Christmas Gifts

This morning there were three monkeys near our tent in Kilifi. We think their purpose was to get us into the mood for Christmas. “How so?” you ask. Well, we shared with our family that in order to keep from feeling sorry for ourselves about not being home for Christmas, we have booked an animal Safari in the Masai Mara.

Kenyan “Christmas Tree”

Talking about animals, we have seen many cattle, sheep and donkeys in our time here and so we certainly won’t be missing our nativity set! Food – well our favorite “hotel” has shipped in some ice cream for us! (It really melts quickly!) Our pre-lit Christmas tree will stay in its box in our basement until December 2013. As you can see in the photo above, we found a consolation prize! Oh yes! Although pine Christmas trees are not a huge thing for Kenyans, they do have an incredible tree that blooms with bright red flowers at Christmas time each year and is fondly called a “Christmas Tree ”.

Annie, Cecilia, Mary

Inside

Christmas is a time when Christians celebrate receiving the greatest gift of all – Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. However, many of us do enjoy receiving some other gifts as well. On Thursday, we received an incredible gift! One of our relief coordinators, Mary, had arranged for us to visit the home of a beneficiary and also offered to accompany us. (Look for Mary in the photos in her royal blue World Renew/CFGB T-shirt.) The beneficiary we visited, Cecilia, is a mother of six children ranging in age from one and a half to twenty years. Another child died at the age of two due to dehydration before they could get him to a clinic. Her husband has very sporadic work in a nearby quarry. This family lives in a small house measuring eight feet by ten feet. Like most of the homes in this area, this building is made of sticks and mud with a leafy sort of roof and an earthen floor. Some sunshine and daylight enter the room as a result of missing chunks of mud and an unfinished portion near the roof. Unfortunately, it also allows the rain to come in .

The ‘Kitchen’

Inside there are two single beds with about two feet in between them. These take up three quarters of the total floor area. Each bed is made of a wooden frame strung with braided sisal rope and very thin cloth on top. A colourful piece of well-worn material was spread over each bed and one mosquito net donated by the Kenyan government was hanging, rolled up, above one of them. This leaves about four feet for an entrance-way (no door) with a “kitchen” against the far wall. In this cooking area there was a small fire burning with a pot of porridge simmering on it for breakfast – their first meal of the day. Our visit was at ten am.

Family Photo

We were given permission to interview Cecilia and to photograph her home and her family. As we took pictures of Cecilia and her six children we wondered about all the other children that kept popping into the doorway and jumping in on the outdoor photos. It seems that the other homes in this family village belong to the brothers of Cecilia’s husband and all the family members live in close community. We asked Cecilia where she stored the huge bag of maize and the container of split peas that she received last Friday. She had already shared it with the other neighboring households who were without food. However, she explained that some of the others were included in a World Vision project, and hoped to receive their food soon. She anticipates that she will receive some food from them in return. From what we have learned these last months, this village’s communal way of living and the sharing of goods is not unusual. It certainly touched our hearts to see the trust and generous sharing by this needy family.

At home, Christmas has an element of receiving gifts but also includes the joy of giving presents to others. If there are children reading this blog, you will be interested in seeing the photo of one of the very few toys that we have encountered in our travels here. We asked Mary what would be an appropriate gift to bring to this family. She jumped at the chance to help us pick gifts for them. At Christmas time there are some special traditional foods that people hope for and she knew for sure that the perfect gift would be a bag of groceries. So with her help, we went to a “store” (another experience to share someday) and bought five kg. of rice, three kg. of beans, two kg. of wheat flour, a bag of sugar, some salt, a container of laundry detergent and a stick of hand soap (apparently a rare treat). Eyeing some candy in the store, Annie asked if we could get something for the children. Mary decisively picked two medium sized bottles of juice. The joy of giving has never been greater! The children (and all their cousins) clapped their hands and jumped for joy at seeing the juice and Annie got tears of happiness and huge hugs from Cecilia .

We have heard that many Kenyan Christians will spend the whole of Christmas Eve at their local church, not as a sleep over, but to worship! Our ClearView church’s special Christmas services, music, candles and messages are things that we will sorely miss. However, nothing can stop us from celebrating the birth of our Saviour and Lord wherever we are. So, it seems that similar to the first Christmas, we will be celebrating this occassion surrounded by (African) animals, (Masaai) shepherds and (Guardian) angels – indeed a unique and special way to spend our Christmas this year!

We wish all of you back home a very Blessed Christmas!

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