Palm Sunday

Blog 31/3

 

Happy Easter!

Last Sunday (assuming we manage to post this before Easter Sunday) was Palm Sunday – it is a bit different here!

As well as being Palm Sunday it was also the day for people to join the Mother’s Union – and the MU is a BIG organisation in central Africa. The bishop’s wife had visited us earlier in the week, when Gill was ill (now fully recovered) with a gift of some material and Gill was measured so that this could be made into a skirt and top for her. The result is below:

All the women, it seems, were expected to wear something in this MU material, regardless of whether they were actually MU members or not.

Various times had been given to us for when festivities would start – we’d been told 9:15 (the normal Sunday service time), 8:45 for a procession and 9:00 for something (not clear what!).
We ambled over just before 9:00 and could hear a lot of singing as we walked. This is not an uncommon sound here, groups of all ages often seem to just get together and sing for the fun of it. It is part of the background sound of living here.

Getting nearer we could see a long line of people, mainly people from the Mother’s Union, dancing and singing and processing around the cathedral. We went and sat down in the cathedral and, eventually, the procession found its way into the church. It took a long time for them to dance and sing their way to their seats.

The service proper then began. Services here are always much longer than those we have experienced in the UK. The service we attend is in Lingala, though sometimes it is also in Swahili we think – we aren’t really sure! As mentioned previously there are many languages spoken here, Lingala (a trade language) is the official local language and everyone appears to speak it. Many speak Swahili but the real local language is Lugbara. The official, DRC language is French but many do not speak that at all…Anyway, someone usually comes and sits with us and interprets.
In each service we have been to there are items from choirs. Usually there is a children’s choir (1 song), a “Mother’s Union” choir (2 songs) and a young person’s choir (2 songs). The songs are always rhythmical and quite long but always involve some form of movement/dancing as they sing. People are not at all inhibited and most throw themselves into the whole thing. This Sunday, because other Mother’s Union choirs were present, there were at least 7 or 8 songs – we didn’t keep count.
After songs are notices, not a brief item as the notices are not printed (cost too much) and are given in some detail. However, we never understand them, which may be one reason we are not quite sure what is going on! There are bible readings and a sermon, which is also longer than we are used to. This is usually given in Lingala and simultaneously translated into Swahili. Following the sermon the 120 people wanting to join the MU were individually prayed for. This took a long time, and was followed by another choir…
For the collection (a time of celebration) people bring their offering to the front. Again, as they queue people sing and, again, dance and it takes a long time for everyone to be seated again. Because it was Palm Sunday there was communion. There was standing room only in the church so this also took some time. In the end the service was four and a quarter hours long. Not sure how that would go down at our local church!
Everyone was invited to an African feast after the service and we were with the select who got meat, but there was masses of food that people had been working on all morning. Some people were still dancing and singing and processing. Gill and I went home but went out to see the women’s football match we mentioned last time. We can now report that the final score was Aru 0, Aruwarra 1. However, the game was not without its controversy. Aru believe they scored a goal but the crowd was pressing so much at the goal line that the ball was blocked from crossing the line by Aruwarra supporters. Outrageous! No managers were available for comment.

As we said, things are different here – maybe apart from football controversies….

On a totally different note, we can now see what we’re doing in the kitchen in the evenings. Up until yesterday we relied on a very dim light bulb and torchlight for cooking by. Now we have a nice bright bulb and a new battery to boot! Can’t begin to tell you how much better this is!