Every day is different of course, but I just thought
I would describe my day yesterday.
Sometimes I make a nice breakfast—pancakes, or
coffee cake, but a lot of mornings the kids just have hard boiled eggs or
Quaker Oats cereal. This morning I had
intended to make banana bread as I had over ripe banana. I couldn’t make them yesterday because I was
out of flour, but today I was out of oil.
I am amazed how fast I go through the basics like flour, sugar, baking
powder, yeast, powdered milk etc. I am
still not used to cooking from scratch.
So the kids had oatmeal.
Once the kids were off, I got ready for a hot
shower, but alas the water turned off sometime after breakfast. Luckily I am
not a “gotta shower every day” person, but my control issues always flare
up. Really a warm bucket bath is fine,
but just not as satisfying.
Tuesday is normally my day to be with the HIV group,
but Pete had asked me to go to the Ruby Jubilee (40 year celebration) of the opening
the St Thomas Aquinas Seminary where he teaches. Pete is so kind he rarely asks
me to attend these long and not too exciting ceremonies. But I was happy to have the day with him.
Before I left, I stopped down to let my HIV group
know that I would not be there, and met two members outside (as the door was
still locked). One woman showed me a
funeral program for a family member who had died. I opened it up and found
dozens of pictures of this woman with her young children. I was so moved by the
photos and the sadness of losing such a young woman that I just began to cry.
Of course, my crying made her cry so we just stood and cried together. I see these programs so often from people and
people rarely show emotion when they show me. I think how much I have been
underestimating the pain people here feel about losing loved ones. Just because
it is common doesn’t make it less painful.
The other man standing there joined in with our grief sharing about his
daughter who was HIV positive also, but refused to take the medication and died
several years ago. People who are not in
denial are able to get tested and live quite long if treated. Too many, let
pride literally kill them.
So Pete picked me up
and we headed to the Seminary. I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was a
Mass in the field, instead of in the Chapel as there was no room for the
thousands that attended and these outdoor ceremonies are common. But I was so mad I forgot sunscreen,
sunglasses, and only had a small bottle of water. I was so grateful that we were ushered beneath one of the few tents (we sat not far from the
governor). We may have been placed there
because Pete is faculty or it may have been just because we were white. In any
case I was grateful for the shade, comfortable seat, and nice breeze.
I counted over 400
priest processing in and about 6 Bishops, one Cardinal, and a papal nuncio (a
representative from the Vatican). There
were also about 200 seminarians (just for the North West region of Cameroon). I
am not often impressed by all the pomp and circumstance, but in this case it
was hard not to be. The music was nice
and the honoring of the School were nicely done.
After two and a half ours we had finished
communion and I was hope fully that the Mass would only be three hours (about
the norm). But we still managed to go for another one and a half hours.
After the four hour Mass, I was
ready to pee behind a tree, but fortunately we found someone who took me to a
real toilet and it even had paper (though I always carry my own).
We had hoped to stay
for the meal and dancing, but needed to get the kids from school and I work the
girls Boarding school on Tues afternoons. Fortunately Nestor made us delicious
crepes with strawberry jam. Pete supervised the studying and I trekked off to
Lourdes School.
I then counseled three
girls dealing with friendship issues and academic stress. One young girl that was not much older than Jessica, was crying
because her birthday is coming and she is lonely. Dear thing, of course she is
lonely and homesick. These girls are not
allowed visitors or phone calls. My heart broke for her. I then went to my
workshop for 11th grade girls on Character development. I used an exercise that has worked in other
settings, but I underestimated how loud 90 girls can be or how much echo there
would be in the sanctuary. I completely
lost control of the group and one faculty even came to find out what was going
on. I want the girls to have fun, but I will
have to be a bit more careful.
I came home to dinner
made by Josh. His Taco shells get better
every week and we had all the toppings. I helped Jessica study for her French
exam and then went to bed with her at 8:30 listening to the sound of my husband
doing dishes. Yes, the water had
returned, but God bless him, he would have carried in water and done it for me
anyway. The last sounds I heard were the low breathing of Jessica and the sound
of crickets outside. It reminded me of
summers on Cape Cod.
-Joy
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