Sophie in Africa

It is funny, of all the volunteer blog's I've read no one has ever written about chrstmas and new year. Why? Of course I'm gonna tell you how my christmas was! Firstly, I never really got in the Christmas-mood here, and not mainly because of the weather. No decorations, no songs, no stories, no candy, nothing. Not even the sunday services are different. Also, christmas here is celebrated on the 25th so the 24th is just like a normal day. But my day turned out to be not normal at all, since we had a visitor coming. A friend of Emmanuel's from Arusha had a visitor, a girl from France, and they came on the 24th for a couple of hours to visit the centre and see the kids. We ran around in Namanga collecting kids (since it is holiday) to come to school and then sat there and waited for them. This was the first white person I talked to in Tanzania which felt pretty strange. She also had some gifts with her which I hope we can usenext term in a good way. Anything to develop the school! One thing more, the man from Arusha was a safariguide and I told him about the one I booked. He then said that I was really lucky to get such a cheap safari with a good company. Of course I was pleased to hear that.

 

Then, on the 25th, of couse we firstly went to church. I had to present myself in fromt of everyony which was a little weir since I have been here for some weeks now. They had a little decoration in church but not much. And also, during the day, I noticed that christmas is not a big celebration. People might wear better clothes, but they eat kind of the same food and act pretty like normal. We had made a cake the evening before (they can make cakes without ovens!) and ate that on christmas day with some visitors. I also was at a christening for some kids at the school. There mum is a single parent so that's wy they got christend so late, the church sometimes has some problems with that. That made me so angry to hear.

 

So, conclusion: my christmas was pretty boring. In a way it was nice not to feel the stress and not have to hear the same christmas songs that I know by heart anyway, but it felt strange kind of not to celebrate christmas for one year. I think I will enjoy it even more next year instead.