It’s Christmas Eve as I write this. The temperature outside is in the 70’s and we’ve just had a rain shower pass through. The grass is green, the garden is growing, and you couldn’t find a holly berry or sprig of mistletoe anywhere in southern Zambia. Zambians don’t really celebrate Christmas other than to have a meal together, and many are too poor to afford even that.
We enjoyed an American-style Christmas gathering last night at the home of Rod and Sue Calder. They live at Seven Fountains, a farm adjoining Namwianga. Rod runs the farm and Sue takes care of orphans, especially babies. I think they have fifteen infants now, plus five older children that they are raising in addition to their three birth children. Sue is a fantastic cook and prepared a delicious feast of turkey, ham, and lots of side dishes. She had invited the American missionaries and some African families as well, so it was an interesting group. We sang Christmas carols to end the evening, and that helped me get into the holiday spirit, at least a little bit.
Our children, Sara and John, are together for the weekend. John flew to Tulsa where Sara lives, and then the two of them are going to Springfield, Missouri today to spend Christmas with my family there. They called us on our Skype internet program this morning (our time) and we got to talk to both of them at once. It was such a joy to hear their good-natured teasing and bantering back and forth with each other. I didn’t realize how much I miss that! We are very proud of the way they have handled life on their own these last few months.
Tomorrow on Christmas Day we will go for a village outreach as usual. This time we are taking a high school boys’ quartet with us, as well as a teacher and a college student to serve as translators. When we get back from the outreach, we plan to watch some new DVDs that were sent to us by friends in our home congregation at BOCC. We don’t have a television, but we can use our computer. Since the electricity has been very unpredictable lately, we’ve got two computer batteries charged up and ready in case the power goes out. AND a six-pack of Dr. Pepper sent from the US is also waiting in the refrigerator, plus some Christmas blend Starbucks coffee in the cupboard. As if that weren’t enough to look forward to, we’ve been invited to sample the goat meat at Rodgers Namuswa’s house tomorrow evening (see “Goat Ride” for the background on this).
Merry Christmas from Zambia!
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