On Christmas day, I helped Sharon prepare food she'd bought and brought for a special lunch meal for workers at the infant house. We (mainly she) cooked chicken in a sauce to serve over rice, plus coleslaw, beetroot and potato salads and roast potatoes. Unfortunately, a couple of the workers weren't very appreciative, complaining that we didn't serve enough meat (Swazis love their meat!). Never mind that the food and labor were donated. Zanela and Pearl had also purchased and prepared desserts – trifle, vanilla custard tart and fruitcake – so really there was plenty of food. Perhaps the complaining workers were just annoyed at having to work on Christmas Day. As far as I could tell, though, Christmas is a religious observance kind of holiday here, not a big family get together. Some people put up Christmas trees, but gift giving isn't required or even expected, at least not in the excessive way we do it in the U.S. And a big
Christmas dinner is also not the norm. I also found it surprising that we were not invited to any big church services for the holiday even though the children's homes we visited are all church-affiliated in some way.
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