Christmas Play

My teammates Toriana (which means “flower” in Lopit—her real name is Catherine, from South Africa ) and Martin took on putting on a play for the communities between Christmas and New Years. They did a really wonderful job, organizing local church folks and kids. And they wove together the culture and Biblical history really well. They put it on in the fuera of the village Sohot today and will do it in another village tomorrow. The fuera is the village center where they host all their dances. It’s also the place of the mangott (shown in the picture) where the men sit and do nothing all day. I guess they also discuss things and make important decisions there. But all I see is the sitting. :)

Anyway, in the center of every fuera is a clump of thick sticks (more like small tree trunks) stuck in the ground. Each stick signifies a generation of the people of the village. That is, they add them as each generation comes and goes. It’s a very special thing for them, and the fellas have told me the men can point out their stick and tell you the stories of the generations of all the other sticks.

For the play, they built upon that idea. They surrounded the sticks with more sticks and, as the play began, pulled one out and told its story—creation. We changed the generational sticks of the village to the generational sticks of the whole world. So, the first stick was creation. As they pulled out sticks, they told the story of its generation—stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, etc. Finally, they talked about how in Jesus all generations are redeemed, all people are welcome at the cross.

They did a really great job. People came and went. I’m not sure they had the concept of a “play;” people would walk right through the middle of it! But it certainly started some talking. In fact, these fellas came out afterward and started dancing. My heart fell. But, someone explained to me that they were dancing as a thank you, in appreciation of the story and what we’d done. If nothing else, it was awesome to see the local church folk active in the play. They were so excited about it.

Anyway, here’s some pictures from it. I somehow didn’t take any of the actual play. Sorry gang. The first is just a view of some of the crowd. That’s the fellas up on the mangott. Women and children can’t sit on it. You’ll notice those two guys with funny looking skin. Those are my teammates Heinrich and Daniel. I look at scenes like this and wonder how I can actually live here.


And here’s a guy, dancing away. I really dig his huge… head… thing… And those are ace bandages wrapped around his arms and legs. And some kind of pom-poms on his upperarms. And a skirt. And sweet boots. I love dancers.