Christmas in Kenya

I think I will interrupt the Homestay "report" to share with you about Christmas in Kenya, before 2012 runs out!  :)  (News flash:  2012 ran out here while I was working on this, and the internet went down...so Happy New Year!)


I was really surprised by the lack of outward reminders that Christmas was approaching.  First of all, it is very warm here.  Ok, that wasn't surprising, but it was surprising how it influenced our feeling about the time of year.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas afternoon, it rained and the kids played outside barefooted with friends - much more summerish than winterish.  So, we've had to adjust to the "backwards" seasons. 

Emily took these photos on Christmas Eve - a double rainbow!

Flowers blooming in our yard

Summer squash growing like crazy in our garden (shamba).  They grow a lot of zucchini here, but not summer squash - my parents sent these seeds from the States. :)

Then, there were just so few decorations!  Even in church, there was no advent wreath, no tree, no garland, etc.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with this - it is just so DIFFERENT.  That is true of many things here - not wrong, just different.  In our home, we borrowed a fake Christmas tree from someone on home assignment and decorated it with a few ornaments that we brought from home as well as ornaments sent by our Sunday school class back home. :)  Also, we brought our Advent wreath from home.  I often forget to buy purple tapers in October or early November (you would think that I would get it together after so many years!!), so I usually scramble around trying to find them right before Thanksgiving.....after everyone else has already bought them.  Ironically (because almost everything is harder to find here) this year I had no trouble finding purple candles in Nakumatt (the big supermarket chain).  We also decorated our windows with winter and Christmas window clings that a friend had sent to us - kind of funny, considering the weather, but it made us feel closer to home, and that was good.

Our tree, decorated

Christmas cookies - we brought sprinkles from home!

The girls decorating cookies!

A tree in a section of the pediatric ward - even with functioning lights! ;)

We did make a family trip to the Masai market early in December - a chance for everyone to finish up their Christmas shopping.  The Masai market is a huge open air market for Kenyans to sell their handicrafts.  It moves between different locations in Nairobi, but it is the same vendors.  It was definitely a cultural experience for the kids!  They are not used to the aggressive tactics that are commonplace here.  "May I help you?" in Hallmark or Belk's, and "No, thank you, I am just looking." is not even in the same galaxy as this!!  However, the people are friendly and talkative, if you can manage not to be intimidated.  They are always complimentary of Kijabe Hospital, and many of them have some first-hand experience in the hospital.  I don't go to the market much, but I hope to be able to greet the same people again when I go.  It is always nice to recognize people in a new place after you move. :)

The weekend before Christmas, the kids and I (Rick rounded that morning) went up to RVA to help pack the "Christmas hampers"  for 60 of the neediest families around Kijabe.  Evidently, this is a tradition, and the families (many elderly, widows, and grandmothers looking after grandchildren) are known by some members of the AIC Kijabe Church or the staff at the hospital, RVA, or Moffat Bible College.

Packing boxes of rice, sugar, wheat flour, maize flour, cooking fat, salt, tea

Anna and Ted :)

On Sunday evening, we went to a service at RVA and sang Christmas carols.  That was really nice - sadly, we brought very little Chrsitmas music with us.  At home, we have a CD of traditional Christmas carols that is introduced by a man talking - the kids were always so annoyed by him talking, but they miss it terribly here!  So funny and totally unpredictable what is missed, but I think it is really the familiar that is missed.

On Christmas Eve morning, we went to deliver the hampers to the families in the area.  At some of the homes, we asked them how we could pray for them.  Many had individual requests, but they ALL asked that we pray for their children to have jobs.  The unemployment rate in Kenya is 40% (yes, forty percent!!), and it weighs very heavily on those affected.

One woman's house was insulated very neatly with cookie wrappers

This was her stove - notice the dirt floor

This grandmother is raising her grandchildren

This house is plastered with mud on the inside and outside

This was one of the neatest yards we saw, their clothes were clean but tattered, and this grandmother radiated joy!

The man standing in the doorway was a widower who lives alone in this complex of homes.  A very proud man with so little resources - he walks with a cane and is stick thin.

On Christmas Eve evening, we went to sing carols in hospital.  We visited the pediatric ward, not surprisingly, and the kids gave out candy and silly bands that a friend had sent with us to Kenya.  The children and the parents loved them (although the silly bands were definitely new to them!) and very appreciative of our visit.  Rick and I were thankful for our kids to see the children on the pediatric ward and to interact with them as kids - they wanted to go to all the areas that kids (not babies) are admitted to.  :)  There was a service in the hospital chapel after the caroling and visiting - not our usual candlelight service that breaks all sorts of fire-codes for occupancy, but poignant nonetheless.  I hope to be able to go with the kids to the hospital and give out treats again - we don't have to wait for Christmas! :)

On Christmas Day, our kids slept later than any previous year - don't know whether to chalk that up to adolescence or the very different feel of Christmas here - and we opened presents, rounded in the hospital, and had another family over for Christmas Dinner.  They had just returned from several weeks in the States the night before!  It was a wonderful time to share Christmas together, although punctuated episodes of running to the hospital during which two children died.  So difficult here to separate life and death into neat little packages - you realize the reality of "the slender thread of life,"as my microbiology professor used to say in medical school.  It makes the truth of the Christmas Story and the need to share Christ's love with others feel even more urgent...although it is no more urgent here than in the US or anywhere else in the world.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!

Lots of love,
Sarah

1 Thessalonians 5:2
For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.