Another Week Gone

Hello again everyone.

It's been a great week here in Mozambique, although there isn't a lot to talk about. Most of the week, I've been working down at the orphanage, where we have been building a little structure to house some pigs that are the orphanage is going to receive. It's been strenuous work, but I've enjoyed it a lot. Aside from the work, I haven't been doing a whole lot. On Monday, we went to Maxixe again and I met the family of Lola, Dieudonne's fiancee. They were very nice although they didn't speak English, so our communication was limited. I'm learning some Portuguese just from speaking it with people a bit, and Dieudonne is giving me lessons, but I'm still a ways from being able to have real conversations with people.

On Wednesday or Thursday, I can't remember which, I went for a walk with a few kids from the orphanage to the river near Cambine. We had to walk about half of a mile on trails and when we got to the river it was very cool. It felt like you were pretty much in the middle of the jungle, even though we knew the village wasn't far away. The plants were beautiful, and we even saw a couple of monkeys. After coming out, there was an organized soccer game going on on the field in the middle of town, so we stopped to watch this. I was really impressed with how well the guys playing could control the ball, because they were playing on about the worst field I've ever seen. The whole field was on a slope, and on one side it sloped down really steep. There were sections that were pretty tall grass, and other parts that were just dirt. But, they didn't seem to mind. The game ended abruptly though, when one team walked out in protest of a decision the referee made, even though those of us watching all thought it was clearly the right decision.

Today I went to my first church service here, and it was really quite interesting. The service is done in the local dialect Shiswa (don't know if that's how it's spelled), which I thought was very good, although I of course didn't understand a single word of it. Dieudonne doesn't speak Shiswa either though, since he isn't native to Mozambique, so for the first time I was actually with someone who also had no idea what was being talked about.

The service was really nice at times, and painful at other times. The greeting time was probably my favorite part of the service. As opposed to in the US, where the preacher will usually say something, and then everyone half-heartedly greets the people sitting in front of and behind them, at the service here, everyone started singing a song in Shiswa and clapping or banging their hands on the pews, and then everyone ran around the whole church trying to greet as many people as they can. The pastor even came down and started circling around shaking hands. But the singing and banging and all made for a really exciting atmosphere.

As a guest, I was asked to introduce myself to the congregation. Dieudonne translated for me, as I didn't want to butcher my Portuguese and embarrass myself, and it ended up being him who embarrassed himself as he tried to translate what I was saying into Shiswa. His attempts to speak it brought the house down.

The first half was really nice because it was mostly singing, which I enjoyed even though I didn't understand the words. The second half was sermons and prayers, and it was brutal. I even saw the pastor making the classic John Paul II face at one point while someone was reading a prayer. And as for the sermon, well, I always thought people tuned Rabbi Koch out, but it was nothing compared to this. I could actually look around and count how many people were paying attention. After about 2.5 hours (yes, 2.5 hours) Dieudonne said to me that we should probably just leave. He said nobody would be offended that I didn't stay since I was with him, and he has a reputation for leaving early. For the most part though, that was a cool experience. I doubt I'll be going every week though.

Thanks again for reading. I look forward to reading your comments. And go Saints!