A different kind of Easter

Growing up, Easter was all about baskets full of candy, a crazy rabbit, and egg hunts.  Saturday night, we always dyed our eggs together.  We always had a nice lunch around a table and wore our fanciest clothes to church.  When I was little my mom spent a long time putting my hair into curlers the night before so that it would be curly for church on Easter Sunday.  Before we left for church, Mom took tons of pictures.  She would use a whole role of film just on pictures of us in our nice clothes with our Easter Baskets.  We knew Christ was the reason for the celebration, but HE wasn't the center point of our day like he should have been.

This morning we started without water at my parents house.  Yesterday, a kid accidentally broke a tube, and when Denis fixed it he forgot to turn the nozzle back on.  The children's home was also out of water this morning for a very similar reason.  My dad went an got about 2 gallons of water and told us if we needed more to go get it.  Matt, my dad, Haley, and I all managed to bathe using less than 2 gallons of water.  If there is a will there is a way.  I used more than them in washing my hair.  After I took my "shower" I put on the only skirt I brought with me and didn't have a shirt to match it.  I didn't have any clean pants, but one pair was significantly cleaner than the other.  I went and borrowed a shirt from my mom; I knew she wouldn't mind.  After I was dressed (in what honestly was the nicest I had today), I hung the clothes out on the line.  Even in Costa Rica, Matt and I usually use our dryer because it doesn't make much difference in the electric bill, but here it makes a huge difference in the bill, so must dry everything on the line.

As Matt and I were hanging the clothes on the line, Jaxson, Brayan, Antonio, Adonis, and Fernando came out with their homemade bows and arrows and said they were going to hunt.  A few minutes later they showed us a bucket of 5 lizards that they had found.  They were so proud of themselves.

When I got to church all of the kids wanted to sit with Lili which meant that they would be sitting near me.  I had Ana, Cindy, Noemy, Reina, Lupe, and Maryuri all to watch this morning.  Cindy and Ana love Haley so much, and they kept being distracted by her this morning.  I don't really blame them though.  We had a great Easter service.  It is always an excellent reminder that our King is risen.

For lunch, we did not have a big feast, but we instead had corn tamales stuffed with beans.  A sweet lady from church named Ana made them for us the other night.  Ana is a very hard worker in the community and loves Jesus with every fiber of her being.  There was no egg hunt, but some friends of Casa sent Easter candy for some of the kids.  A few kids asked me why they were getting candy, and I said it is a tradition in the States on Easter Sunday for kids to get a little bit of candy.  They were satisfied with that.  Cici and Cindy both decided to share their entire packages of Skittles with Haley.  Cindy also gave Haley a piece of gum and a few minutes later asked me if Haley was big enough to have it.  I said that she wasn't because she doesn't know how to chew it and not swallow it.  Then she very guiltily said that she thinks Haley may have already swallowed it.  I think except for the piece of chocolate that was in the bag, Cindy gave her entire bag of Easter goodies to Haley.

In the afternoon my parents, Matt, Lili and I hopped in the car to go for a drive.  This was very enjoyable because it was the first time since we got here that just our family was together without someone else around.  We drove a long way south, but it felt very north.  I don't know the name of the village we drove to, if it even had a name.  But at the bottom of the town there was a river.  We went to the river and Haley watched the tadpole swim and threw rocks.  Typical to Haley, she tried to pick up rocks that were bigger than she is.  It was really funny to watch her try to pick up rocks that were about 50 pounds.  Haley really wanted to go play in the water but didn't understand why she couldn't.

We left the river with the plans to go eat in Ojojona, but when we got to Ojojona, all of the lights were out.  Plan B was a fried chicken stand here in Santa Ana, but the lights here were out too.  We decided that since Haley was sleeping we would go on to Tegucigalpa to eat at Popeyes.  I love that chicken at Popeyes.  Yum.

We got home and everyone went to bed very soon thereafter.  While this Easter was celebrated like no other before, I am eternally grateful that Sunday came and Christ had risen.  Chocolate eggs does not change that one bit.  Let us rejoice on Easter that HE is risen, but let us also rejoice every day that we live.

Maybe tomorrow I will do one of my favorite Easter traditions with Haley and dye eggs.