Easter Sunday in Tanzania - One
- Fr. Jim Donohue, CR
- May 4, 2023
As I wrote in Easter Vigil in Tanzania, Fr. Yohana and I were surprised when we entered the silence of the parish rectory. How did Fr. Maciej and Br. Michael finish so quickly, that they were already asleep? As we did in Magunga, they started outside with the Easter fire and the Lighting of the Paschal Candle.
While Fr. Yohana and I baptized 50 people together, Fr. Maciej baptized 50 people by himself…the mystery continues!
Fr. Yohana and I tried to pursue the matter by inquiring about the number of readings or the length of the homily. We did not get any satisfactory answers. All we were told was that they started at 8:00 p.m. sharp and finished at 10:05 p.m.
At any rate, I was up the next morning at 5:00 a.m. to practice some of the prayers, the gospel, and my homily one last time. I was accompanied by two altar servers—Augustino, who is in secondary school, and Joseph, who is in Standard 6—to celebrate at three outstations: Tarani, Kyamuko, and Kizaro-Matongo. I was scheduled to baptize 5 children at Kyamuko.
My first stop was Tarani, which is the largest of the three outstations that I would travel to on this day. We left at 6:30 a.m.; it takes about 20 minutes to drive there. The road to this outstation is good with some recent upgrades, including a new grading of the road.
Mass was scheduled to start at 7:00 a.m. However, I heard confessions for about 30 minutes, so we started at about 7:20 a.m. The church was full, with about 130-150 children present.
Augustino was with Fr. Yohana and I last night at the Easter Vigil in Magunga, so he is really pulling extra duty coming with me again on Sunday.
Joseph’s last name is Mamba…which means crocodile. I usually call him Mamba. He just smiles!
There are also some servers who live in the area served by the Magunga Outstation. This is Yohannes, whose father is one of the bus drivers for Resurrection pre-primary and primary school. He is in his 4th year of secondary school.
The choir was ready, and it was time to start the Easter Sunday Eucharist!
I had some candies for all the children as a small Easter present. They lined up in an orderly manner and there were no injuries in the distribution of the candies! It was time to pack up and move onto the next outstation of Kyamuko. I was already running behind schedule, but I was doing the best I could!
More to come on www.resurrectionists.ca
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