Dear Friends,
I thought you might enjoy hearing some about how Christmas has been here in Nigeria. Christmas was nice, but decidedly different, to say the least.
Christmas eve, the American seminary student staying with me & I went out to dinner with two Nigerian friends (Naomi and Greg). We went to a Lebanese buffet at Hill Station Hotel. The food was great and it was a nice change - lots of Christmas decorations, a pretty tree, candles on the tables, cloth napkins and tablecloths - quite the affair. Sitting at the table next to us was the previous governor of our state with a large group of friends celebrating one of their birthdays. The "retired" governor made the rounds of the room at one point greeting everyone. My table mates quietly explained that there was some question about how he had become so wealthy during his term and why little progress seemed to have been made in improving the general standard of living for local Nigerians, but these situations are pretty routine here, even with democracy now.
After we got home, there was no electrical power, as usual, so we used candles and kerosene lanterns till bed time - which was sort of Christmasy too. The night ended up being very long. The bar across the street from my apartment was playing very loud music over the sound of their generator until very late (as usual). There were firecrackers going off at least 5 or 6 times every hour (evidently this is a Nigerian tradition, although supposedly illegal now). There was a group that marched through the neighborhood (passing my house twice in about 45 minutes) around midnight playing drums and singing African style Christmas music very loudly (greeting the Christmas day maybe?). After the bar turned off their music, there were people wandering through the area all night long. So it would quiet down awhile and then someone noisy would walk through talking and laughing with their friends & wake me up again (did I mention my window is on the street?). And then around 3 am some of my neighbors who were still up made a bonfire in the street in front of my apartment and were standing around it chatting and drinking. I learned the next day that the fire in the street thing is another Nigerian tradition, which was a little reassuring as it had been a bit strange to wake up from my frequently interrupted sleep to the red glow of the fire through my curtains and the sound a crackling fire, wondering what that was all about. My upstairs neighbor got up at 5 am as usual to attend early mass on Christmas day, and after she left the rest of her household gradually got up and started cleaning (sweeping everything early in the morning is a common practice & involves moving heavy chairs which of course I can hear while I'm trying vainly to get a little more sleep) and cooking for the day. So I gave up sleeping and got up early.
We went to church around 10am at the Baptist church I've been attending in my neighborhood. The service was a pretty traditional Christmas service with Christmas carols and stuff like that, and was a blessing to be part of, and lasted only 2 hours which is short for most Nigerian churches.
Some of the neighborhood kids visited me in the afternoon, expecting to get treats or money (another tradition - sort of like our Halloween, but with no costumes). I gave them each one of the snickerdoodles I had managed to bake last Saturday. I made good old American spaghetti for dinner because the propane stove top is easier to use than the oven (cooking a turkey, ham, or roast would have been a miracle accomplishment). One of my friends brought over a spicy Nigerian rice and chicken dish, which was rounded out with a green salad (not common here & definitely a treat). 5 of us shared a nice dinner with cookies and brownies for dessert (yes I managed to keep the oven going long enough to bake some dynamite brownies). I managed to boil water for tea or hot chocolate to have with our dessert just before the propane tank ran out (which means it will be cold bucket baths tomorrow if the electricity doesn't come on because it's another holiday tomorrow and the propane places will be closed).
And then we had one more little Christmas miracle - there was actually a Xmas movie on tv last night - the Grinch who Stole Christmas. We have been trying to find Xmas movies to watch for the past week and there have been almost none - maybe because our satellite tv system is an Arabic system (about 10 stations in English with Arabic subtitles that we watch, and a couple hundred in Arabic). Anyway, we enjoyed a silly Christmas movie and went to bed, although it was another short night with the bar as usual playing on into the night. I did sleep soundly after that until 5 am when the upstairs lady got up to go to mass again. At the same time, one of our resident street preachers turned up with her loud speaker and started preaching non-stop for 2 hours (I'm pretty sure she has some mental problems cause not much of her preaching makes sense most days).
Today is Boxing Day - a remnant of the English colonial days - Nigerians do not do anything special this day anymore - it's just a day off from work with more eating going on. I have no special plans for today, but think I will try to fit in a nap this afternoon.
Did I say that this Xmas was different??? Maybe that is an understatement :-)! In spite of the differences and periods of homesickness for all of you, I feel blessed and thankful for all that the Lord has been doing in my life.
The power just went off, so I had better close and send this out before my UPS box loses power and I lose the internet connection.
God bless you all. Hope you had a very Merry Christmas. Love, Biana