Church, Soccer and BBQ

I was really interested in the religious aspects of the culture here so I found a catholic church that is near by. Mass here starts at 7 and then every 1.5 hours after that. It is weird because in America no one hardly ever goes to early mass, but at this church it was full! Every seat was taken inside, with everyone squeezed together. Then at each of the 3 entrances there were about 50 people standing outside listening to mass. They have speakers that lead to the outside. They have an English mass but I decided to go the Swahili one because why not? At first when I got there everyone looked at me because I was white. But after I put some change in the collection basket everyone's looks changed. It was a really welcoming church. Granted I have no idea of what was said it was still an awesome experience. Also in order to get a seat for the next mass people started lining up outside 30 minutes early. It was awesome to see that so many people still go to mass and love Jesus. It was an eye opening experience into faith in different countries. The music was awesome as well. The people in the choir were dancing to the music and it was a very uplifting environment. Some volunteers have organized a soccer match between the mzungu and the locals in Usa River every Sunday. Normally we only have 7 or so volunteers so we get a couple locals. The match is really official. We shake hands before the game and have a ref, although there is a ravine that runs right down the middle of the field which is all dirt and rocks and corners that are knee high with grass. Most of the locals play without shoes or with only one shoe on. The ones that do usually have soccer socks but the bottoms of the socks are just holes so they have to pull the sock all the way down to have something covering their toes. It was funny because I anticipated getting killed in the game but we actually won. Also, I was anticipating only playing 1 maybe 1.5 hours, but no it kept being halftime, never game over and we ended up playing 4 quarters which last 3.5 hours! It was the longest game of soccer I have ever played, plus each halftime was only 5-10 minutes and we had zero subs. It was awesome though. Girls don't normally play sports so when they tell you that you play like a boy it is a great compliment here! After the soccer match or mpira in Swahili, the owner of the safari company SOK threw a BBQ to support Lukundane. While he was cooking the Tamiha cultural dancing group performed new dances for us. Some children from the orphanage came as well and we saw some new acrobatics being performed. The BBQ was so much food. Basically an entire cow, except the cows here are skinny so it is not really comparable to home. After the food we stayed around. I learned how to do a couple of the different cultural dances and I also learned how to play the drums. It was awesome. The children from the orphanage were teaching me the body parts in Swahili. We started a bonfire and danced into the night. It was one of those experiences that were priceless. While there I was asking abut some of the boys ages that were dancing because they seem so little compared to the girls. Apparently their families have been so malnourished for ages that the men are becoming shorter and shorter. It is so sad to see and realize that we have so much and waste so much, when they would kill for 1/8 of what we have and when we complain that what we get is not enough!