tinsel!

We spent Christmas Eve at Gary and
Wendy Roberts house. They are such Christlike
Christians. Their generosity is like a
reflex. So much a part of them. I fell asleep
on a mattress to my friends singing Christmas
carols. I woke up homesick. Gary gave us a
ride home on his moto. But when I got back to
the middle house, instead of hanging out with
everyone, I just went home…missing my
family. When I got there, Jolie (my
mother here) was sitting around the coals with
two of her cousins. I came and sat down with
them and we just started talking. The
conversation went from America, to marriage, to
how I hadn't showered that morning, to what it
would be like for my family to visit me in
America, to Mouden and how he missed supper and now was super hungry.
I tried to make room for Mouden
(he's 15) to come and sit with us, but Jolie
said, "No! He is a boy!" So he sat at the edge
of the circle of ladies. Eventually, he ended up
in the circle with us…I still don't know how that
happened. J We are all crowded so close,
touching shoulders almost, hovering over the
coals and everytime something was really funny,
Jolie would place one hand on my leg the other
one around my shoulders, and just throw back her
head in laughter. I felt so loved. She told me
that, last weekend, when I went to Moundou (a
city about 3 hours away) for 2 days that she kept
thinking about me and when she wanted to talk to
me, I wasn't there. Then she told me that when
I leave for America, that she would lose a
daughter. My daughter. "Ma fille," she called
me. She even told me that someday, when I got
married, that I must to call her and tell her so
that she could send up balloons for me. I smile
just thinking about that gesture. Oh I just love
her. How could I feel this much love for a
group of people in such a short amount of time.
Christmas morning I woke up early
and finished putting the tags on all my wrapped
up little presents. Then the kids started
coming out around 6:30. Their little shoulders
were all caved forward as they held their hands
between their thighs to try and keep warm. It
was such a funny little sight. All these
freezing little kids with their hands between
their legs. So I brought out all my scrub tops
and some of my other shirts and the kids pulled
them on for warmth. We looked like a child Chadian OR team. J
Then I brought out all the paper
snowflakes that we had made the day before (I
made most of them….it turns out they never
learned out to use scissors) and hung them from
our mango tree. The branches of the tree are
like a canopy that we always sit under so if you
can imagine all the snowflakes hanging at the
same head level…it was so FUN. Then we strung
tinsel and ribbon all over. It felt different
than when I used to decorate our tree at home…but
somehow it still felt so Christmasy!
By this time, the neighborhood had
gathered and I realized that when I wanted to
open presents under the tree, that there would be
lots of disappointed people. So I didn't bring
the gifts out. We were waiting for Samedi (my
father here) to come home from working night
shift, so I went over into one of the huts where
Esther and Dinga were resting on mats.
Soon Samedi came home. He came
into the hut where us girls were and I said,
"Samedi, I have a little gifts for each person in
your family. But I don't have enough for all
those people out there. I feel bad." He said,
"Oh, don't feel bad Emily, we can all come in
here…just the family. I'll go get
everyone." So all twenty of us piled into this
little mud hut. I told them what Christmas
meant to me (kind of chopped up in French) and
Samedi translated into Nangjere. Then I started
handing them little gifts that had their names on
them. I've never had so much fun giving. I
anticipated it would be not that fun…I thought it
would be like me giving hand outs and all the
kids scrabbling to get something. But I think
because each gift had their name on it, they
didn't envy eachothers gifts. All I got were
sweet sweet merci's. And people never say please
and thank-you here. So I was a bit
overwhelmed. I gave Samedi one of those
pack-lights, which he loves (it's the brightest
light he's ever owned.) Mouden got the
mechanical music box…only the inside moving
parts…and he watched it for a long time trying to
figure out how it worked. Dinga got the floam
that the Andreggs sent. Noone knew what it was
and soon I looked over and they were all tasting
it! (floam is like a bunch of little balls of
foam with a jelly-like substance holding it all
together). It looks and feels exactly like the
boulle that we eat! I quickly said, "NO! Don't eat it!"
All in all it was an awesome
Christmas. I missed my family a lot though. I
thought a lot about toasty fireplaces and drifts
of snow. I'm missing everyone a lot. But I
just keep trying to tell myself that the reunions
will be SO good. Just be patient, Emily.