It's been a long time, friends. Way too long. I've been terrible at communication since I've returned to Africa in January, but now I'm vowing to get better at it.
About a month ago, there was a huge women's conference here in my neighborhood. There were 3,000 women in attendance. That means that 3,000 women were sleeping here for the 3 days of conference. No, they didn't stay in a fancy hotel and attend the conference in the hotel ballroom. All of them slept outside on mats, cooked over open fires, and sat under canopies to listen to the pastors and evangelists who came to speak to them. Many of them brought babies with them, feeding and bathing them wherever they could. Pretty much, wherever you looked, women had set up camp. It might sound uncomfortable, but the women here look forward to this every year. They see friends they haven't seen for a long time, stay up late talking, and stay up even later singing and dancing. I don't think they got much sleep. And since they were so close to my house, playing their music and talking all night, I didn't get much sleep either. Oh, well. It only comes once a year.
I attended the conference meetings one morning and felt rather sheepish because this conference is for married women only, and I'm not. But they didn't kick me out, so I guess it was okay. During the session, various offerings were being taken, and one of them was for widows. Here, widows are often not well taken care of, but the women in this conference were very concerned about providing for them. Not only did they bring money to give in the offering, but many smaller groups of women decided on practical things they could donate, things like soap, slippers (or flip flops as we call them in the U.S.), and bags of grain. The women gave joyously, knowing they would want others to do the same for them if they were widowed.
Below is some video footage of the widow's offering that I took. Notice how the women dance up to the bucket and put their offering in. This is very common here, and we often do this in my own church. Also notice the flip flops they are dropping by the buckets, the big bags of grain sitting nearby for the widows, and the little orange blocks of soap that women are carrying on their heads to the offering bucket. Although this is a special women's conference, this captures the sights and sounds I see and hear on a regular basis. And notice how everyone is wearing the same outfit? All the women in attendance bought one of these special outfits to wear. During special occasions such as weddings, anniversaries, holidays, and conferences, families, groups of friends, and fellowship groups will get matching outfits made. Such a difference from the American culture where we get embarrassed if someone else in the room is wearing the same shirt as we have on! Anyway, enjoy the sights and sounds of where I live!
