Changes.

Yesterday, I spent all afternoon baking chocolate cakes for the aspirant sisters/my student's farewell tea party. Let me tell you a little bit about baking in Bangladesh.
a.) nobody does it.
b.)ovens are scarce--they use electricity, something that we don't always have here.
c.)even if they do bake and have an oven, they do it in the morning; it's much too hot in the afternoon to be stuck in a hot kitchen.

of course, being the procrastinator that I can be, but try not to be, I decided to bake in the middle of the afternoon, 3 hours before the party. Just as I was beginning to put all the ingredients into the bowl, and was figuring out the correct measurements for quadrupling the recipe (there are a lot of people at the mission), the power goes out. This poses 2 problems. 1.) no electricity for the oven. and 2.) no fans which makes it unbearably hot with no air circulation (and makes me start sweating immediately.) I ignore 1. and 2. and I keep mixing the ingredients, saying a prayer that the power will come back in time for me to get these cakes in the oven. With the help of Sister Supina and the watchful eyes of 3 other sisters who asked all sorts of questions about baking, I managed to mix all the ingredients into a huge bowl, and it looked and tasted like chocolate cake batter. (Grandma, you'd be proud. (I am really looking forward to your choc. cake in a couple months) Just as we were finished mixing, the power came back, as I was hoping it would. The oven is small and only one cake can fit in it at a time, so I put the biggest one in and guessed how much time it will need as well as the temp. because it was in Celcius.

Skip ahead 3 hours. The cakes are all done, look delicious, the table's set and all my students and all the sisters have gathered to say goodbye. We ate and chatted. Apparently chocolate cake is a very special food that they almost never eat, so I chose the right one to bake. Everyone marveled at how delicious it was. I breathed a sigh of relief that it all worked out, and promised that I would teach Sister Agnes how to bake one before I leave.

As we are getting towards the end of the party it is time to give speeches. This is something that I have gotten used to at gatherings and parties. People always nominate other people to either a.)sing a song or b.) give a speech. Several of the sisters gave speeches. Then of course, I as the teacher was asked to say a few words. Almost immediately I started to get all teary--Sister Rosie was laughing b/c I was the 3rd person to start crying in the last 17 minutes. I pulled it together and told the Sisters and my students that I would miss them a lot and that though I was their teacher I was also their student and they taught me about how to show hospitality and what kindness looks like. I told the Sisters that they were lucky to continue to have relationships with my students, as I was leaving soon and would no longer be able to see them regularly. I thanked them for their hard work and also told them not to forget how to use the present continuous tense, which made everyone laugh nervously--b/c I am almost sure that they never learned it in the first place.

To round out the time, and to make it ceremonial, Sister Florence gave each aspirant sister a coconut shell with oil and a wick. I had taught them the song "Give me oil in my lamp" so as I lit the student's wicks we sang that song. (side note: I taught them the pentecostal version which exclaims, "hallelujah!" at every possible second which made it slightly awkward and funny).

We made our way, candles in hand to the chapel, and put the candles on the altar. Then we said the Lord's Prayer together.

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this morning as the sun and humidity were rising, all the sisters and I waved good bye to them.