Krismasi Njema!
on It began in Africa (Kenya), 16/Dec/2011 07:31, 34 days ago
Our second Christmas in Kenya is a little unexpected: we'd originally planned to be home around now but with Ed's contract still having another five months to run, here we are. To be honest, it's kind of sneaked up on us because it feels extremely un-Christmassy here: after weeks of rain the sun is back with a vengeance and my nose has resumed its perpetual Rudolph-like hue. The smart shopping malls have Christmas trees and fake snow, the kids are off school, but there is none of the hype or build-up that's so exhausting back home and to be honest it would be easy to forget that it's Christmas at all. At least until my brother arrived, like an artfully-scruffy hard-drinking mullet-sporting Santa, laden with cards and gifts from our families:Wow, huh? We are two extremely spoiled volunteers. The umbrella-Christmas-tree was my brother Sam's idea and is frankly ingenious. For those who don't know him here is our very own unorthodox Santa Claus kicking back with his mate Vinnie on their recent visit (Sam is the one sans tache):Much as Ed and I love Kenya and are having an amazing experience here, given half a chance we would love to whiz home for a few days over Christmas, put up our feet by a warm fire, relish wearing proper jumpers and eat and drink a mountain of rich food. Most important of all we'd like to give our family and friends enormous hugs and tell them how much we love them and miss them.As we can't do that we'll settle for saying here thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last year - whether with emails, visits, emergency accommodation, employment, cash, hugs, skype calls, photos, gifts or just reading our blog. It's the season for cheese so we can even add that without your support we genuinely wouldn't be here having these amazing experiences, so thank you.Of course that also goes for all the lovely people we've met here too, whose support and good cheer goes a long way to keeping us on track. Here's two prime examples, Helen and Dan, who treated us to cocktails and sparkling wine at an absurdly posh hotel overlooking Nairobi Safari Park to celebrate our engagement/ Ed's Birthday/ Life:With the festive season bringing out our homesickness a little it's lucky we're going away for Christmas and New Year to Ethiopia. Why lucky? Because Ethiopia operates on theGe-ezor Coptic calendar, so their Christmas is celebrated on 12th January and their new year in September, thus allowing us to entirely bypass the whole shebang. Ethiopia is also an amazing country: they claim the Queen of Sheba as their girl, reckon they have the Ark of the Covenant stashed away (hat and whip are packed) and are probably the oldest continuous civilisation in sub-Saharan Africa, never-colonised and proudly independent. They also love coffee due to a brief Italian flirtation that ended badly for Mussolini. We can't wait to tell you all about it when we're back.Until then, Merry Christmas (or Krismasi Njema in Swahili) and Happy New Year and thanks for reading. We love you!