I had Christmas down in Africa

(Man, that Toto song in all its glory and many variations has endless use for this blog.)

I did, in fact, spend Christmas in Ruhengeri with my cousins and several other families. It started on the 23rd when the other teacher came over and we shared my absolute favorite Christmas movie, White Christmas, with my cousins. Can you believe they'd never seen it before?! I couldn't either. The evening was spent with everyone laughing, and they have since continued quoting some of Danny Kaye's perfectly hilarious lines.

It continued on Christmas Eve. We went to church to see the Christmas Eve performance/concert/I have no idea what it was because it was all in Kinyarwanda. There were a number of choirs all singing what I'm guessing were Christmas-related songs. They definitely mentioned Jesus a lot, and I could understand that part. There was a long play (Moses explained parts of it to me, but I still didn't really get it). I was told that there was a reference to Jack and Rose on the Titanic because apparently Titanic is a really popular movie here. Who would have thought... Regardless of weather or not I could understand it, it is something else to hear stories of a most gracious and wonderful God in a different language. Really hits home that He is a global God to be praised even in a place that has experienced so much pain.

Behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues... Revelation 7:9

When we got home, Moses asked me how early he was allowed to wake me up in the morning. I answered him that the time didn't matter as long as that wake-up came with a hot mug of coffee. And indeed, Moses busted through the door at 7:10am singing (screaming) "MERRY CHRISTMAS, MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS! I brought you coffee!" He put the coffee in my hands and allowed me curl myself around it and breathe in its delightful scent until I was capable of getting out of bed. One delicious breakfast of cinnamon rolls and fruit later, and we were opening presents with all the joy and wonder of every Christmas before, and I imagine, to come.

The rest of the morning and afternoon were spent quite lazily by me. I went for a walk and skyped my folks, which was absolutely wonderful. I got to see my dad in his best elf hat before he left for work (you better believe he took the hat with him... that man is awesome). Then, we all piled into the car to head over to the house of another American family here for a potluck Christmas dinner. We contributed the turkey (turkey round two) and both an apple and a sweet potato pie. The table also held a large roast, stuffing, green beans, two different gravies, a cake, Christmas cookies, and pasta salad. We may be in the boonies of Rwanda, but we absolutely nailed Christmas dinner! Dinner was followed by many carols and a wonderful round of White Elephant. The best gift at the party, you may ask? In my humble opinion, that would be the belt with Paul Kagame's face on the buckle. Don't worry: I'm definitely going to bring a few of those home.

So, I missed my friends and family terribly this holiday season, but I got to spend Christmas with my Musanze (the other name for Ruhengeri) family. We are a ragtag bunch, but we ended the evening by listening to someone sing O Holy Night really terribly, so that counts as really awesome, right?