Christmas Day

Christmas Day was a bit different this year. We were at Fr. Henry's house outside a small rural village. It's beautiful country, lush green rolling hills as far as I could see.

As usual, I woke up fairly early on Christmas morning but instead of hearing kids telling each other to be quiet so they don't wake up the adults, I heard women outside beginning to prepare Christmas dinner over an open fire. I heard chickens squawking, but I don't know if they were the ones in the process of becoming our dinner, or just some of the chickens that were running around. Bry'Chell slept through everything until I actually woke her.

When we got up--some time after the women began cooking--Fr. Henry had heated water for us to take a shower. Don't think of standing under a shower head with steaming water pouring out. Think a basin with hot water on a stool in the shower stall. If you want water out of the shower head, it will be cold. Still, Henry heated water for us every morning and evening so we could wash. He was a very kind and accommodating host.

Once we were up and moving, it was time for mass. No surprises here. Christmas morning mass is one tradition that was no different here than at home. OK, it was a little different. When we arrived at the church someone started beating the drum telling people that the priest--Fr. Henry--had arrived. The church had just a few people when we walked in, but they started arriving in droves.

By the time mass started, the church was half full, by the time of the first reading the church was full. By homily time the church was packed and the kids started spilling over onto the mats around the altar. I would guess there were about a thousand people in the church.

Unlike Midnight mass, when I sat as anonymously as the only white person in a Ugandan congregation can, Christmas morning I was invited to sit up in the sanctuary. This was meant to be an honor, which I understood and respected, but it also served the purpose of keeping people from turning around to stare at me. Now they could stare to their hearts content without appearing to be ignoring the liturgy.

After mass, Fr. Henry dropped Bry'Chell and I along with several nieces and nephews back at the house while he went to another outstation to say another mass.

We hung around. Well, Bry'Chell went to our room and buried her nose in a book while I did my best to chat with Fr. Henry's mom who doesn't speak English--that's not entirely true, she could greet me in English, but that's about it. Strange as it might sound, the language barrier was not as insurmountable as it might sound. All the children and grandchildren speak English and were kind enough to translate when I looked totally lost and confused.

Henry's older brother arrived and had all kinds of questions about American politics beginning with Obama and covering the entire structure of American government. I'm glad I paid attention in sixth grade school civics. Of course, helping Bry'Chell in social studies the past few years was probably more useful. We covered the three branches of government with all the balance of power stuff. We talked about how elections worked--although I managed to skip the electoral college--how laws get passed including how vetoes work and what the Supreme Court does. He found it more interesting than I did. I was fascinated that he cared. During this conversation the eldest brother and a few adult nephews drifted in. They were either being very polite or actually cared, but they sure listened.

When Henry returned at about three in the afternoon, we ate. We had chicken and goat, matooke, rice and potatoes. There was beer and pop to drink. Since I don't care for pop, I was very happy with a beer. I won't go into detail about the beer, except to say that Ugandan beer is good.

Of all the things I've mentioned, there has been no mention of presents because there weren't any. They weren't completely absent, but there was no pile of gifts under the tree. There was no mad ripping of wrapping paper. There was a small--very small--artificial tree in one corner of the living room that was decorated with a few balloons. Bry' Chell and I did each exchange a gift in our room before we went out for breakfast. She gave me earrings. I have her a necklace with her initial on it carved out of bone.

I'll continue with a second installment since it's late and I need to get to bed.