Jesus Power

I couldn't go on much longer without hitting the topic of religion. Nigerians are, it would seem, among the most religious people in the world. In fact the joke in the UK (apparently) is if you see anyone going to church on any day other than a Sunday (yes they go several times in a week) they must be Nigerian. Generally it is Christian around here, but of course about half of Nigeria's population is Muslim.

Religion is visible everywhere. Most noticeable on the roads, as most public vehicles (buses, motorcycles, trucks) are covered with religious slogans. My favourite so far being "Jesus Power". Also, with no sense of irony, one motorcycle rider had on his mud-guard the quotation - "I shall not die", very apt for a motorcycle driver on these roads.

I get asked to accompany people to church constantly. Although I haven't been to church in years in Australia, I thought no experience here would be complete without sampling a few different churches. So the other weekend I went.

Now the one I went to was a youth church (all uni students) and it was of course very different to those in Australia. I was told to expect stereotypical-black-gospel-church-on-american-movies and that's basically what I got. With a couple of differences.

A whole lot of dancing, singing and praying. Plus the pastor continually (as least every ten seconds) says either "praise the lord" – congregation says "hallelujah", or "in Jesus name" – congregation says "Amen". Most interesting was when the pastor started speaking this really odd language. I didn't get what was going on and asked my friend if he was speaking latin (cause that's what it sounded like). He laughed and later told me it was some kind of religious babbling that they do. He's not actually saying anything real but its supposed to be this communication with god that only god can understand.

Although I am sure to visit many more before I leave I have to say I didn't feel entirely comfortable in there. And the having to explain to people about my religious beliefs, how in Australia almost no-one goes to church etc. is becoming just a little tiresome. But then again I have had some great discussions about the topic. You really find no two people are in agreement about many things.