So I had some people ask about what Christmas is like in Africa. We were just saying tonight, that they probably do it more right here than at home in America.
A lot of churches go all or most of the night. A lot like New Year’s, welcoming in Christmas day. The emphasis is where is should be, on the Christ child. There is not much pre-Christmas adverstising or hanging of lights or wreaths. For sure no Santa Claus. We saw a 1 1/2 foot table-top Christmas tree in a stationairy store about 2 weeks before Christmas, almost bought it, but the ornaments on it were being sold seperately, so we waited. Good thing we did, we ran across a small tree here at the house and used it. There is a picture of our Christmas tree below. Pam and I had also picked up some lights while in Nairobi and the American team that was here pre-Christmas used a wall in the living room and shaped a Christmas tree.
Anyway, not much going on, but let me tell you of our Christmas week. We started out on Tuesday handing out gifts of clothing to area villages. By that I mean you would drive to the area of a village and walk to someone’s hut. I did it one day as I fell a little ill after that (nothing to do with the visits), Pam did it one day as she was ill before me. But the giving went on. I visited four huts, most with what I’ll call a compound area. The only photo I took was of a home we walked to and no one was there. We had either kids or adults familiar with the village area take us to the most needy homes.
The second hut was surrounded by corn and had two huts, no livestock and the occupants were two eldery persons, man and wife. We sang a couple of songs, talked with them, read to them from the bible and prayed with them. The third hut I’ll describe to you later. The fourth hut was the ‘richest hut’, it had chickens and ducks within their compound area. There was no man present, the grandmother was the owner. She lived with her daughter-in-law, and 4 grandkids. Her husband had died some time ago and her son had died last year. No other children or relatives to help her. The fifth hut area held only one mud hut, occupied by the grandfather/grandmother owners and two boy grandchildren. The youngest boy was there, the older one we found out was the money earner and was actually diabled in the leg. The parents had died of AIDS some time ago. The older grandchild was off doing his job, watching over and feeding some cattle. He earned TSH 10,000 a month. That about $7.00 American. That’s the entire income of this family of four.
I learned that the more money you had, the more elaborate, if I can use that word, the hut area is. If fenced in, has more than one hut and has some livestock or fowls, they have more than ones with no compound area and just one mud hut, which describes the third hut I visited.
We probably walked anywhere between 1/4 a mile and 1/2 a mile between huts. As we walked to hut 3, all we saw was a mud hut and a lean-to type structure. Beside the lean-to was a young boy of about 7 and a child under 1, not yet walking. He told us his mother was down to the river washing clothes. We sat down and vistied with him a bit until his mother showed up with his two younger sisters. This compound area was not fenced, no livestock, only the two structures. When I say we sat down, I mean they brought out stools that are maybe 6 inches above the ground and we sat on them. Our group was 4 of the orphans, the orphanage supervisor who speaks English and myself.
What really got to me here was not only the obvious poverty, but this young mother of four children had just lost her husband. She was sitting not more than ten feet from his fresh grave. We sang, talked, read and prayed and gave them clothing, but you wanted to give so much more.
On to Christmas eve. Services started about 8:30 and went until midnight. The services were at the orphanage and the orphans wanted to go all night, but they barely made 12:00.
The next morning we were back to the orphanage for Christmas morning service. We then sent the kids outside as we set up their presents. We brought them in by age groups and boy were they all smiles. We also gave gifts to the staff and families.
After giving of gifts, we had Christmas dinner, photo below. Pam and I then headed back to the house, short nap, and some peeling and cutting of carrots and potatoes for supper. We then went to take our turn for a couple of hours at a dance the kids went to at Goldland Hotel.
We had been invited to the Baptist missionaires’ home to share Christmas dinner with them. We 5 missionairies got there a little later than we wanted, but great dinner, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, and so on.
Our missionairy group then went home exchanged gifts. Pam and I then opened our gifts and finally to bed. African Christmas, TIA. Mark
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This is the Children’s choir, Christmas Eve. Not much differerent than home, kids sing, special groups sing, choir sings, praying, bible readings and sermon.
Here’s Pam doing a bible reading. It was read in both English and Swahili. Notice she has a small flashlight. The lighting is deceptive, but it's rather dark as there are limited lights in the orphanage as they only have solar power.
The gifts (mostly placed in backpacks) are waiting for the kids.
The younger ones lined up to find their gifts.
Derrick and his bag of gifts.
This is Winnie (nickname) and her backpack.
Lucy and her gifts. She’s the one we tried to get to America for a 3 month study/schooling, but good old USA wouldn’t give her a visa.
A staff family getting their gift box. This is Chacha, one of our night guards.
Here’s the cooking of Christmas Diner, outside, over a fire.
The serving of Christmas dinner.
Actual Christmas dinner. Bannanas, grow in this area, rice, beef (a treat), a tomatoe sauce freshly made and potatoe or cooking banana. Pretty much eaten by hand.
The Travis Tree 2010.
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