church

Going to church
I’ve been in Samoa only a little over 2 months and have visited 5 different congregations here. If you were to ask someone who has been living in Samoa to explain the importance of church they will tell you how it is similar to living in a Muslim country, only with Christianity.
Part of the reason why religion is so important here is because the missionaries who came back in the day are the ones who introduced Samoans to education. Before then there was no formal education system in place here. Some of the religious schools are the better schools in the country. For example the only schools that I have heard that have computers that actually work, and internet are Momona (Morman) schools.
Everywhere you go everything is started with a prayer and usually ends with a prayer. This can be seen at meals, school, ceremonies, and other places. It is difficult entering this world when you are not used to it. It seems really odd for me that at the start of every school day the children are praying. (Especially since I will be working in a public school.) I wouldn’t have expected this at a US Government event, but at our swearing in as Volunteers, a priest was present.
I started off my time in Samoa with going to the Catholic Church for White Sunday. This was the only church that I went to while I was in Apia. This church held services both in English and in Samoan. The two types of services had a few differences which surprised me. Services for the Catholic Church are about an hour long.
When we moved to Manunu the family I stayed with was Momona and so every Sunday we trekked to the next town over to Sauniatu for church. Sauniatu is a village owned by the Momona Church. Walking through that town reminds me of those movies like Pleasantville where every house is perfect, the lawn is perfect, there are even solar panels to heat the water for showers. Wherever there is a Morman Church there are also activities for the children. Every Morman church that I have seen has had a basketball court, many have volleyball nets, and others have fields to play rugby.
Going to the Morman Church is a full day affair for my family. We were in the second ward so service was supposed to be from 12-3. However, since the walk was about twenty minutes, we often left before 11 to ensure we got there in time. The first two hours are for Sunday School. Sunday School is for both children and adults. The last hour we all got together to have the full service.
Manunu had only one church, the EKFS church (Congregational Christian). One day I joined the other Pisi Koa who go weekly to the youth service of the church. It was quite different than anything I’ve been to. It was made up of all singing and dancing. They showcased the importance of not being in a gang and saying no to drinking. It was very impressive.
Romo, the pastor of the EKFS church, invited us to represent the village at the district church day. They described it to us as a singing competition where all the villages get together to showcase themselves as they sing their best song. The event was called the Me. For a little over 2 weeks we held singing practice daily. All of us squabbled a lot as we didn’t like anyone else’s ideas and for them to keep us in school for so long (8-4:30 felt long enough as it was!) . We had Maka playing the piano, then others didn’t like it because the piano had a funky beat to it. Maka decided he would join the rest of us singing, and we became one of the few accapello singing groups of Samoa. The day of the event we went to the EKFS church to practice at their service. They seemed to approve of all the hard work we put into it and were ready to head over to the church in Saoluafata to perform. We were the sixth group out of eight to perform.
It seemed as though there were hundreds of people packed into the church (as well as outside). Many people in our village showed up to support us, along with a few current volunteers! For some reason they decided for us to be the only group to get up on stage to perform. I think everyone was a little shocked to see us going up on stage without a keyboardist. However once we started singing in Samoan the crowd burst into applause. It felt weird for them to applaud us, as no one else seemed to be getting the same appreciation as we were getting. The event ended up being a huge success and the village was extremely proud of us.
The fourth church I went to was the Seventh day Advent Church. The family I am staying with in Savai’i is a member of this church. They go to church twice on Saturdays to recognize the Sabbath. The building is big enough to hold many people, however only 3 families are members of this church. After the first service the members of the church came to our house to have the to’ganati. We then went back in the evening. The evening service was put on by the children and they called on people for prayer and song.
Being a volunteer part of my job is to get to know the community and the easiest way to do this is to go to church, so I went back again the next day (Sunday) to the Methodist church. I met some of the members of the Methodist church a few days prior because they were having a party that I decided to attend. There was music, dancing and volleyball which made it a good time.
There are 2 more churches in my village that I plan to attend in the upcoming weeks and plan on going church hopping to make sure I see them all without spending my entire weekend in church. Since my school is made up of 3 villages I plan to visit those other churches too, so I can get to know my students before the school year starts.
This weekend I spend five and a half hours at church, which is a lot, especially for someone who rarely went to church or synagogue in America. So to celebrate it being over (although I kept being invited to other late services, which I politely decilined) I went to the beach with my brother. It was great place to unwind and take a nap on the beach. (Although my sunburn on my face might not agree! At least at the beach you still have to be covered up(long shorts and teeshirts), so I did not get it elsewhere.)
Tomorrow I will be meeting with Lasela and we will do our own celebration for Chanukkah. (It is amazing how many different religions you can be involved inn within one week!)