Plagues

Plagues

After our Passover Sedar, Rachel and I began talking and we have a greater understanding of the plagues.  We have a greater understating of our Jewish ancestors, and what they had to put up with.  Here is a list of the plagues and how I see them differently now:

Lice: Being in Samoa, with long hair, it seems impossible to not have lice.  I feel like it is something that is impossible to prevent, and just look forward to when people come over to my head to check it for those little bugs.  It really is relaxing to sit there for an hour while someone picks them out and eats them. 

Boils: I never understood the big deal  about boils.  During our training, another volunteer had one on his leg and was limping around for days.  I remember thinking of him as a baby, because ti could not possibly hurt as much as he was putting off.  But after only having two, and I spent my nights crying myself to sleep, I can’t imagine those who had their bodies covered in boils.  Just having one makes you not want to move, how can you go through life with so many?

Wild Animals: Dogs I consider to be wild animals….and they are scary.  You never know if one is going to come at you and gnaw your leg completely off.  I often get nervous of the pigs, especially when I am riding my bike.  There are also plenty of bulls that are not tied up.  Wild animals, although different than in the biblical times, are scary enough in Samoa.  At least we can scare more of them off with rocks.  (Which is why I don’t think I own a bag without rocks.)

Blood: Well, I don’t have a relationship to add to this.  Just infected cuts for everyone here. 

Frogs:  Leai se mea (there are none)

Death of the Firstborn: Thankfully not dealing with this either.

Hail:  There are no hailstorms here, but I know how horrible weather can be. After going through several hurricane warnings here, and several tsunami warnings I know never to take weather for granted.  Besides in Colorado, we have had hail the size of golf balls.  That stuff can hurt!

Locusts: None of these-just living with cockroaches, mice, and sometimes finding maggots in our food. 

Darkness:  Unless the Peace Corps volunteers living in outer island of Tonga, we do have electricity-and it is pretty stable, with only a few short blackouts each month. 

Death of Cattle: The only time I see this happen is when there is a funeral, wedding, or someone committed a crime.  Thankfully it is not an everyday occurrence.

As we were probably the only ones in all of Samoa having a Seder, and one of the last ones in the world having one, we really took the time to reflect..and although the Haggadah says we might be lucky enough to have Passover in Israel next year-we thought we will be lucky to have it in America.