95 years ago Easter fell on 23 March. This year Easter will also occur on 23 March, the second time in the last 250 years! Although this makes 23 March a special day, Easter can actually occur earlier, though it is even less likely. The 22nd of March is actually the earliest day on which Easter occurs. The year 1818 was the last time it happened, and the next time will be in 2285, but that is in 277 years! The most common date for Easter is not in April, but rather March 31. Easter occurs on that day 24 times between 1753, the first year the Gregorian calendar was adopted, and 500 years from then, or 2252. The second most common is April 16 (23 times), and April 11.

More interesting reading here on how the moving date of Easter was corrected.

This year I’ll be spending Easter on an island off the coast of northern Kenya near the Somali border with a great group of friends. I hope you have a great Easter, too!

Happy Easter!

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Yesterday while sitting in my Arabic language class in Nairobi, the teacher was giving examples of simple sentence structures. He quickly wrote an example on the board and continued with the lesson. This was the sentence he chose:

ضرب المعلم ظالب

“The teacher beat a student.”

None of the students in my class responded; no laughing or glances at one another…maybe that is a normal example. Either way, I decided that I sure better have all my homework done in time and that I would avoid being late to class!

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Pictures of our ascent of Mt Kenya are now posted here. There are 101 photos. Check ‘em out!

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