Christmas 2016

With the absence of Chris and his boys, many of the Class of 2015 graduates not being present, and several new faces taking part in their first festivities, Christmas at JBFC looked a little different this year! Chief Operating Officer in Tanzania, Seth Diemond, told us all about how the JBFC family celebrated the holidays this past week.

CHRISTMAS AT PAPA'S

This year, Christmas celebrations were held at Papa's. The girls did an amazing prayer on the lawn infront of Lake Victoria, which was led by our new Girls' Government President, Vale. There were prayers, songs by the JBFC choir, and a chance for people to share what they are thankful for this year. Vale gave a speech about the best parts of 2016. Melinda, Paula, and I led a wonderful rendition of "Feliz Navidad" before Mzee Kitula and all the girls joined in. Mzee Kitula running up to us with his hands waving frantically in the air, and singing Spanish Christmas songs, are memories that will not be forgotten any time soon.

Papa's itself was beautiful. The decorations committee, joined by Pili who finished a two-year long hospitality program, set up all the tables, table cloths, napkins, cutlery, etc. The girls brought benches from the girls' home and set them up in front of the Christmas tree. The girls' stockings were laid out on the bar and a table was set up under the bar for all of the food. One of our girls, Zai, said the scene was "amazing."

THE TREE

This year we were able to harvest a Grevaria tree from our farm. Now, this might not sound too amazing but it actually is for a couple of reasons. First, Grevaria trees look pretty darn similar to your standard pine tree, which added to the Christmas feel and the general ambiance at Papa's (we usually use a Mango tree). Second, it means that some of the first trees we planted when we implemented permaculture are "coming of age" for use. Disclaimer: no trees were harmed; it was cut in such a way to avoid imposing any pain on the tree and it was cut high enough to ensure that the tree will grow back!

Maggie and the tree committee chose the tree and with help from Emma, our driver, cut it down. They spent the afternoon making hand-made decorations including a star for the top.


THE FOOD

As always, one of the highlights of the day was the food. Our Papa's staff taught the girls how to make big, American style pancakes in the morning with sausages on the side. We slaughtered a hog and chickens from our farm and the girls, with the help of Emma and myself, spent the afternoon barbecuing ginger-lemon marinated meat. The girls and Papa's staff made mashed potatoes, sauteed Kale, coleslaw, and garlic bread. Melinda made sugar cookies and Paula made macaroni and cheese.

The food was a major hit and the massive mountains of food on the littlest of girls' plates spoke volumes. To top it all off, we had ice cream to go with the sugar cookies for dessert. After running out of cups for the ice cream, people started making ice cream sandwiches!

THE GIFTS

As always, gifts are a favorite part of anyone's holidays. We started the afternoon with Melinda,

Paula, Carli, and I exchanging little gifts during lunch. After dinner, we had a short staff-appreciation segment for our managers and workers who helped with the Christmas party/attended as guests. This might have been everyone's favorite part of the evening (especially Paula!) because each time we called a manager/worker up to collect a holiday card/holiday bonus, all of the girls began wildly cheering. The girls came up with a personalized cheer for each worker based on what they do for the campus. For example, when our Farm Manager, Edward, came up, the girls all chanted "EGGPLANT EGGPLANT EGGPLANT!" When our Head Matron, Mama Maggie, came up the girls all chanted "MAMA MAMA MAMA." It was absolutely touching to see how excited and appreciative the girls were for our team and equally as amazing to see how much the support from the girls meant to the staff. It made the night.

We then handed out gifts to the girls starting with the stockings. The girls got a variety of items from photo albums (thanks Alyssa!), suckers, and math sets, to water-bottles and toiletry bags. Seeing the girls' reactions to their gifts was Melinda's highlight of the night. Everyone left happy, and extremely grateful, to say the least.

Seth Diemond is JBFC's Chief Operating Office in Tanzania. 

A JBFC Christmas

It all begins with cooking, as do most Christmases around the world. For days leading up to the big day, we cook and cook and cook.

Biscuits for the Christmas brunch-check

Rolls for the dinner- check
Egg Casseroles (will all those pans fit in the oven?)-check
Bread torn and drying for the dressing- check
88 pounds of potatoes purchased- check

15 chickens slaughtered-check
Enough fresh spinach picked from our garden to fill a room- check

Needless to say, it is quite the process and takes several days. But, all this prep is done to make an already special day a little more special for our family; our whole family- including our girls, guests, matrons, scholarship students, staff, and many of their families. In the end, nearly 90 people join us for the Christmas dinner. And this year, not only did we have guests from the States, but we had an entire family of six from Austria join in the celebration!

The celebration, as it has for many years past, starts with a Christmas brunch, where we serve biscuits and gravy, jam, and an egg casserole. Normally, this brunch is just a time of gathering and a way to get really full so we only have to cook two meals (I am not as accustomed to cooking for as many people as our matrons are- and on Christmas, it is on me!)

