big holiday

I went to church on Easter Sunday with the family I'm staying with in Dakar. It was a big A/G church, and extra packed for Easter, with more than 400 people. I didn't have my camera, and this was the only picture they took from in the church. The little kids sand a song, the older kids did a choreography and a skit, and the teens did a song. The service was longer than 3 hours, but thats kind of what I'm used to now. It was in French and someone translated the sermon into English. To be honest I understood the French better than the accented English translation!
During every church service I've ever been to in Africa, there is a time when first time visitors are asked to stand up and introduce themselves. (not the best way to make new people feel comfortable in my opinion!) There were around 25 of us visitors at the church, a few besides me were also people evacuted from Mali. The pastor had everyone stand up and pray for Mali after that and I thought that was very cool.
After the service the visitors were asked to go in a room to meet briefly with the welcome committee. They invited us to various church activities and programs, and we were offered snacks. I was excited to take an orange orange. The oranges we have are always green and not very juicy. In the afternoon I thought about the Easter candy that my mom sent in the mail that I left behind in Mali and that JP is probably eating right now (if he hasn't already finished it all.)