JOYEUX NOEL!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
My favorite holiday of the year is finally here, and it’s really weird to think about. I’ll begin by telling a little about the day, then I’ll talk about feelings and stuff.
So we woke up early as usual for family prayer time. Instead of our usual morning prayer song we sang a Christmas song that I didn’t know (in Ngambai) before praying together. We had yummy little gateaux – cakes – for breakfast before going to church around 8. Today church was at the Palais de 15 Janvier – the palace of January 15. I asked my brother why it was called that and he said because it was finished on January 15. Creative naming. So we had the service in a big theatre type area with a big stage and comfy seats. All of the evangelical churches from the city were invited, so it was a decent sized group. I found the service to be long and relatively uninteresting, so I can’t say I was upset when we left around 12:30 (scheduled to be done at 11:15, of course). We got home and my host brother tells me he had watched the service from home on TV and he saw me! So I’m pretty sure that qualifies me as an international television star, right?
We rested at home for about 30 minutes, then we were off to church…again. This time it was for an informal potluck at our usual church building. They served the food Tchadian style, with a large platter of different foods together that about 8 of us stood around and ate with our hands, which I found to be quite fun. On the way home, Maman said “well, Christmas is over, so now we just wait until New Year’s.” Umm, not on my watch! It was only 3pm and nobody cuts my Christmas day short! So when we got home I gave my host family the gifts from me and my family, which they really enjoyed. One of the gifts was a calendar that my mom made with photos I took here of each person in my host family. I apologized to my one host brother who I didn’t have any photos of that he was not on the calendar. His good-spirited reply? “Well, my birthday isn’t on there either, so it makes sense!” He was born February 29, so he seems used to this kind of thing.
Mark came by for a short visit before dinner and it was interesting to hear about how different his Christmas day here was from mine. So keep that in mind, folks, my experience is not necessarily normal or abnormal for all of Tchad. Dinner was just leftovers from lunch, some chicken, plantains, and mixed veggies. We watched some TV (but no sports or Christmas movies), then I went to bed.
Feelings portion:
So at home Christmas is without a doubt my favorite holiday. Really, I love the whole time from Halloween to New Year’s because it seems that everyone is in the holiday spirit. Big warm sweater, sipping cider by the fireplace, and watching Christmas movies all month long…mmm it doesn’t get much better. But I didn’t have any of that this year.
You might think it would come as a crazy shock to my system to have such a drastically different Christmas than what I’m used to, and that’s partially true. But last year I had a different sort of Christmas too, and I think that was good preparation for me. Last year’s Christmas was celebrated away from home with my family renting a cabin to see me in North Carolina a few days before the holiday. Christmas Eve I worked a double (16 hours) and then had another shift Christmas day. I didn’t have a fireplace or my Aunt Barbara’s midnight cheesecake, and Christmas movies were often interrupted by the screaming children with whom I worked. Not the same as the 22 Christmases before it.
And this one was obviously different too. Besides all the differences, I had a few tastes of home to help me through. First, I got a package from my family last week, and it included a giant bag of Swedish Fish. Already things were looking up. Earlier this week I got to make Christmas cookies at the Austin’s while jamming to some Christmas tunes (yes, a rolling pin makes a great microphone). I also got to watch a bi-lingual Christmas production that the Austin kids were a part of, and nothing says Christmas like adorable kids singing Christmas songs and reciting the Christmas story while dressed up like wisemen, complete with a baby doll Jesus in a manger. Finally, getting to actually hear my family’s voices on Christmas Eve and Christmas day was really good for me. It was bittersweet, of course, to know I couldn’t see them, but I really did enjoy seeing Christmas in another culture. Goal for future Christmases: find a way to time-travel so I can continue seeing what Christmas is like in new places while also spending the day with family at home. Suggestions welcome.