Christmas in Nigeria

There are no glittering trees
To remind us of the season,
Nor gaily packages wrapped
To remind us of the reason.

There is no soft falling snow
To remind us what God has done
There's only what's within hearts
To remind us He sent His Son.

A kÚ odún Kérésìmesì
(Merry Christmas in Yoruba)


from Elder and Sister Gilmore

December 12, 2005

Dear Friends and family,

The last couple of weeks have gone by so quickly and it isn’t because we are in the Christmas rush. There is no indication it is Christmas here in Sagamu. Doug and I talked today about whether we should try to get gifts for the other mission couples and what we should do for those who work for us. We have a security gateman hired through our apartment building, and we inherited from the missionary couple we replaced a man that washes our car several times a week. I now have him doing other things as well to help keep up our compound and flat. A couple of weeks ago we hired a house cleaner. She is a sweet woman who doesn’t speak much English; communicating what I want done is proving to be difficult. Doug likes to point out things she doesn’t do as well as he does, but she will learn and I will be happy with the help. Houses are not sealed and dirt comes in and settles everywhere. Even with Doug and I cleaning every week we couldn’t keep up with the sand and dirt that accumulates.

Our district had a Cultural Celebration on Saturday-last. Every branch in the district either put on a drama or shared their cultural dancing. The costumes, singing and dancing were a wonderful diversion for everyone. I wish you could have seen the dramas. One district reenacted the events in the New World the night Jesus was born from the perspective of an African. It was so enlightening to me. We all visualize events as happening in the traditions of our own fathers so seeing something dramatized through an Africans perspective was far removed from how I have pictured it in my own mind. Another branch put on a play about Joseph Smith’s first vision. They way actor portraying father Joseph talked to his son Joseph the Prophet was so typical of how a father talks to his son here, loud and rough not gentle and mild as I visualized the event. We loved every minute of the 3 hour extravaganza. Doug and I had Yoruba attire made to wear at the event and the people thought we were now truly Nigerian. I had a very hard time keeping the gele on my head (a yard of beautiful, stiff fabric wound and fold and wrapped on my head pronounced gālā). My hair was just not course and curly enough to keep that much slick fabric on my head. I lead the missionaries in a choir number for the event and during my conducting my gele fell off…to the dismay of all the women in the audience. Doug was the hit of the night. He was tall and handsome in his buba and file (Nigerian style hat made from the same fabric as my gele pronounced fēlā).

Our life has pretty much settled down to a busy routine. We have just about become accustomed to all the different things we see so that we are not surprised by things. Every time we drive to Ijebu-Ode for district meetings we see new things, however. We have seen two tour buses that have rolled sometime in the night. They were left half in the middle of the road and half in the jungle bush for several days before being removed. There was a car accident several weeks ago, the car burned up in the outside lane. It is still there with no warning that you are coming upon it-another car will probably come by, hit it and knock it into the bush where it will stay forever more. I hope that car isn’t us!

There is one spot in the road where meat from the jungle is brought road-side to sell. We see grasscutters (a type of animal about the size of a beaver looking kind of like a badger), snakes, ant eaters, antelope, and very big fish that have some eel characteristics. Yesterday we say a boy holding up on a poll what looked like the haunch of an animal with similar markings of a giraffe. We are told that all the meat tastes very good but we are advised-no I think that is not strong enough-we are commanded not to eat it. I have eaten goat. It was spiced nicely and tasted good though very tough. That is as close to bush meat as I will be able to get as goats run wild all over the place. Doug wouldn’t try it. He misses out on so many tasty dishes but he likes to play it safe when the palate is concerned. I have eaten what is called a Fiesta which is like a quiche flavored with fish-oil. I tried a scotch egg which is a hard boiled egg wrapped in a very thin layer of sausage, dipped in flour and fried. It was OK but not worth the risk of bad sausage. I have had spaghetti African style…meaning red pepper hot tomato based meat sauce served with African BB-Q chicken which means red pepper hot bbq rub. It was delicious but very spicy hot. We have yet to try the staples of Nigeria-pounded yam and gari (a cassava root that is processed into a powder)

We have both had our first bouts with Malaria. I got it first and didn’t really know what I had because the symptoms seemed very mild and could have been due to our activities. Headache, neck ache, legs hurt like shin-splints. Then Doug got the symptoms which had a worse affect on him so he was tested-yup Malaria. We have had to study how the malaria disease does its dirty work and why it is so hard to get rid of, so the thought of having that going on in our bodies wasn’t very pleasant. We were medicated for about 2 weeks. But both of us found another mosquito bite on our ankles from this week end, so next week we will know if we got malaria again or not. I’m hoping since I’m still on my dose of medication that it will be killed before it makes it to my liver and starts reproducing. Do you know that over a million people die of malaria each year? It is treatable but not easily prevented in the conditions the people live.

The first wedding of the district will happen this Saturday. You will remember that I wrote you about the Nigerian government allowing our church ministerial leaders to perform weddings. It is going to be one of the biggest events of the year. Every church member in 2 districts has been invited and plans on attending because of the significance of this first church wedding. We may wear our native attire to this event as well.

Doug wants to get the emails sent so I will close this epistle. We hope you are all having a Merry Christmas and that Christ has found a place in your celebrating.

Love

Sister and Elder Gilmore