Our December

Finals are upon us and our regular craziness has somehow gone up a notch. Some students are almost frantic in their studies and in their effort to get everything turned in. Teachers are just trying to be patient as they go around collecting late work, helping tutor, and hosting study sessions. There is anticipation in the air. The month has flown by and I am not quite sure how we ended up a week away from Christmas. Eric and I are going to Hong Kong for the first week of our break. We decided since we will not be home or in Wisconsin with Eric’s family, we should do something entirely different and see a new city. We are traveling there with two friends of ours, Josalyn and Hana. Hana is a Hong Kong native and we are excited to have her as our part time guide.

Staff Christmas Party

Last Saturday night was our KIA staff Christmas party. It was held in the upstairs room at the Bank Hotel near downtown Kunming. It was an opportunity for us to dress up, enjoy a nice dinner with friends, and celebrate the season. I should mention that part of celebrating the season entailed a chaotic white elephant gift exchange. We all brought along a gift from home that we no longer wanted, but that someone else could use or would enjoy. Eric and I brought two mugs and a picture frame. All of the gifts were placed at the front of the room and one by one each table was released to select a gift, open it, and hold it up for all to see. After all of the gifts had been chosen and opened we were told that for the next unspecified period of time anyone who wanted could exchange gifts with us and we had to do it. If we wanted our original gift back, we had to first exchange with someone else and then go find our original gift again. We were not allowed to just immediately exchange back for the gift we wanted. If we wanted to keep our gifts we either had to run, hide, or be on the constant hunt for it so we could exchange for it. The trick was that we didn’t know how long the exchanging period was going to last so we had to be aggressive if we really wanted something, or we could tag team. The hilarious ensued. One person brought a large hologram picture depicting The Last Supper. It was huge and hideous (the eyes followed you around the room), but one of our national staff wanted it so badly that he grabbed it and hid under a table! I don’t think he realized that none of us wanted it. Eric and I ended up with Dove chocolate and a box of brownie mix- a successful night, in my opinion. We sang a few carols, our Director gave a speech, and the party ended. Afterwards a group of us walked to a large mall nearby and splurged on Starbucks coffee. In the large courtyard near the Starbucks was a huge Christmas tree and some sort of dancing blue creature. We took pictures with it, but I have no idea what it was supposed to be. Just another China mystery.



The Bank Hotel lobby




The blue dot. ??



Christmas Time is Here!

The tree is up, we found lights, we made ornaments, we purchased stockings, and Christmas music is in the air! Here is what our Christmas looks like:



We purchased our stockings at Threads of Yunnan, an NGO supporting migrant workers.




Homemade cinnamon applesauce ornaments.




 Dried orange and cinnamon garland.





We inherited our Christmas tree from a family that left last year .




Another homemade ornament.



Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent this past weekend giving thanks to the giver of all blessings and praising Him for His great provision in our lives. Although there was a moment of bittersweet at missing our family celebration back home, we were so grateful to spend the day with so many new friends. Our Thanksgiving was a truly international affair represented by people from South Africa, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Norway, Denmark, and the United States. In an effort to make sure the three American’s present were able to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, our host, Solveig, asked me last week about all of the dishes we normally associate with a Thanksgiving meal and true to form Solveig delivered them all! We had all of the normal dishes you would expect (some with a slight twist) and then some. The Green Bean Casserole included bacon (an awesome addition) and due to the lack of fried onions was topped with crushed crackers.  The sweet potato dish was mixed with pumpkin and was easily the best Thanksgiving sweet potatoes I’ve ever had. The surprise addition to the meal was the curry chicken, but you will get no complaints out of me because it, too, was delicious. We talked and laughed and played games until midnight.

Friday afternoon we attended another Thanksgiving meal. This one was less traditional: in addition to the normal Thanksgiving fare, we also had sweet and sour chicken, shrimp on a stick, banana pudding, and fried chicken.  The group was an eclectic mix of Chinese nationals and American’s from different NGO’s. We spent our afternoon eating and watching our first football game of the season. So awesome!

We made a smooth transition into the Christmas season on Saturday when we joined friends, Kevin and Emma at their house for our yearly viewing of “A Muppet Christmas Carol”. This may seem like a silly tradition, but we have been watching this movie for years and it is surprisingly true to the original work by Dickens, plus it features Fozzie bear so you can’t go wrong.

Saturday night we hosted a group of friends for dinner and Christmas ornament making and later we set up our Christmas tree! Christmas is not typically celebrated in China, not even in its most commercial Santa Claus form. Chinese schools are in session on December 25^th and the holiday passes without much notice. Some stores have sections of Christmas decorations, but I don’t think most Chinese people take any notice of this. I have been told that younger Chinese nationals recognize that there is a holiday in late December, but it is only because all things Western are quite the rage among their generation. This all means that if we want that magical Christmas feeling we have to create it ourselves.

On Sunday we went to fellowship. Eric and I attend Kunming International Fellowship and I recently joined the newly formed Community Care Committee. I am responsible for setting up a welcome table and greeting people on Sunday mornings. Oddly, KIF has never had greeters before! When Eric and I first arrived in Kunming and attended KIF, we were surprised there was no one there to welcome us as newcomers to the fellowship. It was an odd feeling and left me with the sense of not fully belonging there. As M’s and NGO workers, we are a transient community. People come and go; they are called to other areas of the world or their organizations relocate them. There has never been a committee at the fellowship to promote a feeling of welcome and community within the group because most people who attend have a sending agency that takes care of many of their needs and provides other opportunities to fellowship with like minded people. Traditionally people have just showed up on Sunday mornings and left immediately after service without making an effort to engage with the people around them and create a community within KIF. We are trying to change that. Eric and I arrived early Sunday to greet for the first time ever. So many people seemed shocked to be welcomed at the door and some didn’t quite know how to respond. Hopefully next week, when we do it again, they won’t be caught off guard.

Our four day weekend ended with a time to reflect on our many blessings. Sunday marked our 4 month China anniversary. That the date fell on Thanksgiving weekend was not lost on us. G has guided us through every challenge and met our every need along the way. The transition hasn’t always been perfectly smooth, but every day we are more convinced that we are where he wants us to be.