Third World Christmas

Christmas the most special time of the year for many a family across the globe. Pause. Ok, so the boom is on, its cold outside, snow and Christmas lights are everywhere. The merry all around is very infectious indeed. Snow and everything cold is associated with Christmas including the whole Christmas theme. Heck even Santa Clause is said to live in the North-Pole right? This whole snow and lights thing is probably why Christmas in Africa feels somewhere between a glamorous foreign attraction whose realization depends on how capable one is to afford all this imported Christmas mood, and the ‘acceptance’ of a third world Christmas. Now, a third world Christmas entails two things:-One, is packing up the small family car and travelling to the countryside, to grandmother, meeting cousins you have never met and eating meat roasted on open fire while the parents switch from speaking in English to speaking native language. Many city kids feel lost in this set up. It entails being plucked from the convenience of city home and plunged into the unknown world of fetching firewood and water from the river and seeing animals they only see on TV. This is the best and most adventurous option but the most torturous for the kids. The other option is to stay in the city and make merry at home, probably because one or both parents will be working over this period. This will now entail among other things having your relatives in the countryside send over a live chicken via public bus a few days to Christmas. Mum will choose to send her ‘cool’ teenage son to collect it from the bus station. The son will throw tantrums at the suggestion that he walks through the streets of the city carrying a live chicken, but it will finally be done. For the family. Somehow that chicken tastes better than all the commercial ones at the butcher’s shop. This has to be done a few days to Christmas meaning there will a quacking chicken at the balcony for at least four or more days until Christmas day. It is also the only time in the year most families in the city will eat ’Chapati’, (it goes well with chicken by the way). Chapati is a delicacy made of wheat, looks and feels a little like pizza bread but it is roasted on a pan like pancakes. Shopping for Christmas is a little different in this end of the word. Gifts include only and only those items that are very necessary and very functional. For example if one of the kids needs a geometrical set for school next term, that is what he/she is getting for Christmas. Getting new clothes for the kids is almost a must for most families. It is the time of the year when the family budget is read as in financial year 2010/2011 starts this Christmas ends next Christmas. Believe it not most families have Christmas without the tree, the few who do, can only afford the plastic version that is on display at the supermarket. I have always wondered why they have those only in table size. Finding a real tree is too much hustle and extremely costly.  Gifts are wrapped and placed in a central area in the living room probably at the coffee table.Another ‘unique’ thing about Christmas in Africa is that Christmas Carols are only sung in church, for those who choose to go to midnight mass/service.  Christmas day is the best, all the kids are made to wear their brand new clothes, and, in between errands to get this and that from the shop for mum’s special lunch, a couple of sweets are thrown their way. Their day is made. The afternoon might entail a visit to a public swimming pool to take the kids out. And that’s it, that wraps up Christmas in a place where there is no snow.