Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies

WTA. Welcome to Africa. It can be said when we see someone urinating on the street. When we can't move in traffic because the zemidjans (motorbike taxis, pronounced "zimmy johns") are in cutting in front of us. When we sit in church at the hospitality center and women we haven't met hand us their infants. WTA. It's similar to saying TIA (This is Africa), but more fun.

This morning I went to church at the hospitality center. It's a building where recovering patients can stay, or patients who aren't strong enough to receive surgery yet. We were immediately adopted by the braver of the children. There was a young girl who went around hugging everyone and holding our hands. She would laugh and tease us. It looked like she had some scar tissue on her neck that made movement difficult. There was a little boy who had a huge facial tumor on the right side of his head. It looked like someone had possibly put acid on that area, as it appeared burned. He liked to sit on laps and give us all high fives. There was an eight month old baby girl who looked and weighed about as much as a newborn. Her cleft lip/cleft pallet is so severe she cannot create suction, and therefore she cannot eat. She is at the center until she can gain enough weight for surgery.

Church was very different. A man asked me to be quiet, because we were in the presence of the Lord. I felt annoyed at him initially, because church hadn't started yet, but I tried to be respectful, and as I did so, I thought about how reverent he is. I don't treat the house of God with as much respect as I should. After all, it is holy ground. The service started off with a young man preaching in French. A woman enthusiastically, if not very intelligibly, translated for him. Next there was worship. That was the time to be loud! The man who had talked to me earlier tried to get me to be more demonstrative. They sang, clapped, shouted, and danced with abandon. I clapped, danced a little, and unsuccessfully tried to hold back tears. It was amazing to see the passion of these people as they worshiped God! Finally, a dignified older man gave a sermon in English with translations into French. It ended up not being very long, only about an hour, and after we played with the children more. I am looking forward to going to visit again.

*I put some pictures on Facebook. I will not be putting too many pictures on here, as this is an open blog. Facebook has privacy settings. If you don't have Facebook, email me at earllgirl@hotmail.com with your email address and I will try to send you the pictures.