Christmas in Soyo.....once again....

We returned from our daughter's wedding on December 3rd and began to prepare for Christmas.  One of the couples here, Kris and Craig, had brought a Christmas Tree from the USA and were planning to move to their next location before the end of the year.  Therefore, they were willing to let me have the tree for our home......but I must say, I felt terrible to take it because they have been delayed here in Soyo for business reasons....and I offered them to keep the tree one more year and we would put it up next year.....altho we are planning to be in the USA with our kids and grand children at Christmas 2013.....

Anyway, Kris insisted that we take the tree and enjoy it......  We had brought some unbreakable ornaments back with us and put them on the tree.  I had been warned that the tree....being from the USA...was pre lit and 110 volts......so I carefully looked at the surge protector that I believed was hooked up to a small transformer...and I plugged in the tree with great relish......and watched as each strand of lights....the really cute pine cone ones.....stopped working.......   Now nothing smelled burned so that was a good thing and Bryan has said that he thinks there are fuses for the strands of lights so when we take the tree down tomorrow....we will see if we can find the fuse and bring some back for next Christmas.....  We did have a strand of multi colored lights that I bought in Indonesia last year and we put that on the tree....and had the driver go find any similar lights here.....and they are all from China so also in Africa.....We put on the new Christmas colored lights....new for us....blue, green, red and light orange......and these lights have a box that allows 8 different ways for the lights to be shown from always on to manic flashers......and we set the lights to be always on and they remain so for a short time and then move to the rotation of different modes......but it is a tree and it does make the house look much more Christmas like and with the air conditioner on.....it feels like Christmas to me......

On December 23rd I had the opportunity to speak in our little church and we ended the service with candle lighting and singing Silent Night together....a custom from our church in the USA.  We had the hotel where we meet give permission to light the candles because we didn't want the smoke alarm to go off and the entire hotel to be evacuated.  When the manager came in the check, he said not to worry that this smoke alarm was not active.......good for the candle lighting.......but........

At the end of the service, a couple came to say they were with an oil support group here and were from Cameroon.  It was really nice to have this new couple and their baby and such a surprise to find they had heard about the church meeting at the hotel from this blog and so had come to attend!!!  It has motivated me to write more regularly......who knows what other friends we will make here in Soyo from this........

We had the 2nd annual Kimbumba (our housing development) Progressive Christmas Dinner......on Christmas Eve.




Again we started with appetizers at our home.....and had food from India, Indonesia, Thailand, and the USA with the exciting dish being a relish tray of carrots, cucumber and real celery and dips from the USA.

Craig, Sukardi, Mo, Filomena

Gene and the tree.....

Tari

Debbie, Kris and Tari

MaryAnne, Rajesh, Mike

Greg and Pat

David

Next we moved to Pat and Mo's for a fabulous mushroom soup......and were able to enjoy it outside because altho it is the hot season, it had cooled down by the time we went to their home.

Rajesh

Gene

Mike, Kris, David and Debbie

Filomena, Mo, Craig, me, Tari and Hadi

Our new residents..... Nathaniel and Alma 

Singing a song about Soyo

Dinner and dessert were delicious and again and international flavor.....

After we were finished, David gave us a wonderful treat of singing his published Christmas song "Pennies Come From Heaven" and several other ones that made the evening absolutely perfect!!!

Bryan, Mike, Debbie, Gene

David

Before we left, we had one last time to take pictures of those who had been the first residents here.....except that Richard and Eileen had already left....  As each of these leave, we will miss them and what they brought to this small community on the Congo river in Soyo.  No matter where they go next....this is a place they will never ever forget!!!!

After such a delightful evening and such a time of celebration together.... we came home around midnight....cleaned up and wished each other a Merry Christmas before going to bed.

On Christmas day we had the privilege of inviting the Eduardo, our pastor, his wife, Sarah, and son, Bez, along with Tari, Hadi and Sukardi from Indonesia and two of the rotators, Kevin, from Trinidad,  and Lancaster, from India to our home for Christmas dinner.  I must say that I was unable to make a pumpkin pie.....our tradition...because I don't know how to make a pie crust.....too bad I can't just go buy one, right?

Altho we missed our children and grand children so much.....the friends here in Soyo helped to make Christmas easier.....but let's remember that Christmas is about Jesus being born on the earth as our Savior and we can celebrate that anywhere with thanksgiving.....