Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Religion
I have discovered what the little spare money of El Porvenir has mainly been spent on. Speaker systems and large amps for the numerous churches. One could say rather unnecessary considering the volume of music verses people in church (usually more people in the band than in the congregation). This happy clappy evangelcism booms out every night from all directions. Raquel, a cousin of one of our students tricked us into goping for a 3 hour seeion at her church on Wednesday. When I say tricked, I mean she smiles constantly, giggles and makes us feel like awful humand beings for not being as nice as her. So, when she asked we couldnt refuse-on excepting invite we got a text message saying ´I love you my beautiful friend, sweet dreams, god bless you´. Yep, there was no way out of this one.
So, Wednesday arrives and we are sure that the huge thunderstorm which has turned our little dirt track outside of our house into a white water rapid course will put her off coming to get us...but oh no, 7pm on the dot she arrives with her 2 brothers and off we trot/ trudge our way through puddles and rampant frogs to church.
There is A LOT of clapping (happily) and Amen-ing. We get a special mention and stand to an applause (there is ALWAYS a good excuse for an applause and a hallelujah) and the whole church comes over to give us a hug.
"Gringos (there was not the time to explain that I am NOT a gringo), van a dejar que Dios en sus corazones?!" we are questioned by the minister- and as always with Spanish it takes me a good 30 seconds to translate anything by which point Ive already made a gesture of shrugging my shoulders. By the time Id worked out that he was asking us if we would let God into our hearts Ive realised the gesture of shrugging probably wasnt translated as "I dont understand you" to "NAhhhh your alrght, not fussed mate."
So whilst Raquel sand merrily next to me and i joined in on the "Señor Jesuuuuus" parts "Mister Jeeeeesus" I got the occassional friendship hand squeeze from her, as well as a few strokes on my back and even being written love notes from her which said "We love you!" Ahh sweet.
I treid to piece together some of what the crazy man at the front waving his hands around very very dramatically was saying. What ever it was he was very passionate and was very excitable. Over 2 hours or so later of solid back to back songs and people going slightly Christian crazy, pumping the air, wooping and hugging I was transfixed. A thought came to me... you know when you watch clips on the History Channel of Hitler and the Nuremburg rallies... (stay with me here) Hitler is getting the crowd all pumped up and excited...youve got no idea what he is saying but his charisma and enthusuism makes you kinda feel pumped up to go harm the nearest jew and invade some neighbouring countries because you believe the guy at the front getting all worked up must be passionate for a good reason? Well, church here is kind of like this. Im not sure anyone knew what was going on but they are all ready to sign up, with their bottles of sulphuric acid.
After we had all been prayed for and had all of our sins washed away we celebrated with fizzy pop.
Other religious experiences so far include me insisting our house go check out why there was a man with a guitar in our neighbours front yard. "Oh cute theyve made a little stage and all our neighbours are there watching, lets go!"
Now, in our defence we had no idea it was a religious event so when we wondered in still sipping our rum and cokes by the time we had sat down to a lecture on the evils of drink and being a bad neighbour it was too late. However, this service was cute, very charming and if only you could turn down the volume on the speaker system (again very unnecessary considering we were sat at thje back, which was only 5 metres from the front) Id enjoy it. If Granny Dyer came here at least she wouldnt have anything to complain about on not being able to hear, she could probably turn her hearing aid off infact.
Again, all our neighbours were very welcoming and happy we had come. Lots of "peace be with you" handshakes and instisting we were loved by god, even if we did drink the forbidden fruit of rum.
Nery our incredibly cute neighbours daughter tapped happily away at her tamberine. This was rural version of church, amongst all gods creatures, the deadly snakes, tarantulas and cockroaches. I liked it. And afterwards I felt cleansed, like eating a healthy salad.
- comments