mabruk al-eed

It is nearly 5 o’clock in the afternoon on Christmas day here in Chad. I am sitting on my verandah writing this to you all. I have had a very different Christmas than ever before. It came on so quickly since we don’t have the pre-Christmas hooplah that occurs at home here in Chad. In fact when I asked my English students what happens on December 25 (just last Tuesday) they had no response. Of course they have a hard time understanding English but even with French help it took them a long while.

We had our Children’s musical on Saturday and it went very well, the children performed it twice since people showed up an hour after the proposed starting time. All in all it was wonderful though, the Chadians who were there appreciated the children and their hard work.

I celebrated Christmas in two different ways in the last two days. Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we had a sort of Western Christmas here at our house with 3 other single foreigner ladies in town. It was great! We had the whole works mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, yams, beans, carrots, chicken, and ice cream. Marlene received a package of goods from the States that contained most of those things.

As a Mennonite girl who grew up on a farm it was painful, and seemed almost sinful, to open up boxed mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, beans, and so on, especially for Christmas. But I’ve never appreciated fake mashed potatoes so much in my life. We finished the evening with carols, a small gift exchange (I got some Swiss chocolate) and reading of the Christmas story from the Bible. I can not forget my annual watching of the classic Christmas musical, “White Christmas.” I received a package from my mom last week that contained the film and I was thrilled! I may have to watch it again.

Today, on Christmas day, I experienced the Chadian style Christmas. Yes, there are a few Christian Chadians who also celebrate my favourite holiday. We went to the church, not the large one I usually attend a much smaller one where many of our team members go to, around 10 where the women had already been cooking for hours. I sat around with them while they cooked massive pots of macaroni, rice, goat, wecki (sauce), and fungaso (basically parsaltchi for my Mennonite readers, or deep fried bread pieces for the others). In the mean time I ate some stomach and another body part, that I didn’t ask questions about with fear it would make me gag, and we drank chai and hot sweet milk. Never has mind over matter meant so much! It was a nice time of watching this different world go by, emphasis on the watching since the conversation was in Arabic.

Halas, a wonderful Arabic term for the end or finished. It was interesting to spend Christmas in a place that looks like Bethlehem. As ladies go by on donkeys it does make me realize how uncomfortable and unglamorous the birth of Christ really was. We often have a quaint, romantic view of the nativity scene but in reality it was a dirty, disgusting, I-never-want-to-be-in-her-shoes kind of situation.

I am looking forward to having the rest of the week off to sleep, read, learn Arabic, write emails, learn how to play the recorder (so I can teach the boys) and all sorts of things…I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas break. I’d love to hear from you, especially while I have time to write. Mabruk al-eed (happy feasting), Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all of you.

Sorry this is soo long- again!