It was a pretty uneventful clando drive to Lai, but once we got to the river, things started to get interesting. There are little dugout canoes that ferry people across the river for a small price, but since it's the dry season, the water has gone down drastically. So, we had decided beforehand that we were going to walk across. Perhaps a little bit crazy, but you only live once, right?
We watched one man coming across from the other side, and were hopeful at first, until we realized that he was pretty tall, and the water was probably up to his chest in some places. We decided to go for it anyway, and all the men up on the half-constructed bridge started protesting. "What are you doing? Don't you want a boat? You can't walk across!" We smiled, laughed, and assured him that we were going to walk across. When they realized that we were not changing our minds, they told us, "Go further up, it's not as deep."
We thanked them and took their advice. Ansley and I began wading across the river with bags on top of our heads to keep the contents from getting wet. Not too long after, I was up to my chin in water, standing on my tip-toes, and coming real close to being swept away in the current. We turned around and decided to go even further upstream. We struck out again, with much laughter and a good amount of confidence that we would get across this river walking. At one point, some of the canoe drivers started rowing toward us to come to our rescue, but we kindly refused his help.
Finally, we found a good route that seemed promising. It was then that Caroline lost her flip-flop. It started floating ever-so-swiftly downstream. So I ran (as well as one can run in water) to Caroline and took her bag while her and Emily ran after the flip-flop. It was soon recovered, and we continued on our way. As we got closer to the shore, a bunch of people who were washing their clothes started laughing at us (I guess it's not everyday they get entertainment with crazy Nassara), and trying to guide us away from deep holes. It was funny because I would be going along in a nice shallow part, and all of a sudden with my next step, I would sink waist deep into the water.
We did make it across, all four of us with all of our shoes and other belongings. And with one adventure behind us, we set out to find Arlo and his church a little ways up the road.
Church was definitely an experience. Ansley had been there once before, so she warned us, "Ok, when we go in, the girls sit on one side and the boys are on the other." As our eyes adjusted from the bright sunlight, we realized that the women's section was absolutely full. Oh dear. What to do. We then saw a man at the very front of the church motioning for us to come up there. Great. Just what we wanted, to be at the front of the church in plain view of all the members.
The way the church was set up was like this: Two sections of benches facing the pulpit (women on the left, men on the right), and then toward the front there was a middle section facing the pulpit (where the choir/band sat) and two small rows of benches on either side facing the choir/band. We were ushered onto the right side facing the band, and sat down amongst several guys, and Arlo sat with us. So much for segregation.
I had trouble staying awake for most of the sermon since I was tired from working the night shift and I wasn't feeling good (yes, sick again, though not with malaria). But what I did see/hear was really cool. The whole service was in Nangjere, so I didn't really understand it. But the music was great! It was so fun to listen to the band with their various instruments. I can't explain the instruments, so I'll have to take pictures sometime and bring them home. But anyway, we sang in Nangjere (Lorraine, an American Evangelical missionary was sitting next to me with a Nangjere hymnal), and the women danced. It's apparently completely normal for women to stand up in the middle of any song and break out in a dance.
They had a time where they had all the visitors stand up and they introduced us. Then they had the sermon, which I did not follow. After that, there was more music and it was time to give offering. The way they do offering is very different. While the music is going, the men get up, row by row, dance/walk their way to the front of the church and drop their offering in the box. It's like a long continuous circle, because the men come up on the left hand side, walk by the front, drop their offering, and then go back to their seats on the right hand side. Then, when all the men have gone through, the women dance their way to the front and go the opposite way to drop their offering in a different box on the other side of the front of the church. Maybe that was confusing. I wish I could draw a little map. Oh well.
After the offering, they took care of some other church business, and then they asked us four girls to stand again. Slightly confused, we rose to our feet. The pastor at the front of the church then began to talk about us in Nangjere for the next five minutes. When he had finished, he explained in French what he had said.
He thanked us for coming to visit their church, and more than that for coming to their country to aid them as missionaries. He said that we were such a good example for their young people, leaving our families to come far away to help other people.
After prayer, we were dismissed, and all the men went out a side door at the front of the church, and the women exited at the back of the church. We went through a long line of people shaking everyone's hands and greeting them with variations of "Lapia" (the Nangjere greeting word).
I thought we were done, but then the pastor called us over to some benches under a mango tree and asked us to have some tea with them. While we waited, Ansley and Emily joined a large crowd of women who were dancing round in a circle under the mango tree. Then we all gathered together, talked, drank red tea, and had some little cakes they had made. It was so much fun talking to the church pastor and elders; they were really sweet people.
When we finished, we went to Arlo's house and sat down to a huge meal that his family had prepared in honor of us coming. We had boulle with some chicken meat sauces (which I did not try) and a bean leaf sauce that was really good. There were also baguettes and coca colas for us. Once we were absolutely stuffed with good food, they brought out a huge salad with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and ranch dressing, which we ate with our fingers. That was a first, and I'm not sure I would ever want to eat salad with my fingers again; it was quite messy.
As soon as we finished, Caroline and I left because she had to be back for work and I wasn't feeling good. We decided to take a canoe back across the river, and then found a clando driver. The drive back wasn't too bad. At one point, poor Caroline said, "Oh, no! I dropped my glasses!" So we talked to the driver, got him to turn around, and we found her glasses on the road a little way back. Other than that, it was an uneventful trip back to Bere.
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