Mass

At 7:30 this morning, we caught a crazy taxi and drove over to Our Lady of Assumption Catholic church in Accra. It was the most beautiful building I've seen so far - okay, it's in a close tie with the hotel Villagio near the Accra Mall which is where I hear President Obama will be staying when he comes to Accra on July 11. But still, the church is surrounded by dirt roads and extremely modest houses, but it has beautiful stained glass windows! Plus, everyone wears his or her best clothes to church, so everyone looks very glamorous. In fact, many of the people in the congregation who are members of different church organizations have a shirt or a dress made of fabric that has a pattern saying the name of the organization! The organization gives them the fabric, and then they have it made into any piece of clothing to wear.

It's amazing how halfway across the globe, there are just so many things about a Catholic service that never change. Two of the other volunteers who went to church with me were Catholic, and they knew exactly what to say when and where. It was pretty cool!

This Catholic church was slightly spicier than I'm used to, though :) Their choir was SO GOOD, and I read in the program that they had about 8 different choirs, and this one wasn't even the most prestigious. Plus, accompanying the choir were a few marvelous drummers! The choir would sway and belt, and the drummers would beat those drums to death. During the offertory, people would dance up the aisles to put a few Cedi in the pot. Then, after the conventional offertory, they had a REAL offering. Many many people had brought food, and they processed up the aisles to put bread, and eggs, and bananas, and any other food they could make up to the alter. One of the other volunteers thought that the food would later be donated to charity.

Finally, near the end of the service, they asked for people with birthdays and anniversaries to come to the front and be blessed. Then the choir sang a beautiful arrangement of the birthday song! The Father then came over the small children with the microphone and asked them how old they were turning. The kids loved it, and they were so so cute!

Weirdly enough, we also ran into Robert, the ophthalmic nurse I've been working with all week, at church. It was a cool surprise! I'm definitely going back to church next Sunday :)