Church Fun

Church!
I did it, I finally went to the last Church in my village. I saved the one without an actually physical church building for last. Being at this church it made me realize what church may have been like when the missionaries first arrived. It was held inside an open fale. All of the children sat on the fala on the floor, while they had a tented area for the adults to sit. When I arrived I began to go to the back, and someone lead my all the way to the front to be with the children.
There was a lot of singing as there was a little church band. Some of the woman began chanting aloud “Praise the lord” at the top of their lungs. They reminded me of the people that sometimes jump onto the subway cars or NYC busses screaming that and other religious expressions.
After the church we all headed down towards the end of town to the sami (ocean) where there is a vaita’ele(pool). They began to baptize a few of the people in the congregation. It was very unique because I never saw this before. It is amazing how everyone is involved whether they enter the water or not.
After the baptism I went with the faife’au to the to’ona’i. Another person visiting from American Samoa was also there. We enjoyed a delicious meal with three different soups as well as many other delicious foods. At the meal they convinced me to come back at 4 for the children’s service. (They lured me in with the thought of receiving pancakes. Trust me Samoan pancakes are so amazing they would make you attend anything to in hope that you would get them.)
I spent the afternoon relaxing as I knew there would be plenty of church in the evening. Three of the churches were meeting at 6 in the evening for a service where they will have their different choirs perform. Rumor on the auala is that one of the churches decided not to attend because they wanted to be last on the program and they were not.
I went to the falesa at 4. There was a lot of dancing and singing. It reminded me of a talent show as people came up with their requests on a piece of paper, and then they were called up to perform. The youth group did perform and they had pretty remarkable dances as well. I was asked to go to the front of the service and onto the microphone to introduce myself and tell little tidbits of information to make everyone realize how interesting of a person I am so they will feel the desire to get to know me.
The clock was quickly approaching six, and I did not want to be late to the other service. I quietly excused myself, which I knew made a scene because again I was placed in the front.
Someone saw me on the auala and offered me a ride to the Iglesia. When I stepped inside I was greeted by the different people from the three churches and asked to sit at the front. (Something I should be getting used to!)
All of the faife’au gave their sermon and the different congregations began to sing like angels. I was asked to sing with the Aso Fitu Falesa (Seventh Day Adventist) as they are the church of my family. I went to only a few of their practices as I have been busy running around meeting the different people of my village.
The rest of the congregations sang from their seats, but like normal, guess which group got to get out of their seats and stand in front of everyone to perform. I don’t know if it is because we are the smallest congregation as there are only a few families in our church. But I still think it was partly due to the fact that they wanted me in the front of the room to sing.
Church ended around 9 at night and I was pooped! I had spent around eight hours at church that day. Going to church was beginning to feel like a full time job. I can tell you that I was excited to realized that the holidays were over, as the long church services were about to come to an end.
I am beginning to see an appreciation for church more and more as it is a great way to bring the community together, but it is difficult when I come from a society where there is not as big of an emphasis put on attending.