Today we went out for lunch with a few friends. We went to a terribly lovely restaurant about a ten minute drive from our house.

As I don't often go to nice restaurants, you may be wondering what the big occasion was... It was Sev's Profession of Faith ceremony. It took place this morning.

We're very proud of him.

He's a nice boy.

Strange, but nice.

He's also tall.

As you can see, his robe is very short. They didn't have one long enough for him .

Other than that, it all went well. The service was much shorter than the ones we were used to in Burkina Faso. In Burkina, people feel ripped off if they don't spend the whole morning in church. It's their main entertainment for the week.

On the other hand, the music was not so good in comparison to what we had back in Ouaga. The choirs there were so dynamic and interesting. Around here it all seems quite sincere, but too tame and dull. Nobody dances.

But it was nice and the dinner with friends afterwards was even nicer, including a walk around the lake. Mallory got the waitress to find her a sack full of dry bread, so the twins kept busy making the ducks and swans all very happy.

In short, a good time was had by all.

Here's the reason why Valentine was recently condemned to "Nun Boot Camp": The Profession of Faith ceremony at our church on Sunday morning. Valentine's class had to prepare for this special ceremony where the young people get up in front of the congregation to commit to Christ and to "renounce the works of Satan". The latter being, I feel, always a good policy.

It was a reasonably nice day for the ceremony. It was only about 100°F and a bit breezy. Valentine was lovely in her long white robe and seed pearl headband. We'd had to have the robe sewn specially for her, as the church didn't have any that were long enough.

Here's the big moment: Valentine makes her speech. Beside her is Abbé Anicet. He's the third priest we've had in eight years. Some of the other Catechism teachers complain that he is too authoritarian, but they haven't been around as long as I have. Father Anicet is a beacon of democracy compared to past incumbents.
Crowd of pals all there to support Valentine. I'm there in the purple shirt.

I hope to have a short film of the ceremony up soon!!