Church going

People here are very religious.  It had been a source of conflict as the North is Muslim and the south tends to be more Christian.  Every week I skirt around the issue of why I didn’t go to church or give a non-committal answer of where I ‘do my prayers’.  But I was out in a village one weekend and a woman I had met a few times asked me to go.  I couldn’t come up with many more excuses and I was desperate for a break from the film crew so I agreed.

I walked into the church and it was packed with 250 people, I was the only kawaja (Arabic for white girl), even though it was 3 hours and I couldn’t really understand what was going on, it was way more fun then any service I had ever been too.  Everyone was clapping and dancing, there were drums and lots of singing, it definitely wasn’t somber and nothing was in English so I couldn’t disagree.  At some point my colleague announced to the church that I was (obviously) visiting and the entire church afterwards lined up to shake my hand. 

Which one isn't like the other?

It can be funny especially when out in the villages, many children haven’t seen a kawaja before, so they will line up and stare, I usually smile and wave and then they wave back.  Sometimes a small one is pushed out of the crowd and dared to touch my skin, sometimes they run away screaming, other times they touch my hair.  

Young boys outside the market in Juba

Village life, a women cooking the family's 1 meal for the day