Visiting in the church

Saturday is a very special day for most of the Grenadians. Or at least for the people in “Seventh Day Advents Church”. Class SA1922 visited this lovely church today to get an insight in the weekly tradition.

We left Gunilla a few minutes past 10AM. I was working in the kitchen this morning and we were a bit short on time to remove the 10-fika (a small meal consisting of sandwiches and watermelon) so I felt a bit stressed at first, but together we cleaned fast so we could all dress up and arrive at the church on time. Like almost every other day, the sun was shining, and it was very warm outside. The 20-minute walk up the hill made us all feel sweaty and kind of dizzy. We got there in the short paus and were heartily welcomed into the church. All forty-four of us got seated at the very front.

They told us that the audience had almost never been so big. I had to count: There were four benches turned to the stage and behind every bench were a line of about 20 more. Overall, 6 people could fit in one bench which means 6 multiplied 20 multiplied 4 plus some more people standing in the back of the local = surely more than 500 people. Also, it was a very active public so the energy in the room was high.

A woman, who I think was the host of the day, came up on stage to present the program for the next two hours. She also clarified for everyone who we were, that we are a school-class coming from Sweden with a big sailing ship and again warmly welcomed us to Grenada. Then she made place for another talented woman who beautifully sang about Jesus Christ and believing. I got chills. She was very good. People screamed “Yes girl”, “tell them” and confirmed the text she sang by saying “true” after almost every sentence. It was nice to see how everyone cheered each other up. After her, a man spoke energetic and persuasive about how and why children should read and learn the bible. A younger man played a wonderful piece on the violin. Then the next speaker needed some volunteers to demonstrate how four people who got the same instructions interpreted all differently. He wanted to clearly show that children who are learned the same things doesn´t always get the information the same. Malte and Nellie from our class were two of the volunteers. The same man made small hearts of paper and asked a few people to make a little mark on the heart, then tell someone in the church they loved why they loved him/her. It was a very nice and interesting speech. Afterwards three girls came up on stage and sang three different parts of a song which together made a beautiful harmony. They were really good. I wish I could sing like that.

At the end the host invited our DOS, teacher, KiKi up on stage to introduce Gunilla herself. She did great. She also asked everyone kindly to maybe answer some of the questions we all had prepared to ask the people in church about their religion, view of homosexuality and other thoughts. Many people were very helpful, informative and gladly answered what we wondered after the ceremony.

All in all, it was a very nice visit at the lovely Seventh Day Advents Church. Tomorrow were leaving Grenada with good feelings and a will to some day return.

Thank you, Grenada, for this time!

Filippa Forslöw