Dear Friends,

What a shock it was to find out recently that all the women at Kikongo are pregnant -- including me, Rita! Well, as it turned out, the woman who made the announcement was preaching. She encouraged us all to "prepare layettes", because we're "pregnant" with the hope of Jesus' birth in our hearts. I enjoyed the very African images she used to illustrate her spiritual points. Thanks to our daily chapel services, we have had a Christmas message each day since the beginning of December. Our three primary congregational carols are getting a little frayed at the edges from overuse already, but on Christmas day we will hear a great variety of homegrown Christmas choral numbers, so it is not as if we are lacking in imagination here.

Kids are already firing off mbodias – homemade explosive devices in which they fire collections of match heads. Ingenious boys fabricate their models from precious pieces of metal hardware quietly lifted from unsuspecting owners. One year it was door handles. Nobody could get into their offices. This year our chain link fence around the courtyard has sprung leaks all around the top where someone has harvested wire to celebrate Noel.

The women are assigning roles for the Christmas pageant. I was told yesterday that one of my student wives was such an entertaining Elizabeth, that they deemed her a better soldier instead (a comedy role). I guess her rendition of the baby wiggling in Elizabeth's womb was a bit exaggerated. Mary and Joseph have come to play a rather minor part in the play, moving reverently from one corner of the stage to another to watch hovering angels, seizing sheep and shepherds, the blind and the lame being counted in the census, Herod being the despot, and of course the foolish soldiers parading about following deadly orders.

There's an exceedingly small Christmas cow being led around Kikongo in preparation for the big fete. Someone was really anxious to make a profit on him. Cattle are few and far between in our area. Fresh meat of any kind is a real treat. Most families will be hoping for a small taste of some Christmas day. Yesterday our little 3-year-old neighbor boy, Moise, was running away from home on an important mission – to tell everyone that they had just eaten meat at his house. Hardly the good news you'd want to keep to yourself, when you're three, but a household secret in this culture.

Well, if we lack fresh meat at Kikongo, this is the time of year when we feast daily on fresh corn and peanuts. The extra variety in our diets make Christmas and New Years something to look forward to each year. With corn and peanuts available now, we have some hope of helping our malnourished children at the Pastoral School too.

In the U.S. we're always yearning for ways to simplify Christmas – our Christmas seasons often get so hectic. It probably helps to remove oneself to another country, out of the reach of piped in Christmas music, TV commercials, and crowded malls. This year, it is only Glen and me (and our Congolese friends) at Kikongo and our Christmas is looking very simple, indeed. There is no one else here who shares our Christmas traditions. Rather, the emphasis will be on the church celebration we will all go to, oh, and of course, the meat afterwards.

Christmas greetings to all of you,

Rita and Glen