Festivities

Christmas Day is apparently in six days, but I have to keep looking at the calendar in order to convince myself of this reality; it just doesn’t feel like “Christmas” around here and I’ve been thinking about why that is. Sadly, I’ve realized that many of the things I associate with preparing for the season have a distinctly “commercial” element to them—buying coffee in a red cup; seeing decorations appear in malls, checking off items from a shopping list; buying new outfits for various parties and so on. Don’t get me wrong—I love these things!

We really do make things complicated, though. Magazine covers offer “200 Gift Ideas” or “150 Ways to Simplify the Holidays” or “75 Festive Recipes.” We go to parties, attend special concerts, brave crowded parking lots and make plans to travel great distances through inclement weather. This is how we celebrate. And since I find myself somewhere that does very little of this, I am finding it hard to believe that the season is here.

I do hear the occasional Christmas song playing on the workers’ radios outside my door each day; people are starting to head from the cities to their villages where they will spend time with their extended families; the street hawkers in Kampala are trying to sell artificial Christmas trees to people stuck in traffic; some businesses have put up decorations and the Kampala Amateur Dramatic Society (made up of expatriates) is putting on its annual Christmas pantomime. There is evidence that it is a special time of year. There just isn’t the hype that I am used to and it is sort of refreshing.

We are planning to re-create much of what we associate with Christmas, but we will do several things a little differently. For example, we’ve ordered a turkey from “our guy” in the village, but we really had to emphasize to him that we didn’t want to butcher it, clean it and pluck it ourselves. Similarly, we have done a fair bit of baking, but we’ve had to adapt a few of the ingredients to what is available here. On the plus side, we can put poinsettias on the table as decoration, but we can just pick them from the bushes that grow here naturally. Another contrast is that the workers at the project site are having their staff Christmas party later today, but we’re not going to some hotel ballroom to enjoy a buffet dinner--they’re killing a bull right here and cooking it up to share. Good times!

In many ways, I’m glad the season feels so different here. It helps me not to feel too sad that I can’t be with my family and friends at a time of year when spending time with loved ones is such a big part of the celebration. Be that as it may, we have visitors from Canada here at the moment, we’ve stockpiled lots of delicious goodies, we’re having a barbecue on Christmas Eve (something this Canadian has never done!) and it’s sunny and warm. It’s all good!

Merry Christmas, everyone!