One Christmas tradition here is for people to visit each other and distribute food. Some prepare meals and send them to friends. Others just have a stash of sweets that they hand out.
As a family we spent the afternoon visiting our friends in town and giving them cookies and loaves of banana bread that Heidi and I had baked.
I’ll be honest, as we walked through town it was very frustrating having so many complete strangers barging up to us asking “Where is my Christmas box?” We had to keep our attitudes in check and were rewarded when we gave gifts to our actual friends. They were all so excited and appreciative that we had taken the time to visit them and prepare something for them.
While visiting two friends we got to read them the Christmas story in Mampruli. Heidi and I are now able to read the language aloud so that they can understand pretty well (even if we don’t understand all we are reading). Because they know we are learning, our audience pays very close attention and helps us with pronunciation and rhythm by repeating every sentence. What a great way to make sure someone hears and understands The Story!
We are so thankful to God for the many new friends we have in Nalerigu that always greet us with a smile and patiently converse with us as we slowly learn the language.