Christmas in Ethiopia

It’s been a while since I have updated my blog…I’m not a blogger, really, I just want to share what’s going on here in our new home.

There have been so many things that have happened over the last month.  We celebrated Christmas and went all out with the locals to show them what our Christmas is like.  We made Roast Beef with some good salads, chicken, cheesecake, chocolate cake and plenty of punch made with homemade ginger beer.

There are many foods here that we need to make from scratch and although it’s time consuming, the product of our hard work is always worth it-especially knowing what the process of cooking has been. 

After celebrating a really dry New Year’s with our friend Jonnett and Mussie, we looked forward to celebrating Ethiopian Christmas.  There is no school Christmas holidays here which is very different from New Zealand where everyone enjoys about 6 weeks of holidays. Instead, we spent the week at school where the children passionately dressed their classrooms with Christmas decorations, made of the last of our art construction paper, balloons, and toilet paper – which actually looked amazing. 

There were also drama rehearsals happening and poem reciting that would be blurted our randomly in class to my surprise.  We had no idea how this would evolve but I jumped on the spirit of Christmas band wagon and helped to put together some props- only one which successfully made it to the stage, but that’s okay. 

So two days before Christmas here, on the 5^th of January 2012, everybody came to school in their best dress - including the teachers.  We set up a stage in the library and after gathering everyone together, we sat around the library waiting for the MC to come out and welcome us.  Out came Kiara Tiatia, introducing each item in English.  We had newly arrived visitors from the States here so there was extra excitement in the room.  Kiara, with the help of the teachers, shyly introduced the students who were about to impress us all. 

Firstly came the choir who sang Joy to the world in Amharic and English, followed by four girls from Grade 3 who came out each holding a balloon and they recited a beautiful poem about balloons- in English!  There was a preacher who came and spoke about patience – something we all need encouragement in, and then the crowning glory of the whole day, the Christmas drama!

There were about 20 children who participated in this drama.  They spoke so clearly in English as their English grammar teacher had coached them through this process.  The whole thing was memorized so well, there was no need for prompting lines. 

I am always blown away with the children at our school.  Although not all of them are part of the BCI program, many of them suffer or have suffered with such difficult circumstances in their lives, but they still manage to smile and play and learn in a way that makes me happy I do what I do. 

After this production, the children went home and we got to celebrate Christmas with the staff at BCI.  There was firfir, drinks, great fellowship, and gift exchanging.  It was a great celebration time and it led us into the weekend where we celebrated Christmas three times over in three different homes.  This definitely left me feeling like I had an over-extended eating fest at the end of the day...We were so blessed and were so happy to finally be spending Christmas in Ethiopia after our failed attempt two years ago.  God is a God of second chances and this was so much better than spending it away from our kids.