{"id":3981,"date":"2013-12-18T23:02:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T22:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/?p=3981"},"modified":"2014-10-18T12:30:25","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T10:30:25","slug":"et-phone-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/et-phone-home\/","title":{"rendered":"ET phone home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I like this blog post on the Crossroads website: <a href='http:\/\/www.crossroadsbasel.ch\/index.php\/leadership\/pastors-blog\/item\/297-home-for-christmas'>Home for Christmas<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>ET phone home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chiperoni\/5254600635\/\" title=\"ich bin ein star by nchenga, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5089\/5254600635_54a219590e_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"625\" alt=\"ich bin ein star\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Growing up in Malawi, I probably don&#8217;t share the same level of contemplative Christmas (&#8220;besinnliche Weihnachten&#8221;) memories that my fellow German compatriots may have experienced. It&#8217;s difficult to emulate some Christmas traditions when it&#8217;s over 30 degrees warm. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chiperoni\/323693865\/\" title=\"merry christmas by nchenga, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/125\/323693865_4e95936dcf_z.jpg\" width=\"458\" height=\"640\" alt=\"merry christmas\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My mom remembers how I had to learn a lot of english carols in my first year of primary school, many of which she had never heard of. Like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com\/Hymns_and_Carols\/good_king_wenceslas.htm\">Good King Wenceslas<\/a>. Or <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/God_Rest_You_Merry,_Gentlemen\">God rest ye merry gentlemen<\/a>. Or <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Away_in_a_Manger\">Away in a manger<\/a>. I faintly remember walking to St. Paul&#8217;s Anglican Church in Blantyre for carol service rehearsals. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chiperoni\/6569932227\/\" title=\"merry christmas by nchenga, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7159\/6569932227_81b3c3f4f5_z.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" alt=\"merry christmas\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Christmas was a very special celebration for my grandfather. My mom told me about a lot about the Christmas parties he organized for his family despite  being very poor. <\/p>\n<p>And many years later, I remember my first Christmas at German uni where everybody in class said they&#8217;re travelling home to be with their family. Even the tough-looking punk with dyed red hair and rings in his nose was travelling home to celebrate Christmas with his mom. I was truly fascinated. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chiperoni\/329346163\/\" title=\"last minute by nchenga, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/81\/329346163_18486ffa53_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"last minute\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I am thankful for this Christian holiday. And I like some of the traditions associated with Christmas. I just dislike and still rebel against the commercialization. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chiperoni\/75643421\/\" title=\"shop window by nchenga, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/9\/75643421_7434844b6e_z.jpg?zz=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"shop window\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m planning to attend the Christmas Eve service at Crossroads Basel. If you want to join me, here are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crossroadsbasel.ch\">the details<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/chiperoni\/67062809\/\" title=\"Christmas card... by nchenga, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/25\/67062809_7dcf421472_z.jpg?zz=1\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Christmas card...\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"syndication-links\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I like this blog post on the Crossroads website: Home for Christmas. ET phone home. Growing up in Malawi, I probably don&#8217;t share the same level of contemplative Christmas (&#8220;besinnliche Weihnachten&#8221;) memories that my fellow German compatriots may have experienced. It&#8217;s difficult to emulate some Christmas traditions when it&#8217;s over 30 degrees warm. My mom [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56,23,680,4,679],"tags":[678],"class_list":["post-3981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-basel","category-germany-2","category-malawian","category-nostalgia-2","tag-christmas-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LJxC-12d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiperoni.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}