a sunday service

Hello everyone,
We had a lovely storm last week it was amazing, much noise! So last week was sort of just a week, nothing really special happened I dont think. Lizzie is still unwell, the new threoy is that she has a parasite in her intestines, sounds nice! So she is on tablets again, but yesterday she went backj to the clinic because she wasnt getting any better and she has to go back for yet abother test today, but they changed the way she took her tablets so this time she might actually start getting better. It has been really weird going to Vaz without her, it's been about three weeks now since she went. But we have retreat next week so that will be really nice, luxurious desert island! Yay.
I thought that since not much has hapopened I would tell you what a typical sunday service is like here, couldnt be much more different to what I am used to. Not entirely sure how it starts as i tend to keep missing that bit, although not my fault honest, but normally for the first hour/ hour and a half there is lots of singing, after the first half hour of just random songs the apostles creed is said in Ndau and then we read the greta commandment and the beatitudes in either Ndau or Portuguese, then we go back to singing but this time someone will stand up and say "in first place i thank god for bringing us all here etc, and in second place i praise god for..., and i want to sing..." then we sing, Generally the songs are in ndau which everyone atthe church speaks as a first language, nbut soemtimes in Portuguese, and one person leads it, we are priviledged in our church to have a keyboard, ehich they prgramme funky disco beats into and then play one of three tuns that they know, whether it fits the song we are singing or not. During this praise time ythe youth, that includes me!, stand up the front in a long line and dance, generally side stepping and clapping, and some others stand in the aisle dancing as well. Then after the singing we say the lords prayer, i think, in ndau and have the sermon. at this point i attempt to understand the portuguese translation then give up and read the passage that it is based on and disappear into a world of my own, trying to keep half an ear open in case i hear the words 'irma raquel' or 'inglaterre' then i know they are talikng about me so i just smile and nod along, generally works quite well. After the sermon, normally about half and hour or so. someone else comes up and gives a word about the sermon, i think they generally jsyt retell itin their own words, i enjoy this biut because it normally the pastor and he jumps around all over the church acting it out, wearing the altar table cloth as a capulana, hes very funny.
Then we come to the offerings so all the youth , yes including me, go outside and process in , dancing, and singing, we then stand in the aisle sing about four songs again dancing, and eventually make our donation, the the atevistas do the same thing, they are the older ladies in the church, occassionally joined by a couple of men, they do really groovy dancing, and everyone else gives their offering. then we sing a more sombre song and have the notices, including how much monmey was given. At some point in the serv ice there is a prayer session biut it vhanges every week and every so often it is jyust announced 'vamos ora' and everyone starts praying, quite loudly at the same time in portuguese or ndau, or english in my case, its great! So that is a typical service, the shortest one thjat i have been to was about 2 hours 45 mins, but they can go on for much longer, Sophie and amber had a surprise wedding the other week and were there for five hours, then force fed lunch so they got hiome about 20 to five, in time to wash their feet and run out to international fellowhip.
Mozambicans are very fond of force feeding you,and it shows that you really valuse someone if you just sit with them not talking, just being, useful when you dont speak the language. Yesterday i lost Rosa after church and didnt know how i was going to get home, but i ended up at the pastors eating cold baked sweet poatoes, yummy, and then having lunch. we have learnt to be really carful about telling peoiple we like magoes as they normally then go out and buy some, juyst for you, and since you buy magoes in lots of five, thats a lot of mango to eat. Its quite fuinny though because when marina was at pastor samuels the other day i came round after an english lesson and he said to her ahh now this girls loves her coffee, i do not love coffee, but at his house they mix it with so much sugar that it is more coffee flavoured sugar water!
I think that that will do you for now :) might not blog next week, sorry, but i will be lying on a beach in the lovely hot sun surrounded by palm trees on an island, shame really.
xxx