Sunday, January 08, 2006 This first story is probably boring. Skip down a few paragraphs.

I just got back from church. "How exotic!", you might think, "Church in Benin? It must be totally different!" Different doesn't even begin to describe church, beninese style. First, let me say this isn't my first time to church in country (or in Parakou for that matter) but it did mark my first visit to a church of Christianisme Celeste (pardon the spelling) which is a sect unique only to Benin. From what I'd heard prior to my visit today was that it was an odd mix of voodoo/traditional beliefs and Christianity. It's certainly an odd mix, but I'll have to confess my experience didn't really show that many voodoo elements at all. In fact, a large portion of the sermon today was condemning those who mix voodoo and Christianity. Yeah, it was odd.

The service itself was long. Really, really, really long. Like 5 hours long. Literally. Okay, I'm lying. The actual service itself was only three hours... but then there was a 90 minute meeting, followed by another 20 minutes of service. So yeah. Long.

Upon entering the grounds of a Christian-Celeste Church you're obliged to remove your shoes. Many of the attendees simply walk to service barefoot, pre-clothed in their church attire. Church attire is all white. Men wear long robes somewhat akin to a Jalab (which it turns out is spelled with an 'L') and women a somewhat modified two piece white bhumba, with a mandatory floofy white hat. The hat looks a lot like a deflated chef's hat.

Service itself starts with everyone bowing with heads touching the floor, all facing the central altar which is adorned with a 7-place candelabra and a portrait of Jesus. There was also a painted mural behind with quite a bit of Christian religious symbolism (doves, olive branches, crosses and the like). There was lots of talking while everyone was bowed, in Fon... so I have no idea what it meant. I just know that there was lots of people saying wiwé. I have no idea what that means. After lots of talking there was singing, dancing and music. After one song, everyone went down to their knees and more talking to the altar and wiwé-ing. This was repeated seven times, with each talking section being somewhat different and slowly more directed towards the people in the room. At least three offerings were taken (and tabulated during the service). I'm not sure if I understood, but I think not enough money was collected near the end so they had another offering at the end.

The music was awesome, really, really awesome. So awesome that people went crazy. Literally, they were at least 3 or 4 people that started flailing about and screaming and had to be removed until they could calm down. It was a bit odd, but since no one reacted too strongly I guess stuff like that happens all the time. The element of trances may have been one of the voodoo derived elements... but I'm certainly no expert in that field.

All in all it was interesting, and I'm happy that I went. I don't think I'll likely be going back though... it was a bit too much for me. I just have to figure out a way to tell the guy that took me that it's not for me while remaining culturally sensitive.

If you're still with me (or you skipped down here, for shame!) I do have a funny story too. I started trying to learn a bit of local language with Seraphine, my kick-ass secretary lady at the Mairie... who I unfortunately don't see much of any more. Such as that is, we were going over some simple words and phrases. Things like "good work", "thanks", "good morning", "how are you?" and the like. A common phrase here in French is "bon travail" (good work), which is pretty damn useful. You say it to people who are working, vendors who are bugging you, or to compliment a completed job. Dendi has two ways to say it, one is literally "bon travail", and the other is sort a of a mix between "thanks" and "bon travail". It's something you'd say if someone went and got you something. The complete phrase for the mixed one is "naa gbei". Well, it turns out if you're white like me... the word "gbei" is hard to say. So, trying to say "gbei" I said "bei". After getting a nearly dead from laughing Seraphine back in her chair and breathing I found out that "bei" means "vagina" (literally "womb", but it's everyone uses the word "womb" for vagina here except for doctors). So, while I was trying to say "good work"... yeah, I was saying "good vagina".