Easter

The church was dark and empty.

Yet another moment where I must have misunderstood what the parishioner told me. I guess that meant no Good Friday service. (Later I found out the Good Friday service was in the next village, 23 km away)

I was determined to make it to an Easter Service and so I traveled to one of the neighboring sites where there was a Roman Catholic Mission. It took me most of the day to travel and when I arrived, the priest (from East Africa) greeted me. He was playing with the children, sometimes instructing them, but it was literally a scene that could have come from a missionary advert. Smiling faces, children running up to hug the priest. I suppose in these villages, he's the only father figure some children know.

The greatest was when the children thought the priest and I were brothers.. on account of our noses. All of the villagers' noses are rather small, almost squashed looking. Whereas my nose is rather large (hence the teasing I get from family and friends) and looks like I have a nose and a third. Then it dawned on them... wait... the priest is black... and you are white. Realizing that the children viewed my nose as a more prominent feature than my skin color brought a huge smile to my face, as well as bit of laughter. The priest hadn't stopped smiling since I had seen them. Working with children can do that to you.

Then the priest, the children, and I watched America's popular export- wrestling. This was all a bit surreal. The pictures of the Pope and Jesus on the wall. A priest. Children. And wrestling. A long talk with the priest afterwards made me smile even more as he was down to earth and just full of joy. He shared his frustrations as well, but they were overshadowed with this amazing sense of happiness just to be alive.

I met with two other volunteers, one had come for the Tridium, and we shared stories until the Easter Vigil Service, which was packed. The next morning, we also attended the Easter service, which was even more packed. After all, we were spending the night at the mission house, so it was at least a show of solidarity with the priest.

And so after cooking and then watching Batman Begins (courtesy of a fellow volunteer, Thanks AJ) with the priests, I headed back to site for the computer workshop (see previous entry).