Easter blessings.

Easter Sunday Awoke at 6:30. Stayed in bed until 7. A very sleepless night. The morning greet ritual started the day right. I love it. It's how the kids also say goodbye when they are leaving a home. They literally go to each person that is there and shake their hands. Kids shaking other kids hands is so cool. It's not really a shake...you grab the wrist of the other person and greet them. I've learned to factor in hello and goodbye time when I am trying to get the 2 boys to one home or the other. i asked what time the kids go to church for easter as i thought it would be fun. no one seems to understand. But as usual something kickes into gear and I scramble. About 8 am everything turned into a whirlwind with people getting dressed up. Reonerre had a grin on his face that went from ear to ear when they put a brand new pair of pants on him and a new shirt. you would have thought that the he had just received the world. he kept wiggling and dancing. It wa then that I noticed they had been wearing the same clothes for 3 days. Ahh,note to self, we need more clothes. The boys brushed their teeth outside and made sure their shoes were clean. they pointed to the hill which meant we were heading out. Ok...we must be getting the other kids. As we walked to the 1st home the mom waved goodbye and she kept walking. oh...we don't get to go to church. oh well, we went in a sang and danced. At 1:30 suddenly clothes were dumped into a pile i the center of the floor and everyone started to grab theirs and try to put them on as best they could. The mom and aunties go child to child. i helped too. Marie Rose went to Issach and he helped button her dress and tie the bow in the back. It was adorable. Then we headed off to church. 9 small kids, 3 adults. So darn cute. We were quite the parade. No one shouted moozoomgo (white person) this time. I guess i am now considered a regular. As we reached the market i hoped that we might be going to the one that I went to last year. We walked through the rutty, dusty road past all of the little shop keepers in their wooden shacks who were quite suprised to see me. They were easily amused at my kinyarwanda. We rounded a corner and viola. We'd arrived. The same church as last year, with the same pastor. He had actually visited mpls a few years ago. The tiny brick block church had made zero building progress in past year. it was still in need of window and some additional walls to meet the ceiling. it holds about 100 people and is simply wonderful. The choir was wearing their robes for the 1st time. Someone had donated them money to have them made. they were so sweet. The kids in blue and white and the adults in blue and yellow. They sang so beatifully. A man name William sat next to me at Sieba's urging so he could translate. They asked the 5 visitors to introduce themselves and tell how God had blessed their lives. In kinyarwanda i said "halleluih, hello, my name is donna.may God bless you and i love rwanda" They clapped in approval. William then translated that my blessing was to spend 2 Easters in Rwanda helping with the kids. The minister spoke alot about the genocide. He said that today they were happy that Christ had risen but in honor of those who died in the genocide there would be no clapping. 13 years ago it was the 2nd day of killing. Saddness and joy filled the place. After the service people greeted me warmly. As we did our return walk, I took lots of photos of the shop keepers. All these sweet kids (who had sat perfectly silent in church by the way) walking these dusty roads back home while laughing at miss donna. About 70% of the people said yes to photo on this journey. They were especially welcoming of photos of their kids.Imagine not ever having having the money to have a photo of your child. I would love to have an instant camera and a few thousand dollars to simply walk and give them photos. i wanted to go back to the large market to take photos but the sky was iffy. Perhaps tomorrow. Back home lunch was waiting for the kids and we greeted everyone before heading home. Issach seemed sad, but I'm not sure why. i spent about 20 mins taping the staff saying various words in kinyarwranda for sarah upcoming trip. hopefully it will help. i will also try to burn a dvd of it so they can watch it in rwanda...they are sure to think that is' a hoot. Back home we played our favorite game of concentration b4 miss donna announced that she taking nap. The kids followed suit. The language barrier and kids are exhausting but what more joy could anyone ask for? They don't do R so it comes out L. Turnes Rionere is actually Liyonere....which makes more sense when they tell me it's Lionel in english. Obviously french. too funny. Zach copied letters into my journel. He did great.I finally broke out the canned chicken for easter dinner...and an orange. Such a feast. They had a doughy dinner and laughed when i wouldn't take a bite. They will love our july visitors who are anxious to try everything. I called Mom and Dad for 3 mins to say hello. the same with Erika. Erika nearly cried when she heard my voice. it's nice to be missed.