Steph's friend, EJ, invited us to go to her church on Sunday morning. She is a member of the Ebenezer Methodist chuch which was founded in the early 1800's. As we got out of our taxi, there were many nice people that came up to greet us. It just so happened that the day we went to church, was the day that they were welcoming many converts into their congregation (it happens only once a year). It was interesting how they conducted their meeting. The reverend couldn't even pronounce the names of some of the new converts. I thought that was strange.
One thing I loved about their congregation, was that everyone sang loud and with conviction. They also stood to sing every song. Here was the opening song: "Everybody Ought to Know, Everybody Ought to Know, Everybody Ought to Know, Who Jesus Is" (definately a song that gets stuck in your head).
After church, we went over to EJ's house to meet many of her relatives and friends. She also cooked us a real Bahamian meal. There was conch salad, full snappers, groupers, macaroni and cheese and rice. Dessert was a mango bread with some sort of sauce on top. I finished my plate, but had a hard time getting it down. It wasn't bad, just different then we are used to.
I thought it was very kind of EJ to make this meal for us and to invite us into her home. They are great people and I enjoyed visiting with everyone. We learned that the minimum income per week is $200. They don't pay taxes in the Bahamas. The Atlantis imports 100% of the items they use (no wonder, it was so expensive....get us out on an island and jack the prices up). 70% of the Bahamas national income is tourism. The crime rate is really high in Nassau. All the small islands are called family islands because that is where alot of people raise their children.
They dont have air conditioner in their homes, so we were sweating like mad. Kylee's feet and face started to swell up, so we decided after about 3 hours, that we would head back to our hotel. When we got back, we hit some of the local little shops and then ate dinner at Johnny Rockets!
Steph's friend, EJ, invited us to go to her church on Sunday morning. She is a member of the Ebenezer Methodist chuch which was founded in the early 1800's. As we got out of our taxi, there were many nice people that came up to greet us. It just so happened that the day we went to church, was the day that they were welcoming many converts into their congregation (it happens only once a year). It was interesting how they conducted their meeting. The reverend couldn't even pronounce the names of some of the new converts. I thought that was strange.
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