Noël

12/24/09 – Noël


Christmas here is so beautiful.

The focus of this holiday is solely the birth of Christ. In a place where people don’t really have money to buy presents for all their friends and family or decorate their houses with lights and other extravagant things, you find the true meaning of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I think buying presents and decorating your house are wonderful things, and I’m grateful for the ability to do these things at home to celebrate. But there is a beautiful simplicity in the fact that for many people around here, the climax, the peak, the big moment of Christmas is going to Mass. There is no Santa Claus or other legend that makes kids all riled up the night before either. There are simply people with faith, hope, and love.

I was feeling a little blue on the 22nd and 23rd of December because the Christmas spirit that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside was not present. Usually this comes from hearing familiar carols on 99 WMYX as they repeat the same batch of songs for an entire month, or in baking cookies, or enjoying a hot cup of cocoa with a candy cane in it. But none of those things exist here. I actually sang Christmas carols to myself for several hours while I was cutting out letters to hang above the doors of the church. But all that changed when I saw why there wasn’t that familiar Christmas spirit: here the preparation for Christmas is “backwards.”

People do all their decorating on Christmas Eve. It is actually a big work day – work in the sense that you prepare for Christmas. All day long I could hear the choir rehearsing in the church (seriously, they sang for hours, crazy) the drummers were practicing, people were building the nativity scene at the front of the church, they were cleaning the church, and the kids were rehearsing their dances/skits that they perform during Mass.

I also partook in this day of Christmas prep, in that I spent probably 4 hours tracing letters and cutting them out and taping them onto banners for the church, and cutting out and coloring other letters to hang in our chapel. Joanne put up our little tree,

hung some garland and little wreaths in the dining room and stuck window stickies all around. It was positively delightful, and I was so happy to see such happy décor! Really, in comparison to how we decorate at home, it wasn’t much at all. But the mission lifestyle of going without luxuries has really made me appreciate things like window stickies and a bit of garland all the more.

So, we went to Mass in the morning as usual, but then we went again at 5pm for the Christmas Eve Mass! Twice in one day, wow! It was great. And the Christmas Eve Mass was fantastic. I was amazed by the nativity scene built by the altar – it is a huge hut made out of palm tree leaves and evergreen branches, completely decked out with strings of lights and a gigundo flashing star.

A few small wooden figurines were inside the hut to represent Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wisemen, and Baby Jesus. There were about 8 drummers standing outside the doors of the church – they would have been overpoweringly loud had they been inside. And lining the aisles of pews were children dressed in white robes and wearing white crowns. They sit at the ends of the pews and get up and dance at prescribed times. They are so well synchronized, and must have practiced like crazy! I was sitting close to one of these dancing kids who I recognized from Patronage – it was very nice to receive a friendly smile from her! The choir was also present in all its glory – everyone was well-dressed in their uniforms, and they sounded wonderful.

There was tons of joyful singing (extra songs today, more than usual) and after Communion the dancing kids did a small skit. Out from among the dancers there arose a few girls who wore paper wings and halos, wielding pieces of white string that they whirled around. They also had impeccable choreography, and they would flutter towards the back of the church and pick up shepherds and wisemen and lead them to the manger scene. The shepherd and wisemen waddled up to the front in the same fashion as the angels, with little quick steps that looked kind of funny but were in rhythm with the song the choir was singing. Then after the procession to the manger scene, we continued on with the “l’action de grace,” the thanksgiving song that always comes after Communion. I was very happy to be sitting next to Sr. Gisele, who danced with all her might :) So I felt very free to do the same, and I did.  And I was sitting behind Francine, one of my students, who also was dancing so freely in her pew. I’m very impressed by the way that many people here are not swayed by the opinions of others. If they’re thankful for something, they just thank God for it without wondering what they look like or who else might be looking at them. I want to leave behind a chunk of my mindset and take up more of theirs.

And amidst all this, half of the electricity went out, so we were actually sitting in darkness but the altar was illuminated. It was excellent. The only problem that I can report was that the drummers were completely dissonant with the choir. The choir sang beautiful songs, and the drummers were beating some really fantastic rhythms. But the two did not match at all. People were turning around to look at the drummers to see if they realized how bad it sounded. I guess they didn’t because they just kept on drumming. I learned to ignore the clash and just enjoyed the music nonetheless.

After Mass the drummers kept on playing, and many people gathered around to watch. Edouard came up behind me and partially covered my eyes as a “guess who” kind of thing, and I’m glad he only partially covered them because that’s extremely creepy when you are the only muzungu and its dark outside and all of a sudden there are hands in front of your face. But it was just Edouard. I wished him and Josaphat a merry Christmas with the traditional Rwandan “hug,” which is where you grab forearms and touch temple-to-temple three times, then shake hands. I also saw Dieu-Donné and John, whom I had a nice hilarious conversation with, and wished them well. Then Sr. Charlotte said Fr. Antoine was looking for me. I was so happy to be greeted by so many people after Mass, and to be asked for specifically! So I went to greet them and say Merry Christmas, and to meet Maria, another volunteer who was staying with the fathers for the weekend. She is from Germany, is my age, studied occupational therapy, and has been in Kigali for 5 months working with handicapped children. She will stay for the rest of the year. It was great to talk with her, we bonded right away.

