So the festivities this year marked my first away from family. It was different in many ways . . . some most obvious!:
the temperature - still climbing into the mid-30's during Christmas week!
thus . . . my first ever outdoor Christmas Eve service!
complete with needing to spray on mosquito repellant
the live animals - donkey, goat, lambs graced the service with their bleating and braying . . . creating an atmosphere (combined with the heat and sand) and Christmas experience seeming more similar to the first Christmas in Israel!
The Christmas lights that the government strung all over town, to celebrate Republic Day, are still around - so Niamey had it's very own 'Candy Cane Lane' (as my friend Jordanne dubbed the main road!)
The festivites started early in December, as my team gathered to celebrate Christmas the first weekend - before some teammates returned to Canada to celebrate with family. We ate a fabulous meal followed by Christmas carols and the reading of the Christmas story. We then opened Christmas presents - having selected Secret Santa names from a hat. I choose Tim's name and had a couple African-style ties made!:
We then spent the rest of the evening together, chatting and playing games. Here, a few of the children are enjoying their gifts of Smarties:
Christmas Eve Day, I visited a few markets in order to purchase gifts for my guards and house help. It was fun putting together the gift baskets for them - rice, sugar, tea (the Tamasheq LOVE their tea! - strong - and drink well into the night. I'm not entirely sure how they sleep when they get around to it!), soap and dates. I was also able to give them a small gift of money as well. Next year, I hope to be able add some more items to the gift basket - oil and flavour cubes (similar to oxo) and other assorted baking items here. It was such a joy to drive around and bring the gifts to those employees not working over the holidays and to visit with their families. At my swing guard's home, his daughter (5 years old) who has started pre-school this year, excitedly ran into the hut to bring me her school folder to show me the pictures she has drawn and the small stories she has wrote. We share no common language, but she is always excited to see me - often stopping by my house on the way to the market to ask her Papa if she can see 'the white' ('la blanche').
Christmas Eve has always been the traditional night to celebrate in my family, and I was happy to be invited to the Tjosvold home, along with some Southern Baptist and Samaritan's Purse friends to celebrate! We gathered for a mixture of Canadian traditional meal (chicken and stuffing) and traditional Norwegian meal (potatoe dumplings with ham and bread pretzels). We then sang more carols, read the Christmas story and exchanged a few presents. It was a fun evening!
At home later, I was able to skype with my family back home and my parents had received (first present opened) a web cam. All web cams were quickly installed and for the next two hours, my family and I (parents, brother, sister-in-law and nieces) chattered and were able to see each other over the ocean and miles between. It was such a blessing to see everyone again!
I slept in after the late night (er, morning) and then watched The Nativity on Christmas morning. The part that struck me the most watching this movie, was the sacrifice that Mary & Joseph had to make in order for our Saviour to be born. In such a time, they gave of their lives - losing status, love and family -to followed God's voice into the unknown. Throughout the movie, I thought often of Mark Lowry's song: Mary Did you Know? . I long to grow in my relationship with God to hear His voice so clearly and grow greater in my obedience.
I finished the day at the McIver home for Christmas supper and games. We all remarked on how different the table looked - all used to large family meals with huge variety of food to feed many hungry mouths. Though we missed the three vegetable options, two types of meat and various other side dishes; we realized that for our small group even the one leg of lamb, sweet potatoe and carrot with parsnip mix was sufficient. It was a reminder of how different this Christmas was, but also to be grateful for the food that we had and the fellowship of eating together.
On Boxing Day, I invited the whole team over to my house for the traditional Boxing Day Waffle Brunch that my family has celebrated over 20 years with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins - the Clarks! It was a fun tradition to share. The table was full with waffles and toppings - complete with whipping cream, maple syrup, ice cream (though slightly more melted and liquidy than back home!) strawberries, mangos (instead of peaches) and blueberries. The rest of the day we played games, watched the Princess Bride, ate supper, and played more games. It was a day packed with food, laughter and fun!
Playing Rook - No wonder Paul kept taking the bids. He's got a great hand here - looks almost full of just blacks!
As I prepared the food for this supper, I realized there are a few things that I miss from party preparation back home - namely, M&M Meat Shop and Safeway - where you can buy salsa already made, meatballs and sauce in a box, etc... Certainly takes more time when everything is made by from scratch. But, still as tasty!
Playing Bunco in the evening, a fun game of rolling dice to be the first each round to 21 of the particular number (1's then 2's then 3's, etc...). A lot of fun!
