Holiday Guests

The Christmas holiday atmosphere goes on for a whole week after Christmas day here. One tradition is that people visit friends and "do Christmas" with them, dropping in unannounced and expecting to spend several hours and be supplied with food and drink.

The ladies in the picture above are friends whom I often visit. They are related and live right next to each other a short walk from my house. Their names are Adut, Akir and Acol (prounounced "a-chole). (Almost all names of Dinka women start with "a".) They had never been to visit me and told me a few days ago that they wanted to come and pay me a holiday visit. Contrary to custom, we pre-arranged a day.

They came over yesterday around 1:00 and we spent the afternoon together. I first served them hot tea with lots of sugar--the Dinka love sweet drinks. Then I made a hearty peanut sauce (main ingredients: onions, crushed tomatoes, natural peanut butter & lentils) which was served with rice and bread.

These ladies have been a big encouragement in my language learning. They put up with my broken Dinka, try hard to figure out what I'm trying to say, and laugh with me at my mistakes. We have a lot of fun together.