The priests at Gisenyi Parish invited all the priests, Sisters, and Brothers in the area over to their house for a little gathering after all the Masses were finished. This was a fantastic way to spend Christmas Eve! They gave us a great meal, which we were not expecting – we were not told that there would be food. But indeed there was, and good food too…igitoki (unripe banana stew), rice and beans, ibijumba (sweet potatoes), some kind of strange-looking meat that I did not take because it looked like it still had organs and other parts in it…hm…fried potato wedges, cucumbers and tomatoes, and Fanta, beer, and wine. The four Italian volunteers who work with the parish were also there. I had a nice French conversation with one of them throughout our dinner. Then came the good part…each congregation was asked to prepare a small talent demonstration to illustrate their charism. There were probably 4 different orders of Sisters, one group of consecrated lay people, 2 sets of parish priests, and 2 orders of Brothers; in total there were probably about 25 people gathered together. So we all broke off into small groups to plan. The Salesian Sisters and I decided we would sing “O Come All Ye Faithful,” half of us singing every other line in English, half of us singing the other lines in French. Well, let me tell you, Rwandan religious communities are crazy! The other talent showcases were so funny…the first group of priests sang some strange Kinyarwanda song and then busted out the “Nyagasani tubabrire” (Lord have mercy), the Muhato priests sang a great English Christmas song whose name escapes me, one of the Italian volunteers played the flute, and my favorite was the consecrated lay women involved everyone in some kind of chanting in which each group repeats the name of a food in Kinyarwanda in a certain rhythm. These ladies were running around waving straws in the air to keep everybody on beat. It was sooo funny! Overall, I laughed so much, and had such a wonderful time talking to Helena (the Italian volunteer). It was a great night and I’m so glad I went!

Christmas Day was equally wonderful. I went to Mass again at 7am, and the same dancing kids, drummers, shepherds, wisemen, and choir were there. They work so hard – and they danced and sang for like 5 hours (2 Masses with about 45 minutes in between, with baptisms.) Afterward, the Sisters continued cooking up a storm for today’s feast. I helped here and there, mostly with washing dishes. We had a great breakfast of Panettoni, an Italian fruitcake-like thing. At 1pm we had our feast, which was huge and good, and I can't even remember what I ate (today is Dec. 29th as I write this…) But I do remember there was CHOCOLATE CAKE. Can you believe that?? With whipped cream topping. It was divine. I've definitely developed a deeper appreciation for the things that are semi-special at home (such as chocolate cake) because here they're not semi-special, but ultra-special. And even little things like the fact that we played a Christmas carol cd (it was a Polish children's choir. Lovely!) throughout most of the morning and afternoon. We never play music because electricity is expensive! So I really enjoyed these songs all the more because it was such a special treat. And our few decorations were more beautiful to me than any of the multitude of lights and inflatable snowmen and racing reindeer that you could find on a typical American lawn. Wonderful.

After our feast we all got to work again at decorating the house for tomorrow. You see, Sr. Candide (our mother superior) was transferred to a new community in Ethiopia. She is leaving a few days after Christmas, and we await a newly appointed superior, from where and when we do not know. Consequently, the other Salesian Sisters in Rwanda (there are 2 other communities, 6 other Sisters total) are coming for a bon voyage party for her. So, we were all in the library tracing letters for "Alleluia, il est né!" to adorn the hallways, cutting out stars, sticking glue-tack on them, and hanging them up. And, Sr. Iwona brought her guitar and serenaded us. Actually this was in order to plan for the farewell Mass that we will have with our guests tomorrow. But it was still great – everybody was singing their favorite Mass songs, and there was just a general atmosphere of cheer with all this music in the air. We decided that this will be a very multi-lingual Mass. I will do the first reading in English, the gospel along with the rest of the liturgy will be in French, a few songs will be in French, one will be in Swahili, and we will sing the 2 Kinyarwanda songs that I know the words to. Sweet Jesus.

When 7:30pm rolled around (our normal time for dinner) I was not at all hungry. But we all ate a little bit in order to truly welcome this feast. The really awesome thing about celebrating Christmas here, and with nuns (that probably has a lot to do with it), is that the celebration lasts the whole octave. Liturgically, the feast of Christmas lasts 8 days. So we begin feasting on Christmas day, and it continues! I like this better than at home, when all the radio stations stop playing their Christmas tunes after Christmas day :( Come on people, the party's just begun!

So, while I missed baking cookies with my family, eating my crazy uncle’s delicious Christmas Eve feast, hearing strange stories from Grandma, opening presents, and seeing reactions when people open my presents, I am so so so blessed to spend Christmas here in Rwanda.