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| decorations made at the morning celebration |
Our day began with a celebration
at a local service. After a simple lunch
at home, John went out with a friend, while I studied and the boys rested. After naps, John and our friend picked us up for
a trip to the mall. We spent a couple
hours at the mall conversing with a family introduced to us by our friend. This family wanted us to meet their
14 year son so he could practice his English and learn more about attending college
in the States, he will graduate high school this year (much ahead of the
average student). In this culture
relationships are a higher priority than time, so I didn’t really know when we’d
return home. Fortunately we returned
home shortly after 5pm. For a special
dinner I planned hamburgers, watermelon, potato salad, and pie for dessert. Not our traditional Easter meal by any means,
but I was going for something special, relatively easy, and of which all the
ingredients could be found. When we
arrived home I decided to forgo the pie and just focus on dinner. I took out the hamburger to make patties,
turned on the stove, and then heard the sound of our padlock knocking on our
gate.
When people stop by they either
knock our padlock against the gate and say ‘good afternoon,’ or if it is
another kid they will yell Caedmon’s name (even if they aren’t here to see
Caedmon). I was mentally not prepared to
receive guests, nor appropriately dressed.
When we arrived home I quickly changed into a tank top, which didn’t
match my skirt mind you. The culture
here is very modest in their dress. Even
those not of the majority religion usually wear pants or skirts down to their
knees and keep their shoulders covered, even more so when going out. Upon hearing there were guests at the gate I
quickly found a shirt to put on and went out to meet them.
When someone stops by it is polite
to invite them in, regardless of what you are doing. It is also polite to serve them tea and a small
snack. I really wanted to be making dinner,
but we invited them in and thankfully had some cookies to offer them. Shortly after arriving it started to rain,
hard! They rode a motorcycle to our house
and were going to head on to another friends’ shortly, but the rain postponed
their departure. It is a struggle to remain
flexible in these times. My expectations
for the evening of a special meal, maybe another conversation about Easter with
the boys, and John and I relaxing together after putting the boys down where
spoiled. Now with guests in my house I
was trying to stay calm, engage in conversation and figure out how to do what
was best for two hungry boys who likely would turn into puddles of tears at
7pm. At a lull in the conversation I
went to the kitchen to butter a hamburger bun, peel some eggs and pour some
milk for the boy’s dinner. Afterwards John
put the boys to bed and our guests decided to brave the rain at about
7:30p. John and I then ate potato salad
and watermelon for dinner while checking the college basketball tournament
scores. It was a great opportunity for
practicing language and developing relationships, which is our main goal right
now, but it wasn’t the Easter I expected!
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| Potato salad and watermelon for dinner, and not dressed for guests! |
