Sunday, December 31, 2023

Christmas in Chogoria

We love Christmas in Chogoria.  Even though it can still feel busy, what with wrapping up the homeschool semester and work at the hospital not slowing down much, it's remarkably slower than the Christmas season tends to be for the typical American family.  Besides one weekend that requires us to travel for a Field Meeting with our WGM Kenya family, we don't travel anywhere else.  There's nowhere to travel to, no one that needs our attention outside of Chogoria.  So we hunker down and do our best to slow down too.

Life on the compound gets quieter as other families do travel.  There are basically no Kenyans around at Christmas since they all travel to be with their families during the holidays.  The only people left are the expats - the missionaries and the non-Kenyan Africans who can't easily go home to be with family.  So it's quieter than usual, which is a nice change of pace.

We begin our Christmas season with finding our tree.  We've maintained the tradition of finding a tree branch that serves our purposes - it's a Charlie Brown tree every year, but it we love it and it actually fits in our small house.



This year we had several new ornaments to add to the tree.  We always get an ornament from our travels that year, and we traveled so much this year that we needed multiple new ornaments!  We had something from Thailand, Scotland, Albania, and Rome.

And of course we put the Afro Angel on top of the tree.  There won't be many more years when Eli can hoist one of the boys on his shoulders to put the angel up where it belongs!  Soon enough they'll be able to reach the top of the tree for themselves.




I had forgotten to pull out the fake snow, but the boys consistently reminded me for several days until I had to stop everything else and pull out the fake snow for the tree!  They will not let our little tree remain unadorned with the reminder of what season it is in the Midwest.






One of our community traditions is to carol at the hospital.  Whoever is around gathers at the end of the work day and we go around the wards and sing a couple songs in each place.  The patients love it!  We like to joke that we're just making a joyful noise, but really it's a wonderful time with lots of joy and laughter.  It's especially nice that the kids can participate too.








Asa and Jack were caroling buddies - they held hands the whole time and it was the cutest thing ever!




My favorite part of the entire Christmas season this year was a day trip to Mt. Kenya National Park with just our family.  We needed time together, just us, and we needed quiet and solitude (especially for Eli who hasn't gotten a break from work this entire holiday season).

That day was the first time we took the boys on a real hike at the mountain.  We've been waiting until we knew Asa could keep up, and he did great!  They all did great.  And the Lord blessed us with perfect weather - cloudy enough to keep our faces from burning that close to the sun, and cool enough to keep from sweating as we trekked along.

We parked at the roadhead and hiked to Lake Ellis and back, breathing in fresh mountain air and marveling at the rugged scenery that left us speechless.

This wilderness is wild indeed, and soul-stirring, and soul-slowing.  I think that's why this was my favorite Christmas activity.  It fed our souls at the same time it slowed us down.










These are my new favorite photos: our precious sons, deep in the grandeur of Mount Kenya, together and content.






As we neared the lake, Asa spotted a rock hyrax on a cliffside!  I could hardly believe he'd seen it.  It was far away and blended in perfectly with its surroundings and was standing completely still most of the time.  I had to borrow Asa's binoculars to even see the thing, but he'd spotted it just by glancing at the rocks!  It was the first time any of us had seen one (except for Eli who saw several of them while climbing the mountain in 2019).  Everyone was really excited with the animal sighting.

Then, Lake Ellis.  A glorious mountain lake, or tarn as they're often called.  We rested, snacked on apples, and watched the ripples on the lake as the breeze ruffled the water.








The boys couldn't sit still long, even after we'd hiked for a while, but their energy helped them find a skink!  We didn't know they lived that high up.




We only made one quick stop on the way back, per the request of Caleb to explore this little ravine.  Aren't the trees fascinating?




What a glorious day!  There's a reason people often feel closer to God in nature.  The Lord really blessed us in every way, and we were thankful.

We had taken longer hiking than we meant to, so we wasted no time getting in the car and driving back down the mountain because we were due at Jane Rose's shamba for a Christmas meal together, as well as celebrating some December birthdays.  We always enjoy going to the shamba and being with the family!  They are the kindest people, and they are "our" people, and we love them dearly.




On Christmas Eve I wore my new kitenge dress to church, and Eli wore his old kitenge shirt, which didn't match each other at all except for a red and green theme for Christmas!  We figured it was good enough.




Since Eli had to work all of Christmas week, Christmas Eve was our only chance to have a family meal together.  We had found a small ham in Nairobi and complemented it with cheesy hashbrowns, green beans, and scotcheroos for dessert!  It was perfectly delightful.




After setting out a scotcheroo for Santa and tucking the boys into bed early, Eli and I watched a Christmas movie while wrapping presents.  And we even got to bed before midnight.  A Christmas miracle!






Christmas morning held all the joy it's meant to.  Children squealed and shouted, wrapping paper was flung and decorated the house, cinnamon rolls filled our noses with festive scents, and Mama left her jammies on all morning.  It was perfect.








Eli got me this book for Christmas and then it was my turn to squeal.  I love history, and I have done a deep dive into Kenyan history the past couple years as I've worked to create a Kenya History Class curriculum for the homeschool co-op, and this book is one I've seen and wanted for a long time.  It's chock full of photos and I've loved exploring its pages.  That photo on the cover is famous - the man sitting in the center is Chief Lenana, a well-known Maasai chief who has a peak of Mount Kenya named after him (the same peak that most hikers climb to, including Eli).  Kenya is unique in its photographic history.  Most other African nations don't have a comparable amount of photos available as part of their historical record.  Kenya has a ton.  This country's history is complicated and painful, but there is a plethora of written and photographic documentation from which we can learn about it, and for that I am grateful.




