P.resbyterian C.hurch in A.frica and Bike Riding

Well, what I'm calling the "PCA" (it's not really called that) here is just a little different from the PCA at home, but evidently still on the conservative and less charasmatic end of the church personality spectrum.  Today is Sunday, so there was church this am.  Some congregational and choir singing (the choir dances with each song too!), sermon (preached in english and translated into Lubwisi - the rest of the service is all in Lubwisi), offertory, what seemed like sharing time, prayer, scripture reading, announcements....a lot like Grace and Peace as far as parts of the service included, but still quite different.  The singing included some arm waving and sometimes some noises that you make when you put your hand over your mouth and take it away in quick repitition (while singing).  I had a group of girls sitting around me that pretty much spent the whole service touching and looking at me while talking amongst themselves (I wish I knew what they were saying...or maybe I don't...).  It struck me that this service was much like a congregational conversation...can't really explain that much more, but there you have it for what it's worth.  The funniest thing was that during the last song (what seemed like a doxology of sorts) the woman dressed in the snazziest outfit (what you think of when you think of African women dressing up for church) who seemed to be the choir director, just layed out on one of the benches and went to sleep or something...all the festivities wore her out I guess....I just had visions of Kathleen Thro just kinda passing out on the choir chairs up there during the communion songs...made me chuckle inside.  Oh and I should add that the begining of church this morning marks the time I've been closest to being pretty emotional since I got here - sitting amongst Ugandans and seeing and hearing their testimony to the Faithfulness of our God was something else...

Oh and by the way, bike riding here is for sure a skill I have yet to acquire...there are so many variables I'm not used to...dirt roads (the slip and slide factor), the rocks (oh so bumpy), the unevenness of the dirt, the sometimes foot wide footpaths you ride on (requires dexterity I don't yet really have), the motorcycles coming zooming around corners and up/down the hills, the talking to people along the way (which was super fun to hear as Pat rode ahead of me, people calling after her and the little conversations that ensued as we rode by with lots of "ehhhh"s thrown in...evidently it's kind of an endearing "okay" or "yeah" that they use a lot), the steep hills combined with the dirt proved to be potentially deadly for me, but I held my own for the most part (only one near wipeout).  It reminded me of a period of time in which my brother and I were big into bike riding as kids (Jeff was hard core into BMX bikes for a while) and my parents used to take us to North Park in Pgh. to the BMX bike course to ride on Sunday afternoons...fun times...but I'm looking forward to getting better at the bike riding here.  A thank you shout out to my dear brother (the bike guru of the family) who I put on the "get me a bike" task and he did very well (although I am kinda wishing the shocks had materialized successfully, but oh well, Ugandans don't have shocks on their bikes either!).