However, this year’s brunch included a special surprise under our Mango Christmas tree- a handmade Christmas dress for every single JBFC girl made by the seamstresses of the Sims family. Joyce Sims, mother of our development director Ashli Sims, decided she wanted to do something special for the JBFC girls back in July. She recruited her mother, sisters, youngest daughter, and friends to help with the project – some donated fabric, others donated their time and sewing skills. And together they made 43 unique dresses, each tailor made for one of our girls, and all done in time for me to carry them to Tanzania in November. This act of kindness prompted other Christmas surprises for the JBFC girls, but I’m getting ahead of myself. As the girls opened their carefully wrapped, brand new dresses, made just for them, shrills filled the room and a smile filled the face of absolutely every single girl.

The time in between the two meals is spent prepping, yet again. Cut and spice the chickens, put the ingredients for the dressing together, boil the potatoes, mash the potatoes. The list goes on and on. And then, the big party descends upon us. As we lay the food out on the table, the gifts and stocking for each girl lie under our Mango Christmas Tree, and the Christmas music plays as our guests come in, it starts to finally feel like Christmas- even when it is 80 degrees outside!



Since the food is hot, and we haven’t eaten since our big brunch, we start with the buffet. Little girls first, followed by the others, then our guests, staff, etc. After what seems like half an hour, everyone has a plate and the room is silent. But, days and days of prep disappear in minutes and all that is left is a pile of dirty plates and some mashed potatoes- yes, we made far too many, AGAIN!

After everyone is belly-up, we have a prayer service featuring readings about Christmas and songs sung by our a capella choir- Silent Night in Swahili, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Jingle Bell Rock.


Then, it is gift time, the time we have been waiting for all day. Everyone gets a gift- from our staff, to scholarship kids, and of course, our girls! Each one of our girls starts with the stockings, filled with things from Austria, New York, and Tulsa. Two JBFC Board Members, Kristin Bender and Cathy Herrin, had 43 small purses made to match the girls Christmas dresses. And our girls also got new jewelry from our staff and our visitors from Austria. To top it all off, everyone received brand new backpacks with the JBFC logo on it (of course, Ester’s backpack hit her at the mid-calf, but she didn’t care- it was hers)!


By 9:00, everyone is full and on their way. We look at the war zone that is my living room and kitchen and decide that cleanup can wait for another day. After all, it is Christmas, and what a great one it was!












Blogger Chris Gates is the Founder and Executive Director of JBFC.

Christmas in September: the Makings of a JBFC Holiday Card

Editor's Note: JBFC's Christmas card should be hitting mailboxes soon. This is the story behind the holiday cheer and just what it took to recruit Santa's little helpers.

"Girls, we need all of you to wear red for a Christmas card shoot."

Their puzzled looks said it all-- why are we talking about Christmas in September?

Despite the confusion still written all over their faces, they agreed (one of the many reasons I love my girls - they're always up for anything) and got all dressed up. Here they came, all 43 girls, in a sea of red.

They gathered on my back porch and the adults proceeded to try to make a triangle on the steps. Our attempt at a Christmas tree was fairly slow-going, shuffling giggling girls into order from tallest in back to shortest in front.

 Then, as it goes in a photo shoot, the camera came out... and all of the smiles disappeared.

Elisa Masso, a talented volunteer who is our current resident photographer, was perched on a table at the top of the stairs to get a bird's eye view.

No laughs... And no smiles.

This just wouldn't do. We needed a little holiday cheer.

So, what did I do?  Hopped up on the table to give Elisa rabbit ears.

 

Of course, it wasn't the rabbit ears that made the entire group burst into laughter. It was the fact that at any moment, we were going to come tumbling down from our wobbly table. But, after a few quick snaps, and a very careful dismount, we had some of the cutest group pictures we had taken in a while.

And, then came the silly small group photos.

We decided to "wrap" Esther, our youngest girl, up as a Christmas gift. As the youngest and the smallest, Esther, is the true baby of the family - used to being picked up, carried around, and basically getting her way (known to be tad bossy, too). But when I picked up and put her in this Christmas box, she looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

Why do I have to wear this funny Santa hat and sit in a box?

Despite little Bhoke (Santa's helper on the right), trying her hardest to make jokes and telling Esther in Swhili "do like this" and copy her big goofy grin - Esther wouldn't crack a smile.

Which just made the rest of us laugh even harder... and Shida and Bhoke, as Santa's helpers, look even more adorable.

It wasn't until we had Salome play Santa...

That we got a legitimate smile out of Esther (seated on left, first row). But I suspect it's because she thought presents were involved.

Try as we might to explain, and try as we might to show them the outcome of a hilarious photo shoot, our girls may never understand the craziness.

But, nonetheless, the photos are adorable and we hope that they bring you all a little more joy this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

*A big thank you to Elisa Masso at www.elisamariephot.com for her beautiful work!










Chris Gates is the Founder & Executive Director of JBFC.