24. Church and humming birds

I went to a local church today. It lies in Chateau (which is what we call Chateaubelair), and I went together with one of my friends from here. It was raining heavily when we left, so I was happy that we were driven to the church. The service was nice, but it dragged out a bit. We were singing for an hour, and it was nice, but it was a bit loud, with people shouting (or singing really loud) into the microphones. I knew only a few of the songs, so it was a bit hard to follow, but the drummer was really good.

When we were finished singing, the pastor took over to preach about how this day (Easter Day) we celebrate that Jesus was resurrected, but this also means that we have been resurrected from our old life. A sentence that was repeated a lot was: "You are ALIVE!" (in different forms, the personal pronoun varying between 'he', 'we', and 'you'). It made me think of Shrek 2 (where they create a huge gingerbread man and makes it come alive) which again is a reference to the Frankenstein monster (I think, even though I almost don't know anything about it). This I did after a while, when it became hard to follow what the preacher was saying because I was tired and it takes some concentration for me to understand every word in the local English accent.

After the service was finished, we visited some friends of my companion, and they gave us food and water. The food was very nice, and we talked a lot. By this time it had stopped raining, and the sun was shining. After a long while talking and eating, the lady we were visiting fixed a ride for us back home. That was nice, after all I was quite tired (and I didn't really fancy a forty minute walk in the sun).

Later, Kristina asked me if I wanted to go and pick some wax apples with her. I was up for a snack, so I joined her. The wax apple field is where the sheep have recently been moved. We didn't see much to the sheep, but we found a lot of wax apples. Wax apples are fruits that are crunchy like apples, have a thin but wax-like skin, are pink when ripe, are pear-formed, have no core, and are delicious. I like them very much.

Flitting to and fro between the wax-apple trees were hummingbirds that looked black. At first I couldn't find out where the loud, deep buzzing was coming from, but then I saw them. They are beautiful, mesmerising creatures: tiny birds with long, thin beaks who drink nectar from flowers. They beat their wings really fast, and can stand still in the air. I am amazed once again at the wonders of nature.

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