Village Funerals

I've been to four funerals in the last two months. It's probably the hardest thing I've done. It's heartbreaking to watch a family mourn the loss of a loved one. The way that they mourn here is different than the way we do in the States.

When someone dies they don't embalm the body. They bury the body within 3 days and sometimes even within the first day. They don't use a coffin, but simply put the body into the ground. I don't know all of the customs, but I do know that they lay the body facing Mecca and I'm not sure why.

This picture is of the cemetery behind the mosque in our village where several burials have happened recently.





After the burial there are 3 days of Quranic readings in the morning and evening. Many people in the village come to comfort the family members. They do these readings in a place called a maatem (also called a husseiniya). The women are in one maatem and the men are in another maatem. During these readings people come in and out making sure to greet the family members with a kiss and special greetings.

There's usually a lot of tears. At some point everyone covers their faces to weep. It's really sad.

This picture shows ladies with their faces covered. At the funeral they're not usually standing up, but they do cover completely while they mourn.

The first one I went to was not in our village, but it was for a friend that I knew from our previous village. My friend's husband suddenly passed away. It was totally a shock. He was playing soccer with friends and had a heart attack. My friend, his wife, is left with their two small boys ages 3 and 5 years old. After I hugged her at the funeral my shoulder was wet from her tears. I was heartbroken.

I learned that she will stay home during a 40 day (or more) mourning period. So, a couple weeks later I came back to sit with her in her home. Her sisters and mother were there with her, so she wasn't alone. Joseph and Faith gave her boys some toys. On our way to that visit we prayed that the toys would be a blessing in some way to them.

This is a picture of her boys playing with the toys we gave them.

The next funeral was for someone I didn't know, but I wanted to be with people in our village as they mourned. There was a time when tears were flowing down my face at the funeral for a 30 year old man. His mother was wailing and crying out from the back of the room. She was hurting and crying out for God to help her. I was quietly praying that God would touch her heart and comfort her in a way that only He can do.

I took this picture as I was walking into the maatem for his funeral.








Another funeral was for the grandmother of a friend of mine. The grandmother was 90 years old when she died. This funeral wasn't as hard, but I just wanted the family to know that I care about them. I love the sisters in this family and was glad for the chance to show them that I care.

This week was the most difficult funeral I've been to. On Monday I learned that Faith's teacher from last year had passed away. She was about my age, married without any children. She was her mother's only daughter. She died from Sickle Cell Disease, which is very common here.

This picture is of her family sitting by her grave after the 3 days of mourning.




I didn't tell Faith who it was that died, because it was just so sad. I went to two of the readings in order to comfort her mother, who is such a sweet lady. The afternoon reading for the first day was packed full of ladies from the village. When I finally reached the mother, my heart broke to see how broken she was. I held her and she cried when she saw me saying that she had wished she could have come to the Easter party. After hugging her, my tears were still flowing for a few minutes. The next morning I came back and there wasn't as many people. I was able to sit next to the mother this time for a longer time and just grieve with her. I prayed hard that God would comfort her and reveal Himself to her.

I love these people. In living life with these friends there are going to be hard times to walk through with them. As difficult as it can be, I thank God for the privilege of being with them. I thank God that they allow me to share in even the difficult times.