Greetings,
Today is literally the 3rd day of Christmas in Liberia.
Saturday, Christmas Eve Day was spent traveling about, visiting family and friends and carrying gifts or money to them. We visited two new grandchildren; Irena who is the daughter of son Jeff - she is almost 4 months old, has two teeth alrady, and is a very strong willed baby! The second was litte Edwin who is just now a week old. He is very bright eyed and has a head ful of black ringlets! They are both so very adorable.
We gave the gifts to the grandchildren and the children that we had brought from the US. Those who didn't receive gifts, received money. We gave Sawsee a little red mustang car about 5 inches long. He will not let it out of his sight and will either wear out the knees in his pants or have calluses on his knees from playing with it.
All in all, it was very simple because of the financial needs for Chris and her hospital care, Adulphus' graduation, and surgery for the children's mother. We did learn that Chris had to return to the hospital on Christmas Eve day and on Christmas. Hopefully, she is back home today and we hope that she will be able to return to Liberia on Friday and continue her treatment here.
We were not able to go the Christmas Eve services at the church because they had to be cancelled. There were riots in the streets on Friday night because students who worked from the time school was dismissed for the Chistmas holiday until Christmas had not been paid by the government. They were to be paid $80 and were only being given $40.00. They rioted in the streets, smashed government vehicles and caused a lot of damage. A curfew was imposed through Christmas. We were able to see them running in the main road by our house and smashing a police vehicle just down the street. We were not in any danger, however, Sawsee was terrified, grabbed my hands, pulled me into the bedroom, slammed the door and wanted me to lock it. However, he then went out on the porch, and we watched the activities from there. Apparently it began in town just after we left on Friday and continued out to this neighborhood in a matter of hours.
However, Saturday night we were awakened by drumming about 3:00 am. I asked Timothy what is was in light of everything else that was going on and he told me it was Santa Claus. Here, Santa does not bring gifts but travels in the neighborhoods dancing to the drums and people give him money. We saw it in downtown on Friday. Generally it is someone dressed in grass and totally covered. They are bedecked with ribbons, paint and a stick and dance in the streets for money. It was a little disconcerting, but I did get used to it and went back to sleep.
Sunday morning we got up and prepared for church. We had a car full and arrived just as the service was beginning. Candy Girl was so cute in a little blue dress that I had made for her for Christmas - she had no suitable dresses for church- it was from Liberian material and complete with a headtie. I loaned her a necklace and she was quite the cutie. Sawsee was quite the little man in brown cargo pants and polo shirt complete with a Santa Hat! He didn't want to take it off and wore it into church.
The service included a time of testimony of what God had done for us in the past year. At the time the testimonial is made, money is donated to a special offering. This was in additioin to the regular offering, the mission offering, your pledge, your dues, and an assessment of $20.00 USD per family to help gather the funds to pay the pastor for two months owed. Asking for money is not a carefully worded request, you are just told this is your assessment and you are required to pay it. Your name is read as the payment is made so the entire church is aware of who is delinqent.
We sang Christmas carols, read the Magnificat and listened to the sermon based on that text. It was good, but very long and we didn't reach home until afer 2:30 pm, tired and hungry to find 5 more grandchildren who had left home to seek Grandma and Grandpa. After a meal of Jollif rice (rice, tomatoes, several kinds of meat, and mixed vegetables) the older childen decided to out for the evening leaving us with all the grandchildren. One of the neighbors was having a party so we danced outside on the front porch until dark. When the current came on, they watched videos until I packed them all off to bed about 9:30 or 10 pm. This morning they all got up and hit the sugar bowl so we had a wild time. I worked them doing laundry and other assorted tasks until we got it out of their system. After some behavioral modifications they quit their attitudes and were pretty decent the rest of the day. If they had been able to continue as before the house would have been chaos and everything in it destroyed. One wonders how anxious they will be to come to Grandma's again. The interesting thing is that their parents didn't even know they were here and called late in the afternoon to check to see if they were here. Oh my children!!!!
Today, we are sort of taking it easy, but not really. People have been in and out and Timothy went out this mornin to visit some church members that he didn't see yesterday. I can hear music in the background from a party, smell someone popping popcorn and people walking about in dressup clothes. Christmas is a religious holiday and there is actually very little gift giving as such. Timothy's nephew, Dennis and his wife Nancy, sent us some food yesterday. We returned the basket today with a little someething in it for them.
Sawsee is awake from his nap, is holding his clothes and wanting a bath. Here I am!!!
Love, hugs, peace, joy, and Christmas blessings.
Anne and Timothy
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