Church

When we arrived we decided that we'd like to visit the various churches around our city to see what they're like...turns out there's quite an array.

There are a few churches that have legal status and the accompanying visas for their pastors - in order to serve the expatriate community. The Catholic Church is, I think, the biggest. They maintained their cathedral through some turbulent years, and it is ornately decorated inside with frescoes and mosaics. They hold numerous services each week, in languages from Filipino, Indian, Polish, Korean and Italian to Spanish and French. They also have about 100 nuns here from the same order as Mother Theresa; and they mainly do medical work.

There is a mostly Ghanaian Church that we visited - and it was just like being back in Ghana! The rhythms of the singing were moving - and we aren't that good at moving to them, but the rest of the congregation was! I struggled to even clap in-time to the non-Western beat.
The local Anglican Church has the other cathedral downtown. It is majority Nigerian, with the next population being Indian, and a small minority of Europeans/North Americans/Auzzis/Kiwis. This makes for some very, very interesting cultural dynamics:

Nigerians are the Ushers, and this is a serious position. If you sit too near the back, they will ask you to 'shift' - to move up to the closest seat to the front that's available. The goal being to fill in every seat from front to back. Women sit to the right of the isle, and men on the left side. Secondly, beware of falling asleep during the service or else the usher will walk down the isle and nudge your elbow! Likewise, when the Egyptian Bishop was visiting, he would pause in his preaching to wait for latecomers find their seats!

Even the resident pigeons mind their p's and q's. Usually they restrain themselves to cooing and mild flapping about as they navigate the rafters. Only one time have I seen anything fall -yet that that was not during a service, and only hit an uninhabited side isle. Very impressive.

Three other things I find amusing: 1) The building sports some exceptionally well done paint-by-number religious artwork. 2) The responsive readings become a race, with many reading as fast as they can (to sport their English skills??). And 3) The Nigerians lead their own songs before the main service starts; you have to listen hard to realize that they are singing in English, and sometimes I even have to ask the person next to me what they're saying because the African-English accent is so think.

Btw, it's still a little strange to be with the church on Fridays, and at work on Sundays!