Holiday Medley Catch-up

I am sorry that I have been so far behind on posting. Things always get a little hectic toward the end of the year, even here in Tanzania.

I was so excited about having a new companion at home that I forgot to share with you a little taste of Halloween this year. I just stayed in Njombe and hung out with a few friends. I took advantage of all the wonderful seamstresses in this country at my disposal and had them make me a custom costume. That’s right, me and every 4 year old in America went as Elsa from Frozen for Halloween.

Elsa

 After Halloween, life was filled with study guides, quizzes and practice questions to prepare students for NECTA’s and annual exams. My district had a little bit later schedule than most, so my friends decided that they would come to me for Thanksgiving. It was just a small crowd of us and we decided to make it festive, so I dug up a small conifer (that my neighbor had planted as an economic investment), put it in a bucket with some dirt and decorated it with paper snowflakes.  This year, we decided to go big, slaughtering 2 chickens and cooking them different ways: one was baked with lemon pepper seasoning and the other was cut into parts and fried. The chicken 2 ways was accompanied by mashed potatoes and gravy, fruit salad and homemade wheat bread and brownies for dessert.

A spread fit for kings (or starving volunteers)

Zane building my fuel efficient stove

We did it!

No holiday is complete without drinking and games

Our lovely little tree. complete with lights

Happy Holidays from Tanzania!

We fried the chicken on my newly built fuel-efficient jiko that uses firewood. Firewood get’s much hotter than charcoal so is ideal for frying.  We got the wood jiko stoked and hot, but then had time to kill before starting the chicken (we were waiting for the bread to cook), so we decided to take advantage of the extra fry batter and had a fry fest! We battered and fried everything we could… garlic, bananas, pineapple, brownies, onion rings, cheese, the list goes on! The best combination was to put a pineapple chunk, cheese and an onion slice on a toothpick, batter it and fry it. It tasted like a pineapple pizza!

Lauren frying up somthing

Pineapple Pizza Kabob!

Fried Cheese. Yum

I rang in the new year on Zanzibar once again (what can I say, the party just can’t be beat!) We wandered the beautiful town of Stone Town and went crazy buying muumuus, then spent the remainder of our days swimming and enjoying the beaches. A perfect, beautiful vacation.

Mimosas and cinnamon rolls

lovely ladies having a lovely New Years morning

Cheers!

Nungwi village in Zanzibar

My holidays in Tanzania are different than in America. It’s not cold, no lights hanging anywhere or Christmas Decorations in yards. I don’t hear holiday music everywhere I go, which means there is no real reminder that it’s the holidays. It just feels like another day spent in a beautiful country with amazing friends. Surrounding yourself with people that you are about is the meaning on the holidays, and that’s exactly what I did.