I'm Dreaming of an Ukarumpa Christmas Part II

Christmas Eve

• Participating in Norwegian Christmas Eve traditions:
• Viewing a 1986 Czech production of Cinderella that has been dubbed over in Norwegian with one man doing the voice of all the characters. This live-action movie is always shown on TV in Norway at 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
• Eating rice pudding, which is traditionally served around 12 p.m. on Christmas Eve in Norway (following the showing of Cinderella). There was a peeled almond hidden in each pot, so the two people who found the almond in their bowl of rice pudding won a chocolate marzipan bar. If you found the almond in your bowl, you had to hide it until everyone was finished eating, and then we discovered who had won.

• Sharing Christmas Eve dinner with friends on the veranda in the beautiful summer weather
• Attending a Christmas Eve service...BYOC (Bring Your Own Candle)

Photo by the Dedes

Christmas Day

• Following the end of the Bills game on Twitter
• Opening presents under our “tree” sent to us by our family, including 5 new T-shirts which is good because clothing wears out fast here!

• Gathering for a community Christmas service, during which we sang Christmas songs in English, Dutch, German, Spanish, Korean, and Tok Pisin
• Planning to drink hot chocolate while watching a Christmas movie in the afternoon, but having to forgo both until the evening because it was so hot during the day, and the electricity went out for quite a while
• Watching a Christmas lights show that was created by a newly-arrived family here

I'm Dreaming of an Ukarumpa Christmas Part I

Though Christmas in Ukarumpa certainly has its differences, it is not quite as different as you might expect. Here are a few things we have done (and some improvisations we have made):

• Using my warm socks (not needed as much right now because it’s summertime!) for stockings

• Baking Christmas cookies together—Eric had to roll the dough because I fractured my pinky playing goalie at the fifth grade Christmas party

• Using a flashlight to see the cookie dough because the electricity went out periodically during the process
• Realizing after it was too late that I only had blue food coloring (the store closes at 4)...I decided the theme of my Christmas tree cookies was “I’ll have a blue Christmas without you”
• Attending a live nativity scene put on by community children, complete with a “live star”

Photo by Jenise Burgess

• Stocking up on food for two weeks because all of the departments, including the store, shut down for a two-week break
• Spotting the differences in a PNG nativity scene

Things You Don't Expect to See at a Basketball Game

Eric played on a national team during a weekly basketball tournament held by a local basketball association during the month of November. Here are some things I observed that I had never seen at a basketball game before:

• People playing with no shoes

• A dog running across the court during the game 
• The bench sitting under umbrellas (in this case, to keep the sun off...at other times because of rain!)

• Outdoor games that continued to be played when it started to rain

On the first weekend of December, the two top teams played in a championship game. Eric’s team won by one point! Eric was awarded one of two MVP awards.

For the first four weekends of the tournament, the weather was beautiful in the morning, but by the time Eric’s team played in the afternoon, rainstorms rolled in. The championship game was the kickoff event for the installation of the Aiyura Basketball Association, so there were multiple events planned in addition to the game. The group asked our community to pray for good weather.

The morning of the event started out beautiful like all the others had...but as the time for Eric’s game approached, dark clouds started to spread across the sky. I thought he would be playing another game in the rain. Before his game started, I went home to refill his water bottle. When I got back, the clouds that had been covering the whole sky were completely gone! There was not a single drop of rain during the entire event, which lasted from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m...a great answer to prayer during rainy season!