What was our Easter celebration like this year in Zambia? I have nothing to compare this year to, as we only just got here in November, but I imagine that in some ways it was “normal” for life here and in other ways it was “abnormal”.
Every year since our kids were little we’ve celebrated a Passover Seder. So, this year as well, we invited friends over to enjoy a meal together remembering when the Israelites were freed from Egypt and spared from the 10th plague by the death of the Passover lamb and when Jesus shared the bread and cup with his disciples before he died. I’m happy to report that everything was cooked and tasted halfway decent in spite of the lack of electricity (8-9 hours off per day alternating mornings and afternoons each week) and water (on for 2-3 hours morning and evening). It was only after the whole thing was over that I realized that what I had presented as beef (not being sure that I’d have enough lamb I pulled a roast out of the freezer and cooked that as well) was actually a pork loin!!!! Oh my! That is the worst thing to serve at a Seder! We laughed so hard.
If you’re interested in learning more about a Passover Seder and why we do it give this a listen. (Going on a tour of Israel someday with Dr Rydelnik moderating is on my bucket list).
As per usual, Mark didn’t realize that Friday was a holiday here, so he worked a 7 hour day. This was especially tough for me because there isn’t much to do around here regularly and now with social distancing it’s even worse. The fact that all four of our kids were home at our house in PA together and I was here with nothing to do made it all the harder. It was a nice surprise when my friend Beatrice called. Her daughter was turning 2 so we enjoyed an evening together celebrating Brianna. She didn’t like it when we all sang to her though saying: “stop!”. I guess that she just wanted to move forward with the cake.
Saturday Mark worked a half day (still not taking a day off) and then we joined the Books and a Swedish doctor for a 10 mile run/bike ride in the bush and around a hill/mountain. You never know what kind of terrain or animals you might have to dodge along the way. We 3 bike riders took a wrong turn after a drink stop and got separated from the 2 runners. We had quite the adventure doing some real mountain biking but eventually found our way home before dark. Both Marlys and I managed to fall off of our bikes at one point: me due to choosing to ride down the steep side of a river bank only to stop dead in the sand and flip, and her due to her tires getting mired in the sand stopping the bike and tipping her sideways. We both had a good laugh and kept going.
Saturday evening Mark and I enjoyed watching/listening to my brother Ian’s Good Friday service (since we didn’t want to listing to it at 1:00 in the morning when it was first aired). It was a treat to be able to take part in that from afar.
Sunday morning was when everything really seemed “abnormal”. There was no church service to go to! What now? How do you celebrate Easter without going to church or decorating eggs or singing Easter songs or eating a boatload of Reese’s Easter eggs etc…? So we googled how to make natural egg dyes and went to work boiling and cooking things (we had electricity until 13:00) but of course we were starting with brown eggs so were already at a disadvantage. A friend let us know that if you put brown eggs in vinegar for 30 minutes the brown comes off so of course we did that too. Once we boiled red onion skins, turmeric, beets and greens we let the eggs soak.
While Mark enjoyed playing in his chemistry lab I moved out to the dining room to make homemade peanut butter eggs: modified Buckeyes!
We then invited friends over to decorate the eggs with Sharpies and have our traditional family “egg fight”.
We did have some excitement on Easter in that we discovered that bees had infested our joint chimney, with Amanda next door, so we simultaneously had to light fires to smoke them out. It was plenty hot without the fire in the house but apparently we needed a fire in spite of the heat. 
We thought that the whole bee ordeal was over but then later on in the afternoon as we were listening to an Easter service on the phone, over the sound on the phone, we heard this “enormous” buzzing! Here, outside by the road, thousands of bees were swarming around a tree. It was SO LOUD!!! They swarmed for about 20 minutes then disappeared. I’m just really hoping that they didn’t settle back into the chimney.
Sunday evening we had the privilege of watching the Sight and Sound movie of Jesus (at the Books house since they had electricity) and we really enjoyed the way they presented the story. It was so nice to be able to get to watch such a wonderful drama presentation of Jesus’s life and message to the world.
The rest of the night we spent talking to family in the US and catching up on their news, The fact that we can talk to each other frequently is a wonderful blessing!
So, although this Easter was the same and yet different, we enjoyed pondering and celebrating Christ’s death and resurrection. We know that no matter what our situation Christ has redeemed us and made a way for us to be reconciled to him. He is the resurrection and the life!
Mark and Maggie BICWM 
What an interesting life . Sending Love your way
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