A Danville family’s Christmas – African style

Some 6,000 miles away from their home, a Danville man and his family are spending their first Christmas in Uganda.

When Paul Gibson was laid off/fired from his job after Hewlett-Packard bought out Electronic Data Systems (EDS), he — and his family — made a career move, half a world away to work for Children of Grace (CoG).

Gibson, his wife Janet and their 14-year-old daughter, Cassidy, moved to Uganda in July. This is their first Christmas in Africa, and Gibson shared his reflections on the differences.

Aside from there being no cold weather, there are no real Christmas trees (the family opted for its first fake tree this year) and no Santa Claus tradition.

But “(i)t’s still a time for families to gather, some giving of gifts as it is in the states, though the gifts are more life basics and necessities like food (or)clothes,” Gibson wrote in an email. “All the hype that Christmas has become in the western world is not seen here in Africa…a good thing! It’s very different in a positive way not to have all the hype around Santa Claus and shopping.

“Kids here in Africa just aren’t raised with this season being full of gifts. For most, having ‘extra’ things to eat like meat and chicken is what distinguishes Christmas day from any other day, but even that extra isn’t experienced by most who live in poverty and rural areas.”

Gibson wrote that school in Uganda is out from the beginning of December through the end of January. That gives kids who attend classes in cites or towns to head back to their villages to spend the holiday with their extended families.

His own family got a bit more extended this week as his three older kids, Phillip, Andrew and Meagan, flew in for the first Christmas the entire family will spend together since Phillip graduated from San Ramon Valley High School in June.

“It will also be a Christmas that is far less focused on the purchase of gifts for ourselves, but on making it a special Christmas season for the almost 700 kids that are sponsored by CoG,” Gibson wrote.

The Gibsons are giving themselves a treat for Christmas, though.

“The one gift for the Gibson family is a safari that we’ve booked in Kenya for the week after Christmas, going to a place in southern Kenya near where the movie ‘Out of Africa’ was filmed, to see lots of African animals and stay in ‘tented camps,'” he wrote.

More information about the Gibson family’s adventures in Africa and their work with Children of Grace can be found on Janet and Paul’s blog.