l'eglise

where to begin? okay so last wednesday i went to church with one of the women who lives with Ida. it was kind of like a wednesday night prayer service. so we get there, late of course, and the preacher is saying his part in french and then someone translates into fon. everything was fine and normal then he says that we are going to pray for strength to withstand evil others may seek to put upon us (remember this is the homeland of voodoo). he rings a bell and everyone immediately bursts out passionately praying out loud with emphasis and feeling. can you imagine? one minute the church was quiet, the next i am surrounded by 50 women all praying at once! so i started to pray, but not really feeling comfortable, i was praying to myself and not out loud. we repeated this several times with a song in between and a different topic for each prayer. then we stood back to back with someone and prayed for that person. like i said, i wasn't praying out loud and the woman i was praying for thought i didn't understand and i think she was offended b/c she thought i didn't pray for her. i talked to the woman who took me and she said that they all pray out loud at once so that no one hears what the other person is praying for. which then begs the question, why not just pray silently in the first place?