I had a little buddy at the mission whom you need to meet. His name was Jérémie. He was the son of one of our bakers, and I think he was born not too long before I arrived at the mission (he was probably 10 or so months old when these pictures were taken in May 2021). One day, Pentecost Tuesday, he decided that he liked me. I had barely had any (if I had indeed had any) interaction with him, but he started toddling up to me, letting me hold him -- I was holding him at one point and when I handed him back to his mother, he started crying. She gave him back to me and he stopped. It made no sense. Not a selfie, but he looks smart enough to take one In the meantime, the harvest was coming in from the garden. Eggplant, tomatoes, okra, basil that smelled incredible. Angelique was in the hospital at this point. Canon Sigros told me what had happened (we were standing in the air-conditioned pantry, he speaking English and me speaking French) when they took her there Sunday evening: there wa
May 23rd was Pentecost that year. Canon Sigros had his usual fun of printing the list of who was doing what, as well as a sort of "program" for the Mass. Je suis l'organiste! :) There were 12 catechumens to be baptized that day, so on Saturday afternoon, Canon Sigros performed the ceremony of exorcisms that is traditionally done before baptisms. All 12 of them were children or teenagers, but as they had all achieved the age of reason, these would be considered "adult baptisms". The whole thing took more than an hour. There were many, many prayers, questions posed to each catechumen, placing exorcised salt on the tongue of each one, the Our Father recited three times (first for the boys, then the girls), Canon blowing in the face of each one (symbolizing the Holy Spirit), leading them into the church, more questions, the Apostles Creed, another Our Father, anointing each one... As a general rule, I don't take pictures during liturgical functions. However,