May 13, 2012
Today was not the typical day for me. We started with the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet where we saw all different cultures.
After the market we had another cultural experience at a
Hawaiian plate lunch restaurant. As soon as we walked in I remembered, “Oh yeah,
I’m the minority here.”
Literally every head in the restaurant turned as soon as we
walked in. We were the only white people in a crowd of locals. I’ve never felt
this way before. I wonder if this is how minorities feel on the Mainland.
After our meal we came back to the conference center for a
few hours before we had to walk to the Samoan church at 5p.m.
At 5 we met Dr. Elliot and walked across the lawn to the
Samoan church. Even walking through the parking lot made me feel out of place. It is a very small church so clearly they knew we were
visitors.
I have to be honest, I expected the people to stare at us
because we are different, but I didn’t expect was to be counted.
In the front row of the small church sat a young girl, maybe
about eight. When we walked in she and a few other children turned around and
stared. I was expecting this, so I just smiled. What I didn’t expect however
was to be counted. The little girl stared at us and started pointing and her
lips were clearly moving to form o-n-e, t-w-o, t-h-r-e-e, ect. I’ve never felt
that way in my life. On the Mainland I'm in the majority.
The only time I wasn’t in the majority was
when my family and I lived in Germany for three years. The difference there is
that I looked the same as locals, but when I opened my mouth they knew that I
was different.
I didn’t feel as different in Germany as I felt today at the Samoan church. I
was counted; the majority of the service was in Samoan and people just acted
different than they do at churches that I’ve been to before.
During this service, it was like musical chairs. I don’t
know if anyone was in the same seat by the end of the service. Little
children were running around. People would walk right in front of the stage
while the speaker was giving his message. Adults left during the service to go to the
store, change, or switch seats. Husbands and wives didn’t always sit by each
other. It was like we were at someone’s home and there just happened to be
someone on a stage giving a message.
During the service there was not the hushed crowd I’m
used to. Instead, everyone was making noise. Literally I think I could have had a
conversation with the person next to me and no one would have minded.
The people may have just been acting this way due to the
type of service it was. Today is mother’s day so the service reflected that.
The pastor told the church that in honor of mother’s day he was going to call
up every couple in the church and the men would have to give their wife's
testimony.
Before the testimony time began however, the pastor said,
“Before we start, I would like to welcome Pastor Chuck and his students.”
That’s right, Dr. Elliot got ordained in a matter of minutes.
“Pastor Chuck come up as say a few words,” said the Samoan
pastor.
Dr. Elliott projected non-verbal cues of uneasiness before
he ascendant the stage, but he delivered a great little speech that got the
crowd laughing and Amening.
Samoan’s are big into Amening. Amen is like saying, “Okay,
do you agree?”
The husbands always ended with “Yeah, Amen” but they began
by putting a lei on their wife.
Sometimes these leis were candy leis.
To our surprise after the service we were given candy leis
and asked to stay for their mother’s day meal. We politely joined even though
we had already been with them for about a 3-hour church service.
The meal consisted of a Sloppy Joe, a hot dog, a bag of
chips, a bottle of water and a can of soda. Dr. Elliot, or Pastor Chuck, was
given a huge plate of seafood instead.
I do not really like meat, especially if I don’t know what
it is, but we were given the food so I tried to clean my plate.
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I basically had the strangest night that I’ve ever.
When we finally left the church we all broke out into
hysterical laughter for at least 5 minutes.
Life is truly an adventure, and all 50 states are not the
same!
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