Well, we are back from a truly Kenyan Christmas celebration. We were invited along with my parents to celebrate Christmas with a large extended Kukuyu family just west of Nairobi. So after enjoying gift opening with the kids in the morning, we left wondering just what this day would hold for us. Was I apprehensive? I will leave you guessing. :)
There really was no need to worry. The family was thrilled we came (though they had been hoping we would be there earlier to help slaughter the goat... most of us were happy we missed that). We were given a tour of their gorgeous, lush, green farmed countryside (all on a quite a steep hill), tasted sheep liver, shook hands with many people and just enjoyed visiting before dinner. We were seated on wooden benches and told how dinner would be served. We have not gotten used to the amount of food normally heaped on plates, though they are a fit group of people. We served ourselves sheep stew, lentils and carrots, rice, chapatis, cabbage, and traditional African mashed potatoes with maize and greens (like pumpkin leaves) but didn't get close to the amount they thought we should have. Our kids going back for seconds on chapatis made up for the initial surprise though.
After dinner, we were back on the benches (congregation style) and proceeded to hear a couple of sermons, prayers, songs and introductions. Our host brought everyone up (around 60 people were there) by family. Our introductions were a bit more simple as dad has only one wife :)
In closing we had sodas (the Coke for which I was glad as I was about to be introduced to African sausage as a parting gift).
As we shared with them, we felt privileged to share this Christmas with some new friends.
We hope you also shared your day with friends.
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