Christmas in South Sudan

I think it’s safe to say that our Christmas this year was a little different to our usual wet, cold, cosy, family Christmas in either NI or Scotland.

Thank-you to those of you who sent Christmas emails and the like, it helped us feel that bit closer to home.

In a few ways Christmas here isn’t that different to home. For example, Christmas is massive here too. People save for months, buy new clothes, get a Christmas haircut (or new extensions!), have a big celebration, and have lots of church services.

However there are a few differences too. None more so that the 35C heat! In the local churches here in Mabaan County there is a big joint service on Christmas day, followed by celebrations in each  surrounding village on consecutive days until 1^st Jan. We were invited to all of these, and pretty much the whole community takes the week off and attends most of them.

A celebration will generally consist of the following:

Arriving on time (if like us you’re silly enough to believe the alleged start time) and waiting 2-3 hours for anything to start. The men get several cups Chai and a bowl of meat before the service (and always plenty of chat). The church service then can last anywhere between 2 and 6 hours and will include up to maybe 6-8 choirs from the surrounding churches, sermon, baptisms, communion and anything else to generally extend it in length!

Following the service there will inevitably be more Chai (and more chat), several plates of meat (we’ve had goat, cow and lots of pig) for the men. If there’s enough left the women and children get some too. This is followed by several cups of coffee (with more chat while trying to excuse ourselves, and being told we have to stay for more meat and coffee). Finished off by a long journey home in the semi-dark.

Although the days have been long, it has been a brilliant opportunity to spend time with the local churches and continue to build relationships with people. Our Mabaan is coming along slowly and I was told by a Pastor “Bolus! (Paul in Mabaan) You are fighting with Mabaan.” That just about sums up how my language learning is going! People appreciate so so much you being willing to spend time with them and eat with them. And their generosity is so humbling. It’s certainly a Christmas we won’t forget quickly.

Some Christmas facts:

-       -  celebrations attended: 5

-       -  modes of transport used: bicycle, feet, 4x4, wading through river

-        - cumulative hours spent in church services: 19

-       -  words understood in above church services: 7

-       -  cups of Chai consumed: >20

-        - pigs eaten: 4

-       -   most unpalatable dish: Badida (wallpaper paste consistency, sorgum based, warm, smells like vomit)

-        - lost in African bush in complete darkness: 1

      

      P