La iglesia catolica

Sunday was the first day we didn’t have class so we were able to spend all day getting to know our families and the other volunteers. At 8:30 a.m. my doña and I went to church. (The service was looooooong, from 8:30 to 11 a.m.) She is Catholic so that was an interesting experience in itself. She was looking through my pictures and saw one of Jordan as the angel and me as Mary at Project: Christmas, so she immediately assumed I was Catholic also. I informed her that I was Presbyterian and she had no idea what I meant. Religiously, you’re either Catholic or Evangelical… or a devil-worshipper.

Basically during the whole service, I had no idea what was going. There were no bulletins or hymnals or Bibles to follow along with. So I stood when everyone else stood, and sat back down when everyone else sat. If there is one thing that the Peace Corps has taught me so far, it is how to be a follower. My doña told me to wear pants instead of a dress or skirt, so I did that. And she also told me to take communion, which I thought was interesting since Catholics are usually pretty particular about it. For communion, we just ate the wafer, and did not drink anything. I was glad because if we all had to drink from the same cup I was going to have to find a way to fake it.

The people’s clothes at church were interesting choices. Some were dressed up, and others were dressed way down. One lady wore a “Party Like A Rockstar” t-shirt and jeans. I am 100% she had no idea what it meant and just thought it was classy because it had words in English on it. During the moment of friendship time, so many old ladies came up and gave me hugs and kisses. It felt just like I was back at Concord. I guess sweet, old, church ladies are universal.