Thursday 20 October 2011

Catholic Mass and a visit from Granso

Recently, while Alan was in DC for board meetings, Emma and I were invited to a special thanksgiving Mass by one of our guards named Ebute Friday. He is very shy and his English is not great, so when he asked me to attend, I was slightly confused, but agreed to come. And then he said this, "I am just a small man, but God has blessed me with 4 children." He then proceeded to 'explain' that this particular Sunday, he would take extra food to the altar and give it as a special sacrifice for his great blessings. So he showed up at our house bright and early Sunday morning with his cute little family.



This is Rachael . . . She is 10 and she attached herself to my side and never left.


This is Patience. She is 7 and she sat on Emma's lap for the whole service.



This is Rosemary, she is 5. She sat on my lap and she has mad skills at Fruit Ninja. Which we played before church, not during . . . in case you were wondering.


This is Destiny, she is 2. She looks a lot like her daddy. She snoozed through most of the Mass.



Take a good look at these 4 little girls. They sat through 3 hours of church and NEVER squirmed, fussed or made a peep. No food, or books or toys . . . Just 4 good little girls. I asked Friday how he raised them so well, but he couldn't understand what I said. My favorite part of the whole Mass was when they called his name and he took his family and friends to the altar (Emma and I included) along with a flat of soda, several dozen eggs, 6 large yams and a live chicken. After giving these to the priest, he blessed us with holy water and we returned to our seats. Friday may be "a small man" in physical stature, but he is a large man in spirit.

I was also pleased to finally meet Umar's beautiful wife named Granso.




She joined me for lunch and brought their youngest, 9 month old Taypety.



I finally got him to let me hold him . . .


Granso is also a seamstress and will be making us some Nigerian dresses soon. Yes!



Life is good, even in Yola!


Bye!

5 comments:

  1. What an interesting experience with some lovely people. So good to hear from you.

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  2. man, I went two years in africa but never got to hold the kids. each of your posts just makes me more jealous of you.

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  3. haha and I love how that kid was a fruit ninja champ.

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  4. This is a great post! What a cool experience, and what awesome people!

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