Happy Holidays (12/25/2005)

It is almost evening of Christmas day, and although it may not be Christmas for many of you it still does not really feel like Christmas here. There are 11 peace corps volunteers gathering at Alex's place and last night we heard Christmas carols from the family below but did not join in, instead we watched the Simpsons and Family Guy Christmas Specials on Divx. This morning we listened to a couple of Christmas songs before quickly moving to other music. Midday we made my family's eggnogg recipe which was delicious but there was only enough that I could only have one cup. By the way many people thought eggnog should have rum not whisky but when giving the side by side taste test whisky is the winner (at least for my family's recipe 'nog). But just because the essence of Christmas is somehow escaping us we are still having a wonderful time having omeletes with fresh pineapple and incredible hot pepper sauce, and baked goods around the clock. It is different than home because at our Tanzanian Christmas we sit out on the deck in t-shirts and move in when it gets too hot nibbling on food and sipping drinks. I miss home Chrismasses of carolling large complete meals followed by munching on left overs. And I think the warm weather makes it particularly hard for me to think it is Christmas. I am staring at Mt. Kilomanjaro the highest mountain in Africa and it has almost no snow. Aside from family (and friends) one of the best parts of Portland is being able to look out on the horizon and view at least one snow capped mountain.
Later,
T.