Easter Celebration

Easter morning, Katie and I woke up bright and early to get ready for the Easter celebration. I have to tell you that since Katie's arrived, we've gotten into the habit of sleeping in until 8 am which is seriously unheard of in this house!! I think I haven't slept in past 6:30 since I arrived here. But, it's break time and that means I can do whatever I want for the time being!

Anyway, after waking up, we ate a quick breakfast before coming together for our Easter church service here at the house. I led worship and John spoke about the meaning of Resurrection. Such a sweet time together as a family. At the end, we prayed together and then we all went around and gave each other Easter hugs.

After our service, it was time to begin preparing the food, but the first step to food preparation is to have animals to prepare. We had six chickens ready and we'd purchased a goat from the village for the big day. Katie was really nervous to see the slaughter happen, but we both stood at a distance while the boys did the job! The boys all thought we were hilarious by standing at the edge instead of right up close. I grew up on a farm and don't really mind the concept, but it's more the blood that grosses me out. In any case, they had a few good laughs chasing Katie around with the dead chicken. DK made it a point throughout the day to run his finger across his neck while Katie was eating any kind of meat (she gave up vegetarianism only recently). Too funny!

We hung out a lot in the morning, just waiting for the food to be ready. After awhile, the pepper soup was handed out as a little appetizer. Too bad it wasn't that appetizing (shhhhh...don't tell anyone here!!). The broth tasted great! It was just the random goat parts that I couldn't really handle. But, I'm grateful for Edwin, Portia, JJ, and DK who sneaked the parts out of my bowl before anyone saw and hungrily devoured...well, I'm not quite sure what part of the goat it was, but they were parts I couldn't really stomach.

Somewhere along the way, Anna and Emily, an NYU volunteer and another study abroad student who have been volunteering with us, came out for the Easter celebration. They enjoyed the morning hanging out with Baby John, playing with Portia, chasing the kids, just enjoying the Easter festivities!

Katie and I rested a bit in the early afternoon before the real food was served up, but by 3:00, the food was ready and so were we. We had fufu and light soup (which I humbly passed on based on my experience with the pepper soup), and jallof rice (one of my favorites). We also had fried chicken and goat. It was a yummy meal! Afterwards, we all ate some of the jello squares that I made (thank you Mama!). I mixed three packages of the jello together when I was making it and then added a cream to the top. Needless to say, my hello squares turned out gray and looked disgusting, BUT they tasted delicious! I also made chocolate chip cookies (thank you to Stacy's mom for sending the mixes over) and everyone enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies after their big meal (especially JJ--he LOVES sweets)!

After lunch, Katie, Stacy, Anna, Emily, and I all played a couple rounds of beans. It was so fun to teach the girls a new game and to whip them all soundly in the first round (second round went to Stacy and Anna).

After beans, all of us girls gathered in my room for some beading to send home with Katie to sell (Bristol--I'll be sending you an email with some info about 7 Continents really soon!). We beaded, and beaded, I took Edwin out of the room, then we beaded some more, Edwin came back in and had to be taken out again, we beaded and beaded. We watched Pride and Prejudice (Katie got to explain all the little parts that we love about the movie) and we watched The Wedding Planner (who doesn't love J-Lo?). We got quite a few necklaces done and hope it will bring in some moolah for more beads so we can get our 7 Continents project started.

I also got to chat with my mom for a little bit yesterday. That was fun! The family had ham for Easter--jealous. I mean, I love experiencing life here in Ghana, but HAM just sounds really good!

Our Easter was very blessed and I'm so happy that Katie got to be a part of our celebration. What a beautiful day! Christ is Risen...He is Risen INDEED!!!