http://www.theguijafund.org/
Last Sunday I went to church and I'm going to tell you all about it...
Another teacher at school preaches at a Christian church in Vanduzi and for the past couple of weeks he has been pleading for me to come to a service. On Saturday we had a meeting at school and he told me he was very worried because I have not come to church yet (I've been away from site the past 3 weekends) and he also reminded me that I promised to come, so not wanting to break a promise I decided to go on Sunday.
The service was so different from any church I've attending in the states. For starts, the majority of it was just singing. THERE WAS SO MUCH SINGING. and that was cool because the singing was beautiful and fun. Everyone sang. The young people (students) sang, the women sang, the men sang...even the little kids stood in front of the congregation and sang for everyone. There was also lots of hand clapping and dancing. People were just really happy. After about 2 hours of singing the actual service began. The paster made me come to the front of the church while he introduced me to everyone and told them that I was from America but now lived in Vanduzi. He told them I was his friend, and was visiting the church, and he wanted everyone else to treat me as a friend, it was really nice.
The most interesting part of the service though was the sermon. It lasted maybe an hour and was more like watching a dramatic play. The paster walked around preaching and another younger boy (actually one of my old 11th graders!) walked around behind him repeating everything that he said in Shona (the local language) and translating it into Portuguese. The two of them were walking in circles around the congregation and they were acting out whatever verses they were reading from the bible, and using different voices and really just getting very into whatever they were saying. It was pretty cool to watch. Someone else from the church sat next to me and translated the entire sermon, so that was also very nice because I think otherwise I would have gotten bored. (My portuguese is getting better but its still hard to focus after an hour of translating...). The main message of the sermon was that even if someone isn't accepted in their community today, or if their life is hard, to remember that they are already a member of god's community, and to remember how special that is.
I don't want to get all preachy but it was just an interesting message to hear in a poor, rural village in the middle of Mozambique.
Overall, the service was 4+ hours long, and there was a meeting after the service but I left before that started. I had lots of work to do on Sunday and by the time church ended it was almost 2 o'clock!
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Story number two.
I went to church with another teacher at school, Sophia, who has become a good friend of mine. I walked to her house at 9 AM and waited outside talking to her neighbor, Beatrice (also another friend and collegue). Beatrice's empragadas were busy preparing breakfast and when I asked what they were cooking, she told me 'yams'. Well I got very excited about this because I love yams and the sweet potatoes that we have in Vanduzi are nothing like American sweet potatoes, so when I realized that I had been missing out on the real thing I was just so excited. Beatrice must have noticed my excitement because when I was walking home from church one of her empregadas came running up to me saying "Tia Haleigh, Tia Haleigh..." and then waving me to towards Beatrice's house. I walked over and Beatrice handed me a container with cooked yams, she said she wanted to share some of her food with me because she knew how much I like yams. How nice?
And guess what the yams were delicious.
This is the last week of the trimester. Next week, I'll have to give my students a huge exam (its actually the provincial exams, similar to standardized, state testing back in America) so this is very exciting but also kind of nerve-wrecking. Apparently lot of students try to cheat on these tests and even more students will fail...gah, wish me luck!
Here are some pictures!
The road into Vanduzi...
Well, this is the busiest area of town (markets and small stores line both sides of the street, and people are always out and about, this is also where I can catch a chappa to Chimoio!)
Here is the magical fruit truck (that's actually not a truck but I like to call it that) which is on the outskirts of town and sells produce from south africa. Yesterday I bought peaches and grapes...something you usually can only find in the capital way down south!
Here is a picture of my kitchen/common room! Take note of the nice little fridge that I bought last month...it cost almost my entire monthly allowance but the fact that I can now eat leftovers (after slaving away cooking on charcoal for hours) made it all worth it! Also Grace look your card is hanging up! As is your postcard but you can't see it from this picture...
And here are two pictures of my bedroom...I had to take two shots because my room is tiny and if I take just one my bed just takes up the whole shot...
Taking the expression "living out of a suite case" quite literally...
Okay I promise my next post will have pictures of people and new friends I just have been reluctant to get my camera out...but it will happen! Have a great day everyone!
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