Christmas Holidays

The Christmas holidays are over. I sit on my bed on Sunday morning recounting and enjoying the memories made with friends and family over the past month….a whirlwind of activity that I had anticipated for six months with great excitement and endless planning that now seems over in a flash. The first week of holiday I spent in Zimbabwe (see previous post), then it was back to a traditional family celebration of Christmas with my host family and their relatives in Bethal, a two week travel adventure with my family (son Alan, sister Nancy and Ed, brother Steve and Lori) that included a visit to Capetown, safari in Kruger National Park (see blog at abdine.com) and ending in my home town, Bethal, they plunging into helping me with the after-school drop-in-center children’s program that is the heart of my Peace Corps work…..enough warm memories to last, hopefully, until I return home in August.

There are so many wonderful memories to cherish, yet one experience stands out for me.…..at our last CCBE for OVC’s Management Committee meeting of 2007 (the Committee that drives the drop-in-center), we discussed my family’s visit to South Africa and how important it was for me that my family be introduced to the seven community leaders that I have worked so closely with over the past year and one-half. The idea spontaneously generated was to devise a cross-cultural event where everyone could meet and socialize together. Perfect, I thought. My host family would be enthusiastic of the idea as they are both advocates of the drop-in-center and earnest in “building bridges” between the local communities of White and Black. How about a dinner where everyone wears the traditional clothes of their group and brings a main dish to share that offers a taste from their culture? The plan struck a nerve in everyone……a social gathering of both local groups in addition to a boisterous group of Americans! No one really knew what to expect as this type of gathering had no precedent in Bethal. So, on the last night before my family’s return to the USA, the Committee members and their families came together at my house for the first ever “cross-cultural event.” Represented cultures were Americans, Zulus, Afrikaners, Sotho, Ndebele and a missionary friend of my host family that is serving in the country of Malawi. Since my sister and brother had given away their American football jerseys and caps with “USA” in blinking lights earlier in the day to the children at the drop-in-center, our only contribution to American costume was my son, Alan’s, Davey Crocket coon-skin hat……a hit with everyone! The evening was transformed with laughter. The school principal who dressed in Zulu dress accused the Dutch Reform Church pastor of “cramping her style” because she couldn’t attend the event bare-breasted which is the mark of a true traditional Zulu dress for women. The most touching moment for me was at the end of the evening when the Africans spontaneously began a song and dance that illustrated their culture’s love of music and movement. Then the Afrikaans family sang folk songs accompanied by guitar and cymbals. My family and I sang the American national anthem, with emotion and patriotism, albeit a bit off key. Lastly, the South Africans sang their national anthem together, exhibiting love for their country that I have rarely seen in such a diverse group…..a fitting conclusion to one of my special moments among the countless others of my time in South Africa, but this time a memory that is shared with my family from America.