Christmas Day, Sunday 25 December
Wished each other "Merry Christmas in Africa", to the strains of Perry Como singing "Jungle Bells" from the next door neighbours … had to laugh when we heard "dashing through the snow, on a one horse open sleigh", incongruous in Australia, but 10 times more so here in tropical Arusha, Tanzania. Seeing a Santa Claus dummy outside Shop Rite a couple of days ago was bizarre, but hearing Bony M's Chrissy carols everywhere has a tinge of ridiculousness about it! Not forgetting that Christianity is big here … many mornings we've heard the muslim call to prayer as well, but not lately …
Anyway, off to the kitchen, to get things underway before the heat, and before Stella givers us the deathstare for trespassing in her kitchen, haha. Added mayonnaise to the coleslaw and peas and onions and mayonnaise to the potato salad. Then it was time to start chopping up pineapple, watermelon, apple for the fruit salad, empty a tin of sliced peaches into it, sliced bananas, topped with diced up strawberry jelly that had set overnight. We had heaps of bananas, watermelon and pineapple left over to make up a big platter of fruit. Stella couldn't help herself and was assisting in all of this … as well as slicing up cucumber and tomatoes for a simple salad. In the meantime, Daudi started up the charcoal cooker in the open area in front of the kitchen, and Diana put the large pot containing the makandi - the masai and bean dish - on that cooker, which needs a couple of hours or so. We had finished our bit, and it was time to grab the Chrissy cards with money enclosed for Stella, Diana and Daudi, which was greeted with much happiness, hugs and kisses. Adijai is not well, and Judy is at church, so they'll get theirs later on. Time for our brekky, which we had in the grassed area in front of reception. Stella and Diana's job was the get the rice, spinach, and chicken prepared for a hopeful 1pm lunch party. Another bright, sunny day, and we're hoping perhaps it might be a cooler day, but methinks not! Heard that the chicken was boiled - frozen, not let to thaw out first! - then deep fried in oil - erkkkkkkkk! Not going to be tempted, even though I can't remember when we last ate decent chicken … probably in a tagine in Morocco, which now seems forever ago, a distant dream …
We finished our brekky, put the bowls and utensils in the kitchen, time for our showers. Adijai arrived later on, with rashes on her arms, she had to go to hospital for treatment - Sheryl gave her her card and pressie, but Adijai will not be here for lunch. Checked on emails, and in the meantime Judy had arrived from church - Sheryl said she was all dressed up and looked great. Stacey rang a little after 11am, and Sheryl had a chat with Reece as well as Lockie, and I had a short chat with Stacey - seems Melbourne is having huge thunderstorms while we are sweltering! A while later we found Judy in the lounge and we gave her her card and pressie and wished her Merry Christmas - she was delighted.
We needed to get a couple more tables out onto the grassed area, plus more chairs, so we organised that. The heat was increasing, as was the humidity. Stella had by then asked us to load the tables with all the food, as it was pretty much ready, and we grabbed our salads from our fridge. We sat under the umbrella, trying to stay cool, and waited for our guests to arrive.
Towards 1pm Loveness and Samwel arrived, greeting eachother warmly. I decided to change back into my shorts and crocs, as it was just too damn hot. The children - Grace, Wilsum, Irene, Daudi, Abduli and Godfrey - arrived with Joyce, then Elizabeth and her friend Judy [who always seems to look so sad] , later Dora and Hilda [Peter Makemo's eldest]. Water was put on the tables, later some sodas which I opened and poured out for whoever wanted them. After a while we decided we needed to get people eating so we took off the cling wrap and pot covers and invited everyone to help themselves. Tall Doudi arrived, along with Ali, a friend, whom we've met a couple of times before. James was quite late, and arrived with his cousin.
So music was playing, people were eating and drinking, it was a little on the subdued side, but the plates were piled high so noone was going hungry today, especially Loveness, who Sheryl swears must have returned for 2nds and 3rds, each plate as full as the last! Have noticed the men especially pile their plates high when eating at a buffet, I guess they need to fill their bellies when they can. Here the children eat everything without complaint, or being fussy as we know so many Aussie kids to be - no choice here, either you eat what's put in front of you, or you go hungry!
