Easter in Tanzania (lots of videos)!!

One of my very favorite Easter traditions for our family is a huge Easter egg hunt, and by huge I mean massive! It started when we were young and our Dad would wake up early Sunday morning and hide the eggs outside in our yard. We’d drive off to church with our eyes glued to the windows trying to spot the pastel eggs so as to have the upper hand in the hunt when we returned. The tradition has grown over the years and now our two older brothers, Jason & Jaron, hide over 400 eggs in the yard for all of the grand kids to find! Well, I’m grateful to say the tradition is continuing… now all the way to Tanzania!

Stuffed eggs ready to be hidden.

The package arrived, just in time!

In preparation for our Easter party we asked our Mom (who you already read is the bomb dot com at packages) to send over the plastic eggs and maybe some things to put inside. The day before our party, a teammate did a final check at the Post Office and sure enough the package arrived!! We spent the morning stuffing 180 eggs with Starburst, Tootsie Rolls, Balloons, and Double Bubble – the best gum ever that loses its taste after about 3 minutes – and then hiding them all around our center! It was a blast watching all the kids run and find the eggs! Watch a video of them here! (Michelle is speaking some mad Swahili, too!!)

The parents weren't afraid to get in the mix as well!

Did you know that if you hit the ends of two hardboiled eggs together only one will break? Me neither, until we played “Crack the Egg” where everyone pairs off and hits eggs until there is only one person left. We had one girl with a very special egg who won both rounds! That egg won’t crack! Check out the video here!

Then, the parents did an egg race… men vs. women! Michelle and I only took a few opportunities to try to slow the men down!! Another great video here!

Finally, and this was when we realized they weren't afraid at all, we paired up husbands and wives for an egg toss… with regular eggs! I’ll never forget how competitive they were and the shock on their faces when the egg finally broke. It was priceless watching two husbands get splattered at the same time! Check out the last video here!

A few years ago Michelle and I began a new tradition with our nieces and nephews that we learned about after becoming Christians… Resurrection Eggs. Making our own dozen of Resurrection Eggs, we helped tell the story of Jesus and what Easter is all about to our Tanzanian brothers and sisters that day. We walked through the story of that Passover, remember how Jesus was betrayed, beaten, hung on a cross, and died to pay the ransom for our sins. But, there is hope in the 12^th egg. It’s empty. Jesus rose from the grave, conquered death, and promised to return again! Now this is the reason we celebrate.

HAPPY EASTER!

Megan

Oh, and one more thing… just like at home when we couldn't find all the eggs hidden in the yard, we are still missing 6 here. I wonder who will discover one with the mower and shower the ground with pastel?!?