Last night, I rang in the new year - 2009 - at the McIver home. We gathered again to play games. Close to midnight, we realized we may be able to see the fireworks from the roof of the house. So my friends climbed to the roof on a ladder - while I climbed to the roof of my friend's truck!! We were not able to see the main fireworks, but many of the surrounding neighbours had bought firecrackers and some small fireworks, so we were able to see some. (We also were ducking flying bats as we watched the light display.) It was certainly different to celebrate in a new country where the celebration of choice is firecrackers. They were still going off when I went to bed at 1:30 and still yet at 4:30 when I awoke to call some friends gathered in Calgary! I am sure they continued well past when I went back to bed at 5am as well!
Happy New Year!!!
We then spent the rest of the evening together, chatting and playing games. Here, a few of the children are enjoying their gifts of Smarties:
Christmas Eve Day, I visited a few markets in order to purchase gifts for my guards and house help. It was fun putting together the gift baskets for them - rice, sugar, tea (the Tamasheq LOVE their tea! - strong - and drink well into the night. I'm not entirely sure how they sleep when they get around to it!), soap and dates. I was also able to give them a small gift of money as well. Next year, I hope to be able add some more items to the gift basket - oil and flavour cubes (similar to oxo) and other assorted baking items here. It was such a joy to drive around and bring the gifts to those employees not working over the holidays and to visit with their families. At my swing guard's home, his daughter (5 years old) who has started pre-school this year, excitedly ran into the hut to bring me her school folder to show me the pictures she has drawn and the small stories she has wrote. We share no common language, but she is always excited to see me - often stopping by my house on the way to the market to ask her Papa if she can see 'the white' ('la blanche').
Christmas Eve has always been the traditional night to celebrate in my family, and I was happy to be invited to the Tjosvold home, along with some Southern Baptist and Samaritan's Purse friends to celebrate! We gathered for a mixture of Canadian traditional meal (chicken and stuffing) and traditional Norwegian meal (potatoe dumplings with ham and bread pretzels). We then sang more carols, read the Christmas story and exchanged a few presents. It was a fun evening!
At home later, I was able to skype with my family back home and my parents had received (first present opened) a web cam. All web cams were quickly installed and for the next two hours, my family and I (parents, brother, sister-in-law and nieces) chattered and were able to see each other over the ocean and miles between. It was such a blessing to see everyone again!
I slept in after the late night (er, morning) and then watched The Nativity on Christmas morning. The part that struck me the most watching this movie, was the sacrifice that Mary & Joseph had to make in order for our Saviour to be born. In such a time, they gave of their lives - losing status, love and family -to followed God's voice into the unknown. Throughout the movie, I thought often of Mark Lowry's song: Mary Did you Know? . I long to grow in my relationship with God to hear His voice so clearly and grow greater in my obedience.
I finished the day at the McIver home for Christmas supper and games. We all remarked on how different the table looked - all used to large family meals with huge variety of food to feed many hungry mouths. Though we missed the three vegetable options, two types of meat and various other side dishes; we realized that for our small group even the one leg of lamb, sweet potatoe and carrot with parsnip mix was sufficient. It was a reminder of how different this Christmas was, but also to be grateful for the food that we had and the fellowship of eating together.
On Boxing Day, I invited the whole team over to my house for the traditional Boxing Day Waffle Brunch that my family has celebrated over 20 years with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins - the Clarks! It was a fun tradition to share. The table was full with waffles and toppings - complete with whipping cream, maple syrup, ice cream (though slightly more melted and liquidy than back home!) strawberries, mangos (instead of peaches) and blueberries. The rest of the day we played games, watched the Princess Bride, ate supper, and played more games. It was a day packed with food, laughter and fun!
Playing Rook - No wonder Paul kept taking the bids. He's got a great hand here - looks almost full of just blacks!
As I prepared the food for this supper, I realized there are a few things that I miss from party preparation back home - namely, M&M Meat Shop and Safeway - where you can buy salsa already made, meatballs and sauce in a box, etc... Certainly takes more time when everything is made by from scratch. But, still as tasty!
Playing Bunco in the evening, a fun game of rolling dice to be the first each round to 21 of the particular number (1's then 2's then 3's, etc...). A lot of fun!
Last night, I rang in the new year - 2009 - at the McIver home. We gathered again to play games. Close to midnight, we realized we may be able to see the fireworks from the roof of the house. So my friends climbed to the roof on a ladder - while I climbed to the roof of my friend's truck!! We were not able to see the main fireworks, but many of the surrounding neighbours had bought firecrackers and some small fireworks, so we were able to see some. (We also were ducking flying bats as we watched the light display.) It was certainly different to celebrate in a new country where the celebration of choice is firecrackers. They were still going off when I went to bed at 1:30 and still yet at 4:30 when I awoke to call some friends gathered in Calgary! I am sure they continued well past when I went back to bed at 5am as well!
Happy New Year!!!
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