One Christmas in Africa

One Christmas in Africa

When we first moved to West Africa, we planned to keep our Christmas traditions going. Our neighbors did not celebrate Christmas, most didn’t even know that it was Jesus’ birthday. Even though there were no signs of Christmas in our surroundings, we made sure our house had the trimmings. We put up our mini tree, our stockings, and our manger scene. Christmas Eve was still a special time for us.

One Christmas Eve stands out in my mind. We were at the table eating dinner (the traditional meat pie that my wife and daughters made) when several men and teen boys crowded onto our porch.

“Konk, konk” one of them voiced this hands-free knock, knock.

“Monsieur Doray!” another yelled, in an urgent, this is an emergency come to the door, way.

I soon found out that Sam, a teen in our village, had fallen from his perch on a palm tree while cutting palm clusters.* The disaster they all feared happened: his climbing belt had broken. I was needed to take him to the hospital. My vehicle was the only one in the village, so this was a common request.

My family and I knew we would have to delay our Christmas Eve festivities until this emergency was over. I drove to the village meeting tree where Sam was lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with concerned relatives, neighbors and friends crowded around him. Apparently he had landed on his bottom and his spine collapsed in one spot, leaving a dislocated vertebrae sticking out like a tennis ball on his back. I imagined we were all thinking the same thing: “Will he ever walk again?”

We loaded him into the back of the Land Cruiser and off we went on the forty-minute drive to the seacoast where the mining company hospital was located. With ten minutes to go before reaching the hospital, I was told to turn off to the right.

“Here? But the hospital is straight ahead.” I was confused.

“No, no. Here. There is a bone setter here. Turn here!”

My Christmas Eve adventure just took another unexpected turn. Literally. Off the pavement, on a sandy road, we drove until we came to the traditional healer’s hut. Those with me unloaded Sam so the bone-setter could assess the damage.

Sam was placed face down on the ground. The “doctor” had his legs straddling each side of his patient’s waist, then he grabbed both of Sam’s hands and pulled his arms straight up behind him. With Sam screaming “No Uncle! Don’t kill me!” he placed his bare foot on the bulge in Sam’s back. Before I knew what was happening, he used his foot to shove the bone back into place. With a crunch and a scream of pain from the injured teen it was all over.

Sam was rolled over and raised to a sitting position on the ground. Two sticks were placed on his back, one on each side of his backbone. Then cloth strips were tied around his torso, from waist to armpits. This kept his back straight and rigid. He would have to spend several days in observation, and at least one of his friends would have to stay with him. The rest of us drove back to our village. **

(The author with "Sam.")

Back home, I explained everything that had happened to my waiting family. We prayed for Sam, his family, and for our village neighbors. Then we continued to prepare for our Christmas Eve. Our children all waited in one of their bedrooms. Michelle and I arranged gifts around the base of the little tree. We filled stockings with small treats. Then came the sounds from the roof.

I tapped our ceiling with a broom stick—boom, baboom, boom-boom. Michelle jingled the string of bells we had for this occasion. I hollered “HO! HO! HO!” The kids knew it was time to come out running: “Did you hear that?” “What was that?” “It was the sound of reindeer on the tin roof!”

This is how we tried to maintain our family traditions in a new land and culture. Despite the tropical heat, mosquitoes buzzing outside our window screens, and medical emergencies, we still managed to celebrate God’s gift of His Son by reading the old, old story, and giving gifts to one another.

“She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! May your family traditions remain, even if some interruptions try to creep in. Be open to what the Lord has in store for you!

*Name changed to protect the climber.

**Sam soon regained the ability to walk, and still walks fine to this day!

(The red palm clusters are larger than coconuts, with spiky green fingers sticking out.)