Merry Christmas! Happy Boxing Day! Technically, yesterday was Christmas. However, it was unlike any Christmas I have ever experienced. In order to get the full effect I feel it necessary to give a time line of events...
Dec. 24 12:30 PM Alexis and Ben meet me in my village. They see my house, we eat banana bread and mangoes. It is a good start to the day.
3:00PM Arrive in Nkhotakota. Have lunch, take bicycle taxi to Jesi's house.
5:00PM Ten of us have arrived at Jesi's. We are still waiting for 2, but the boxed wine is chilled (sort of) and we have peanut butter balls. Life is grand.
6:00PM First attempt at dinner. Or, first attempts at fire starting and boiling water. How many volunteers does it take to make dinner? Well...
8:00PM Still no boiled water. Boxed wine no longer chilled. Peanut butter balls are gone.
9:30PM The ten of us eat glue that should have been fettuccine Alfredo from 2 pans. Boxed wine makes everything better. Still missing the other 2 volunteers...
11:00PM They are on their way! No bicycle taxis so 5 of us decide we should walk to pick them up...
12:15AM Arrive at the road. Merry Christmas!
1:30AM Back to Jesi's. The 12 of us are together!
2:00AM Sleeping
5:00AM Time to wake up
8:00AM Walk to road to get a ride to Nkhotakota Pottery for Christmas Breakfast
8:05AM Massive rains hit Nkhotakota
8:20AM Find a ride in the back of a truck to the road...in the rain.
8:40AM Get on a bus to the turnoff for NP
9:00AM Thought it was a 200M walk to NP...turns out it is 4k. It is only sprinkling now.
10:00AM Full English breakfast. : ) Delicious
11:00AM We realize we don't have much else to do...so we should probably just hang out until lunch.
2:00PM Delicious lunch. Christmas is mostly about eating, right?
3:00PM Walk back to the road. Find a hitch back to Jesi's road. Alexis sits on a seizing goat, I hold on realizing this is not one of my smarter moves.
4:00PM Walk back to Jesi's.
8:00PM White Elephant gift exchange. Amy and Meg redeem our cooking efforts by making chili and rice and tortillas and guacamole.
9:30PM Fast asleep.
Not a typical Christmas but certainly memorable. I have been so blessed this year with amazing friends and family. I miss you all and hope you know you are with me wherever I happen to be.
loads of love,
elisabeth
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sounds like you had a good Christmas. Much different than if you were in the states. Better than 8 to 10 foot snow drifts like we have in Iowa.
ReplyDeleteLots of love. That care
Barb
You're the best. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDelete