We arrive with our bus to Curepipe, a small village in the interior on the west side of the island, at the foot of the great volcano.
A stop in Curepipe is a great way to get in touch with the true culture of Mauritius.
I leave the rest of the group to the shopping and I decide to go to the discovery of the city with Denis, Bozen videomaker, to taste a little 'of Mauritian culture. From the nearby mosque, the notes of the muezzin song spread through the air.
We leave the main avenue, people start to look at us curiously, perhaps wondering what is so important to photograph and film on the facades of their shops and homes.
Denis is intent on changing the lens of his camera and so I decided to anticipate it. I do a few dozen meters when I come across the entrance to the Spiritual Warfare Church on the ground floor of a building.
I take a picture of the entrance and at the same time, the music of a band starts. I can't resist, the occasion is too tempting. I run to the beginning of the street and cry out to Denis to reach me.
"Come and see what I found! What do you say, we go in?" I ask him.
I can already read the answer in his eyes. We cross the threshold and begin to climb the steps of an old red staircase. The music increases in volume with each step. We get to a white glass door and we don't know what to expect. Denis stretches his neck and throws a quick glance inside the room. He beckons to me to enter.
The room is a fairly bare room with a dozen rows of chairs on which a Creole man and woman attend the rehearsals of a group of boys who are performing on what should be the altar of this church.
The music is an old-fashioned Marley/Tosh reggae. We wait on the threshold so as not to disturb us and the woman smiles and invites us to sit at gestures. At the end of the song, we present ourselves in English and ask the man by his side if it is possible to take some pictures. The man does not speak a word of English, and then Denis tries in French. He replies that it is not possible to do it but that if we want we can stay and listen.
We sit disappointed. The boys, who looking at their faces do not show more than eighteen years, is a little 'intimidated by our presence, but every now and then we see escaping from their mouths fleeting smiles.
The second track ends and the man comes back to us after talking to the singer "Ok, you can take pictures and videos". We are no longer in the skin. The even more intimidated guys close in circles. I take pictures and bang my foot at the time of an engaging groove. They sound great.
My eye falls on the sticker on the drum case that reads "Nothing is impossible with Jesus".
The woman in Creole invites us the next morning to come back to attend the mass and the concert.
"Maybe! But unfortunately, we can't, we're here in Curepipe just for today" answer Denis.
Unfortunately, our time has largely expired.
We ask the woman if they have an email to send our material but we can not understand each other. Here comes the singer who fortunately speaks English and finally gives us his address. We say goodbye to all of you who smile at us but continue to look at us as if we were two aliens from a distant planet.
We leave the church laughing and patting ourselves on the back.
We do it because we know that we have experienced one of those moments that you will remember for a long time.
We do it because we know we have seen Mauritius.
The real one.