"The Best Christmas Ever": Singing, Dancing, and Puppies

Some weeks require a lot of reflection to really flesh out one of these entries, but other weeks are so full I don't even know if I will have the time and energy to just report it all.  Monday feels like something that happened last month, but that was only a week ago.

Actually we began a bit unconventionally because Rebecca headed up to Gitega by cab on Monday morning.  Oren had a half week of school which included classes on Monday and Wednesday, so I volunteered to be the one to stay with the kids on Monday.

The plan was for her to go up on first and do at least two of the three meetings we needed to have with our Gitega partners before the end of the year.  She would stay the night with Yolanda, then I would come up on Tuesday with the kids, Felix, and Marcelline our cook.  We would leave the kids at Yolanda's house with Marcelline while Felix, Rebecca, and I went to the final meeting with UCEDD--the association that runs the Hope School.  

We had several reasons for meeting Innocent and Beatrice, the directors of the Hope School, but one of the exciting reasons was the opportunity to tell them about the half container of books they could expect from MCC as  result of the efforts of Rebecca's mom.  (She had agreed to seek donations and go up and sort them.)  Incidentally, if anyone would like to make a donation of children's books for school, please send them to:

Books for Hope School Burundi

Material Resource Center

517 Trout Run Road

Ephrata, PA 17522

We are particularly interested in French language children's books, but English kids books, or picture books would be great as well, particularly books illustrated with photographs rather than drawn characters. Also posters, etc. for classroom walls would be welcome.  (Like a periodic table of elements, Alphabet, color wheel, etc.)  

Beatrice and Innocent were thrilled to hear about the book shipment, especially since they had been praying about how to get funding for a library, which is a requirement for any school that wants to offer classes up to 10th grade.

After the meeting Rebecca, the kids Felix and I planned to head back home together.  

The plan went pretty much as expected.  I prayed a prayer of Thanksgiving for Rebecca's safe arrival taking the cab.  (Which incidentally will take as many people as it can hold and drive full speed up the mountain. --On the way up on Tuesday, I encountered a head-on collision between a matatu (taxi van) and a dump truck that had happened the day before.  The saying " There but for the grace of God go I" comes to mind frequently, and is a reminder that life here is a gift and not an entitlement.) Rebecca was glad, in principle, to make the trip this way, since most of our volunteers need to travel by public transport all the time, although confessed some anxiety as well. She also said it was also good to have the experience of walking from meeting to meeting in the town of Gitega.

I spent the day on Monday playing with the kids after Oren came home from school, then after they went to bed I worked until about 11pm to paint the house.  I had a goal of finishing the living room, dining room and hallway before our huge Christmas party we had planned for Thursday (the 23rd).  I succeeded in getting one color on that evening.

The kids were not terribly difficult to care for, especially with Marcelline's help and they were excited about going up to Gitega on Tuesday and playing at Yolanda's house.  As I said, the drive up and meetings went off without a hitch and we were back in Bujumbura on Tuesday evening.  

We got back to Bujumbura in time to go by the Horst's house for dinner.  Lara's parents, sister and brother-in-law were visiting, so it was nice to see them.  Her dad worked for UNICEF and her sister and brother in law currently work with the EU in Congo, so we had some interesting conversations with them.  (I was reminded again of how lucky we are to be working in Burundi rather than DRC.)

I was up until the wee hours painting when we did get home that night as well.

Wednesday was Oren's last day of school and I went to work in the morning as well to finish up some last minute details before Christmas.  Among them was getting documentation for our car so we could drive it to Uganda where we will be going for a 6-day R and R (vacation) next week.  We also took the car in for servicing for the trip and borrowed a car of our friends while it was gone.

We did a lot of prep for the party on Wednesday, including finishing painting.  We also had an unexpected visit from our landlord (who lives in Ethiopia).  It was actually a good thing because we agreed to extend our lease for at least 2 more years at what is still very reasonable rent for such a nice place.  (I don't know if the painting was to his taste, but he did not lodge any complaints on seeing it. "Breaks the monotony," he said.)

