Matt and Becki Dillingham

Christmas in Madagascar - Same, same but different

Many people have asked us about what our Christmas is like in Madagascar, so here is a brief summary of the last few days.

all ready for Christmas morning

 Many aspects are the same as in the UK, just with a twist! Father Christmas arrived down the chimney, but as we are in the hottest period of the year, he didn't need to worry about his toes getting burnt! Bethan enjoyed opening presents and playing with them. Thanks to a recent visit from Matt's parents, presents came via their luggage allowance from friends and family in the UK without the risk of them being lost in the post.

We enjoyed a Christmas lunch of cheese fritters (December being the only time of the year you can buy Cheddar here), accompanied by the usual trimmings of stuffing and roast potatoes etc (minus sprouts, we have yet to see sprouts in Mada). I'm sure our househelp thought I was mad as I started storing up toilet rolls tubes in the run up to Christmas, but along with some tissue paper and jokes found online we made some crackers to enjoy.

Bethan wasn't impressed that Matt got the bigger half of her cracker

On boxing day we invited our new friends from Germany to join us. Bethan and Amelie spent the afternoon playing and chasing each other around the garden. In the evening they settled down to watch 'The Snowman' while we enjoyed some tea and Christmas cake.

Sunday 27th was our Church's Christmas service. Back in the UK we would expect a Christingle service, a carol service, midnight mass and a service on Christmas day, all covering the passages of the bible referring to Jesus' birth. Here there are none of those things! On the Sunday before Christmas the service was on Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem and his death on the cross! This Sunday, the theme was on the nativity and among the worship music, 'Oh come all ye faithfully' was sung. After the service, which was held in the house of one of the worship team, we had a shared lunch together as a church family, then played some games. It struck me that our 'staff party' was more like what I would expect from a church event, and our church 'celebration' was more typical of a staff party! Still it was a fun Christmas celebration and we got to know people from our church a lot better.

team game, to disguise someone from your team