30. A Merry little Christmas in Rwanda

Dec. 26

Our Christmas Tree of Lights

In Germany, there are three days of Christmas, and I would say we somewhat adopted that tradition here. "Day 1" was Christmas Eve, with a big Christmas Eve dinner and we brought out the Dresdener Stollen purchased at the German Butchery in town. After kids were in bed, John and I stuffed the stockings made with African print fabric. Christmas morning, Naomi woke us up and set out the pastries and juice for breakfast.

Christmas Stollen - aus Dresden sogar!

It wasn't too long before Isaac got up, and we were sitting in on our "circle of sofas" in front of our makeshift Tannenbaum - a string of Christmas lights taped to the wall with gifts piled on the low tables beneath it.

Gift opening finished up early enough that Ruth Ann was able to make it to the 9am church service at Grace's church. An uplifting and joyous experience. She even met two new friends who speak some English, Odette and Patrice (who works for the World Food Programme and knew Michigan State University).

During the day we gave Simeon his present -- beer, milk, Stony Tanglewezy (a soft drink) and some fresh meat and sheets for his bed. (We asked him a few days earlier what he would really like for his small house, and he said sheets.)

In the afternoon we had a family game of frisbee on the front garden, and we got Simeon into that, too. I'm sure it was his first time to play frisbee and he learned quick!  In the evening, we made calls to family back home in Michigan and on the West coast.

Our big meal for the day was batter-dipped fish fried up very nicely by John. Also, we all worked on the apples to make apple crisp. All together a very tasty and happy Christmas day -- day 2 in our series.

Day 3 was much more low key.  Meals were leftovers and a visit to "Meza Fresh", the Kigali version of Chhipotle. The big activity of the day was a family trip to the movies. Isaac and Ruth Ann saw Star Wars - The Force Awakens (second time for Isaac), John and Naomi saw the latest "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie, "The Road Chip".