holy water fears

Sunday I attended mass at one of the local orthodox parishes. It was quite interesting. This church is currently being built to replace a parish church that was located inside a prison. The church was popularly known as imprisoned Michael. The prison, which was in the center of the city located right next to the African Union., was torn down along with its church. This new church is not yet opened, so in this case, the entire church compound became the church. I don’t think I have ever more fully felt the symbolism of the sunrise liturgy as here, for often enough, the simple experience of sunrise is lost on me within churches that have no windows. Filling the entire compound and pouring out into the street were people wrapped in thin white shawls. I was in a living church, despite the fact that the church was not yet built.
Without any place to sit nor a translator for the liturgy, I followed a group of men and chose a discreet spot next to the holy water spring.
I was invited by a man who did not seem altogether with it to enjoy this sacred water. It is quite uncommon for Ethiopians to take Eucharist, so the ultimate sign of participation is this self anointing with the holy water. People were lining p outside the church to collect this miraculous water. I stood to the side, not knowing if there was a more appropriate time than another to take this. I was later approached by a man who did not seem all together there. His Amharic, which I did not understand to begin with, wsa quite broken. He mimed to me, however, that I should partake. I felt overcome with gratitude at this invitation. He came by minutes later with a can filled with water. I took it and threw part of it over my face and anointed my legs, but he signaled that I should drink it. You can understand my hesitation, but in a leap of faith, I took quite a big swallow. I must admit, I did posess a certain fear the rest of the day, that somehow this holy water would lead me to another temple made of porcelain. My fears, however, remained unfulfilled.
besides standing for the next hour, the service proceded quite normally, which is to say, exotic and ancient.