Buronya (n):

(1) A holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and celebrated on 25 December. (2) Twi for "Christmas." (3) Literally translated, "foreigner" (oboruni) "receives" (nya), as in the foreigner is celebrating receiving something.

Buronya... These definitions are all accurate, but not in the least the whole picture of my Christmas with my host family in Adenta. So let me provide you with some other pictures to help you understand a bit better:

This is how I began my Christmas: with a miniature stocking to garnish my mosquito net! My wonderful parents sent me a Christmas package from America containing this stocking, presents for me and my host family, and a couple of more essentials: candy canes and Werther's toffees. They sent it on 20 November and it reached me just in time for Christmas on 21 December.


Usually my host family opens gifts together, they told me, but this year everyone was very busy and so I gave the presents out piecemeal since we didn't have anything like the Christmas Eve present extravaganza that usually takes place at my house in America. Often families in Ghana have a large meal on Christmas, with fresh chicken and cake and other delicacies, but my family feasted on the traditional dish of banku, which Cole describes well in the second half of this blog post. When my younger host brother Kwaku learned that Christmas had passed without this feast, his face fell and he announced, "Then I did not spend my Christmas well!" Cute though his response was, I found that the way we did spend Christmas, at a series of church services, was a nice respite from the consumerism and materialism that so often cloud the miracle of Jesus' incarnation on Christmas.


This is a snapshot of church one morning, with the ladies bedecked in their finest to come and worship with fervent prayer and joyful, energetic dancing. I attend the Church of Pentecost with my host family, and for Christmas the church held what is called a "convention" -- basically a series of twice daily services of prayer, preaching and dancing. Suffice it to say that I have never before spent Christmas morning shouting praise, singing worship songs, praying aloud, dancing with abandon, and playing the tambourine with such verve that even my kneecaps were sweating! We began the convention on Christmas Eve with an outdoor service for about 3 hours in the evening, then continued on Christmas Day and Boxing Day with 3 hours inside the church in the morning and 4 hours outside at a dirt park in the evening both days. On the final day, 27 December, we worshiped for 5 hours in the morning and into the early afternoon.

That evening, I attended my older host sister's church choir program, which entailed a time of prayer and praise and worship (complete with dancing!) in addition to a performance by four area Pentecostal choirs. Below I am dancing with a woman who grabbed my arm and joined me as I shuffled and swayed along to a Twi worship song I could only partially understand.


It is customary on the first Sunday after New Year's Eve (when once again there was a church service, this one about 4 hours, called Watchnight) to wear a new outfit if you have one, or at the very least to dress up specially. In appreciation of my attendance at the Christmas Convention, the Twi song I had sung in front of the congregation a few months earlier, the fact that I am an "osofo ba" (pastor's child), and a genuine kindness and generosity, the head pastor gave me a gift of kente cloth, the traditional cloth of the Ashantis (and Ewes), which is woven and usually worn by royals such as chiefs, the Asantehene (Ashanti king), and their kin, as well as the wealthy. It is very highly valuable; for example, my pattern and quantity of kente would likely cost a couple hundred Cedis, equal to well over $130. My host mom brought me to a tailor who sewed it into a traditional outfit, a kaba (blouse) and slit (fitted skirt), for me. Here I am with my two younger host brothers and an even younger house guest on our way to church.


My host mom also ensured that I looked like a proper lady, so she lent me a purse, a gorgeous necklace, and this elegant hat to complete my look. So elegant did I feel that I couldn't help but strike a pose!


That morning before church I attended Adenta Keep Fit Club, an organization that holds meetings at 6:00 am every Saturday, Sunday, and public holiday for the sole purpose of beginning the day with some intense aerobics and other exercises. I had been going every possible Saturday since late September, and so on Sunday, my final day, I learned that my season of humbly receiving gifts from the generous community I have found in Ghana was not over. My friends at Adenta Keep Fit Club sent me off in style with kind words and a gift a new dress (which I am wearing below while posing with my host sister Harriet) and a kente stoll!


After taking a group picture, we bade farewell with wishes of "Afenhyia pa" ("The year should meet well") and responses of "Afenkכ mmεto yεn" ("The year should go around and come meet us again") -- and "Yεbεhyia bio, Onyame adom" ("By God's grace we will meet again").


So I am left humbled at the end of a Christmas season spent in Ghana. I didn't make a snowman or sit cuddled up with hot chocolate and a blanket in front of the fireplace; I didn't even wear long sleeves! There were no Advent celebrations, and few stores strung out even green and red tinsel, much less tiny strands of lights. I never did have that Christmas meal of fresh chicken and all the cake I could want, and my host family didn't hunker down in their pajamas for a good ol' family gift exchange.

And yet, through this Christmas season, I have been blessed in new and unexpected ways. I have experienced firsthand an outpouring of kindness and generosity, both in tangible ways (kente, a dress, the stoll...) and intangible ways. I have enjoyed time off from work to spend more time with my host family before we are separated in a few days when I move to Kumasi. And I have felt the Spirit of God in a unique and affirming way as I have considered what it could mean that the Son of Man and the Son of God are truly One. Friends, it means more things than I can explain and even fathom, but what I know absolutely is this: Christmas is an expression of Love to us. I thank God that I feel loved in Ghana and loved in America -- and above all, as Buronya is drawing to a close, I marvel at the simple fact that Love loves me and Love loves you.