La misa buenísima

Finally! I have found a parish in the Savannah area that I actually enjoy! It took several weeks of sitting through stuffy Masses, but today I was rewarded with feeling comfortable at church here.

The parish is called Our Lady of Lourdes and it's located in Port Wentworth (where a lot of my patients come from). It is a small wooden building that was literally teeming with people this morning. I was one of five white non-Hispanics present, so at first I felt a little out of place. People looked at me funny, but I guess many of them receive unwelcoming looks on a daily basis in southeastern Georgia, so I sat between a family and two young guys and just soaked in the awkwardness I felt.

Mass was pretty hilarious. The music was absolutely incredible but the priest spoke terrible Spanish (he was one of the other four white people). His homily was really good, but he mispronounced a lot of words and he was reading directly from a piece of paper with the type of intonation that made everyone aware that he had no idea what he was saying. He was obviously beloved by the community though; after all, it's not like there are priests lining up to serve in rural Georgia for Hispanics. Amidst the usual Mass verbiage, babies were crying and small children were playing/eating/whining. Most of the parents were more concerned about their children than what was going on up at the altar. It made me feel so joyous- it felt like a big family party where everyone could just be themselves.

Communion was kind of awkward. Despite the fact that there were probably 200 people there, I think maybe 30 of us went up to receive. I've noticed this a lot in Central America; my host mom in Costa Rica said Latinos don't generally go up for Communion if they feel like they're "living in sin" (which can be translated to being divorced, having sex out of wedlock, using birth control, etc.) So basically only children and old people go up. I had to climb over like 5 people to get to the front of the church, and on my walk back to the pew I felt like everyone was looking at me with confusion.

Luckily, at the end of Mass, Jeannine, who is in charge of Hispanic ministries at the parish and who also serves on the steering committee at my clinic, introduced me to everyone. I didn't know she was going to do that, so I was obviously super awkward when she asked me to stand up, but then she told everyone about what I'm doing this year and everyone clapped.

After the service, several people welcomed me, which was really nice. I feel like I've gained a sort of automatic trust within the parish community now, similar to the one I received when Sr. Maria Lauren introduced me in South Philly last summer.

Before I came home, I had some mini tacos and a coconut popsicle outside the church, which were being sold to benefit one of the parish groups. I also gathered information about upcoming parish events, including the vigil for comprehensive immigration reform. I am geeking out :)