AGLA and Zion Bar

Sunday, November 29th

On Sunday morning, I went back to AGLA which is a Pentacostal church, which I have attended to before and have enjoyed.

It was the same as my prior experience but the sermon was about do not worry. The pastor said do not worry about what you are going to eat after this service. That is a reality here. Most people here are fed and I haven't seen anyone starving like you see in photos. My experience here is that Africans live day to day and they are happy. I haven't met an unhappy African. Their lives are hard here but they are joyous. I am sure it is different in war torn counties and countries that have less amount of money but they are happy.

The church has wooden benches, dirt floor, three walls, a roof and that is it. But these people come and worship and dance and they sit through the 4 hour service without fans.

There is always a women who walks around and makes sure people stay awake. She taps on someone if they have fallen asleep. It makes me laugh every time i see this.

There was one boy there who I didn't see last time and he had orange hair which is due to protein deficiency. It made me said to see him and he looked said. He didn't smile like the other children, it broke my heart.

After the service, the pastor invited all of us over to his house for lunch. I was excited but was thinking I am going to get sick.

There was about 15 of us from Mercy Ships there. They had prepared for us to come. There were metal plates all set out for us and they were excited to have us. I saw one of the day volunteers there and she was so excited to see me. I haven't gotten that warm of welcome in a long time. It made me smile.

We entered his house and it was nice. They had tile floor and everything seemed to be clean and there was windows with shutters. The food was still cooked outside but it was overall nice.

We sat down and they brought out the appetizer (for a lack of a better word). It was a baguette and some bean soup that had some animal parts in it. I managed to stay clear of the animal parts and eat the beans and tit was good.

For the main meal, they served us fish (skin, fin and bones) in this red sauce. It was served with dried yams that are turned into a flour mixtures and boiled with water. I am unsure how to describe the texture but it doesn't have much flavor - it is a stomach filler. This is a typical meal here.

The food wasn't too bad but it was hard to eat this fish with the bones still in it. One of the bones got stuck in the roof of my mouth.

After we all ate, the pastor had hired a photographer to take a group photo because it was the last time that we will be able to go to the church because the ship is leaving.

FYI- I didn't get sick

In the afternoon, Christina and I, met up with the translators again. This time they took us to a reggae bar on the beach. When we arrived we saw other yovos (white people) which was strange and they weren't people we knew. I think it is odd to see other foreigners here. There was some older gentlemen who were with younger African women and it was obvious that the women were prostitutes or escorts or both.

We just sat around, had a drink and talked. We watched the sunset which was beautiful against the ocean. Then I got to see stars! I will miss seeing the sky from here. There is no light pollution to block you from seeing the stars.