The Church Comes to VVOCF

The African Pentecostal church approached Nomusa and asked if they could hold a service at the centre Friday for heritage day. Nomusa agreed hoping it would bring exposure for VVOCF in the community. So they came Friday morning with a huge rented tent that they put up in the front yard. The church members were all dressed from head to toe in these green outfits. Many of the children came as well. For some reason the priests asked Naveed to sit up front with them facing the congregation. It was hilariously awkward: there's Naveed sitting next to 6 priests, reverends and an archbishop. I was seated among the church ladies near the back. The service began and went on, and on, and on! It lasted for nearly 4 hours (all in Zulu) with speeches and sermons and lots and lots of loud singing. Whenever any speech ended or anyone entered the tent someone would stand and burst into song which everyone else heartily joined in on. A different person started each song, we wonder if it was planned or if they were just moved at random to start singing. At the end of the service Naveed and I were asked to stand up and each say something so we talked about how honored we were to be there and to pray with them and hear the lovely singing. After this the church had brought a donation of breads and pies and cakes which we fed to the children. The collection plate was passed around then the priests blessed the money and donated it to the centre. Later the priests cornered Naveed and basically forced him into agreeing to have a meeting with them next Friday, they want us to come to their church and something was said about sponsoring them...they think we have money because we are white. Nomusa was upset that they cornered Naveed who was just trying to be polite. She said Friday we should hide and she would talk to them and tell them we are here to volunteer at VVOCF and don’t have time or money for their church. So that was an interesting experience to say the least...
Our main struggle here is the language barrier. We also have a lot of free time in the evenings. It gets dark around 6 so we're just in our room reading or watching movies and shows that we downloaded before we got here until we go to sleep. Saturday night there was a very loud dance party in the street a little ways away from the centre. The music went on until the early morning and even from our room it was louder than even Naveed's music in his car when he’s driving!
Church pictures are coming soon!
Love,
The Wandering Two