Holidays Abroad

To all those who wonder just how you celebrate the holidays in a small Tanzanian village, well, you really don't. I mean, there is church, obviously. My village is predominantly Christian, with few traditional animist beliefs intermingled. There is no decorating of trees (even though there are pine trees near my village,) there are no exchanging of gifts, and of course, no christmas cookies or fruitcake.

In some of the bigger towns or cities, you can find artificial christmas trees and shiny banners saying merry christmas . .. or my favorite "merry crrysimas" . . . misspellings go unnoticed at times. I received a text message from a Tanzanian friend that said "Heppy Klisimas" . . . many people here mix the "l" sounds with "r" sounds and vice versa . . . My name has also been written "Klistina" at times.

The one question that villagers have asked me multiple times is "what will you eat on Christmas?" Those who can afford it will have rice or pilau with meat. I joined up with a few volunteers in my region and we cooked a small feast together (stuffing, roast pork and beef, home-made bread, spinach salad, home-made cakes and pies all cooked over charcoal or wood-burning stoves) . .. along with a gift exchange and plenty of lounging around and watching christmas movies. (Yes, there was electricity at the guesthouse where we stayed . .. and access to a vcr and dvd player!) My highlight of the day, however, was hiking to a small waterfall near the town of Njombe, where we were staying. I can't say i've ever been able to do that on any previous Christmas.

Of course, I missed my family and friends back home . .. to the point where I had to lock myself in the bathroom for a little bit because I thought I was going to cry. I mean, how could I go through Christmas without my mother's home-made pasta and fried calamari?! But I was fine, it didn't really feel like Christmas, just a nice holiday, an excuse for us volunteers to get together and "do American things." There was no snow, just a bit of rain . .. I made a small tree made out of toilet paper rolls and biscuit wrappers. those are kinds of things you do when you're bored in the village and it's rainy season ;)

I was stricken with some bad news last week of my Host mother's sudden death due to a car accident on her way up north to Moshi. She was so good to me, and I was just talking to another PCV about visiting her next year, and sending her a christmas card . .. and some pictures of us together from my three month stay with her. I found out on the day of her funeral, which was an eight-hour bus ride away, so unfortunately I could not go to say "goodbye" to her. It's an unfortunate thing that we have to deal with death a lot in the peace corps . .. but we were warned in training, "you will lose many friends here" . . . and so far I have lost two.

But loss is often followed by birth . . . and on that note, I watched my cat give birth to five kittens. I woke up one night to hear her making an unusual sound . .. and then when i rubbed my eyes and figured out what was going on, I grabbed my headlamp and a pair of rubber gloves and sat there . .. wondering if i had to do anything. instead, i just rubbed her belly between contractions of each birth . . . and after two hours, was proud of myself for being a good "grandmother." I'm happy to say I have five healthy kittens . .. and have found good homes for each of them.

So, yup, that's what I've been doing the past month . . . making christmas trees out of trash and mid-wifing kittens . . . but as far as volunteering goes . . . I did participate in a batik workshop (a wax-dye process for fabrics) and plan to make a possible income generation project for my orphaned girls group. I have been researching and planning more projects, and will be attending a two week training in January for project implementation and grant writing. . . yeah, i don't even know where to begin to write grants, so this seminar will be more than helpful.

I have been receiving packages of used books for the library project, and i know that three more packages are sitting at the post office waiting for me to pick them up, and I thank you all so much for your donations! I am so very appreciative. At this point, I dont' think I need any more books from home, but instead I need to find a way to get more books written in Swahili. So, if you have some of those stashed away, you are more than welcome to send them. ;)

Happy Holidays to you all back home. . . and remember, someone in Africa is thinking of you all and actually misses the snow and warm fires back home. Traveling is a wonderful, eye-opening experience, but it never expels the need to be with family and friends, especially during the holidays.

love and peace, cris