UNSUSPECTING GUESTS OF HONOR

     President Dieudonne mentioned to us at the end of a meeting that the Relief Society was having an activity and wanted to invite us.  I was pretty happy that they were actually having an activity and so gladly accepted the invitation.  It was on a Thursday afternoon.  Gary and I arrived at the branch the day of the activity, planning to sit on the back row and observe.  We walked in and were immediately steered to 4 plastic chairs that were draped with a bit of Christmas tinsel.  They were set apart from the other chairs, and I realized these were special chairs reserved for the 2 "muzungu" missionary couples.  There was a long bench in front of the chairs that had a tablecloth and a vase with plastic flowers in it.

The activity was a demonstration of how to decorate a cooked chicken with spaghetti and a vegetable crown.  The whole chicken was sitting upright on a bed of rice.   This meal is one you serve on a special occasion, maybe for the holidays.

This is the chicken before he receives his spaghetti cape and his veggie crown.

And, Voila!  He has the spaghetti wrapped around his headless shoulders and a crown made of a tomato and a cucumber!

 After the demonstration, it was time to eat.  They had prepared plenty of rice, peas, and carrots to go with the chicken, but there was only one chicken to feed the 25 or so people.  They brought Gary and me the 2 whole legs of the chicken, which was embarrassing when you saw the little mouthful of chicken on everyone else's plate.  (We had them take some of our chicken back in hopes they would give more to someone else.)

We were the only ones to receive silverware or drinking glasses, so everybody else went to wash their hands in preparation for eating with their fingers.  The entire room full of people was scooping food into their mouths with their fingers while we used forks. And we were the only ones to be served French fries.

We were happy to see the Relief Society having an activity and happy to have been invited.  But, as Gary said, it was all very humbling and a little uncomfortable to receive extra attention and honor for no other reason than you are the missionary couple.  These are sweet people, very loving.  And we are blessed to be serving here with them.