Three baptisms and a funeral

Baptisms

My cousin Trésor got baptised on Saturday December 20^th and I was able to help out with the celebration. The night before Adeline and Solomé (the two 20ish year old girls who live with me) walked to the house of my uncle who is a doctor. We arrived around 7:30 p.m. to find about 14 women working in the kitchen. They were preparing for the feast of the next day. Most of the women were taking pieces of boule (flour and water that is stirred until it is solid) with some added sugar and they were breaking it apart into water. So I helped them with this task. Others were cutting meat, and preparing vegetables. Around 10:30 p.m., 10 women lay down on mats to sleep (a few went home).

Wake up call was at 4:20 a.m. and we had a time of devotion before starting work . There was lots to do before the baptism. The main job was straining the boule/water mixture in order to make ‘l’eau de papa’ which is a tradition drink prepared for baptisms and sometimes weddings. Women put the mixture into ‘socks’ and then pushed the mixture back and forth to strain the water. I tried this at the end, and after a couple rounds my arms got tired. My job was to take the boule and then pound it with the mortar and pestle. This also proved tiring at 4:30 a.m. in the morning.

But there were many other tasks to be done, people were preparing ‘jus d’osé’ which is a red sweet juice, others were making a ton of pasta and still others were cutting vegetable and preparing a stew to put on the pasta.

Once the majority of the work was done, I ate my breakfast and showered. The baptism was supposed to start at 8 a.m. By 8:15 a.m. we had not left and I had been waiting around for a while. There was a cousin outside on his motorcycle and so I decided I would go with him (instead of waiting for the car) because I wanted to get there faster. We left  and as we approached the river (which runs the length of one side of Moundou) he called someone to verify directions.

We arrived at a baptism and we slowly made our way down to the front of the mass of people. Interestingly anyone with a camera seems to have the ability to bypass crowds at events like this. I was able to see about 8 people go into the water to be baptised by elders. I was happy to see it, but I was also a little confused because I did not recognize anyone and the minister was speaking Ngambai.

It was about at this point, when my driver told me we were at the wrong baptism. So we made our way through the crowd and got back on the moto. We drove across town, following the river to a second even larger baptism festival. But we only stayed long enough for the driver to ask a couple questions to someone (and for me to take a picture) and we were on our way again in search of the baptism place for my cousin Trésor.

After some more phone calls, we did manage to figure out where to go. We made it to the baptism place, but long after the actual ceremony. It was around 9:30 am and people were taking a few pictures before heading to the church.

*** Just a reminder that here in Moundou, there are no street names, or numbers so landmarks are used to figure out where events are. This makes it more difficult to figure out where events/activities are.

At 10am I had a 2 hour practice to prepare for the Christmas Celebration at CENTRAM. During this time, all the 40 who were baptised from my church, went to church to partake in their first communion. (There were about 800 people baptised in Moundou on December 20^th)

After this everyone from my family went to my uncle's house. I arrived around 12:20pm and was able to help with the work behind the scenes. I helped prepare the platters and brought one out for the guests. Those who were baptised travelled in groups of about 6 and went to eachothers’ houses parading and celebrating throughout the day.

Funeral

On Monday, December 22, I went to the funeral of a man named Laotai Samuel who was born in 1948. He worked at the agricultural school ISETAER (which uses the same building at CENTRAM) and went to my church.

In general people morn the loss of someone for 3-4 days with relatives and friends spending the night at the morgue in support of the remaining immediate family. Then the body is moved to the church in a procession on the day of the funeral.

Once the body is at the church, there are prayers and a lot of singing. This began around 9 a.m., but I arrived at church around 11 a.m. I joined the choir C.R.C. to sing with them. We took turns with the other choir from our church  as well as other  choir groups present (Soeurs Unis en Christ, Soeur d’Eglise des Frères) singing. Sometimes choirs/women would encircle the coffin and slowly dancing around it.

Around 1 p.m. there was the visit of the body, which means that everyone lines up outside the church, and walks down the aisle to pay their respects to the body.  After this, different friends of the man came up to the front to share memories of their friend.

At this point it was after 2 p.m. and so I decided to leave to go home to get ready for my classes. After I left, the body was taken to the gravesite and then buried. The ceremony ended around 4:30 p.m. Many family members and friends will continue to be with the immediate family to support them for many weeks to come.

Preparing L'eau de Papa

Using a mortar and pestle to prepare the boule for l'eau de Papa

Baptism # 1 (above and below)

Baptism # 2

Trésor and I at baptism # 3

How can I keep from singing!

This past weekend I participated in the yearly Révélation de Christ (CRC) church choir concert. I joined the choir at the beginning of October, and was excited for the opportunity to sing in the anniversary concert.

The anniversary celebrations began the night before when the choir gathered along with the elders of the church for a lovely meal of chicken/fish, bread, and salad. The choir then worked on doing dishes, and decorating the church for the next day’s church service and concert. Purple and white were the colours and we had balloons, flowers, table clothes, ribbons and bows in these colours. While preparing there was also time to do a little dance, make a little noise and have fun! I enjoyed the dancing and getting to know the choir members.

Late in the evening, there was a sound check and a couple songs were practiced. Around 12:40am we were done for the evening and it was time to sleep. Most of the choir members (including Maddie and me) slept over at the church. It is called a ‘veillé’. We slept on a mat, curled up in our cloth wrap-skirts, which doubled as blankets and went to sleep.

