Friday, December 11, 2009

christmas tree


as promised here is a picture of our christmas tree.


i like christmas trees but not like some people. this year i just wanted a simple christmas tree. so i was inspired one day and i found some homemade green paper and used our fireplace screen to make our little tree. we hung the few ornaments on it and we even got a free stocking at a shop the other day! the little trees on the left side are made of wire and beads. dan got them for my birthday from the market.

-m

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving and the rainy season


It's weird how normal a day Thanksgiving was here. No parade, no pilgrims, not even a day off work. so we tried our best to make it feel like home. We got a turkey on Tuesday, which is a pretty normal thing to do, except that we had to keep her in the backyard because she was still alive (!). Our big splurge was a can of cranberry sauce imported from Canada (I won't even say how much it cost). We were even able to cook sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (but we should note that the sweet potatoes were white and the marshmallows were multicolored!). I was truly amazed at the spread we had, considering we were in Africa. My dad will be thrilled to find
out that after dinner our friend Julie read the story of the first thanksgiving, which is something my dad would definitely do. And I can't complain...it made me feel at home, and it was a nice history lesson for our Shona friends who joined us. Back to the turkey for a minute--on Thanksgivng morning I called our gardener over to help me slaughter our bird. It was a bit more gruesome than I expected, but I tried to make it as quick as possible. It was my first time killing anything bigger than a sunfish, and I feel a little more grown up having done it.

On a different note, the rainy season here has come, which is a big change from our first few months here. "Rainy season" doesn't mean it rains every day, like it does in some parts of the world. It just means there is a much better chance of rain than during the dry season. So far it has rained three times, but each rain lasted for a few days. Somestimes it rains gently nonstop, and sometimes we get intense 30-minutes storms. In any case, we are grateful, because things are turning from brown to green, and the farmers we teach now have the opportunity to put it into practice. And we just love storms!! To be fair, rain has its downfalls...like hidden potholes, crazier traffic, and muddy floors. I like to sing the line from Andrew Peterson's song, referring to our complaints about rain: "Do you thank the Lord for coming up with such a great idea?" I hope so.

-Dan