I'm dreaming of a hot Christmas

As expected, Christmas in the Peace Corps is somewhat... abnormal. Instead of celebrating with family, you come together with the closest thing you have -- your PC friends. So Szasha and I packed our bags and left Tete for the city of Chimoio. There, we met up with sixteen (yes, count 'em, sixteen!) other volunteers and festejared together.

We did not have a white Christmas. We did not open presents or get goodies in stockings. We did not go sledding or ice skating. We could not put up on Christmas lights or tinsel. We did not get to hug our families.

All these things we did not do. However, here are all the great things that we DID do:

1. We cooked nonstop!

There was so much cooking! Our days basically consisted of taking turns between cooking, eating, and lazing about. I personally did a lot of lazing about. Luckily for me, a lot of the people in our region are really good at cooking, so they directed us and we made so many tasty meals together! Everybody chipped in and we were able to eat like kings for three days straight on the amount of money we would otherwise have blown on one meal at a nice restaurant. It was a nice change from my usual meal of pasta with some kind of sauce.

Sarah and Lisa work hard mashing potatoes

Also, we're a little bit proud of all the things we cooked (see below.) We heard rumors that gatherings of volunteers in other regions bought frozen chickens. Frozen chickens! We legit slaughtered our own. Boo yah!

(1.) The chickens that we are about to slaughter. (2.) The slaughtering of the chickens. (3.) The chickens are grilled to perfection.

2. We ate nonstop!

 

Round One: Brunch

Our brunches consisted of:

• French Toast
• Latkes with mango and sour cream
• Cornflakes
• Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Round Two: Dinner

Our dinners consisted of:

• Vegetable Curry
• Roast Chicken, Fried Chicken, Broiled Chicken
• Sweet Potatoes and Mashed Potatoes
• Green Beans
• Various tossed Salads
• Chili with toasted garlic bread

... and everything eaten with homemade Piri-Piri sauce, of course!

Round Three: Dessert

Our desserts consisted of:

• Lemon Bars
• Mango Crumble
• Fruit salad
• Sugar Cookies
• Gingerbread Cookies
• Mulled Wine
• Apple Cider
• Peanut M&M's

I have only one word to say:

YUM.

3. We decorated like crazy!

Szasha, Anna and I all love to decorate. We had limited resources (I.e. only plain white paper and some markers) but we made it work!

Anna made these super cute stockings for each of us before we arrived. Love it!

 Szasha, Alexandra and I decorated the Christmas Tree. Well, Christmas Shrub, then. Either way, it was our pride and joy.

(1.) Alexandra adds snowflakes and candy canes. (2.) I add paper chains. (3.) Szasha adds the finishing touch -- the star.

 4. We celebrated a birthday!

My friend and Alexandra was born on Christmas Eve! So we made her birthday lemon bars in a makeshift Dutch oven and sang to her. We also gave her a thermos to keep water warm in her electricity-less house in the middle of the bush.

Make a wish, Alexandra!

5. We relaxed with our friends

 Seeing friends was by far the best part of our little Christmas trip. We are also really lucky that we had such a big group and everyone was able to come. It was a tight squeeze to fit fifteen people in a small, two-bedroom house, but fit we did. (I may have slept in a doorway once.) It didn't feel overcrowded, though, because we were all so happy to be there and everyone got along great.
We spent a lot of time just sitting around, cooking, watching movies, and talking about how our first couple of weeks at our sites has been. It was so nice to be able to unwind and relax after the hectic mess that is the first few weeks at our new homes. 

Sarah, Lisa and Kristen hang out in front of Anna's house, where we spent many hours fofoca-ing (gossiping).

The card game "Carrots." Have you played Spoons? Then you know how to play Carrots.

Chatting around the charcoal stove. Much chatting occured.

Being with friends was the best part of our journey. This is me with my neighbor Szasha and birthday girl Alexandra.

5. We missed our families.

Let's face it: being away for Christmas really sucks. But luckily, the other volunteers around me made it suck much less than it could have. OK, maybe listening to "I'll be home for Christmas" made us sad, but we were all communally sad. And thus, not really that sad at all. Because, after all, how can you be down for long with friends like these?

Merry Christmas from Mozambique!