Easter

We have now finished three weeks in our site.  Here’s our news for the past week:

Steve was able to get more computers working by swapping parts out of non-working ones.  The total is up to twenty now, which is a huge improvement over the twelve we had last week.  The seventh graders have classes of 32 students, so having more computers definitely helps!

We finally saw a good sunrise this week.  Usually there are clouds low on the horizon which hide the first view of the sun.  This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but it gives you some idea of the view from our window.

On Good Friday we went to the town of Pesé to see the “live crucifixion”.  They actually have three men carry their crosses to the top of a hill where they hang suspended from the crosses.  They are pretty tough men - they stay up there for about 45 minutes.  They don’t use nails, though – just ropes :)  Unfortunately we couldn’t stay in the town late enough to see the reenactment, but we got to see the stages where they were to re-enact the last supper and various other parts of the Easter story.   The original time for the re-enactment was 2pm, but by 4pm we were still waiting for it to start.  We had to catch a bus out of town then because we didn’t have a place to spend the night there and public transport doesn’t run very late in the day.   It wasn’t a total loss, however.  We got to spend the day with a couple of PC volunteers in our group.  We did see some Roman centurions walking past, and also a Roman on horseback.  There were plenty of floats to see in the church, as the traditional Easter procession was also on the schedule.

Hanging out with Miranda and Savannah

I got these pictures off the internet, as we didn't stay long enough to see this for ourselves.

The Crucifixion

Re-enactment

 There was a lot of activity getting ready for the procession.

Putting the flowers on

One of the floats in the church

Flower display in the church

Heather’s birthday was Saturday, and host mom Odilia made another of her delicious cakes.  We actually celebrated three birthdays that night.  Odilia and Aristides’ daughter Anna had a birthday the week before, as did Darisnel, a neighbor.  Anna was visiting for the weekend.

Darisnel, Heather, and Anna

On Sunday morning we saw another of those poisonous frogs in the road.  This time he stood still long enough for us to get a close-up picture.  He's only an inch long.

Looks innocent, doesn't he?

Also on Sunday we went to one of the local Evangelical churches.  There used to be one, but due to unspecified differences of opinion, there are now three for our small town.  The one we went to had about 25 people at the service.  It was more like a bible study course than the kind of church services we are used to.  We spent a lot of time reading biblical references to the events of Eastertime and talking about them.

 We are experiencing both religions that exist in our town.  A couple of weeks ago we went to the Catholic church for the mass celebrating San Jose.  In the mass they asked us to carry a basket of fruit forward and give it to the priest as the offering.  It is an important symbolic part of the ceremony, and we felt honored to have that special role in the service.

Today (Monday) is special here because the sun is directly overhead at noon today.  This happens twice a year - now and September first.  That makes it really hot now in cities like the regional capital Chitré, where we went this weekend.  Fortunately we are cooler up here at 2000 ft. elevation in our little town.  Our temperatures range from 68 F in the morning to the low 80’s later in the day.  School gets out at 1pm most days, and when we walk home uphill in the direct sun with no breeze, we do feel that heat!  Fortunately our house is on a ridge which usually gets plenty of wind to cool us off.

Speaking of weather, it didn’t rain here for three months, and now it has rained every day for eight days.  Sometimes it just rains for an hour, sometimes for several hours, sometimes at night, sometimes in the day.  Everything is turning green here, and we have no problems with dusty roads any more!  Plus, it is too wet to burn the fields, so we don’t have smoke drifting in.  It is very early in the year for the rainy season to be starting.  Most people expect to have some dry weather before the rainy season starts in earnest, but you never know…