Mozambican Natal

Christmas Day we were invited to a Kenyan friend’s home. Her son just went through initiation into manhood and they traditionally have a big party to celebrate. Since it was close to Christmas, she combined the two events and invited lots of others Kenyans and some of us westerners.

When we first arrived we found the kitchen full of women cooking and the men outside preparing a goat. This was quite a process and the source of much interest on the part of the young American women who were there. Steve gave us all a lesson in anatomy. Soon we were being called to dinner but we thought it a bit curious that there was no goat. There was chicken, rice, lots of salads, fruit cake, ice cream etc. We ate our fill and sat around talking for a bit. Then everyone went outside again and started grilling the goat. At that point we were told that what we just ate was only the beginning. Now the real feast began with lots of goat meat. They mentioned xima (corn meal) also but we never saw any. Probably because no one was hungry enough! We went for a walk in the neighborhood to make some room for meat and then returned to eat a bit of it. They were still grilling when we left at 6 p.m. It as quite a social event, and we made some new friends.

On the way home we saw this Mozambican skinny Santa!

Christmas video

Here is a link to a Christmas video with footage of Mozambique taken last October. We hope you enjoy it and that you have a wonderful Christmas! http://christmas.15four.com

Crossing Cultures

This past weekend we attended a leaders' retreat for our church. Among many topics, we discussed schedules and some of the cold climate folks were keen to emphasize how important it is to start and end on time. "It is a matter of courtesy," they said, and "the kids can't take such long services," etc. The comment by the pastor was, "And what if the Holy Spirit is moving? Do we just cut Him off because it is time to end?" Another warm climate person said, "Nowhere in nature or science are things regulated down to the minute. It's just not natural or human!"

So there you have it, differing views with some truth in each depending on your perspective. These are the kinds of things we face regularly as we cross cultures.