Christmas Day
Christmas in Ndawana...
On Christmas day, women in the village start cooking early in the morning. They prepare large amounts of food...stew, pap (mealie meal), rice, butternut, dombolo, cake, custard and jelly. They prepare enough food for all of their guests, since after church, neighbors will visit each house. Children open their presents if there are presents; usually gifts are practical gifts of clothing, not the latest toys as you would see in North America.
Alcoholism in the village is rampant. For some, Christmas is little more than a drunken stupor...we arrived in the village at 8 am and already the bottle stores and taverns were busy. Ndawana used to have Christmas concerts and community celebrations, but in recent years those have been cancelled due to excessive drinking of some community members, and associated violence.
We spent the hot, sunny Christmas morning with Zinkle, Thokozo, Emihle, and the house mothers Lulu and Thanda...the kids were excited and gave us a fashion show after they checked out their new clothing. We made an attempt at going to church, but the service was delayed..and delayed...so we went home and spent the rest of the afternoon in the sun.
On Christmas day, women in the village start cooking early in the morning. They prepare large amounts of food...stew, pap (mealie meal), rice, butternut, dombolo, cake, custard and jelly. They prepare enough food for all of their guests, since after church, neighbors will visit each house. Children open their presents if there are presents; usually gifts are practical gifts of clothing, not the latest toys as you would see in North America.
Alcoholism in the village is rampant. For some, Christmas is little more than a drunken stupor...we arrived in the village at 8 am and already the bottle stores and taverns were busy. Ndawana used to have Christmas concerts and community celebrations, but in recent years those have been cancelled due to excessive drinking of some community members, and associated violence.
We spent the hot, sunny Christmas morning with Zinkle, Thokozo, Emihle, and the house mothers Lulu and Thanda...the kids were excited and gave us a fashion show after they checked out their new clothing. We made an attempt at going to church, but the service was delayed..and delayed...so we went home and spent the rest of the afternoon in the sun.
posted by caitlin at 7:25 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home