I'm a bit behind in the blog world. Thought I should catch up some.
Christmas here was nice. We celebrated with gifts on the Saturday before Christmas. Generally you spend a good part of Christmas day at church so many here do their family celebration on a different day. I have actually come to like this a lot as the gifts are a separate part of the Christmas experience and Christmas day is for celebrating Jesus. Our friends John and Carol came over to open gifts and enjoy breakfast with us (complete with bacon thanks to my mom). It was fun to watch the kids open their gifts and then just play all day with their new things. This year we opted for the video instead of camera during the gift opening so this is the only picture I have of the day. Silas enjoying glow glasses, still in his pajamas late in the day.
Christmas day we headed out to the village we went to last year. It was so fun to be there. I realized that all the songs I know the best in Bambara are Christmas songs so it was fun to be able to sing and know what I was singing. :) The boys weren't in the best of moods that day and weren't so much into the experience. Sometimes this happens on village trips but I'm still glad I take them along.
Kenan "playing" with the kids.
The church building where we went to worship. It was packed full of people.
The baptism water. You have to really want to be baptized to do it here. :) Somewhere between 15 and 20 people were baptized, including one boy from the hospital who became a Christian while being treated for losing his arm (he had fallen out of a tree, broken his arm and his mother simply tied off the broken area for treatment which cut off blood supply and killed the arm so it had to be amputated). Another patient of mine and her daughter were baptized which was neat to see. I really think there is nothing cooler than watching people declare their new life in Christ on the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. I hope my boys really come to appreciate this tradition. I simply love it.
This is where Silas spent most of his time. Like I said, they had a hard day. They did, however, enjoy the lunch of "yellow rice" that they like so much. Kenan was priceless as he ate. "This is so, so GOOD!" "I LOVE this!" "This is the BEST ever!" He kept eating even after we all were done.
Overall a fun and enjoyable Christmas!
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