by an early MMM Sister               Nigeria               23.12.2024

The Christmas Eve rush is almost over, and we begin to prepare ourselves to go across to the Mission Chapel to welcome the Divine Infant at Midnight Mass.

The nurses are tired but that does not prevent them from donning all their new Christmas style. Dressmakers and tailors are kept busy around Christmas, not with tweeds and woollens, but with prints and silks and voiles – for Christmas in the tropics comes at one of the hottest times of the year. I remember one Christmas Day seeing the altar candles wilt with the heat and gradually and gracefully lean sideways until they flopped completely and had to be hurriedly rescued one after the other by the altar boys.

So, in the warm tropical night we set out for the mission compound. Great noisy crowds have gathered round the school and are waiting impatiently for the signal to enter. In the bright moonlight we recognise many old friends and patients. All are dressed in their best. The teachers and nurses who are the belles of the place, and consequently leaders of fashion, cause quite a stir of admiration as they saunter along in their slow, dignified, Nigerian way and stand in groups where they can be seen to advantage. The brightness of the full tropical moonlight enables the admiring audience to get a good view.

The lateness of the hour has not kept the children away. They keep running in and out of the crowds, laughing and noisy while the quieter ones creep into the flower beds and, pulling just the heads of the flowers, string them together on long grass and wear them around their heads and wrists. Sleeping babies nod on their mothers’ backs while mothers sit in groups along the veranda and elsewhere.

Suddenly there is a moment’s hush when the school doors are opened and then the excitement begins again. All are wanting to get in quickly to get to their favourite places in the school. Most of them carry their own stools as the school seats could not possibly accommodate such an unusual crowd. The school has been decorated with palm, flags and banners. The Altar has been prepared with extra special care. There is an air of expectancy about everything and everyone for the gossip outside is not what has brought them here. They are hushed now, attentive and expectant. The priest comes out to the altar, the choir boys begin the “Adeste” and Christmas begins…