My first Christmas out of the USA

There have been several firsts this month, including celebrating Christmas outside of the USA.  I noticed at the international airport in Abidjan (we were picking up one of the missionary kids coming home from school break), we are actually allowed to have a nativity scene in public without someone trying to sue the government.  In a country that is better than 50% Muslim it’s amazing that no one seems offended!  Muslims and Catholics and Animists and Christians all seemed to go about their way without any trouble at all.  Okay, so that was my opinion for the night. :)

 

This is my first Harmattan season.  The dictionary describes it as “a dry, dusty easterly or northeasterly wind on the West African coast, occurring from December to February.”  What happens is that the wind blows from the north, above the Sahara dessert, blowing with it a wall of sand to the south.  One morning when I woke up, I was struck with how cool it seemed, and that is not at all normal!  I found out that the temps drop because of the wind and how the sand blocks the sun.  It's kind of like looking through the smog in one of the large cities in the States, only instead of smog it is a very fine sand.  This time of year is dangerous because the wind carries with it meningitis, an infection which is transmitted through the air.  They say if a child is brought to you seizing, having an elevated temperature during the rainy season it is most likely cerebral malaria.  Whereas, if the same child were brought during Harmattan you would treat him for meningitis.  

I also drove for the first time here in Africa.  In actually, since I left the States for language school in December 2009, I have not done a lot of driving.  Losing that independence has been a challenge for me, especially since I’ve been driving for over 30 years!  Kristine was gracious to allow me to drive her 4x4 a few times here in Bingerville.  When I was telling a friend in the States about this, she asked if we drive on the same side of the road as in the States.  I broke out in laughter!  I know she was asking if we drive on the right side of the road vs. the left side, but the reality is that we drive as much as possible where there are not potholes.  This translates that we drive on both sides of the road and even the sidewalk when necessary!  It actually reminds me a little of driving the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago.

Today we had our missionary Christmas party.  I’ve just never had a Christmas where I was sweating.  I mean, come on, I grew up in Detroit, and I’ve lived almost ten years in Colorado!  This just is too strange to be saying Merry Christmas with sweat trickling down my back.  But anyhow, there are two other independent Baptist missionary families in the general area (within an hour and a half drive), so they joined Kristine and I at the Mach’s home.  The Machs host the Christmas party for the missionaries each year.  That made for 17 folks today.  Believe it or not, I was asked to plan the games and bring cookies for the cookie exchange.  If you know me well, you know that neither of these areas are strong suites for me, but I decided to give it my best.  I was pointed to the ‘Minute to Win It’ games, and chose 8 games for the two teams to play as a relay.  It was great!  Watching grown adults trying to pick up and hang up Christmas ornaments by sucking them up with wrapping paper tubing was just too much fun!  Especially when I got to take the pictures and didn’t have to do it myself!  As for the cookies, American products are very precious commodities here, but I decided to use my graham crackers.  It is not possible to get those here so I figured I had a good shot of them going over pretty well.  I made up this mixture of butter and brown sugar with ground pecans, poured it over the graham crackers and baked them.  To add a little Christmas touch I sprinkled craisins over them.  Again, graham crackers, craisins and pecans are all precious items.  Now to look at them, they weren’t that impressive, but they tasted fantastic!  So, I happily packed them in a basket with some green tissue paper and brought them over to the party.  We had the cookie exchange after the meal, and all the ladies pulled out their cookies.  When I pulled out mine, they were swarming with ants!  Ugh!!!  Will I ever get past living with ants???  I told Becky Mach the cookies were a loss and explained the situation.  Her response?  Stick them in a hot oven for 5 minutes and the ants will run away.  Get out of town!  So, that is my fourth first – salvaging cookies from the ants by sticking them in the oven.  Would you believe that two of the men and one of the women asked who made them because they like them so much?   Wow!  It was a good day. 

Wherever you find yourself this Christmas, even if it is a long way away from anywhere you’ve ever been before, I hope you know just how loved you are.  God, our Creator, loves you with an everlasting love, and with His multitude of kindnesses to you, He wishes to draw you to Him.  Of course, the greatest demonstration of this love was when He allowed His Son to die in your place (and mine!).  His mercy endures forever.  While you have breath, if you’ll respond to His love He’ll never turn you away.  That’s a comfort and a peace, no matter where you are this Christmas!