Our Christmas celebration

On a sunny and warm Christmas Day, we drove to the nearest church for their service at 9am. We had gotten confirmed yesterday that there would be a joint service at 9am. We arrived five minutes before nine and found very few people there. Inside the church, they were still testing the sound system. A man's voice kept repeating "Mic testing. One - two, one - two. Mic testing. One - two, one - two. Halleluyah." Again and again  -  and again.

We left. When the mzungu (the white man) left, his voice increased as if begging us not to leave....! Instead, we drove to Sharon's former church, Sirikwa Pentecostal Fellowship. That was a good decision. When we arrived, the service had just started. Christmas songs were sung and the pastor held a good and quite funny speech about the Christmas gift from God.

If finished around 10.30am and then we drove back home to prepare for our guests that would come for Christmas lunch later.

We were five adults and six children celebrating Christmas and enjoying chapati, mixed vegetables and meat stew.

After the food, somebody knocked at the door. Who could it be?

It was Santa Claus! He obviously came as a big surprise. Almost every child and every adult reacted in kind of fear. One of the adults was hiding between the table after opening the door to see that it was Santa Claus. One of the children cried a lot and ran out of the door...! But when the little boy was told that he might get a gift, he calmed down.

When Santa had given gifts to every child and adult, he left. Sharon then shared cookies (Norwegian "pepperkaker"), a cake and some sweets.