind. This went over pretty well, especially in the first service with all the kids. The second service, which was mostly the adults, had some questions about us, but they seemed pretty receptive of us and the community center as well. But then again, I don’t know much of what was being said because the whole second service and presentation was in Makua by one of the guys that we’d met. A lot of the local people in the Bairro don’t speak much or any Portuguese so they wouldn’t have understood us if we had spoken and it’s always better to have someone from the community who wants the project to speak.
Overall my 1st church experience here in Mozambique was very good (very similiar to every other church I´ve been to, other than the language) and now a lot of people recognize us and know who we are and what we are doing there, instead of just knowing us as the weird Akunya who walk through the bairro a lot.