At one point, after most people had had their fill, James asked what was next for the ceremony, as if this was a big, formal occasion, as if we needed to make a speech, so we turned down the music and Sheryl welcomed everyone, thanked the Otakef staff for their huge help today, and with James as interpreter, said something like we hope 2012 will be a lot easier for the extremely hard working Joyce and Samwel, etc. Samwel then stood up - again James interpreted - and made a good, long speech, thanking us, welcoming us, saying we've been the only ones to assist NOCET, etc, to much applause.
We all settled down to relaxing, chatting, playing with the children, dancing - the young ladies Judy and Hilda showing a form of Tanzanian "line-dance" - taking photos - the children and young ladies delighted in "posing", asking us to take yet another photo and laugh and giggle at seeing the result on the camera screen; took footage of the kids doing the limbo. Isaac and his wife and young baby daughter arrived just as we were putting the salads into our fridge, but they had some of the food that was on the tables.
Time wore on, and James asked if there were any other formalities for the afternoon - no, haha, I said this was just a simple Christmas lunch, mainly for the children, and not a formal occasion - and we took all the food away, seeing that pretty much everyone had stopped eating, as well as the dishes and cutlery, pots, etc. We did the dishes in the kitchen, 2 sodas arrived with Stella, saying they were from Isaac. Finished the dishes, dried them, put as much of the crockery, cutlery, pots and pans away as possible; there was heaps of rice and makandi left over, as well as some chicken - I know what we'll be having for the rest of the week for dinner, haha! Also some fruit from the platter left over as well. Secretly hope the Otakef staff eat as much of that as possible for their lunches and dinners …
We returned, and took some pix for the website, and people started to leave. The kids, Joyce, Samwel and Loveness were last to leave, and we escorted them a short distance past the next door neighbours houses before saying our goodbyes. The extra tables and chairs had been returned to the laundryroom earlier on, so we didn't have anything else to do. Saw Judy and asked about drinks and how much we needed to pay - 2 large waters [TZS1200], 2 small waters [TZS600] and 24 x sodas [@ TZS700 each] = TZS20,400 [about AUD12.50!]. How cheap was that?! The 2nd crate of cold sodas was on Isaac. Lolly bags to Diana and Judy, as we had some left over.
We said our goodnight to Judy and Diana, and a few people left in the grassed area, to our room to have our lolly bags and cuppas. We were too full and decided not to have any dinner.
Monday, Boxing Day — Just like in Australia, it was a day of rest and getting over the day before! We decided we weren't going to move from Otakef, for noone and for nothing! have woken up with sunburn to my face and head.
A slow day, a light breakfast, and the day started off cool and overcast but it soon started to heat up as the sun burnt off the cloud. We caught up on emails and Sheryl did some work on the NOCET budget, trying to pin down what's what with school fees and uniforms, based on the latest info on the children fully and partially supported by NOCET. I also backed up the latest pix and videos, then chose pix to upload to Facebook as we've been asked by some people to do so as they are very curious. It took ages, and I also added captions to those pix.
Whilst I was finishing up Sheryl went with Judy to chose our next room, and started to move things in. I helped and then we also managed to move the fridge, and set up the room nicely. We now have a western toilet, but the globe in the bathroom doesn't work - tried replacing it with a few others, but they didn't work either - Judy will organise to buy a new one later on this afternoon. We relaxed more.
Time for lunch after 1pm, we had most of the leftover salads from yesterday, sharing with Judy on the grassed area. Nothing much to report on for the afternoon, just tried to keep cool and not do very much. Had dinner, again with Judy, reheated beans and maize on french toast - we braved the kitchen and Stella to make the french toast, tried to tempt Stella and Daudi to try it, but they didn't look all that convinced it was edible, haha.
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