African Easter Dresses

Oh the dresses here in Africa, they're just so fun! Bright colors, bold patterns, and fun designs - I just love them!

These are the styles commonly worn here - so much fun!

My team arrived in West Africa, Cote d'Ivoire to be exact, the week before Easter. We saw the fabulous clothing, fell in love and wanted our own African dresses for Easter. Then we encountered a slight problem. You see here in Africa you don't just go to the store to buy a new outfit. Oh, no. You buy fabric, take it to the seamstress or tailor, and have your new outfit made. This knowledge left me with the desire to go fabric shopping, acquire a sewing machine, and make my entire team new dresses for Easter. Unfortunately that wasn't a practical idea. So, on the Friday before Easter one of our fantastic hosts, named Zebedee, took us to a stand in the market where we could buy slightly less fabulous, but still fun and colorful, pre-made dresses for Easter.

After much hemming and hawing we each picked out a pretty new Easter dress. Then Sunday morning we put them on for Easter Service.

photo credit: Haylee Butler

It was so fun to still get to observe the tradition of new Easter dresses despite the fact we're half way around the world from home!

This has been one of my favorite things to wear ever since I got it! It's quite comfortable in the African heat, has a pocket (yes! I was able to find a dress to buy that already had a pocket!), and makes me feel pretty! Especially when I wear it with a belt to give it some shape.

African Easter dress? Check! It (and the second dress I acquired from a teammate) have been my most worn garments over the past two weeks. They work for sharing the Gospel,

Doing children's ministry,

 Learning how to make traditional African foods,

Visiting with seamstresses,

And catching goats!

Yes! I finally succeeded in catching a baby goat! Now I have a second goal for this month - to go fabric shopping and have a "real" African dress made! (And, you know, buy extra fabric to bring home to sew into dresses myself when I'm re-united with my sewing machine in about 6 months!)

To keep up with what else I'm up to in here in Africa check out my World Race blog!