Caffe Avec

December18th. The Post Office

@brittarnhild

One of the first things to greet you when you come to The House in the Woods in December is a Christmas village, or a nativity village if you want. The focus point is an old creche which I bought in Provence many years ago, and I am following the provencale tradition to set the creche in the middle of a village.

At one of the many Christmas markets we visited in Berlin I found a man selling small houses and figurines, and when I saw the post office I knew it was perfect for my village.

A merry-go-round is another additition.
A good memory, as there was a huge one just outside the tinly little shop in Avignon where I bought the first santos.

Jesus was born into a world of everyday life.
The nativity village is a reminder of that.

 

The felted nativity

@brittarnhild

December is here, and every day a new nativity find its way from the basement to a place in our house where it can be seen and enjoyed through the season. This morning I picked this felted Sacred Family, felted my the daughter of a friend some years ago.

A few weeks ago I was asked my the editorial committee of our parish magazine if I had a photo for the front cover of the Christmas issue. I sent them the photo of the sacred family which I took last year, and today, after lunch, the magazine came in the mail. Look here:

 

 

December 12th. Nepal

@brittarnhild

I am having a day off and had planned to take some nativity photos during the few hours of daylight. But even though we are far south of the Arctic Circle and see the sun all year, today has been such a dark day, I never even thought of using my camera. So the photos I already have will have to do.

 Today´s nativity is from Nepal, bought during a 10 days visit in April this year.

One of the last days we were visiting a project in Kathmandu where a group of women were making pedagogical toys for nurseries. One woman was working on a small doll family which charmed me. I asked if I could buy it and while she was finishing the last stiches I was looking around.

Then I saw a tiny little photo on the wall, showing another doll family, this time shaped as a nativity set.

"Do you have of these?" I asked the women.
"We use to sell them at Christmas time" was the answer, "but unfortunately we don´t have any right now."

I am sure they all could see my disappointment, and when I had payed and was on my way out, one of the women came after me. "Wait a little. It might be that we have a nativity set hidden somewhere in here. Let me do a search."

 

The search result? You can see for yourself, can´t you :-)

 

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Here are a few photos from the workshop:

 

 

 

 

 

And here is a link to my Nepal blogging

 

December 5th. Ethiopia

@brittarnhild

This beautiful ebony nativity comes from Ethiopia. It was one of my last days there, and I had seen no nativities during my stay. Then I got the idea to ask our driver. At first he didn´t quite understand what I asked about, but when I tried to explain - Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus....... a broad smile spread in his face, he picked up his cell phone, called a friend and soon afterwards we were in a stall selling arts and crafts near the main post office in Addis.

And I got my treasure.

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Here is a repost from BrittArnhild´s House in the Woods which explains why I was in Ethiopia:

I have not yet told you the reason why I am here in Ethiopia, have I? Short story: the diocese of Nidaros and the Western Synod of the Mekane Yesu church in Ethiopia have a friendship link. As part of this, we have just started a four year project where we will look at food security, both in Norway and in Eritrea. The name of this project is Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.

We were supposed to be a group of 4-5 people travelling from Nidaros down here, but plans are sometimes hard to make, and in the end there were only two of us, pluss Hans Birger, or kez Hans as he is called down here. A Norwegian pastor, now senior, having spent half of his adult life in the area of the Western Synod.

  

We have a long list of things to do while we are here, one of them is to look at food traditions. And when you talk about Eritrea and food, except for coffee, injera is the first thing people will mention.

  

Injera is a kind of huge pancake, made of taf, water and yeast, or rather a kind of sour dough. As you know I have been to Eritrea twice and got used to injera there. I love it, though it tend to be hard on my delicate stomach.

Since we are here collecting food tales, we have been taken into kitchen, we have helped making the injeras, and we have of course eaten them, again and again.

  

One thing which has stuck me along our way is the darkness of the many kitchens we have visited. And not only the darkness, but also the heavy smoke where the girls and women have to spend long parts of their days.

I have asked about this several times, but there seem to be no answer to why. Though personal I wonder if the answer is that the kitchen huts are all built by men and men never spend long hours inside them, cooking.

