Christmas in Addis
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 28/Dec/2009 15:17, 34 days ago
I had a most magical Christmas in Addis this year. It was one of those great times where you are so happy you can’t possibly wish to be anywhere else... you just wish all your friends and family could be there too so they could join in on the fun! I took Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off work and actually got a free lift to Addis in the university bus Wednesday after work.Christmas EveChristmas Eve I got up bright and early as I was staying with Nancy who had to go to work. It was a beautiful crisp morning and unusually for this time of year I could even see my own breath. The way that the early morning sun bounced off the dew in the garden also made it look like frost. I had a lazy morning, reading the paper etc. but because I got up so early I was actually finished being lazy and ready to hit the shops by 9am! I ordered a custom made T-shirt as a Secret Santa present for Jamie and was amused by the fact that I would be able to pick it up at midday tomorrow (Christmas day). I also bought myself a lovely Christmas scarf (red tartan) and then headed to an expensive‘Ferengi’ supermarket called Bambis to do the Christmas food shopping. In the supermarket (which is one of the biggest in Addis but not much bigger than a Tesco Express) they were blasting out Christmas tunes and I felt like I was back home. My phone battery died and I was pleasantly surprised when a shop assistant offered to find a suitable charger from upstairs and plug it in to charge while I shopped! It was a good thing too as my shopping list from Joanne was in a text. I was under instructions to get lots of things we normally can’t afford such as cheese, sausages and chicken. We all put money into a kitty and managed to have the most indulgent Christmas meal ever (no exaggeration) for about£5 each (including beer and wine).  In the evening a bunch of us headed to St Matthews (the Anglican Church in Addis) for a Carol Service. If it had felt like England last week it felt even more so now. Amazing... like stepping in a portal and ending up in England. It was a candle lit service and it was beautiful. As well as an impressive choir (including Jamie and Mary), some lovely carols and a good sermon some of the highlights included a toddler who was mimicking the conductor and a teenager who set light to her hair during the service! After the service they served mulled wine and homemade biscuits and I revelled in thefact that it was cold enough to wear a T-shirt, jumper, fleece, scarf and boots. We then went to a lovely pizzeria for a really late dinner. What a great day!Christmas DayWith our body clocks set to early we did well to stay in bed until about 7.30. 5 of us were staying at Nancy’s and we agreed to all put something into stockings for each other. So we while we ate banana pancakes with maple syrup we opened up our stockings (otherwise known as Nancy’s walking socks). They were great stockings! After breakfast we lazed about a bit before starting to make Christmas Hats and Christmas Crackers. The boys did a great job of making up some cheesy cracker style jokes with an Ethiopian theme. I think my favourite one was‘’ what do you call someone who drinks fizzy water with both hands?’’– the answer:‘Ambodextrus’. Ambo, my new home town is home to Ethiopia’s only fizzy water plant and the fizzy water is called, unsurprisingly‘AMBO’. The others (12 in total) arrived at about 11am with the rest of the food shopping and we got cooking. David was in charge of the meat and Mary took the lead with the vegetables but others contributed their Christmas specialities. I made sweet potato soufflé and sausage stuffing. Nancy made a great bread sauce. Joanne made a lovely mozzarella and tomato starter. Adam and Jillian made a delicious quiche starter as well as some homemade crostini with onion marmalade from Harrods! We also had leeks, courgettes, carrots, spinach, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, sausages and possibly the biggest treat, cauliflower and cheese! What a feast!In between courses we danced to cheesy tunes from Davids laptop (I think the neighbours thought we were nuts), opened our Secret Santa presents and listened to Adam and Jillian sing a special version of the 12 days of Christmas written for the occasion. Then came the Christmas pudding and brandy butter! Yum Yum! We were very lucky that someone kindly donated a Christmas pud to our group after they were given several from some visitors. And as if we weren’t already so stuffed we could hardly breathe we then had cheese and biscuits.The late afternoon and evening was passed happily with clearing up, playing all sorts of party games and people dashing off to other rooms to talk to family back home. Somehow we continued this until about 1am! It was such a great atmosphere.