Christmas in Kampala...

We have been here for three Christmas seasons now and each one is a bigger event than the last one. Kampala is getting more and more commercialized and more western every year. I thought that I would miss all the trimmings and trappings of the Holiday season, but now it is all most funny how strange it all is. Alot of what we saw this year has a cheap look to it, plastic and foils and really not real!!!!!

One of the most annoying things is the ring tones on the cell phones!!! Everyone has a cell phone, even more than in the States. Some have two because there are two or more different carrier services. And they are all set to Christmas music, Jingle Bell, We wish you a Merry Christmas and more. There are two malls in Kampala and when you are there cell phones are ringing constantly, and very loudly. Hearing 20 phones ring with different carols coming from them is really bad!!!! And people all talk so loud!!! You can hear them from one end of the store to the other.

When we returned from the States the first of November, one of the large grocery stores was already putting up Christmas decorations and ads. Out front of the store they have a Coke display manned by a young man in a red plaid skirt and a red Santa hat that has white braided pig tails attached to it, and a young woman in a nice red pant suit. It is one of the same ads like we see in the States, Santa with the train under the tree and the Coke truck with the lights on it, so it looks very western. They aren't giving anything away, coupons or free samples, and there are no special sales on coke products, so I am not sure what they are there for!!!! And in the aisles for Christmas stuff it is alot of tinsel and foil and plastic ornaments and plastic wrapping paper and Charlie Brown looking artificial trees. And the Christmas cards aren't Hallmark to say the least!!!!!! Sometimes you are not sure what that card actually meant!! In the stores you do not see anything religious on display, no nativity scenes or many cards with Jesus or mention of Jesus or anything that leads to the true meaning of Christmas. But you go into the book store and it is all religious fliers and cards and posters. The craft markets have many religious items and all of the cards are of the nativity. Or telling about the birth. And it seems that stores owned by those of different religious background, not Christians, have the most decoration. Their stores are the brightest and have the most decorations. And they have found out that is what attracts the buyers.

One of the nicest, calmest and festive things we have seen has been the palm trees out side of the largest mall. There are maybe 6 very large palm trees and they are decorated with tiny white lights, all wrapped around the trunk on the palm frawns. The lights are so small and so well placed that it really looks like a group of distant stars in the night sky, and the night skies here can be very black and dark. So with this setting they are very pretty and not overpowering at all.

The things we don't miss....all the blaring music in the stores, rows and rows of decorations and lights, aisles and aisles of candy (that no one needs but will buy just because it is Christmas), sales pitches that make you feel guilty because you haven't brought this and that, constant media blasting of the commercial reasons to buy and what to eat and drink and wear, and all those things that take away from the birth of Jesus. And take away from family. We don't miss all the crowds, cold weather (well sometimes when it is 100 and hotter) or snow, icy roads (we just have muddy ones).......