Church

Today I went to church. While I am not religious at all, Charles, someone helping me with my research, who is responsible for Sunday school for the little children, insisted I would visit his African gospel church. So I did. I put on my nicest shirt and set off on foot to see how Christianity is practiced here in Kenya.

When I came in, most people were shocked to see a wazungu (white person) visiting their church and this I could see on their faces. I picked a chair in the back so I would not attract too much attention and settled down to enjoy the show, and a show it was. Religion in the gospel church consists out of a lot of singing, dancing and worshipping. I liked the music, the dancing and I enjoyed just watching them.

Then the bishop came to preach and tell stories from the bible. He asked if there were new people in the church, and invited them to introduce themselves in front of the whole church (+-200 people). I already had a bad feeling after he said this, and yes of course: you sir in the back, please introduce yourself to us.

While others introduced themselves by saying: I greet you all and the lord, praise Jesus, and more, I had no idea what to do. So I started telling some things about myself, my name, where I was from and what I was doing in Kenya, and everybody looked at me and thought, what is he doing. Embarrassed and with a red head I managed to leave the stage, without mentioning the lords name even once.

After this, they started worshipping which I found pretty scary. People started talking to god, some even screaming, some were even in a sort of trance state while some of the women were even hysterically crying. I was shocked. Never had I seen or expected this, like I said, it was quite scary. And after another preaching session (of 1,5 hours) it was finished and I went back home. An interesting experience it was, though.