Happy Easter! Yesterday I celebrated
my fourth straight Easter in Africa, though it was the first one I didn’t spend
in Inharrime, which was weird. Luckily Ben and Beth offered to take baby D
Saturday night, so I was able to attend Easter Vigil—my favorite mass of the
year—and she didn’t have to. Easter mass is a long one anyway, and Africans
have a way of making things even longer Plus we started about 35 minutes late—African
time. After we had been there for four solid hours, I snuck out after
communion, and the next day I heard that somehow mass had continued for two
additional hours. Solid choice on my part. At one point during mass while the
congregation was singing, the priest, standing in front of the altar, took out
his phone and attended to a text message. I’ve gotten pretty used to African phone
etiquette over the years—answering your phone while teaching or leading a
meeting—but I’ve never seen that one before!
We had a big Easter lunch with the
approximately 20 people who had stayed on the mission for the weekend. I got
baby D all dressed up for the occasion: a brightly-colored dress, a necklace, a
bracelet, and a big bow in her hair. When Sister D saw her she said “oh look at
that, she’s starting to look more like her mom!” I studied D’s face, trying to
see the resemblance to her mom, until I realized that Sister had been talking
about me.
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