African Christmas and Birthday… and this time it was mine!
Christmas here in Africa is very different than in America- there is no pre-holiday preparation except some extra prayers at the end of Mass and an undecorated tree on the altar for Advent. This also means there is no holiday stress about getting gifts for everyone, or spending money on gifts just because “that’s what you’re supposed to do.” You celebrate the real reason for Christmas. We started our celebration with a 4 hour service on Christmas Eve- first we had a Nativity play, with a real goat!, an hour prayer service and then a 2 hour Mass that lasted until midnight. The church was beautiful with 5 large Christmas trees decorated and lighted with a small altar dedicated to the child Jesus, an actual baby doll that is presented to the priest after the Nativity play and placed in the crib. This baby is then incensed throughout the Mass. Twice during the Mass we ran around giving hugs and hand-shakes to everyone and wishing a “Heri za Noeli” or “Heri za Kristmasi”—it is a most joyful chaos and whirlwind. Then after Mass, at midnight and beyond, we celebrated with soda, beer, wine, and cookies. Cara’s mother sent her some Pop Rocks and we showed the sisters how to eat them with a drink of soda, which makes them foam in your mouth and Sr. Jane and Sr. Valeria got a huge kick out of them (Sr. Jane wanted a whole bag!) We also had a small Christmas tree that was lighted and decorated and it sang!
During the month of December we had a volunteer nurse from Italy in the local dispensary named Guiseppi. He was really a character and got involved in the church choir and spoke a combination of Italian, English and Kiswahili. Well, he was given an African outfit as a Christmas and farewell gift- a tunic with an antelope on it and matching pajama looking pants. Any other person would not wear these things together, but we found Guiseppi in the choir the next morning for Christmas Day Mass wearing the whole get-up and Cara and I had to stifle laughter all through the 2 ½ hour service. So, in the span of 15 hours we have the following Mass stats: 6 ½ hours of service, the baby Jesus was incensed a total of 5 times, Father Method spoke a total of 109 minutes outside the order of the Mass ( which out of the total 390 minutes of service is 28% of the time!) and we had a grand total of 20 altar servers.
Christmas Day is just like a Sunday, a day of rest, except we got extra big meals and soda at all of them. Tanzania also celebrates Boxing Day, which is a British holiday after Christmas, and basically another day of rest from the festivities. Cara and I decided to sleep in, which means waking up without an alarm, for the first time here in Africa. So, we missed breakfast and so had cookies in bed and later went for peppermint hot chocolate (thanks Momma, it was such a treat!!!)
After Boxing Day is my birthday and I was able to get into the kitchen to put together an Angel Food Cake mix that Mom sent for my birthday. Mama Angelina, the main cook, couldn’t believe you just add water. I explained that my mother had “put together all the dry ingredients” and sent it to me. But even if I just needed to add water the whole process was still a guessing game because they don’t possess measuring cups and I had an electric stove with no temperature gage and just a knob that went 1-10. Needless to say it was the most dilapidated Angel Food cake you ever wanted to see, but it tasted fine. I spiced it up a little with powdered sugar frosting and crumbled Oreos (also from Mom). I was able to make a large cake and another small one because I was worried the batter would overflow. I gave the smaller one to the printing press because I had promised Sr. Karina a gift from America. She really enjoyed it! The rest of the day was normal until dinner, when we again got soda and there were a few extra sisters to help me celebrate: Sr. Gertrude, Sr. Petronila, Sr. Jane and Sr. Valeria. After dinner, with soda, a special seat was prepared and of course dancing commenced with the cutting of the cake and the bearing of gifts—I was so surprised because I was not expecting anything. I received a new kanga, which was wrapped around me, a beautiful African basket, which was placed on my head, and an ebony carved elephant. In addition to these, I received the traditional garland around my neck, which was more Christmas tree decoration than necklace. So we sang, ate cake, did cheers and I looked ridiculous.
It was three days of simple joy with no one stressed or broke, feelings we should actually have during this beautiful season and something America should learn.
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