Christmas Braai

The church we attend has a tradition of meeting together on Christmas Day to remember Christ's birth. Afterwards there is a braai (bbq), with everyone sharing a good meal together. This year our family volunteered to host at our home, since we have lots of space in our backyard, and good kitchen/meeting facilities.

At 7:30 Christmas morning a car came to our gate and honked. I decided it must be someone to see my neighbour since the service wasn't supposed to start until 9am, but it turned out it was one of the organizers with some food and drinks to drop off. So I went out in my pyjamas and unlocked the gate.

At 9am a few people came but we didn't get started on the church service until past 10 sometime. Some of the ladies started peeling potatoes and preparing chicken. We lit the braai stand so that the charcoal would be hot enough later.

For the church service we sang a few carols and shared what Christmas means to us. Some of the young people presented "Lord I lift your name on high" with sign language, and also presented a sketch about making room for Jesus in our hearts.

Then it was time to play and eat!

Michelle chatted with the youngest member of our church.

The last person left around 4:30pm. So it was a long day, but good to spend it together in a meaningful way. Some of the people were saying that for many Zambians, Christmas is an excuse to drink in excess, so I'm glad the church was able to offer an alternative.

We opened our presents around the Christmas tree as a family afterwards. We didn't really have supper since we were still full from our late lunch! This was our second Christmas in Choma. Only one left before we return to a good old Wet Coast one! :)

Holidays in South Africa

We've taken a couple of weeks of holidays here in Holiday season. My parents were here for two weeks. For one week they visited us in Choma while we went about our work; they were able to spend some time at Chodort and visit some village schools with Michelle. Then we spent a week in Livingstone together, with lots of it in the pool to beat the heat! We also visited the Falls and enjoyed a self-driven safari in Mosi-au-Tunya park.

We both flew out of Lusaka airport on the same morning; Mom and Dad went home via Amsterdam and we went to Cape Town, South Africa. We have regional meetings in Durban next week, so we took the opportunity to see the south coast of Africa. There's been a bit of culture shock (in a pleasant way) as we play the part of tourists. We've enjoyed a ferris wheel ride, McDonald's, shopping, the Aquarium, penguins on the beach, and Table Mountain. See picture of me with some feathery friends. The area is cool enough for these penguins to thrive!

Today we drove up to Table Mountain and took the cable car to the top. We enjoyed the view, etc, but I was mostly thinking about my hike down! Michelle took the kids for lunch and then the cable car down, while I saved ten bucks by walking down the steep trail. It took one and a quarter hours. My legs felt a little shaky the whole time--maybe because I didn't have lunch?--but they did their job and it was a beautiful place to get some exercise!