19 April 2014

Tomorrow is Easter and the world is celebrating new and resurrected life.  We have wild flowers, aka blooming weeds, decorating our living room.  They are yellow, so full of color, so vibrant – just like life itself.  Alleluia.

The week has been slow and nice after closing school one week ago.  Filing of class notes, organizing handouts, a morning of accessioning books in the library, thinking about lesson plans for the rest of the term:  these were the school tasks which I faced and did, slowly and leisurely.  Then one morning was spent at the dentist for annual check-up and teeth cleaning.  Since I was in the U.S. last year and so hadn’t seen this dentist for a couple of years, he acted really pleased to see me again.  “Oh, you’re still here.  How wonderful!”  I’m not sure if he meant “here” in Tanzania or “here” on this earth, but both places are fine with me.

For the Holy Thursday services we went to celebrate with the orphans at the Village of Hope.  The service was much too long but I stayed awake by interacting with a little girl, about a three year old I’d say, who danced to her heart’s content whenever there was some music.  Especially at the “Glory to God” when the bells rang and the drums sang out, did she get out into the aisle and enjoy herself.  She was a little darling, and I pray for her future, infected as she is with HIV.

And then on Good Friday morning we went to visit some other children, this time at a facility for children who are mentally challenged.  It is run by a group of five Sisters and supported by the Diocese of Dodoma, Cheshire Foundation (from Great Britain) as well as local donations including some help from the Tanzanian government.  There are 40 children who live there, and those with less severe disabilities go to classes with their special education teachers.  They have some projects to help them with running expenses:  cows, pigs, chickens, a garden, a plot of grapes.  The children are precious, and followed us around wherever we went, holding our hands and arms.  Children love my arms because they are soft and fat, and they’ve never received such massaging as they did yesterday!  We took them some boxes of fruit juice as an Easter gift and hope that we can find some other things to take to them in the days ahead.  I admire so much those people who care for the children.  All the children  looked so neat and clean, and their overly exuberant behavior was lovingly accepted by their caretakers.  The Sister who took us around said that she had just received a phone call that the Prime Minister of Tanzania was on his way with some Easter gifts.  I hope they were many and useful for these beautiful children.

HAPPY EASTER!