Kuwa na Krismasi njema (Merry Christmas)

Happy Holidays to everyone! We’ve had a pretty flat out week with all the Christmas celebrations and partying we’ve been up to. We kicked off the working week with a half day at the hospital, now you might be thinking that’s typical, skiving off work, but it was the boss of the hospital, Doctor Sister Lyimo or Sister Doctor Lyimo that took us to her village in Keruwa. The trip in the hospital jeep took about 30 minutes just to get to the part of the main road, where it turns to dirt track. Once on the dirt track, it didn’t really matter where you were seated in the car when we started, as we just bounced about, landing and bouncing up again, most of the trip we were airborne. Sister Lyimo’s house was at the top of a huge hill completely surrounded by banana and coffee trees, so much serenity.

Sister Lyimo looking magestic

As we arrived we realized that there was a huge setup there with about a hundred people outside under a tarp, all yarning and carrying on. We were brought into the house with all the sisters, now you might be thinking, how boring, but these sisters could party. They were all on the lash, which was a local beer made from banana and millet. It looked like a chocolate smoothie, which I was hoping it was, but tasted like banana mash mixed with ham juice; Juliet couldn’t get enough of the stuff. The sisters were inside because they didn’t want the community to see them wasted. Lunch was served around 3 and I was starving. As I usually do I piled as much food onto my plate as possible, and just to top it off I added a traditional dish that was a stew with green bananas and meat, and poured the sauce over everything. Grace (the hospital administrator) was behind me in the line and asked me if I liked that dish, I said yea, love it, ignorantly, she said “oh, they make sauce with intestines”; game over, I realized my entire plate now smelt like a barn. The rest of the meal was a salvage mission.

The party animals

On the local lash

Sister Machuwa, this sister is so much fun.

After the meal, the nuns had to retire to a room to sober up and sleep, so Grace, Juliet and I hit the scene outside. I’ve felt like a celebrity loads of times, but this really took the cake. There were hands flying left, right, and centre at me to shake; Juliet was a big hit too, it pains me to say probably bigger than me, she even had a fan club that just stared at her. One guy who had very few teeth sat himself down next to her and just yarned constantly at her in a mixture of bad English and Swahili. We realized pretty quickly that everyone was wasted and had been drinking since the early morning; so I jumped on board, warms beers and church wine all round. As it started to get dark Juliet started to worry that we might never leave, especially when some African club bangers came on, and I had to get up to dance. Just as I was starting to kill it on the D-floor the power went off, and Juliet took the very smart opportunity to ask to leave before our drivers hit the piss.

Juliet and one of her fan club

Grace & I (caught her in an rare non smiling pose)

Juliet's biggest fan, this handshake lasted about 10 minutes

On the D-floor readying to fist pump

Christmas Eve was very slow at the hospital, natural births were still evading us; there were even twins born the night before which we missed. The wards were basically empty, and there were no scheduled surgeries so we headed home. Eric who is a Canadian living in Moshi, was at our place when we got there, and Eva had set up all the decorations and a Christmas tree, and he was cooking dinner for us. It was a stinking hot day, so we listened to carols and drank beer in the sun all afternoon.

Juliet, Deo, and Voice

Christmas Day we organized to go to church with Deo; he dropped off a goat to the house which he had called Nick after me. He told us on the way to church that he was a Pentecost which for all you heathens, is the branch of the church that does the yelling, speaking in tongues, and divine healing among other things. It was an experience in so many ways, if for nothing else but to see the things people wore to church. Families wear matching gears and all the woman dress like Disney princesses and have unbelievable braids in their hair. The pastor almost deafened me with his yelling as I was right by a speaker, and I could hear Deo laughing at me, because I just clapped when everyone else clapped because I didn’t understand a word, and yelled “Amen” and “Hallelujah” at the wrong times. There wasn’t much speaking in tongues or divine healing being done because of the Christmas period, but Deo said it makes most Sunday mornings rather entertaining.

Me looking "like my mum dressed me" for Church according to Juliet
Fi would know better, i dressed myself

When we got back from Church, Nick (the goat) was in pieces, literal pieces. Joseph our Swahili teacher was a butcher in his youth so he’d slaughtered the goat for Christmas dinner. The goat was prepared in the traditional Chagga way, which meant the heart and all its organs were place in the intestine with a whole lot of spices, and the testicles in the sack were filled with a whole lot of spices too, and thrown into a pot to boil. Only the men are allowed to eat the testicles though, so Juliet missed out, lucky me! The rest of the goat was thrown on the barbeque, and you dipped it into a dipping sauce of lime, tomato, red onion, and chili peppers. The only tolerable bit of the goat to eat was the testicles, just joking, they were foul, it was the leg or ribs dipped in that sauce. The goat was only the entrée, the girls had been cooking up a storm inside and at about 4pm we ate like kings. I had to go for a walk after dinner I had eaten so much, Deo and Juliet were in the same boat so we walked down to Msamaria orphanage. We had a whole lot of balloons, bouncy balls and party stuff that my Aunty Glen had donated to hand out. The kids and Mama Msamaria were down in the dumps when we got there, we found out that the orphanage had been robbed the night before on Christmas Eve. Someone had broken in and stolen 150 chickens which is how the orphanage makes money to buy food for the kids. The presents did cheer them up though, and we played a bit of football too.

Joseph; the butcher and Swahili teacher

The Chagga haggis

Obligatory Christmas food pic

Christmas Dinner from left Eric, Voice, Deo, Juliet, and Eva

Augustino & I playing with the balloons at the Orphanage

Boxing day we had been invited to Grace’s house to have another big eating day. Our Australian and Swedish friends Emma and Julia joined us and we headed to Graces. We watched some absolute classics; but it was an emotional rollercoaster of an afternoon. We watched Titanic, Ghost, and then Original Sin. I’d said I liked Serengeti Beer to Grace and she had stocked her fridge, so she kept bringing them out, so I was cut early into Titanic; why didn’t Jack get on the door with Rose? Why did Patrick Swayze have to die in Ghost and in real life? Why am I watching Original Sin with a very religious Christian woman and her young son? Juliet and I had our latest night out, and were home around 11pm, bender!

Grace's helper, Emily, Juliet, Julia and Grace at Grace's Boxing Day feed

Next week is our last week in the hospital, it has gone so fast. We will probably spend it camped out for the most part in the labour ward maybe even sleeping there, in our eternal search for a natural birth. I don’t really know why I want to see it; I’m worried I might be screaming more than the mother, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Our plan for the next few weeks is completely up in the air after the hospital, we are currently planning, watch this space!

It's been hot in Moshi, so this one is for the ladies. No pool, so i've had to make do.

Happy Holidays everyone and I hope everyone has a safe and fun/loose New Year.

Love Nick + Juliet