The build up to Christmas Day, and the ‘sacredness’ of the days around it are non-existent in Lesotho, compared North America. There is no Advent series in church, there are no Christmas trees in the houses, there are no Christmas carols in the regular shops, children are not counting down the days until Santa comes. Christmas here is a religious holiday in the middle of summer holidays. This is not a bad thing; in fact it is refreshing to see a place where the commercial/consumer mindset has not taken over Christmas. Also, from what I have heard, Easter is a bigger deal here, which makes far more sense from a Christian point of view. However, it was still difficult for me to adjust my thinking and accept the low key manner of things when I am used to Christmas being a very special time at home in Canada.
Now I would like to take you through the story of my Christmas Day, which will also be a story about a typical Sunday here in the valley. I had been voluntold to make supper, which is typical of a Sunday. So I got up early to prep, then after a special breakfast (we had granola, which is not on the menu for Sundays) I bathed and headed out to Chruch. This is the first thing I saw out my door.
It has become ‘normal’ to me, but I realize that sheep in the front yard would never be ‘normal’ in Brandon. I walked along trying to keep balanced in my lovely borrowed shoes.
I did not bring heels, I did not think I would need them. However, I quickly discovered that all ladies wear black shoes to church and most of the shoes are heels. It is always amusing to me to see them pull heels out of their purses and slip out of their running shoes just before they get to chuch. So far I have just worn my sandals, but since it was a special Sunday I borrowed shoes from my host mom, who incidently is only 5 feet tall, so the shoes were a little small.
As I walked past the water tap (the cement rectangle on the right) I saw the donkeys grazing, just like any other day.
Along the way I also saw a couple of girls. I had my camera out, so of course they wanted me to take their picture. So here are my new 'friends' posing on Christmas morning.
It is always amazing to me the beautiful view I have whenever I walk out of my house. In the foreground is the house of a grandmother that I always greet on my way to work.
Continuing along the way I got to the 'door' to the church yard. It is just a hole in the barbed wire fence. It always makes me smile when I see ladies ducking through in their skirts and heels.
Here is everyone gathering outside under the tree since it was a very hot sunny morning. It was such a hot day that during the church service we actually had a thunder storm!
The service itself was quite a long affair. We got there at 11 am and left around 4:30 pm. There were many different, special parts to the service, because it was Christmas Day. One of them was christening, there were about 20 babies being christened that morning.
After church I finished making my 'traditional' North American Christmas dinner. We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and a variety of other dishes. It was enjoyed by everyone, but especially by the North Americans :)
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| Left to right: Atang (host brother), Randall (SALTer), Ntate Moletsane (pastor) Me Malintle (host mother) |
After dinner we sang Christmas Carols together, a wonderful way to end the evening.
That is the tour of my Christmas in Lesotho.
