Holiday Roles

Front room and son is ready!

 It always seems to start later than we think. In our minds, it all gets going right after the early morning prayers, so in anticipation we eat breakfast and get the house all ready as soon as we wake up. The outside stairs, porch and living room are swept and ready. We have a little reception area, with chairs and a table which holds the candy, cake and soda. Most of our visitors will be kids— the candy is for them. Some will be men (either alone or with their kids in tow)— the cake is for them. For those that take the time to talk and linger, even sit down, we have the additional soda.

Tom and the boys are raring to go, but we want to follow the flow. It’s pointless to start visiting if people aren’t ready to receive visitors. Our house is part of a little compound with four other homes that all share an outside gate. Our neighbors hadn’t unlocked the gate, and it felt presumptuous for us to open it if they weren’t ready for visitors yet. So from our second-story home, we waited and watched the street, looking for signs that the visiting had begun.

Me and my partner

Finally around 8am, we couldn’t take it anymore. People were starting to mill around on the street. We would open the gate, but no sooner had Tom descended the stairs with the boys than our neighbor unlocked the gate herself. Let the holiday begin!

Now while we associate this holiday with lots of visiting, the visiting is actually the purview of the men and children. The women guard the house and wait to receive the visitors. All the other years, I (Megan) have waited by myself. There would be dull, quiet periods when I’d be tempted to do something else, but as soon as I left the door, a pack of kids would descend on the house, hands out for candy. Then there would be crazy periods with group after group when I could barely get back to refill the candy bowl without the kids pushing into the house. Then there is the desire to have the camera ready in order to snap a picture of a good friend or particularly cute kid to show Tom and the kids when they got home. So the holiday would go—periods of boredom, periods of rushing, but no visits lasting more than a handful of minutes, mostly I was just waiting for the next people, alone.

This year was different. Our daughter is 13 yrs old now and we decided together that she should stay at home with me. I don’t see girls her age in the packs of kids that go from house to house,  and since the traditional clothes that women wear for the holiday are hot and somewhat uncomfortable, she was happy to agree to stay home. So this year I had a partner. I could step away from the door and do something in the back of the house without fearing an invasion of rowdy kids. I could go cut up more cake without missing welcoming a friend to our home. It was nice not to do it alone, to have a partner.

Early on, I sent my daughter/partner over to our compound neighbors with plates of the cake we had made. It was then that we discovered that all the girl neighbors were stuck at home too. So before long the greeting team at our house was up to six (me, our daughter and four neighbor girls). At first I thought they would eat some cake and candy and go home, but I was wrong. They were bored, so they stayed and stayed. Our daughter read stories to them and got them playing some games. We gave them water and then sodas. They stayed in the front room and watched as we greeted group after group. Eventually after more than an hour, we heard mothers calling names from across the courtyard and one by one our team got smaller. Finally it was just my daughter and me again. By that time the visitors had dropped to a trickle. Tom and the boys came home, tired and sweaty, with pockets and baggies full of goodies, having traversed all our old stomping grounds and visiting all the people dear to us. We had each played our role and now we could rest.

Our daughter reading to the neighbor girls

Another successful holiday living in community!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The days of language push went well— it was a lot to take in for our newbies, but hopefully brought them to a deeper understanding of the local language. The month of fasting is over— more people than ever prayed with us everyday for the islands! The big holiday went well and we got to see lots of people (hopefully strengthening those relationships). After the holiday, we were able to go on a team retreat. The logistics of taxi and food came together and we were able to have a relaxing couple days away from our normal life. We were able to get our second dose of the COVID vaccine this morning, so we are both fully vaccinated! Our to-do list isn’t as overwhelming as it was before.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
We have a short-termer coming—he has already left the US, but won’t arrive on our island until Thursday. Pray that having him at our house will go well and that our time of orientation with him will set him off to a good start for his over two months on the islands. We only have two weeks before we go to Kenya (we have to renew passports at a US embassy and the islands don’t have one). In those less than two weeks before our trip, Tom is going to be offering an English Teacher Training course that normally is stretched over a month or two. Pray that the course goes well and that it won’t make our life too stressful. Start praying now that our passport renewal goes smoothly and we will get our new passports before our return flights to the islands at the end of June. Everyone on the islands are looking towards May 26th with trepidation. That is the date in the old constitution when the standing president was meant to step down, so everyone expects unrest on or beyond that date. Pray for meaningful change without loss of life. Pray for justice and good governance on the islands. Every week more people are arrested.