CHRISTMAS TIME,
AROUND THE WORLD
23 December 2002
The dinner table on Wednesday will probably look pretty much the
same as it did last year. Same plates, same decorations, same food, same
faces. I'm not really complaining, but part of me misses the "old days,"
when we had to borrow an extra table and chairs from the local community center and when
we were never really sure how many people would show up.
In the years when we were hosting foreigners in our house (70 in 10
years, from 15 different countries), whichever of them was in the neighborhood (i.e., the
western United States!) they would plan to spend the holiday with us. Sometimes we
managed to squeeze as many as 24 people around the dinner table (bear in mind that our
room is 22' x 15' !)
I love this picture because it kind of epitomizes those
days. Walt always used to read "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids
before they went to bed, and even as they started getting older, they insisted he continue
the tradition. When there were visitors, they, too, got into the spirit of things.
So in this picture we have, going round the circle from left to right: Pujol
from Brasil, David in Walt's lap, Tom in the lap of Marcio, also from Brasil. Next
to Marcio, bent over and wearing glasses is Felix from what was then Yugoslavia, then
Paul, and Ndangi from Zaire and Jeri.
 Ndangi was one of the first persons from another
country to stay with us at Christmas time. We had already planned to host Chieko from Japan, but
Ndangi ended up with no place to go, so we invited him to join us as well. He didn't
speak much English at that time and my French got a good workout. For the next
several years, wherever they were in the states, the two of them (who developed a kind of
brother and sister relationship) would fly in to join us for Christmas. Chieko is
now married with three children and living back in Tokyo. Ndangi works in Silicon
Valley, is married and has twin girls.
I think Marcello (Brasil--Rio de Janeiro) was the next
one to be here for Christmas. Marcello arrived in this country speaking no English
(awkward, because he was here to go to high school). He was also not happy with his
placement in the middle of California because he was a surfer and hoped to spend his days
surfing (he had no idea the water in this part of the state was so cold!). By the
time he left here, he was better at speaking English, so good that he was able to return
to the United States a few years later and, the last I heard of him, he had been working
as some sort of official for Marriott Hotels.
 Maria (here with Grandma Sykes) came from
Mexico. Her minister recognized that she had great potential and wanted to find a
family which would take her in so she could study in this country. I heard of her by
chance, and agreed to have her live with us. She was bright and delightful (and is
now married and owns her own restaurant, which has received awards for excellence in a
Sacramento magazine).
 Her sister, Sandra, came to visit one year and spent
Christmas with us. What we did to that poor woman shouldn't happen to a dog.
It happened that at that time, Jeri was working for a theatrical supply place and so she
gave David a break-away bottle as a gift. Those were the years when the kids took
movies of everything, and created elaborate plots (all involving chase and fight
scenes, or falling off roofs or whatever). The kids had been filming a complicated
movie all day and it was going to end with a fight scene at the dinner table. Sandra
was totally unaware of what was going on, was new to our family and how weird we were, and
didn't speak English all that well.
So we all sat down at the table and most people had
been told what was going to happen, but nobody thought to tell Sandra. All of a
sudden, David chases Paul through the house yelling at him. Walt yells at both of
them to stop fighting, David growls, picks up the wine bottle off of the table and hits
Paul over the head with it, the bottle shattered and Sandra screamed. Everybody goes
on eating as if nothing unusual was going on. I thought poor Sandra would have a
heart attack.
 Vince was from Malaysia and had lived here for a few
years with his family while his father studied at UC Davis. When the family went
back to Malaysia, knowing that Vince's chances of a good education, as a Chinese student,
were poor in Malaysia, and that they would either have to leave him here or send him to
Singapore, contacted the church to find a family. The church called us and we said
sure. So Vince moved in for three years, and continued to spend Christmases with us
through his college years at UC Davis and until he married and began having a family of
his own (twins now).
Victor was Ndangi's cousin and came from Zaire speaking
not a single word of English. One of my very favorite memories is of David and his
friend Jeff setting up English lessons for Victor every afternoon. Victor and David
developed a special bond and after David died, though we had not seen Victor in years, he
showed up at our door unannounced, tears in his eyes, to be here for the memorial service.
When it was over, he disappeared and we haven't heard from him since.
Felix also joined us for several Christmases in a row.
He came from Yugoslavia on vacation and lived with us for three weeks, but he then
went to graduate school at Cal Tech, and would return for the holiday. He later got
a job with an engineering firm in Sacramento, so lived close enough that he could join us
each Christmas.
We haven't seen him since he moved to the Seattle
area, where we hear he finally has a special woman in his life and appears to be very
happy. But I do like this picture of him helping Ned to peel the potatoes for
Christmas dinner.
Our table will be smaller this year. No foreign
students. No David. No Paul. But we'll enjoy ourselves. However,
when I remember all of those crazy years when we barely had enough elbow room, let alone
room to move around the table, I think of them fondly. We certainly had a lot of
very special people from other countries pass through our lives and our hearts over the
years. |
