It's beginning to look like Christmas

On our way into town to go to Nakumatt, we stopped at a coffee shop first to get a cup of coffee/hot chocolate. It is called “Bourbon Café” and is very similar to Java House in Nairobi. They put a nice design on Mark’s mocha with the whipped cream and they served a little cookie with each of our drinks. It was a nice touch. At Nakumatt there was a Santa Claus walking around the store greeting everyone. I wanted to get a picture of Emily with him but she wouldn’t let me!

In the afternoon Joyce came over and we had our second language lesson. We reviewed the greetings we had done on yesterday and then began learning names of some places and sentences like: “I went to the market.” “You went to the bank.” We were pleased to discover that the words for “school” and “market” are the same as in Swahili and they use the French word for “bank”. That makes our life a bit easier! This language is definitely going to go slowly but we don’t see it as completely impossible. Pray for us to have clear minds!

In the evening we went with the Bonvallats to a Christmas Carol sing. Just a few years ago there were only a handful of missionaries from several different organizations living in Kigali. They decided to network and socialize together. One tradition they started was an annual Christmas Carol sing with a potluck. Well, the group has grown! I would guess there were 50 -60 people there and I know of some who weren’t there. It was good to meet people and find out who all is here and what they are doing. Mark was able to meet one fellow in particular who has been here a long time and done a lot of construction so he is a good resource for Mark. Everyone was to bring a “snack” and a dessert. I made guacamole and found crackers to put it on. (No corn chips out here and I didn’t feel like making any). It was almost gone so I guess everyone liked it. Emily made “Snowball cookies”. Others brought marinated meatballs, pita bread with humus, sandwiches, several different dips, pizza (homemade), deviled eggs, etc. Desserts were pretty standard cakes and Christmas cookies. No one went away hungry.

It was nice to sing the carols also. We haven’t sung any (that we recognized anyway) in church.

It's beginning to feel a little like Christmas!