Update #9: The Holiday Season in Kenya
My first holiday season in Kenya proved to be quite different than what I am used to in the US.
Happy New Year!
Wishing everyone reading a tremendous and prosperous 2025. I am excited for the year ahead and I hope you are too.
In this update, I will be sharing just a bit about my holiday season experience over the past couple weeks. It will be mostly a simple summary, but hopefully it is still informative in depicting a piece of Kenyan culture.
On Christmas Eve, I spent a good part of the day at the local Catholic Church—about a 20-minute walk from my home—helping decorate for Christmas Mass the next morning. In rural Kenya, the options and resources are limited, so the decorations are fairly simplistic compared to what I am used to—mostly balloons and some streamers. We used many colors, too, not limited to just red and green (it does not seem like those are recognized as Christmas colors here). We did, however, cut down a cedar-like tree and were able to prop it up inside the church. Christmas trees seem to be "kind of" a thing here, but I would say it is not nearly as much of a "necessity" as it is in the US.
On Christmas Day, I went to Catholic Mass in the morning. It was in the local tribal language, so it's safe to say I didn't understand much, but the priest threw in a few English phrases in his homily, and because the structure of the service is the same as it is in the US, I could at least follow along decently. Then, after Mass, I snuck into liturgy at the Anglican church that is partnered with my school to catch the tail end of that service and wish some people I know there a Merry Christmas. Similar to churches in the US, both churches had greater numbers than at a typical Sunday service, with family members visiting the village and people prioritizing their attendance for the special occasion.
After church, I shared chai (tea) and a snack with my host family. My host parents' son came to visit for the day, too. I had met him a few times before, so we caught up a little bit. The afternoon then was just hanging out a bit before we had a nice Christmas meal in the late afternoon that included fresh chicken (not an everyday meal here), ugali, chapati, and one of my favorites, pilau (a spiced rice dish with pieces of beef mixed in), along with a few other sides.
After eating, I joined my host father and his son for a walk into the village center before it became dark. On our walk along the dirt road toward the center there were many more cars than on a typical day, presumably due to people visiting their family in the village. Then, in the village center itself, it was more crowded than I had ever seen it before—a lot of children and families. Many of the small shops/stands that sell food and other necessities were still open for the day. Many kids had small treats to celebrate the occasion. I will write a future update with photos on the village center so you can get a better visual of the area. Then, of course, in the evening I called my family in Kansas City, where it was late morning, to wish them a Merry Christmas.
The day after Christmas is Boxing Day, which originates from Britain. So with Kenya being a former British colony, both the 25th and the 26th are recognized as national holidays. I think this event just happened to coincide with Boxing Day, but a family friend of my host parents invited us to a housewarming party on the 26th. That morning, another family friend picked us up in his car and we drove about 15 minutes to this property that had the nicest house I have seen in Kenya thus far. I was told the owner has a successful posho mill business that allowed him to make the home possible for him and his family.
At the party, we were first served chai and food. Then, the house was blessed by the bishop. This was followed by a church service in the yard, where the bishop was joined by several pastors to help celebrate. After the service, there was some dancing with Kenyan music. Then, the host made time to speak and give many thanks to his close family and friends. There were probably close to 200 people in total in attendance, so during the service I saw many people at work preparing the food for the afternoon meal. It was a great variety with options of chicken, beef, goat, fish, and a plethora of side dishes. It was a very cool experience to have the opportunity to attend such a party and I am grateful that I was welcomed.
Lastly, the New Year's holiday. New Year's here is more so celebrated during the day of January 1, as opposed to the night of New Year's Eve. In the bigger cities in Kenya, there are some parties and bars and people counting down to midnight. In rural Kenya, however, while some younger ones may stay up and light a few small fireworks at the turn of the year, many people seemed to be asleep by that time. After eating dinner with my host family on New Year's Eve, I just hung out in my home the rest of the evening and talked with a few other fellow volunteers also staying awake until midnight. Then, on New Year's Day, like on Christmas Day, the village center was noticeably busier than usual on New Year's Day and some people had their own celebrations at home as well.
Reflecting a bit on the holidays... in the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am accustomed to being in an environment that fosters a "Christmas mood." In the US, I am used to Christmas lights and Christmas music just about everywhere I go, bundling up to bear the cold and go Christmas shopping, and maybe even do some snow shoveling. I did have some downloaded Christmas music that I listened to in the days leading up to Christmas, but it definitely felt odd with the temperature being 80 degrees.
So with all these elements missing, it really did not feel like the holidays here, honestly. Not that I was miserable by any means, but it was certainly different. This was my first holiday season in a warm climate and also my first away from my family, and I think those were the two biggest contributing factors to a lack of a Christmas feeling.
Of course, as a Christian, the main purpose of the holiday is celebrating the coming of Christ. And that focus was still present here, as it is in many places around the world. And secondarily, the holiday is about being with loved ones. And, although I am new here, I did spend Christmas Day with my amazing host family who I feel close to, so that component was present also. But it was still interesting to realize just how much I associate the weather, music, atmosphere, etc. with the holidays. So stripping away some of those peripheral aspects of the holiday experience was a unique opportunity for me.
Finally, in each update moving forward, I think I will try to start sharing something small that I recently experienced that was just funny or weird. I feel like I've probably already have missed sharing many, so I will try to do so moving forward with my "out-of-context highlight of the week..."
Out-of-context highlight of the week: finding cockroaches mating in my kitchen :)
-Daniel
Peace Corps has three objectives: (1) To help the countries interested in meeting their need for trained people, (2) To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and (3) To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. This newsletter/blog is one way in which I am working to achieve objective #3. I appreciate you reading and I look forward to sharing much more! Please feel free to message me any questions you have and I may answer them in my next post.
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