Words from Tanzania

In Tanzania, there are 6 religious holidays, 3 of them Christian. The Easter holiday starts on Friday, and continues through Monday. So, Lori and a young visiting German woman (Renate) planned an Easter Monday party for some children of Diocese workers and some neighbor kids, invitations and all! Eighteen children showed up, ages ranging from 2 to 13, and it was just grand! Rosemary Solomon, the Women’s and Children’s Director of the Diocese assisted and provided the much needed Kiswahili words that we don’t know yet when dealing with young children. Starting at 3pm and continuing after 6pm, the activities went as follows: Gathering and name-tagging, opening remarks, songs and prayers, then a balloon game, rotating activities of egg-dying, paper airplane making and coloring, outdoor bowling, and ring toss. Then a snack of 1/2 of a banana, 1/2 of an orange, a cookie and some imported Kool-aid, sweetened with Tanzanian sugar!
After the snack, it was time for the paper airplane toss, which was semi-organized; the main thing was to have fun throwing these well-engineered flying devices into the air to see how far they would go. Then some paper Easter basket coloring and assembling. Of course some running around and general playing were in the middle of most of this, but when the children are inside a house, they are so well behaved. They participated in every activity, eager to learn and to color and assemble, and were a pleasure to have at our home. The final act was to have the children find hidden paper baskets in our side and back area with a frosted cupcake and piece of gum inside.
Lori and Renate had everything in order. The children were probably awed at the amount of paper and glue and crayons and other items used for this party as they don’t see these materials in their schools. They were dressed up for the occasion and it was super-special, even for the adults.
Lori ended up working at a very high rate from 8am until about 10pm on this day. Praise to our risen Lord for this celebration!