Thursday was the big day for our party. We had invited about 50 people with the expectation that not all would come.  We, once again, moved all the furniture in the living room out onto the porch thus turning our living room into a ballroom for dancing.  (We left the tree in the room.)  There was one problem that threatened to put a serious damper on the event.  That is, the increasing intensity of road work in our neighborhood reached an apotheosis that very afternoon and the construction crews had cut off all access to the streets near our house making parking in our gate, or even nearby, an impossibility.  Despite that we did have about 40 people (counting adults and kids) show up.

The program was ambitious.  We had several dances prepared as well as Christmas carols and several stories.  We had asked people to bring a dish or dessert as well as song or story from their country of origin.  We had Danes, Dutch, English, Burundians, Canadians, Francophone Russians, South Africans, Americans, and Germans represented.  One highlight was hearing a verse of "Silent Night" sung in each native language represented at our party.

The food was really good as were the stories and singing.  We did several of the dances including "Strip the Willow" (actually the Virginia Reel) which has become a Christmas tradition for me and Rebecca ever since we did it at the home of Professor Jeff Walker from Vassar College with his family in Poughkeepsie, NY the last year we lived there.  (He told us about it being the dance mentioned at Fezzwig's party in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.)  I think our friends did very well at the dancing,  even though it was not really a part of their family traditions.  

The party was quite successful from our perspective and the paint job on our house got many accolades, especially the large yellow circle I painted on the rust wall in the hallway.  The party was one of the highlights of the week, and even Yolanda came down from Gitega in time to join us for it.

Friday was Christmas Eve day. We spent the morning at the home of German friends, doing an exercise session, sharing coffee and taking a dip in the pool in their lovely garden. That is indeed one compensation for not having a white Christmas: enjoying a nice outdoor swim instead! The only disappointment was the fact that we did not get our car back that day, despite the promises of our mechanic.  Fortunately we still had the loaner from Tim and Jeanette, our South African friends to get to church in.  The road work, however, made getting into our driveway impossible once again, this time because a road-grader had lowered the road more than a foot below the bridge for our driveway so we could not enter it by car.

We did drive to church for a 6pm service though with the plan of leaving the car back at our friends' house when it was over.  I had forgotten that special Burundian services can be quite long and we did not even get home until after 9:30 pm.  The service was nice, especially the way Burundians sing most of the old standards like Angels We Have Heard on High, and Joy to the World, with a drum beat and clapping and dancing.  But we barely made it to the end as a family and the kids were asleep before we got home.  

Rebecca and I worked together to set out gifts under the tree and stuff stockings, but I conked out at least an hour before she did, and she did all of the finishing touches.  

The kids were up just before 6 and were excited to see a wooden train track around the tree and presents.  They really wanted to open them and we did so quite early.  For me, I was pleased to see the display under the tree as quite modest.  About a dozen presents, not overly materialistic.  The big hits were extra lego duplos to add to their lego sets, and extra train track to add to their train set.  Oren said to us that it was "the best Christmas ever."  That even despite the fact that his much anticipated 'wooden tank engine without a face' did not get to us in the mail on time, and he received instead a promissory note from Santa saying the elves were hurrying to finish it and send it in the mail next week. 

As if all this was not enough, the really big event of the week happened on the night of the 25th.  Bella had her puppies.  She was in labor much of the afternoon on Christmas day and was looking for a place to give birth.  We put a table out on the porch and put a mattress under it and covered it.  She was happy to use it.  She began bearing around midnight and had four puppies by the next morning.

David and Oren were ecstatic and before I could stop them, they had climbed under the table to sit with Bella and the new babies.  I was really surprised that Bella did not snap at them, but let them come in and even pick up the puppies.  Rebecca and I literally had to drag David out from under the table several times during the day as he was ready to settle in and move in with them.  

We went to church this morning, once again back in our newly inspected and tuned-up LandCruiser.  We spent the day at home, Rebecca and I taking turns watching the kids while the other napped.  It had been a fairly sleep-deprived week and we really feel in need of a vacation.

The day ended with a debriefing with our small group where we finished the book of Nehemiah.  My next entry may be late depending on whether or not we will be able to have internet access at the place we are staying in Uganda.  It is an island on a lake, so I kind of doubt it, but I should be able to post on Monday or Tuesday.