As I mentioned in my previous post, we spent Christmas this year on our shamba in the village. We always enjoy our time there, and this trip was no exception. We arrived on the Saturday before Christmas and as soon as we were out of the car Max and Elly were ready to meet the newest member of our family–a calf that had been born just a few days earlier to the cow Kakasii and I received as a wedding gift. Max and Elly checked on the calf frequently throughout the trip. Max has become quite social when in the village. He knows to greet visitors with a handshake and to say shikamoo as a greeting of respect. His sweet little voice just melts my heart when he says shikamoo babu to an old man or shikamoo bibi to an elderly woman. Max loves our neighbor Kifalu and anytime he comes over to our place Max is right there at his side. We went to the village a few days before Christmas so we could go to church on that Sunday and celebrate another confirmation. The confirmation service was at the main church but we opted to worship at our sub-congregation so it wouldn’t be as crowded. Our congregation, Nkiraawanga, is building a new church building with support from Southwood Lutheran Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. Construction has been going on for a while and it will be some time before it’s all complete, but it’s far enough along to use for services. On this particular Sunday we got Max and Elly down for an early nap so they didn’t need to sleep during the service. Instead, they entertained themselves moving chairs around. As usual, those who didn’t have money brought in-kind offerings to be auctioned off at the end of the service. The baskets and bags of items are brought forward just as the monetary offerings are. It’s pretty common at the auction for someone to purchase an item and give it as a gift to someone else–often the pastor or visitors. When a papaya was put up to auction Max got very excited and exclaimed papai! papai!, bringing lots of laughter from the crowd. When the bidding was done for the papaya, the person who bought it gave it to Max. He was pretty excited. In the afternoon we went to a confirmation party at one of Kakasii’s many, many relatives in the village. It was similar to the confirmation party in Arusha, but dialed down a bit. We also took advantage of our time in the village to visit some of our neighbors and their pets. This is Isabella; she lives just down the road from our shamba. Max kept busy with a few chores, too. His two favorite things are cars and water. So washing the car is like heaven to this kid. Because we enjoy our time in Uswaa so much, and Max and Elly have such a good time playing with the animals and other kids in the village, one of our goals for the New Year is to spend more time at the shamba. We’ve got a couple of fun outdoor projects to do over the coming months and I’m looking forward to blogging about the progress on them.