I know that I promised that this web post would be about my work, but as we've just had Easter here, I think it’s actually a good idea to give some attention to the Easter celebrations, even if it is just to show you how beautifully decorated our church can be!

Palm Sunday

Last week began first of all with Palm Sunday. Sundays here are normal working days and I had had a pretty busy day. So I missed the Palm Sunday procession. The people from our church processes waving palm branches and re-enact Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The route ended with a service in the church, which had been wonderfully dressed with palm fronds.

Easter

Easter Sunday, though, was of course free. In the morning there was a service in a packed church. The decorations were rearranged and will probably stay put for a good while. It is a celebration together of the resurrection of Jesus. You can’t see it in the photo, but outside there were benches for at least 50 extra people who came.

Towards the end of the service there was a sudden cloudburst from which everyone outside en masse escaped by rushing into the church. Because the service was almost over, two friends and I made it quickly to one of their houses. In the photo you can just see some of the people standing under the church porch....

Every good feast day in Bangladesh is celebrated with food. In this photo you can see the pans from which the food was served. A meal here means rice: in this instance rice with lentils and goat curry.

This is the party tent, which is not waterproof. Fortunately the rain only lasted for about 15 minutes so the meal went on as planned. There were three ‘sittings’: people sat down, received their meal, and then left so that the place settings could be re-laid for the next group. Eating is by hand, which saves a lot of washing up of cutlery.

To round things of here’s a photo of me ‘in my Easter best’.

Next time I really will write about work.....