Christmas, New Years, and Prayer Requests

News letter on Christmas and New Years

My Christmas was really good. Christmas Eve a bunch of people went to a couple’s house who I’m friends with. The wife goes to a lady’s Bible study I attend. So, there were a lot of people from the study along with their families and some neighbors. The food was good and I had fun. Christmas Day Julia and the Allen’s came to the house and we had biscuits and gravy. Then Julia and I started opening presents. All of them were from her family. I still haven’t received the boxes my family sent me. I thought it was nice that her family sent me stuff. It was like lotions and other little things, but it was still thoughtful. Then the whole team had lunch at our house. I was busy cooking even though everyone brought food. I made a big pot of mashed potatoes, salad, and corn. It was a lot of fun. I liked having people of all different ages, including kids, because then it was more like a family atmosphere. We did a gift exchange.

The day after Christmas I left for Joburg. I worked MK (missionary kid) camp about an hour west of Joburg. There were about 60 kids whose parents are missionaries with our company. They came from all over Southern Africa including Madagascar and other Indian Ocean islands. I stayed in a room with seven 13 year old girls. Half of which were incredibly boy crazy, but they were so much fun. We had some late nights and I was completely exhausted by the end of the 4 days, but I loved every minute of it. I’ve only gone to basketball camps, one volleyball, and once 4-H camp. So, it was like church camp/ summer camp for me. I had to keep reminding myself that it was MK camp, not Kimber camp. I played sports with them and everything. (By the way, you can stop laughing about me going to 4-H camp. It was cool at the time.) My sport’s team was the Power Puffins (I didn’t choose the name). We never won an event, but we did win the spirit hippo one day. I had to suppress my competitive side a bit. Apparently not everyone is as set on winning as I am (that might be an understatement).

I asked around and there aren’t any Christmas or New Year traditions that are much different from how they are celebrated in the US. One person told me that they got the holidays from the British, so they celebrate them much like the British. However, there are a few things that are different. Christmas seems to be celebrated more like Thanksgiving – a family day with feasting. Some teenage girls I talked to that live in a semi-rural area were excited about getting to have rice and meat. Easter is the big Christian holiday (as it probably should be in the US). For Christmas, people do exchange gifts, but it’s on a much smaller scale then how Americans do it. There are little decorations too. As you know, Christmas and New Years occur in the summer time here, so braai’s (aka bbq’s) are big on those days. It seems that they are both family holidays with good food and dancing. Also, I think that the ways the Swazi people celebrate these holidays also depends on how westernized they are. Those in the cities are more likely to have a Christmas tree and get more into presents. Many of the Christians go to church on Christmas and later meet to pray in the New Year as well. There is a small influence of Santa Claus. He is known as Father Christmas and is popular mostly with the whites from South Africa.

Also, the church I attended the Sunday before Christmas had a special party. They borrowed a large tent, had a decorated Christmas tree, did a nearly church wide gift exchange ( I was elected to stand up front and call out (struggle through) the names on the gifts), then had a huge braai afterwards. The bbq chicken was so good.

One more thing. I doubt this is the case everywhere, but in one area this happened. Some of the people in the community committed to giving a little bit of money each month to a pot. Then a couple days before Christmas someone went to town and bought a whole bunch of food so that each family would be able to have a good Christmas meal. I thought that was neat and smart, because a lot of times the Swazis are not good at saving money.
Sorry it took me so long to get this out. I’ve been very busy lately. Please pray for the following:

- Monica and her pregnancy
- Safe travels for me as I take vacation in Cairo Feb 10-21
- My doctors appointment on Feb 21

As always you can view pics on my blog Kimber-swazitales.blogspot.com.
Thanks, Kimber