Kitale, where Adams and Mary live, is a large town. Many of the people here are contract workers who only live in the town for work, but on major holidays like Christmas return to their home villages to celebrate with their families. As a result Christmas here is fairly quiet. We had a Christmas morning service, but there was only a small congregation and the service itself was short.
Christmas here does not come with all the hype that it does in the west. Decorations are minimal, and gift giving is low key. There is generally a special meal, but that got kinda thwarted here at Adams’ place. They had a sheep that was to be killed for Christmas dinner, but when the time came the kids refused to let it be killed. They still have the sheep. Then they were given a goat for the same purpose, but the kids objected to its demise, too. They still have the goat. We had a very nice dinner, but it wasn’t either lamb or goat. I suggested to Adams that next time they should adopt the strategy of a friend of mine in Australia – she had two sheep intended for the table, and named the Lamb Chop and Souvlaki, so that the kids would get used to the idea that these sheep were going to be eaten.
Adams explained that in the villages Christmas is a much bigger deal because whereas in the towns chicken may be an every day menu item, in many of the villages it is eaten only at Christmas (I remember that being the case in the Australia of my childhood), and whilst people in the towns may buy new clothes any time of the year, in the villages new clothes are a Christmas special.
Today we went to Mary’s family for a fun day. They do this every year on Boxing Day. Mary’s family is huge – there would have been around 300 people gathered today: family, extended family, a few friends and neighbours, and this one mzungu. The whole thing was organized chaos (well, actually not that organized) but heaps of fun. The day included every possible kind of competition, from running races for every group from juniors to retirees (several of whom made a very impressive effort), to sack and egg-and-spoon races, to story telling and singing.
Four different areas were represented, and each person was competing not only for personal glory but for their area, so at one level it was all fiercely competitive, but at the same time the cheers for the last person home were as great as those for the winner. There was lots of laughter as various ones hammed it up for the audience, and a generally great day all round.