Christmas Day

Happy Christmas to everyone. I am almost, but not quite, embarrassed to tell you about my day, with all the reports about the cold weather you have been having.

When I woke up, I found a stocking outside my door, a custom started by Miriam and ably carried out by Moses and Mohamed. It was filled with a variety of goodies, sweets, a rubber, post it notes, a small necklace and a bar of soap along with three photo frames from Ikea. The other sock was in there as well, that's part of the present.
We had the radio on playing non stop Christmas carols to put us in the mood.

In case the personel here are confusing you, let me explain first. Miriam was married to Alhassan and has a son Kofi who is now 5. Alhassan was killed in an accident this summer but his family live in the house next to the school, as do the 6 college boys who are ex pupils who go to the University but live in here. There are also some pupils who literally have nowhere else to go, so there were 28 of us in residence altogether. Miriam and Kofi are having a well deserved holiday in Spain at the moment.

Back to Christmas day. Christmas is a family time here as at home and we stayed as a big family group for the day. the tables and chairs were set out in a big square on the middle floor which is light and airy and we had breakfast with rolls and tea. The rolls were filled with a mixture of tinned sardines, spam chunks, onion and spices, which I know sounds horrible but was actually delicious. There were two buckets of tea, one with sugar and a much smaller one without.

After breakfast we all sat in the cooking area outside and everyone pitched in with making the dinner(I was taking the photos). This involved peeling and slicing vast quantities of onions, cooking fish and chicken in spices and drying the small red peppers before they were added as well. The rice was then sifted through to get rid of any husks. It was lovely and tasty. I was given two bits of chicken which I ate and a piece of fish which I'm afraid I didn't because it was a whole fish-head and I could imagine it looking at me.

The best bit of the day was after lunch. I had put a dress on for the morning but changed into shorts and sleeveless top for the beach. I took a taxi down to the end of the road with Mohamed and then we walked for about a mile down to the beach. By the time we got there, the others had caught up, they are young and walk fast!. The boys played a rather vigorous game of football interspersed with lying in the water while I paddled up and down. My shorts got very wet but they soon dried. The beach looks remarkably like Burnham with a long sweep of sand ending in a headland. Another walk and taxi ride back, followed by a cold shower completed the afternoon.

The rest of the day was spent resting and working in the evening. I still have a lot of resources to produce so today will be spent typing as well. It is Mohamed's graduation party tonight and apparently I am expected to dance!! and tomorrow we go to another, nicer beach a bit further away because we can use the car and Alhassan's mother will come with us.

I will post again sometime this week.

Best wishes, Pat