Last, but not least, our Christmas festivities ended with a community potluck.  It was a relatively small gathering, but food and fellowship were abundant.  I am eternally grateful for this place, and for these people, and for how much we've learned about living together as the Body of Christ in community because of this place and these people.








I was thankful for the chance to be home for Christmas, to sit in our small house with Christmas music playing in the background, eating treats and reading a novel in between preparing for the next semester and working on our HMA itinerary.  Chogoria is a good place to spend the holidays.




Merry Christmas from Chogoria!


Fall Review: Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebration was three-fold this year.  First, we took the day off school so the kids could have a holiday (even though no one else in Chogoria had a holiday on the fourth Thursday of November!).  Then we gathered as a compound community for a Thanksgiving potluck after the work day at the hospital was done.  Finally, on Saturday we gathered as an American expat community to have a traditional Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings.  To say that we ate a lot during those few days would be an understatement!

Our family tradition is to create a "Thanksgiving Tree" each year, decorated with leaves containing our handwritten gratitude on them.  This year's tree was extra special because Grandma and Grandpa Horn made leaves and sent them across the ocean to add to our tree!  We all expressed how thankful we were that Grandma and Grandpa were so thoughtful and intentional, remembering that they were with us and helped with our Thanksgiving Tree last year!




During the day, the kids did crafts and baked cookies and watched Free Birds.  Not a bad way to spend Thanksgiving!






The community potluck is a beautiful blend of American and African dishes.  We have a wonderful variety of cultures in our compound, which means the food is also a wonderful variety.  Kenyan, Burundian, Congolese, Ethiopian...  There was no turkey that night, but no one needed it.  Our bellies were full and our hearts were fuller!  We are deeply thankful for this community and how well everyone looks out for each other and loves each other well.






Over the weekend, when none of the docs had to be down at the hospital (thanks to Eli arranging the call schedule in such a way that none of the Americans would be on call over Thanksgiving), we feasted and fellowshipped and maybe had to wear our stretchy pants all day!  Honestly, this kind of meal makes us feel like we're not so far from America and all our family and friends there.  This is probably the closest thing to a touch of home that we feel all year.










And this year we welcomed a couple of our WGM friends from Nairobi who wanted to join us in Chogoria.  Jennifer and Becca brought the turkey and everything else but the kitchen sink!  They cooked more food than I thought possible for just two chefs in the kitchen, and it was mouth-watering good!  They are just delightful ladies, too, and everyone was glad they joined our crew.  It was a lovely blending of our Chogoria family and our WGM Kenya family (since we're the only WGM missionaries in Chogoria).

In short, we are so thankful for these people we get to call family on this side of the ocean.  This life we live binds us together in beautiful and powerful ways, and we couldn't be more blessed.


Friday, December 29, 2023

Fall Review: Fall Fun Day and Halloween

Because of Home Assignments and other unforeseen life happenings, we hadn't overlapped with any other missionary kids in Chogoria during the fall season since 2019.  So we were particularly excited to reinstate a "Fall Fun Day" this year so the kids could dress up in costumes and carve pumpkins and such.

Caleb wanted to be an aye-aye (a primate with extremely long fingers found on Madagascar).  His costume was fairly easy to concoct.




Kai really wanted to be a spider.  Not as easy to concoct, but Eli volunteered to figure something out (God bless him!) and this is what he came up with.  Kai was pleased!




Asa wanted to be a hobbit.  The easiest costume of all!  Because of course we had a cape and a sword lying around.  We even had "The One Ring to Rule Them All" from Kai's Lord of the Rings Risk game.  Asa was a very happy hobbit!






This is a reenactment of the battle with Shelob.




And here's the whole crew!  I love all the homemade costumes.  These kids have wild and masterful imaginations which serve them well.




Oh, and I dressed up as Eli!  Wore his size 14 Wide shoes and all!




One of the day's activities was an obstacle course that Eli and Derek created.  There were several stations, and if everyone made it through, they'd be rewarded with watching Eli do the obstacle course too!  Their excitement at hearing this news was hilarious!










I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it a thousand more: I'm so thankful my man is willing to participate in goofy things.  Eli is never too cool or too proud to do silly stunts to make people smile or to keep the energy going in whatever social scene he's in, and this was no different.  Watching giant Eli ride a tiny bike or barely fit through tire swings or simply not fit through the play tunnel caused everyone to double over with laughter.

I love love love that my man participates!








After the obstacle course we did sack races - a fan favorite!  It's such a simple, classic relay activity, but it's so much fun for these kiddos.  And at the end Eli and Derek raced each other - another fan favorite!








Pumpkin carving is a must.  Our boys still have too-elaborate-for-reality ideas of how to carve a pumpkin, so we try to strike a healthy balance between their grand hopes and dreams and what we're actually capable of doing with a carving knife.  Thankfully these boys are easily pleased.












On Halloween itself, the kids who were here dressed up again and went trick-or-treating at the missionary houses, followed by watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!




And I made a double batch of homemade cinnamon sugar donuts for the movie night.  They were a taste of home!




Halloween is very much not celebrated in Kenya so we try to keep our traditions simple and quiet.  The kids love dressing up, eating candy, and playing games.  Those kind of traditions are worth keeping.