Christmas

So my scheduled posts are not completed but with some Internet problems there have been a few days without them and might be a few more- so let me interrupt for a Christmas update.

First of all Merry Christmas to all of you- I pray it was a special one for you and your families. This year I have to admit it was a bit hard to spend my first Christmas away from family but I was also excited to experience a Christmas here. A bit more of a raw Christmas, not the commercialized Christmas it has become at home. I have to say it did not disappoint. We woke in the morning to the kids outside the hut door signing, with drums and all. Jesus was knocking at our door they were singing and kept on for sometime. We then all did our chores, got ready, loaded about 75 people onto the bus (PACKED) and headed to Bandejuma where we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon. There is this beautiful river beach there.

Oh how Amy, Meghan and I loved to get into some cooler water and swim. The kids loved it too. The big boys were the first to jump in and the water games began. After Amy and I won the first few games of water chicken all the boys were out to get us so we lost a couple and that was that. There were some rapids that we were able to climb- I managed to get in on good fall, but hey. After some time some of the other kids wanted to come in so we headed back to the shore and played with the middle and younger kids for a bit. It was so much fun to watch some of them hesitate to come in- having some fear of water- and within a few minutes have them splashing around along with the others.

During this time some of the ladies from the church there along with Aunty Mary, Aunty Nana, and some of the older girls were cooking us a fine Christmas dinner. We are so thankful to all of them. When we finished swimming we were able to eat one of my favorite meals- chicken jollof rice. After some songs and prayer we were back on the bus headed home. We had some small gifts for the kids- along with a notebook and pencil each from my Minnesota friends here- and then Amy, Meghan and I got ready to head to JK's family while the kids got ready to watch a movie.

Aunty Margaret (JK's mom) and Nancy (JK's sister) cooked us some delicious food- Amy's favorite, Cassava and ground-nut soup- and JK's favorite, Green and rice. We just sat around taking afterwards, telling stories, solving riddles and hanging out. We have to say that we came home around 9 and all crashed into bed.

It was a fun day- without the snow it didn't seem quite like Christmas, but spending time with all these people talking about the real meaning of Christmas - it brought it all home and I think we celebrated Jesus birth in a way none of us will forget for sometime.