Five Walls at Sea: A Guinean Christmas

Sometimes it’s much easier to recognize what we don’t have in life rather than being thankful for what we do have. A truth no matter where you live. A couple days before Christmas we found ourselves focusing on all the things we didn’t have here in Guinea: snow, family, skiing, sleeping babies, behaving 2 year olds, 1^st world comforts, health food stores with stocks of gluten free food, close friends, our Christmas container. . .you get the idea. Needless to say, this made us a bit grumpy and sad. We realized that to get ungrumpy (a word we are submitting to Webster) we really needed to focus on what we DO have. Yes, it was hard being away from family and friends for Christmas, BUT we were able to do, see and experience some wonderful things here that we never could have experienced at home. So, this blog is tribute to the top 10 things (in no particular order) that the Lord blessed us with this Christmas season as a result of being in Guinea.

10. No Malls! We didn’t have to set food in a single mall or drive near a mall. With the lack of shopping options we didn’t feel any pressure to buy much. It was fun to try to be creative with gifts for each other since we couldn’t just go get whatever we wanted.

9. No Ads! No Christmas TV commercials trying to make you feel like you need all the latest gadgets. I never once felt like I really needed something this Christmas. I knew that even if I did I wouldn’t be able to get it and it was a nice feeling to know that we are just fine with everything we have (And have I mentioned that we live in a 400 sq ft apartment? Not a lot of room for much else).

8. Islands. A couple days before Christmas we took another wonderful trip to the island with great friends. This time, our friend Chelle and I took a walk to the local fishing village on the island. Living in the large city of Conakry, it is hard to feel very connected with the Guinean people but visiting the village allowed me to feel a little closer to them and reminded me of my times in Mali and Kenya. The kids sang and danced for us and everyone wanted to hold Cora. We loved it!

7. Carols by Candlelight. As you may or may not (as is the case for me) realize, it is summer in Australia during Christmas time. I mean, it makes geographical sense, I had just never thought of it before. Therefore, one of their traditions is to sing carols by candlelight and have a big barbeque around Christmastime. This year we had our own Carols by Candlelight on the dock. John even sang in a 7 man quartet (hmmm. . .don’t tell the accountant the math is off) It was a beautiful evening and wonderful grilled chicken!

John's group singing

Even Santa came

6. Vacation!! (even though we are volunteers??) John got 5 days off of work!! Monday through Wednesday of Christmas week and Monday and Tuesday of New Years. It was so fun to have the time together as a family. We even got to go on our first walk around town without kids! It was a really great time of relaxation and enjoying family time.

5. Hand and Foot. No, not the disease. John and I got to play in a ship-wide hand and foot tournament (a card game we love to play). John’s team won an award for “Most games won” and my team won “Most games lost”. But neither of us was the overall winner. It was a good night to hang out with new people and was also the first time we have let someone else put Adalynn to bed. It all went great so we will have to utilize our plethora of willing babysitters more often J.

4. Multi-cultural Christmas Eve. Our Christmas Eve service was really special. John’s “quartet” sang again and the service ended with the singing of Silent Night in 7 languages. Different people sang the different verses in their native tongue. It was an amazing representation of the diversity we have on this ship and a beautiful prelude to what I think it may be like to worship in Heaven. It was one of the best ways I’ve ever celebrated Jesus’ birth. He came for us all! What a gift it is to serve Jesus alongside these great people from all around the world!

3. Presents in Shoes! It is a ship tradition to leave shoes outside your door on Christmas Eve in hopes that ship elves will fill them with lots of goodies! We were pleasantly surprised to see that we were visited by many little elves. Adalynn thought it was the best and especially loved her balloons!

Shoes anticipating gifts

Our shoes on Christmas morning!!

Hallway of gift-filled shoes

Bundles of toffee and cookies for our friends' shoes

2. No container. Even though the fact that the Christmas container didn’t get here was initially cause for much sadness and distress, in the end we were (in a way) glad that it didn’t come. It forced us to really NOT focus on gifts and really focus on Jesus and being together as a family. We appreciate the gifts that were sent and we can’t wait to open our boxes when they finally arrive, but the container’s delayed arrival gave us a chance to be thankful for what we do have and to let Christmas not get overwhelmed by material things.

1. Wonderfully quiet and low-key Christmas Day. Christmas day is one of my most favorite days of the year. I love getting together with my family. I love the food, the chaos (well, some of it), the kids running around and the anticipation of gifts. That is what all of my childhood memories of Christmas include. I would have loved to be a part of all of that this year, but at the end of Christmas day on the ship I realized how thankful I also was for a really quiet, low-key Christmas. We woke up and spent some time having coffee and pastries in the Café. Adalynn and Cora opened a couple gifts and then we had the most amazing brunch in the dining room. The food was amazing and it was really fun to be with our “ship family”. John and I watched A Christmas Story while the girls napped. Overall it was a really wonderful day. We went to bed so thankful that the Lord had given us new memories and traditions this year and that our grumpiness was gone and we felt truly thankful for the amazing blessings that we have.