(Thurs. 25 Dec.)
I’ve told you that the Babwisi say thank you for everything, it’s kind of an emphatic exclamation…a way to point out the value of something, a way to point out the remarkable nature of something…so when we say Merry Christmas, the Babwisi say “thank you for the most important day, thank you for reaching!” so as to say, thank you for successfully reaching the most important day.
Christmas Day is the feast day of all feast days here in Bundibugyo. The Babwisi don’t exchange gifts or decorate their homes at all, but they get dressed up and they eat a feast to celebrate. We’ve been celebrating somewhat accordingly ☺ Sunday evening we celebrated Norwegian style as a team with a white dinner (food is white, decorations are white, etc) and advent devotions, then last night (Christmas Eve) we went caroling as a team (yes, we were as much of a spectacle as you’re imagining) followed by a candlelit reading of the Christmas story at the Myhre’s cow pasture, next to the manger…with DMC and Sirloin (the cows) and Pelusi (the goat) looking and listening quite intently as well. The singles came home and enjoyed an eclectic meal of Vietnamese spring rolls and pigs in a blanket (Belgian sausage pieces wrapped in Ashley’s made-from-scratch-of-course-croissants). We gathered again this morning (note to all: I was up and out of bed shortly after 7am!) as a singles family with Kym and Lydia and had a great breakfast and gift b’sharem (as my dad calls them). Then there was church.
Church is the central event of the day here. Everyone dresses in their new Christmas clothe-ez and the service was about 2.5 hours. I had put thought and some action into getting a Christmas dress or outfit made, but never got around to the actual deed of taking it to get made, so I wore a dress I brought in a new-ish way and tried to be as festive as possible…solid colors just aren’t festive here, so boring. Oh well, just made everyone else look that much better! The bazungu made our evidently traditional appearance in song with a team rendition of Joy to the World, accompanied by Scott and Nathan on guitars, and with a Wee Sing for Christmas book in front of us to get the verses right. Scott prefaced the song with an explanation of why we sing that joy came to the world in Jesus’ coming, why it is such good news that we should might be joyful about. It was good for me to hear. Other people performed songs including the choir and a children’s choir, some of the team got pulled into what seemed to me to be a pastors/elders/wives song and dance routine (luckily they could tell I would detract from the performance so I got to sit and watch☺ The choir was decked out in brand-new-today choir robes, my used-to-be-a-scooter-friend Katsusiime Jovia was present, decked out in her spiffy new Christmas dress and hair done in braids just as a cute as ever, Alikanjiira (the ironing guy) had shaved in honor of the day, there was toilet paper strung up around the room with balloons and empty candy wrappers as decorations in a very festive manner. Now, remember back to when I said Christmas Day is the feast day of all feast days around here, well, I was sitting in the back row of benches and kind of zoning off every once in a while (very very very easy to do when you only understand one word in every 5 sentences or so of what’s going on), so I’m honestly not sure what the text for the sermon was, but Charles Musinguzi preached and the part I paid most attention to was the very end, he was really goin’ by that time and I think had most people’s attention as he said something like “So today we’re going to eat rice and beef and chicken and many other things, it’s going to be a big feast, and we will be satisfied for a few hours, maybe 3, but the feast that will happen when Jesus comes back will last FOREVER! We will be satisfied in Him FOREVER!” Clapping spread through the room! Amen!
Now we’re in a slight lull before team dinner/gifts/fun& games for the rest of the day. We each drew a name. I hope my person likes their gift, it’s hard to feel like everything hinges on your one gift, but it’s okay, it’ll be fine. I really love giving people gifts…a love language of mine I guess. My parents (well, my mom to be specific) sent me a great package for Christmas which actually arrived before Christmas which is miraculous…great movies, great treats, practical things I needed…THANKS MOM! (and Dad ☺)
Merry Christmas, all!
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