Palm Sunday

 

Today is Palm Sunday. I woke up in a freezing cold cocoon of air-conditioned goodness to the sound of falling rain. When I opened my windows, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pleasant breeze blowing as well. The outside was much nicer than my stuffy house. However, there were swarms of bugs flying around when the rain started to let up. This made the chickens and doves roosting outside happy. I sat on my porch watching them scratch and peck at the ground, which was almost blanketed with flies (I knew I saved my powerful bug repellent for something). When the rain was done, I made my way to mass.

I learned that usually the palm branches are blessed before services by the Bishop at a place called Loreto and people gather them and walk to their parishes from there. But because of the rain, the palm branches were taken to the churches before services began. In the States, palm branches handed out at mass services are usually long thin strips of leaves. But here they use honest to goodness fully leaved palm branches; the kind I believe would have been actually used in Jesus’s time in Jerusalem. People will turn them into crosses like they do in the States. I went to Conforti church this time. We all gathered outside to begin the procession. Auntie P was there in a gold dress wearing a wig and a golden head turban. I told her she looked very pretty. She said I did too. This was a lie. With all the bugs and mud, I didn’t want to wear either of my long dresses with short sleeves. Instead, I wore a long-sleeved white blouse with tan linen pants. I’m always so plain compared to other ladies in the congregation with their beautiful, festive gowns.

The procession went back inside the church after the palm branches were blessed. I got to sit next to an open door and a nice breeze kept blowing towards me as the mass continued so I was very comfortable despite wearing long sleeves. Once again, the children were fascinated with me. I love seeing them. A relative of mine once said that black babies are cuter than white babies. I’m not saying that is true, but my heart melts every time a baby smiles and waves at me in mass. When the mass ended, I walked down to one of the mini marts close by and bought some orange juice to keep up my vitamin C. I was holding my palm branch and the man at the cash register asked if it was lemon grass. I told him no and explained what it was. He nodded politely but seemed confused about what a palm branch had to do with church. I would have stayed and explained, but he had another customer to attended to.

After I got home, Auntie P came over and said she had brought me some rat poison to help with the mice. I was so grateful! I hope it gets rid of them soon. I’m tired of finding droppings and seeing little shadows scurrying into corners.

I feel lonely sometimes, but I truly am blessed to be here. I count my blessings and hope I will make more friends while I am here. May God bless you all!