Christmas!

Merry Belated Christmas!!!

I hope all of you out there in Toubobadu (any place that isn’t Africa or the Middle East) had a great Christmas. Maybe you could comment and tell me how it went? Often people feel a bit glum for having to spend their Christmas in Gambia with its heat and lack of Christmas spirit. Everyone misses their family, friends, dark beer, and having to wear the layers and layers of clothes to keep warm. I missed all these things of course but I also had a really good time this Christmas.

In a reminiscence of high school I found myself playing Christmas music in a jazz band. We only had a couple days to practice but to my surprise I was able to channel my inner music nerd and was able to play pretty fluently. It was an eclectic group. I played bass, a professional musician named Dave led and played the piano, a man from Senegal played the guitar, and an ex-pat Brit who runs a lodge played the bongos. We were the back-up band for the American School’s Christmas Show. The kids sang and did a great job.

The pictures are Ian cooking pancakes, the rest of the crew making breakfast, and the actual breakfast.

A couple days before Christmas was carolling at the Scottish Embassy. A bunch of PC and ex-pats got together for some beer and holiday cheer. Dave played the piano and we all sang along. We weren’t a professional choir by any means and some lines were lost in a mumble but it was really fun.

Christmas Eve was spent playing poker then going to Mass. Quite opposite things, I know. I hadn’t played poker in a long time but I made Nevada proud. Maybe all Nevadans are good at poker but since we often only get to play each other we have really high standards? I played well but another volunteer was a lot of competition. I’m sure if we would have played till the end it would have been just like those poker shows, but more fun.

We stopped poker early so I could go to Mass. I’m not Catholic and even though I have always gone to a protestant version of a midnight mass I was still semi awkward at the night’s events. I of course wasn’t totally out of place though and in our PC group of 6 or 7 there were 2 other semi lost protestants. The two and a half hours included lots of prayer, a lot of hymns, some drumming songs in Wollof, tossing holy water 2x’s, shaking hands, and a little bit of critique from the priest to his staff. I swear I saw a fake hair model there! Just wait till I tell my host family that one.

Christmas morning! After just a couple hours of sleep due to mass and a debrief “Is there always that much incense at a mass? I mean, it’s all the same just acted out differently really” conversation, we were ready for breakfast. There was a huge 50+ person breakfast with pancakes, bacon, fruit salad, and frittata. We left nothing. That food didn’t stand a chance.

Breakfast was followed with Christmas movies.

That evening 3 of us got together and made a big dinner. We had stew, pasta salad, mashed potatoes, and cookies. There was a gift exchange and we finished off the night watching CSI.The picture is of Ian opening the gifts his family sent him. He really liked them.

It was a great Christmas.