Its funny, Americans do not say Happy Christmas, they tend to say Merry Christmas. This was new information to me, as I was getting rather confused with some of the looks I got after I greeted people ‘Happy Christmas’ I mean when you think about it they mean the same thing, however my conclusion is happy means well just happy, whereas merry can be interpreted into a little tipsy therefore are Americans telling you to have a tipsy Christmas? Well whatever it is I learnt something new.
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| Our homemade stockings all hung up. |
So Christmas is a BIG deal to me and being the first
Christmas away from home and my family was a toughie. (Let’s just say after a
whole pack of Kleenex and a soggy pillow I wasn’t in the best of states)
However Christmas came and I’ll be honest it was different but also very
enjoyable. Lots of things were done using improvising, for example my Christmas
wrapping, using what I could find I thought I did an alright job, it kind had
that vintage edge to it. We all did presents together and I was blown away with
the kindness of my friends and family who had sent cards and gifts. (Thank you
to those particular people)
We all then went to another missionary’s house who was
holding a Christmas dinner and games afternoon. About 5 other families were
also invited so it was going to be a packed house. Even after a breakfast of
miniature hero’s (Christmas tradition, thanks Rumana) and some eggs, I was still rather ravines for
some food.
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| You see I do try and be healthy with a segment of orange. |
Okay so now I new not to expect a traditional English Christmas
dinner as 1) I am in Tanzania and 2) all the missionaries are American. But
when I lay my eyes on the buffet feast that was before me I had never been so surprised
in my life. (Okay slight exaggeration but just need to set the mood of what is
about to come)
Laid out on the table they had all the right food groups
that you would get in your traditional English roast, protein, carbs, veg etc.,
but in a very different way.
Okay so let’s start with potatoes, now I am use to roasties
at Christmas, I would stretch to mash or possibly new but never have I ever envisaged
eating potato salad on my Christmas dinner. (Let me just stress the potato
salad was out of this world I am merely stating the bizarreness of it compared
to what we are all used to) I then moved up the table and there was a big bowl
of macaroni cheese, not sure where that fits into the food groups I could kind
of get away with substituting it for cauliflower cheese, but anyway I had to side-track
that helping as it was full of gluten.
We then come to the veg, or should I say salad in this case, slices of cucumber and green pepper (very nice but again so different) With the absence of Brussels sprouts I gather they needed to find something that well, erm, lets just say…. You know…. So there was a bowl of baked beans, yes baked beans (extremely good if I say so with an added bbq spice to it) but yes there we have it. Opps, yes of course we also had some delicious roast meat, pork and beef, which I guess, was one thing that resembled what of an English roast. The meal was delightful and after 2 ½ helpings later I was feeling that same ring of belly that is always evident on the 25th.
We then come to the veg, or should I say salad in this case, slices of cucumber and green pepper (very nice but again so different) With the absence of Brussels sprouts I gather they needed to find something that well, erm, lets just say…. You know…. So there was a bowl of baked beans, yes baked beans (extremely good if I say so with an added bbq spice to it) but yes there we have it. Opps, yes of course we also had some delicious roast meat, pork and beef, which I guess, was one thing that resembled what of an English roast. The meal was delightful and after 2 ½ helpings later I was feeling that same ring of belly that is always evident on the 25th.
The games that followed were so imaginative and fun; our
host did a good job. We played lots of different Christmassy films, but one
that stood out was an outdoor snowball fight. (Yes yes before you begin to
wonder why on earth we had snow in Tanzania, it wasn’t real) It was a concoction
of flour and something in a scrunched up pair of tights. You would throw it at
your opponent and it would explode leaving them covered in flour. Now I got
covered (a bad time to where one of your best dresses) it was such fun and I felt
the potato salad drop from my belly just in time for pudding.
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| My housemates and I |
Even though I was away from my family it was very special spending it with the people I have met here, and even the children missionary children that I teach in the school.
Teaching the kids the chocolate game. (When you roll a 6 you come put a hat, scarf and gloves on, then use cutlery to eat as much chocolate as you can untill another 6 is rolled) We had to improvise with what we had in Africa.
That turned out to be a helmet, gardening gloves and a pretty scarf.
Only in Africa...
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