Christmas Day at Granny's

Dayna, Tony, Sarah, and I all drove out to Soshanguve mid-day on Christmas to celebrate with Granny and the family. We hung out with Granny's family, ate chicken & pap, and exchanged small gifts white-elephant style. They loved the cookies the girls had decorated the night before! During the afternoon, we read the Christmas story from the Bible together, and then Dayna played guitar as we sang Christmas carols. The family loved learning "Little Drummer Boy," and after we sang the carol, Dayna talked about how Jesus gave himself to us at Christmas. The boy in the song brought the gift that he had—himself—to Jesus. In the same way, Jesus gave himself to us. As I sat in the midst of this family who has welcomed me in, who has given of themselves to me so richly, I saw a reflection of Christ's love in Granny's family. I am so thankful to minister both to and with this family… and to be ministered to by them.

Me and Tshegofatso






















Tshegofatso and Lungile






















Dayna, Pretty, Emily, Annah, and baby Douglas: singing carols together

















Christmas dinner #1: chicken, pap, chakalaka, coleslaw... and gingerbread and sugar cookies






















Me, Emily, Dayna, Granny, Annah, Alex, Pretty, and Sarah: wearing our hats from the Christmas crackers!

Christmas Morning

The R15 Christmas tree in all its glory (please note the origami penguin in the middle)





















We traded names and did Christmas stockings for each other. The Christmas stockings being cool socks into which we stuffed various gifts. Here's Busi with hers...





















What I called the Magnificent and Wondrous Christmas Breakfast.
















Eating breakfast in the living room

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, Sarah and I invited Lizzy and Busi to spend the night at our house for a Christmas Eve slumber party. Our party included cookie decorating, movie-watching, Christmas crackers... and even a power outage. The power did eventually come back on so we could watch the movie properly instead of on Sarah's laptop!

Lizzy, me, and Busi decorating cookies
















Some of the finished masterpieces
















Roommates in Christmas cracker hats (please note our R15 Christmas tree in the background)
















All the girls
















Christmas decorations

Pool party

Granny's family (well, women and children under 10 was the rule!) came to Pangani yesterday for a pool party. Of course, it rained for three hours the night before and was therefore cool and cloudy most of the day... but that didn't stop the kids from getting in the pool!

Granny's the only one looking at the camera (clearly there is something going on beside me that I am unaware of), but I had to post this because she has such a great smile.
















Precious, Laurence, Nthabiseng, and Tshegofatso
















All the kids... and Doris
















It rained all the way back to Sosh, and this made for an amazing sunset on the way home.

Traditional ceremony

Champagne, one of Granny's granddaughters, invited a bunch of the NCSA gang to come to a traditional ceremony for her husband's cousin. Sarah and I headed out to Soshanguve on Saturday and had a great time with the family, just hanging out, and observing this celebration of Nosiwe's coming of age. Here are some pictures...























































Champagne's baby boy, little Douglas





















How the party ended...

Redecorating

Those of us left behind in Pretoria (the Stewarts and Doug have headed back to the States on furlough until late January) are working hard around Pangani, getting things ready for next year. Yesterday, Daleen and Sarah and I got to work stripping all the wallpaper in Room 4... since half of it was falling off and the other half had mold behind it. Lovely. I lived in Room 4 during my apprenticeship year, and though I wasn't terribly attached to the wallpaper, it did feel a bit strange to be tearing it all off the walls...

Pangani Thanksgiving

A belated Happy Thanksgiving from South Africa. These pictures were actually taken on Thanksgiving Day, I'm just slow posting them...

The meal all laid out...






















Table set in the garden. Gotta love a summer Thanksgiving.

















Doug carves the turkey while Moses fills his plate.

















Daleen & Petro toasting a happy Thanksgiving to each other.

















Melissa and me

















And, finally... pie. Apple (thank you, Dayna), pumpkin (my own creation), and New York style cheesecake (thanks, Lizzy!).