Christmas

Christmas in Gambia. (Note that almost 90% of the population is muslim & observe the holiday, but don’t celebrate it) I really didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be even nicer than I’d hoped, because leading up to the holiday it didn’t feel Christmasy here at all. A few stores in town had lights up & I saw a few lighted fake, but the funniest thing were the locals selling ugly tabletop trees wrapped in gaudy garland (presumably for the tourists).

Christmas Eve we went to a Catholic Church service at St. Theresa’s in the town of Serekunda (a church Gabou grew up going to). I’m so used to seeing cathedral style churches, but this one was perfect. It probably sat about 1000-1500 people & it was packed. It was modest, but with some nice mural paintings on the wall & there were no fancy pews or tv monitors, just lots of lights & fans. Before the service the choir sang Christmas carols, but funny enough, some of the lyrics weren’t the same ones I learned growing up as a kid. It lasted about an hour & half & was pretty similar to a catholic service in the US, the only difference really being that some parts were in English, some in Wolof & even some songs sung in Serrere.

Christmas day itself was pretty busy getting into Banjul & visiting with Gabou’s dad, grandmother, great aunt, cousins, sisters, brothers, half cousins, neighbors, friends, etc, etc…..so many people! Even though their houses only had modest streamers for decoration (no trees, real or tabletop) the homes felt so alive with spirit & excitement & it definitely made me realize just how commercialized we’ve made Christmas. Instead of presents we received gifts of prayers, food & alcohol. That’s really what made it such a great day, I felt like part of the family instead of just an outsider. We ate 3 times I think & I ended the night with that full beer belly feeling. There was a lot of laughing & dancing & it was just such a special time.

**There was a huge attraction in the streets today – a traditional Gambian event, but I’ll blog on that in another post.