Bells ringing, birds singing...paradise?

My goal is to provide you with a balanced view of our new life in Soyo. To that end, this blog posting will give you some insight into the colorful experiences we have had this week but also to let you know about a few surprising challenges. 

Bells ringing...Last Sunday we decided to attend the Mpinda Catholic Church mass. We had a great experience at the downtown church which was close to our Kimbumba neighborhood, however, we wanted to experience mass at the “oldest Catholic church in western South Africa”, Mpinda. Boy did we hit the jackpot! OK, maybe the wrong use of terms…the “Bingo” of all masses!  Our driver took us for what we thought was a one hour mass and we arrived at 9AM. The actual mass did not start until 9:30AM and upon our arrival we could tell that this was not going to be an ordinary mass celebration. There were trucks and buses around the mission. People were already starting to gather outside, sitting on tree trunks and logs. The church benches were portable and were being transported outside near a make-shift altar under the many tall and majestic mango trees. After asking one of the ladies wearing a sash (I figured she was an usher) if mass was to be held outside, she nodded and welcomed us. We immediately laid claim to the edge of one of the tree logs and took our seats. What followed kept our attention and brought smiles to our faces every moment. A lady by the name of Magdalena (yeah…bible reference there!) looked like she wanted to sit beside us, so I invited her in my best Portuguese…OK, so I’m still working on it…but it was “my” best. She immediately sat next to us and after a few minutes asked her mother (who happened to be an usher) to bring us a bench. Magdalena explained that this was a very special mass. One of the priests was celebrating his 25^th anniversary as a priest and there was a married couple celebrating their 25^th wedding anniversary. Many of the parishes around the area had come for this celebration. Shortly after that, one of the men ushers invited us (and Magdalena) to sit in one of the chairs up front! Wow…What hospitality! I guess we stuck out like a sore thumb too…we were the ones with the big eyes and the jaws dropping every time we saw another bus or truck droping off another load of parishioners.  At 9:30AM, a choir of ladies stood in front of the church as the bells were ringing to sing and sway. The mass started about a half hour later. The singing, dancing (yes, dancing) and praying was amazing. I captured several videos of the event and some of them are attached below for your enjoyment. At first I felt a bit irreverent about videoing the mass. However, once I saw one of the priests videoing  with his iPad from the altar, I figured it was fair game! By the way, I videoed him videoing…too funny to pass up! We stayed until 12:30 PM as we had to leave for a luncheon. After 3 hours, the mass had progressed to the offertory song and ritual which was quite impressive. Unfortunately, we were not able to stay for communion. Our new friend, Magdalena, had to leave as well. She is a nurse and had to get to work by 1PM that day. We gave her a ride back to town. I rationalized that God would understand our leaving early. Let me assure you that we enjoyed every moment of the time we were there!

  

Our new friend Magdalena

Birds singing…Every morning we awaken to the sound of many different birds singing outside our bedroom. They come and go all day, but are an especially welcome addition to our morning routine. I don’t know if I am romanticizing their appearance or their song, but these are the most beautiful and melodious birds I have ever seen and heard. Some look like martins, others look like small finches with green bellies. I need to research these soon to be more informed about these species. There are also doves and pigeons that fly in and out. For those of you who remember my mother, you’ll know that the doves are very special to us, as “La paloma” is a special song that reminds all of us of her. I like to think that she is watching over us as we begin our new life here in Soyo.

"La paloma" perched on top of our house annex in the backyard

The water and power story…Here in Soyo, power and water supply are shut down from time to time without warning. If you happen to be in the shower at the time, you are out of luck! The good news in the time that we have been here is that these services have usually been restored within 10-15 minutes. I have heard that others have experience longer delays. We have learned to have patience. Maybe that is a good time to relax and say a prayer? Most of the Angolan nationals in the city of Soyo do not have running water or electricity in their homes. It is quite an experience to ride around town in the evenings as there are hardly any lights on anywhere. Every now and then, however, we see some Soyo residents enjoying their favorite pastime of watching a TV outside of their house, with many family and friends gathered around a 10-12” screen. We are guessing that a small minority of the residents must have a generator and satellite dish or TV antennae. Quite an interesting sight! After seeing this at night and seeing many of them carrying very heavy water containers to their homes during the day, it is hard to complain about our temporary utilities outages.

We were informed this week that the first and second graders at the local schools would start preparing for testing next week. Also, their classes would end in November. Therefore, our school trips would cease until the beginning of  February. This came as a disappointment to me and the rest of the expat spouses, as these visits are one of the highlights of our week. The children are always eager to engage in the arts and crafts projects and seeing their faces light up as we come to help them is such a rewarding experience. We traveled to one of the mission schools on Friday to deliver some goody bags filled with chocolates, pencils, balloons, etc. and said our goodbyes for the semester. This trip was not without divine intervention. You can be the judge...Although we did not have an exact count of the students that were in class that day, one of the ladies had included a few extra goody bags to ensure we had enough. To our amazement, we had exactly enough for each one of the students in each of the 3 classes. We even stopped before entering the last classroom, to count the bags, as we thought that we did not have enough for the last class. We ended up with exactly one bag for each student, not one more, not one less. The story of the fish and loaves comes to mind! God was working with us. These children were ever so grateful. One class sang a song for us. Such a great group of children. Do you know how they like to say goodbye? They blow us kisses! Does it get any more rewarding than that??

Mpinda mission school class making flower baskets

The expat ladies had planned a trip to Kinwika Hotel, a very small local hotel, for coffee and tea after our trip to the school to deliver the goody bags. We were surprised by some of the "visitors" we had while sitting outdoors. "Mr. Billy the Kid" joined us and treated us to a "serenade". OK, so maybe he was complaining that we were invading his space...but we chose to enjoy his "serenade". One of the ladies in our group kept making eye contact with him, which seemed to encourage his advances. We suggested that she ignore him and it seemed to work. :-) Then the guineas chose to join in with their singing as well. I shot a video of Billy so that you could get the feeling that you were there with us. Enjoy!

Last week, I told you about the challenges we face here trying to get food for the table and to shop for things that we as expats consider "necessities". I was able to go to the different markets in town with one of my neighbors and her driver. I was thrilled to get plantains and African sweet potatoes (they are white not orange...but are very tasty). Also, on another drive around town with my driver, I found a mop. The little things keep us happy here. :-)

The local market where I found sweet potatoes

Once again, I have managed to ramble on about everyday life here. If you cannot tell by now, we are adjusting to our new surroundings just fine. Of course, the wonderful expats here have made us feel very much at home. Their great sense of humor, hospitality and their very valuable advice before coming here has made this a "soft landing" for us.