  

I am reading a very interesting book these days; The Lure of the Honey Bird, The Story Tellers of Ethiopia, by Elisabeth Laird. I have written more about this book over in Books on the Menu. Today I discovered that Laird has seen the same as I have seen:
Abebe pushed me through the matting screen, behind which the girl had disappeared, to show me her cooking area. This was so surrounded by walls that not a chink of light could penetrate from the outside

  

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We are in Addis Ababa now, and last night a Norwegian here took us to a restaurant we would not in a million years have found by ourselves. On the menu: injera of course.

 

 

And with the injera came traditional music and dances.

 

 

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December 3rd. Assisi in Italy

@brittarnhild

Do you know that you find the cradle of Nativities in Italy, more spesific in Assisi. St, Frances, the most famous son of Assisi created the first scene early in thre 13th century, then with real people. He set up the tale of the birth of Jesus, to share the good tidings with the peasants.

From there and then the tradition has traveled to the whole Christmas world, even to The House in the Woods in Trondheim, Norway, where I have a growing collection of creches which I display through Advent and Christmas.

Assisi, the little hill town north of Rome, known world wide because of St. Frances. I have been there twice, in summer. How I wish that I could go there at Christmas, to walk the paths of St. Frances.

Today´s creche was bought in Assisi, and is a reminder of the life of St. Frances.

 

 

December 2nd. Syria

@brittarnhild

My advent calendar this year will be a world trip, shown though my collection of nativity scenes, bought during my travels around the world. There is no spesific plan, no set route, the map will be painted as we go, and as the crips are set or hung somewhere in The House in the Woods.

Nativity #1 was from Haiti, and was the first creche in my collection.
Today´s crib is from Syria, bought in a monastery where only a few christian munks were still residing. 

I was in Syria for a week only, in October 2010, and though we sensed that the country and its people were having a hard time, we had absolutely no idea about what would come only a few months later.

How strange, how sad it is today, to think back, to know about the hell which happens every single day in this beautiful country. To remember souks, ruins, monasteries, churches, coffee sellers, children, mothers fathers......the people, most of all the people.

Yes, most of all the people.
We met Christians there, and even though the official guide who followed us aound the whole week did his best to hide information for us, we were told tales. Tales shared with tears. Tales which filled us with prayers.

Tales which are still filling me with prayers. And tears.

With photos from The Church of Simeon Stylites, I hang my Syrian nativity and I fold my hands in prayers for the people of Syria.

 

December 1st. Haiti

@brittarnhild

It was the year 1998, it was autumn and I was ready for my first visit out of Europe. The goal was Haiti and The Dominic Republic. I was traveling with Norwegian Church Aid and we were to go there to take pictures and collect tales to use in NCA´s annual Lental Campaign.

Only a few days before we arrived in Haiti, a devastating hurricane had swept over the country, making fatal damages.

We had a challenging time.

The first week I didn´t sleep. The impressions were too strong. Then I got stomach problems and the second week I didn´t eat. Which resulted in a gall bladder infection and 10 days in hospital when I arrived back home. But that´s another tale for another day.

 

In between these hardships we had a great time.
Meeting a strong, proud people. People fighting for themselves and their country.

We got our pictures.
We got our tales.

We cried with the people over the damages.
We smiled with them in shared love.

Looking through my paper photos today, ten years after, brings forth a flood ov memories.

 

I started my nativity collection in Haiti. A collection which I put out every year in December. A collection filled with memories.

 

Happy 1st Sunday of Advent.
Happy December 1st.

 

Just around the corner

@brittarnhild

Advent, the preparation time for Christmas, is just around the corner. For many years I have had a very special advent calender in my blog Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods. Before blogging I sent out advent emails to family and friends, one every day, to be opened like an advent calendar.

This year I will do it different. I will still prepare for Christmas over in The House in the Woods, but starting December 1st, I plan to post about one of my nativity scenes every day through Advent here in Caffe Avec. As my collection consists of creches from different countries, I will also post a tale from the country of the creche as I go.

So, make yourself a pot of cofee or a mug of tea, and get ready for a travel through Advent with me and my collection of nativities.