Christmas Happenings

Amahoro - Peace!!
Over the next few days I will endeavour to bring you up to date with our goings on over the last month. Sorry for not posting regularly lately.
It’s hot - indoor temp. - 28.5 degrees, quite humid at times; it rains frequently, accompanied with fantastically loud thunder that sounds like it could almost originate in our back yard. Colton loves the thunder.
The flowers are blooming beautifully; when we got here 5 months ago we thought the vegetation was nice, but now that we’ve had regular rains for a few months, God is really putting on a show!!
Speaking of rain, many of you know about my super sensitivity to the sun (interesting how the Lord called us here, huh?), and so since Colton was a little tyke, when there was a warm, gentle summer rain, sans thunder, we would go and play outside, fully clothed, frolicking in the rain.
Well, we’ve had ample opportunity for this out here; our yard is fenced in with a 7 - 8 foot brick wall, so privacy isn’t an issue. A few weeks ago during a ‘thunderless’ and ‘lightningless’ rain Colton and I went out, and Stany, our worker, a normally relatively serious yet friendly guy, couldn’t hide the fact that he was quite intrigued by the scene. As we were chasing each other around the house we noticed that our deck was seriously slippery when the smooth cement is wet. Well, this could lead to only one thing - a Burundian skating rink!! We took a running speed or pushed ourselves off the house and sped across the deck. Very cool, but not cool enough! I sent Colton for dish detergent and then we were in business. Stany in the meantime is standing and watching us, chuckling as he’s watching two mzungus having fun.
We invited him to come and join us, and at first he declined; however, it was evident that he was curious about the experience, and before we knew what happened, he was in there like a dirty shirt. What a sight!!
Soon he was replenishing the water on the deck with buckets of water.  What fun!
Isaac, who was trying to fix Colton’s popped bike tire nearby chose not to join the fun.
December 22 - Isaac’s birthday. (23 and holding!!) In Canada we always have both sides of the family over for birthdays, and we couldn’t stop now. So we had our living/dining area full of our Burundian “family” - people that the Lord has blessed us with out here. You should have seen the cake that I made… it looked quite awful! Isaac and Colton always opt for my ‘Midnight Cake’ for their birthday;  I hadn’t made it here yet, due to the exorbitant price/and  or unavailability of some of the ingredients. ( Would you pay up to $19.00 for a little container of cocoa?! Cream cheese and vanilla are not available.)Well, for birthdays you sometimes splurge.
 Keep in mind, altitude,  oven variances, flour, who knows what else (I suppose the skill of the baker would come into play as well), these are all contributing factors as to how your baking turns out. Well, let’s just say this oven is not like my convection one in Canada - in other words, do I want a big, medium or small flame. This determines the rate at which the bottom of the baking is burnt if I’m not right on top of things and every little while rotate and re-position the pan.  So after the cake was dizzy from all the movement -  and a bonus was it hadn’t collapsed from all the movement, I let it cool so I could invert it to ‘decorate’ it, which consisted of piping his age in the center and a border around the edge. The problem arose when literally about an eighth of the cake simply did a “land slide” on to the counter. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got, so Colton and I just stuffed our faces with the land slide. It was different than usual, especially the crumbly texture, but still tasted good. I had no choice but to incorporate the land slide crater into the piped border decoration. Our guests were very gracious in over looking the appearance of the cake.
God again proved Himself to have a sense of humor with this event. Before Colton was born I was decorating cakes at Penner Foods - fancy cakes - wedding, anniversary, birthday,… nice cakes. On top of that, I’m a ‘re-covering’ perfectionist, so this event had the makings of being disastrous. Strictly by God’s grace I found the whole ordeal amusing.
December 23 - Isaac’s at Chrissie’s working; Colton asked if he could do my toenails. He couldn’t open the nail polish bottle, so I tried. It was so tight that the bottle broke into pieces as I tried to open it, with a big piece of glass still attached to the cap. When it suddenly gave, it sliced into my thumb; yes, the one that previously, as a little girl had the encounter with the cement mixer. My hand, including the deep gash, was covered with nail polish, mixed with blood. Running water over it did almost nothing as far as washing the polish off, so, bracing myself against an even more intensified sting, I asked Colton to pour nail polish remover over my hand. Yikes!! Ouch!! WOW!!  At this point I realized I needed to sit down… now… on the floor in the washroom if I didn’t want to faint and collapse.
Colton called Isaac and we went to the hospital to get stitched up. This proved to be a very eventful experience. I’ve not experienced it, but I would liken the repeated freezing needle on the outside, tip of my thumb to having a needle shoved under your nail repeatedly. Excruciating!!  The rest of the story will remain untold for now.
Christmas Eve. - late morning. Honda and Libby asked us if we wanted to join them in distributing a Christmas treat to the kids at Sabe Village. Wow, what an incredible experience!!  Each child received a lollipop, an orange Fanta, and two “doughnuts” -  really they are small round portions of dense dough deep fried. We had enough for about 480 children.
The kids knew they were getting a treat, over and above breakfast, so when they saw us pulling into the compound you should have seen and heard the excitement.  Some children could hardly contain themselves, and were lightly hitting their head with their fist. Once they were calmed down, they were taught more about Jesus, followed by singing. Once everything was organized, the children, single file, came and received their treats. Colton was asked to help with the distribution of the doughnuts. What joy to see him thoroughly enjoying himself as he smiled and bent down to look in the little ones’ faces as he handed them his offering. I kept watching him as I was helping nearby, and at times Colton’s face showed such great love and compassion as the kids filed by, a number with nothing on except a filthy, tattered shirt. I often wonder what all God will accomplish in and through Colton through experiences like these; things that will have eternal value and purpose, not just for the here and now.
What a beautiful sight, all these destitute ones enjoying an ’extra’. You might be thinking, “well why didn’t they at least buy healthy food?” You know, Jesus gives each of us so many “extras” every day, things we don’t need, but things He just enjoys giving us. It reminds me of Matthew 7 where it talks about us humans, though sinful, yet giving good gifts to our children, and how much more our Father gives us good gifts when we ask.
After this we went to Chrissie’s birthday celebration at CRIB. In the evening  we had our Christmas at home, and Everiste and Annick dropped in.
Christmas day - 9:00 A.M. at CRIB watching all the kids open their presents that are shipped in from England, followed by Isaac assembling toys and things for about 2 hours. We were invited to friends of ours for lunch, together with some other expatriates. It was great - Christmas dinner outside on the deck, dessert (another one of my famous “land slide” cakes) under a sun sheltering gazebo, followed by lawn games.
At about 5 we went to Honda and Libby’s who had invited us to spend some time celebrating with the ‘Restoration of Hope’ boys - all 65 of them. These are street boys they’ve rescued and are providing a safe, godly home for them, as well as discipleship, a chance at a future, etc. You shoulda’ seen us dance to…. Boney M. Christmas songs, being piped into the yard via big speakers. Loudly!!! It was fantastic! So much fun.
If Boney M. members are still alive, I’d be curious to know their thoughts on a yard full of people in the middle of Africa dancing to “Winter Wonderland!”
December 26 - more time spent with Honda and Libby, and Libby’s parents who are out from the UK.
December 27 - we went to the local beach; me with my trusty sun-shielding umbrella.
It’s getting late, past 11:00, and we’re up and at ‘em at 5:45 A.M.
To be continued…