African church ululation

We've visited 3 different churches here in Ouaga, and each one has lived up to my expectations of African worship - lively, joyful and with a smattering of dance moves. Oh, and women ululating (long, high-pitched sounds) at any given moment. It's all a lot of fun to be part of. The first church we visited was a Baptist one up the road from our place. It was quite large, with ceiling fans, a data projector, full band and a choir in matching 'uniform'. The music was great, and everyone around us (who wasn't white, which was most people) knew all the actions to the songs. I found myself wriggling my hips along with the rest of them - you just feel stupid standing there motionless.

The 2nd week we went with some missionaries to a church which is part of the 'Evangelical Churches' union here and is supported by SIM (our mission organisation). It was a long car ride away in a village-like setting where everyone lives in mud brick houses. This church was a world away from the Baptist one of the previous week's visit. The church was a simple small building with backless benches for seats, and mats on the floor for the kids. Instruments were improvised and sounded fantastic! I don't think they even do music rehearsal before church. One guy played a bongo drum, and just picked up a beat after the ladies in the choir started singing. Another guy sat on a wooden box and played it like a drum. So natural!

Jon committed a cultural faux pas by sitting down with me on the left side - only to realise that he was surrounded by women and all the men were sitting on the right side. Thankfully another missionary couple came in, and sat together on the women's side. They whispered some helpful advice, that it was sometimes good to break with tradition and show others that it is more important to keep families together. Jon stayed put.

The whole service was in French and Moore (pronounced 'moray'), which is the dialect most spoken in Ouaga. The songs were all in Moore and there were no song books (and obviously no data projector). This church was obviously poorer than the Baptist one, but the people were very welcoming. Everyone wanted to shake our hand afterwards, and we had to stand up and introduce ourselves during the service.

Yesterday we went with some other missionaries to another SIM church that meets in someone's garage. They were having a special 'women's day' where women from all the SIM churches in Ouaga come together and perform in their choirs. It means a much longer service than normal...try 4 hours, from about 8am to midday. The church association prints special fabric to celebrate such events, so it looked like a lot of people were in uniform. But such a cool uniform it is - 'Jesus saves' and selected Bible verses are printed on the fabric.

The service was long and the room was hot. I carry a straw fan with me, and a large bottle of water, while the Africans carry neither. Again the service was in French and Moore, and again there were really unique instruments. One lady carried a large bowl with cowrie shells attached to its rim. She threw this repeatedly in the air in time to the music, spinning it slightly as she threw. A man clanged 2 pieces of metal together - with rhythm.

The visiting pastor spoke in Moore (with a French translator) about the importance of forgiveness, as the theme for the day was 'pardon'. He was dressed for the occasion in a white shirt and sparkly-striped vest and bow tie.

And Jon sat with the women again.

Cathlin