Christmas in the Mara

Christmas and New Years is over for another year. In many ways our Christmas is the same as at home and in some ways it is different. This year we had a children's party on the Monday before Christmas and an adult party on Christmas day for the church members. Both of these parties were held at Travis's house as he has a much bigger house and front area. We of course don't have snowball fights and hot chocolate, but water balloon fights and Kool-aid. For the adults we enjoyed some munchies with fellowship and had our first ever door prize drawing. It was a lot of fun to watch the different people choose their prize.

On New Year's Eve, we did the Johnson thing and went to bed. LOL It was a funny night as the Mara comes alive with the noise from the Maasai parties. For those of you who are wondering, there is no tradition for this. I think it is easy for anyone to add a tradition that includes a vacation and party. The funniest part for me was on New Years Day. As we went down to set up the games in the school yard, we noticed that the cows were being taken out by only one herder and the goats and sheep were all being taken out by very young kids. (5 and 6 year olds were common sights) I thinks we were seeing 150 cows per person and no one else out side of their huts at 9:00 AM. Usually the minyattas are full of life by 6:30 AM.

The games went well with the spear throw and the rungu (wood throwing stick) throw were hits. Travis and his dad welded a neat rack that would spin if you hit it. This was a big hit as everyone was throwing stuff at it all day, rungus or rocks. I think the run took a lot out of everyone who tried it as they all about collapsed after the 600 yard run. We are discussing things that we can add next year already.

Keep us in your prayers as we get back into the 'official' work again. Almi is trying to get the school year mostly done by the end of Feb. (We need a miracle!) and I will be starting the engine rebuild on Monday Jan. 5th. There are many other projects that I wish we could get done, and some that we will have to fit in so keep praying.

As always, there are new photo albums on the right, but not a new question on Mara traditions on the left. I just can't make myself get rid of the snake pictures. At least not yet. :) I'm here and he's not and there is much rejoicing.