At 5:45am we went awoken and got ready for the big day. We ate breakfast and tea and then went over the songs we were going to sing. At 8am we put on our purple choir gown and caps (it looks like graduation gowns). Then we proceeded to sing and dance throughout the 3+ hour service.

In between the church service and our concert there were a couple hours. I took a little nap while others were preparing food and redecorating (because we were going to have our concert outside).

The choir concert which was supposed to start at 2:30 started almost an hour late, but in Chad that is expected. We sang a total of 8 songs, with a break halfway for a message and prayer. Of the eight songs, seven were in French and one was in Ngambai. In general there is a soloist who sings verses and the choir sings the chorus which is repeated many times. 

I danced, I sang, and I had the opportunity to hang out with some great choristers. I had a great time and look forward to continuing to sing in the CRC choir!

***Can you guess the total time that I was at church? Post in the comments section.***

My five hour church service

I go to church #8 in Moundou. It is a E.E.T. church (Église Évangélique du Tchad) which is quite large. On an average Sunday there are around 1000 people in attendance.

Church starts at 8:15am but very few people arrive at that time. When the church begins, there is only about 60-100 people in attendance. Within the first hour the benches fill up and by 9:30 the church is full. I normally arrive about half an hour late with my family.

Church begins with a lot of singing and prayer. There are two choirs at church, one called the CRC ‘Révélation du Christ’ – a choir that sings songs mostly in French with piano, guitar, bass guitar and drums. The other one is called Hosanna- this choir sings songs mostly in Ngambai and uses shakers and whistles, they also are passionate dancers and do a move which I have termed ‘the chicken’ where dancers move their hands back and forth all the while moving their heads forward and backward (kind of like a chicken pecking). I have attempted this dance move, but as of yet I have been unsuccessful.

Prayer is a big part of the service and often people are called upon to pray without warning. It is mostly church elders (male), however every now and then they will call on a woman to pray. At one point during the adoration part of the service everyone has the opportunity to pray together out loud. This time is ended by everyone clapping their hands.

My favourite part of the service is the offering. Each individual person goes to the front (through an organized process using each row) to give their offering. During this time each of the choirs sings a song. People sing along and often the offering time ends in a dance party at the front of the room. It becomes a time of thanks for the offering that can be given.

At the end of the service, scripture is read and then a sermon is given. Sermons are generally 40 minutes in length and different ministers and elders give sermons. The sermon generally looks at the scripture verse in great detail.

On the first Sunday of the month, there is an additional service right after the ordinary service for communion. The communion service has songs, prayer, scripture and a sermon. It generally takes one hour.

So for those who get frustrated by the length of church services, the average service that I attend is three hours, but they can last as long as five. It is different from my church service in Canada, but I enjoy seeing how different people worship throughout the world.

Here is a picture of my church. There are decorations on the ceiling and down the centre aisle.

Dazzling Dowry

 On Saturday a couple of weeks ago, I got up early. I was excited because we were going to the dowry ceremony of my cousin’s friend. We began walking towards the house where it would all take place. We were told that the ceremony would begin at 8am so we left the house around 7:20am to get there on time. On the way we stopped to pick up a friend, which took a good fifteen minutes, as she had to change and prepare. By the time we were on the road again it was 7:45am. The original location that my cousin told me was a roundabout that was not too far away so I was not worried. By the time we arrived at the roundabout it was nearing 8am and there was no one in sight. I realized then, that this was not where the dowry was going to take place, but that it was merely the nearest landmark.

We began walking but soon stopped. My cousin made a call and we turned around. It turned out that she knew to walk to the roundabout but after that, she was unsure. We kept walking, but eventually we asked people and they said it was still a ways away. At this point it was 8:30am so we decided to get on taxi motos to bring us to the location.

Upon arriving we went into a small room where the bride-to-be was staying. As part of the tradition, the bride-to-be is all dressed up and has henna on her arms and hands but she is not allowed to leave the room for the day. Guests are however allowed to come into the room, greet her and sit with her. For the next hour we sat with her as other friends came in. I found out that my cousin is a friend with one of the bride’s close friends but she did not even know the name of the bride (Laur).

Around 9:30am the dowry ceremony was about to take place. Family and friends from the bride were seated in chairs and on mats. Suddenly outside there arouse such a clatter I sprang from my seat to see what was the matter. It turns out that the groom’s family and friends parade in at the same time carrying all sorts of gifts and shouting and cheering. There was soap, luggage, candies, juice and many other gifts. This was probably my favourite part of the ceremony.

Once the groom’s family and friends were seated (the groom does not attend the ceremony either), it was time for the exchange of money. Money transfers from the husband’s family to the wife’s family, because women are a big asset in the family and once they marries, they live with their husband/his family. The money and gifts are given to compensate for the loss of a valuable woman.

About 5 people from each side of the family came into the middle of the seating area. Each member of the groom’s family passed over money to the bride’s family one at a time. The money was counted and then it was piled up and given to the bride’s family. A total of 350 000 CFA (equivalent to $700) was exchanged. After the money was exchanged, water was brought to these important central guests. Then there were speeches of thanks and appreciation.

At the end of the ceremony people were invited to the husband-to-be’s house for a meal. I did not end up going to this portion of the day but it is part of the tradition. I was very happy to be able to participate in a dowry ceremony, which is an important step in the marriage of two people in Chad.

The first picture is of the bride to be with me and the others are from the dowry ceremony.