The antagonism of two religious celebrations

Easter Sunday, an extremely important holiday in Haiti. For the Christians, the day that Christ was resurected from the tomb. For the Voodoo religion...well, I'm not sure...but cause for a celebration. Our day started slowly...we arose to the sound of a choir singing at sunrise and got dressed in our "Sunday best" (for Jenna and I that meant the cleanest t-shirt and skirt we could muster up) and headed across the dirt road to the mission's church. We arrived on time (something that Haitains never do) and were ushered to our seats at the very front of the church. The special white guests who had private chairs and would be called up and presented during church. Soon the local people began pouring in...children first. The girls sat on one side of the church, the boys on the other. I was shocked and amazed by their dress! All the little girls in elegant dresses with bows and frills, bright colors with fancy bows in their hair, small heels on their feet, and a little purse slung over every arm...even the girls as small as 3 or 4 years. And the boys...in suits, dress pants, and jackets! Dressed as though they were the best man in their brother's wedding. Sooo fancy! I felt quite sheepish in my dirty skirt, wrinkled shirt and sandals. Church was long. There were sermons, reading from the bible, and lots of singing (my favorite part!) We didn't understand most of it, as it was in Creole. We did, however have a translator who tried to yell the translation to us over the sermon, but it was more of an annoyance than helpful. There was also another American girl siting next to me who felt very choff as she is a regular church go-er in the US and brought her own bible. She took it upon herself to explain to me in slow, careful way as if I was a 3 year old that "today is important for us Christians, because this is the day that we believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead..." and on and on. I wanted to turn to her and say, "I wasn't born yesterday!" But instead I smiled begrudgingly at her and tried to ignore her words of infinite wisdom.
At the end of the sermons, Pastor Michel called the 4 of us whiteys up on stage and introced us to everyone in the mission. He explained the work that we are doing at the hospital and the work the other 2 are doing on micro-financing and teaching at the University. He called everyone up to the front of the hospital who would like to welcome us. It was quite an affectionate welcoming, men and women all came and formed a circle around us and welcomed us with prayer and hand holding and hellos. We felt humbled at their appreciation of us being their to help them. It felt good.
After that, we left and went into town where the "manager" of the hospital has built a church and is trying to start a congregation. We met some of his children and friends. Driving around town, we had quite an amusing experience....the "voodoo" people of the town were out celebrating easter in their own way...walking the streets with boom boxes, drums, and barrels of run and beer and stopping periodically to start a dance party and block the entire roadway. Jenna and I looked on excitedly, wishing we were with these people...they looked like they knew how to celebrate!! One of the missionaries from France was in the car with us...and she had a completely different idea of "these people". "Don't look them in the eye!" she shouted at Jenna and I..."This is Satan's work!" Jenna and I could barely hold back our laughter. As we attempted to drive through one of the crowds, the young voodoo group noticed her terror and began to antagonize her, banging on the window of the car. She put her hands over her head, closed her eyes, and began rocking back and forth singing prayers outloud!! It was such a hilarious situation! It was truly a battle to stiffle our amusement.
She was so scared that we had to turn around and come home, without visiting a resturant in town as planned. We were quite dissapointed to have missed the party in town and have to return to the boring compound with only some cold rice and beans for dinner.