Friday, January 04, 2008

Fête-ing Season: Christmas

Christmas in Africa! Nothing says Christmas like 90 degrees and lizards! For a couple of folks from northern states, this feels absolutely nothing like Christmas here. So, we had to improvise a bit.

There, that's better.

To do the season of giving right, we volunteered to help Jaren's host organization with a Christmas party for local AIDS orphans. The CPS had hundreds of presents donated from the US and France, which we then dutifully wrapped with the intention to distribute.

Of course, you can't just hand the kid a present. No, it has to come from the big man himself, Papa Noel. Not content to do anything the normal way, we had to put a little Beninese flair into the suit. Voila!

No, I don't know why our tailor gave santa a neck tie, but the short pats seemed very neccessary given the cotton ball beard and towel in the shirt.

Santa came walking down the garden path,, greeted the kids, danced a little (video to come) and then gave out the gifts. Strangely, kids who had never received a wrapped present before had no idea what to do with it and were very reluctant to tear the paper.

A heartwarmingly surreal experience all around.

3 comments:

Marie said...

You guys are too cute! Papa et Madame Noel!

Jon said...

After this post, I am convinced you could get away with naming this blog "WHO HAS THE BEST LIFE?! US" and no one would be able to argue.

Anonymous said...

Great, great costume...cannot wait to see the video :)