Learing from a Sister

The other day I saw teaching my students the difference between singular and plural. How can you make this interesting? Answer: a song. What song: “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. If you point to one shoulder, singular, two, plural. One knee, two knees. Okay, you get it. To make sure that my students understood the parts of the body, I also gave them the homework assignments of drawing the body and then labeling the different parts. This all sounds pretty easy, interactive and simple yes? Well, things got a little interesting. You see, in my classes there are a few nuns. Yes, sisters. Women of God. Nuns. They are between the ages on 20 and thirty five and act very different from the rest of the students who are as young at twelve.

So we sing. We label. We learn. The I ask if any students have any questions. One sister raises her hand, stands up and asks her question. Standings about eight inches taller, thirty pounds heavier and fifteen years older than the others sitting around her, she has a presence to say the least.

“yes, sister” I ask.

Eyes locked with mine and in all seriousness, she grabs her breasts and says “what is this?”

I freeze. She was right, this was not covered in the song or my lesson.

“Um… your shirt” is all I could manage.

“no” she responds quickly.

I begin to sweat. Fear and awkwardness take over. The rest of the class is laughing.

Silence… silence… sweaty silence…

“your chest, your chest. This is your chest” I say this and immediately turn around and begin to write the word on the board and to compose myself. At this time, she finally removes her hands from the front of her blouse and sits back down.

Saved. Survived. So awkward.

Flash forward a few days:

It is Sunday. Kiswahili mass. I am sitting in between Cat and Gretchen at St. John the Baptist struggling to follow along. By the time the Liturgy of the Eucharist comes around I am exhausted and wishing that the norm was a one hour mass and not a two hour  mass. BUT, I look up at the alter only to see that same sister from my class helping the priest prepare communion. At least I think it is her? Of course she is now in full habit and nun-wear! Yes that is her. Wow. As I walk up to take communion all I can think is: two days prior she was standing in the middle of the classroom touching herself! Sorry, God, I know that I should see the Divine in all things but this is weird. So weird. I take communion from her, shocked, and a little uncomfortable.

Yes. That really happened. From a lesson on the human body to a whole new meaning of taking communion!