Shaloom Mission: CHRISTMAS 2014 (pre-celebration)

Merry Christmas!!

This Christmas season was very different from last year! There was no big gathering at the Fortes home, and our regional superior was needed at one of our remote SMA parishes "in the bush", so we didn't have a celebration in our regional house either. I decided I wanted to do something to celebrate Christmas with our neighbors. I found a nice little artificial Christmas tree in the market. I had bought some pretty homemade ornaments at our local charity craft fair last month, and there were just enough to decorate the tree nicely. I made a garland chain using construction paper, and one of the previous lay missionaries who lived in my house had left a set of lights. Perfect! I was very pleased!!

The Saturday before Christmas Mama Ana came to my house about 10:30am and began to prepare a Tanzanian meal. Although we only prepared a traditional rice dish, beef in gravy and a cabbage dish, we weren't finished until almost 2pm! Most everything was done outside. Mama Ana is used to cooking over an open charcoal fire, so that is how she cooked the rice. It is possible to buy packaged rice here in the supermarket that has already been cleaned but it's much more expensive. We used the basic rice which needs to be cleaned to pick out the stones and other foreign objects, and then washed to get rid of the sand. A special pilau seasoning is added to the rice after it's cooked, which gives it a unique taste. This dish is prepared and served by the local women on all special occasions here in Tanzania. Dinner would have taken much longer, had I done all of this myself! I did help in the kitchen with the beef, gravy and cabbage. After all of our guests had eaten, Mama Ana and Mama Dani even washed the dishes outside! We all tend to do things in ways that are familiar to us.

Ana crushes garlic

Mama Ana washes the rice

Mama Ana cooks pilau

Kelement supervised as I cut the cabbage

Together, Mama Ana & I cook the meat and cabbage

After dinner, Corine played her flute and we all tried to sing Christmas carols in English. I was the only American in the group so the songs that were most familiar to me were a bit of a challenge for the Dutch in the group, and especially for the Tanzanians. Fortunately, Mara brought song books from the chapel and everyone did their best. We did have a nice time. A few gifts were even left under the tree so Ana tried reading the name tags and distributed the gifts one by one. It was very special to see the delightful expressions on the children's faces when they saw the Christmas tree lit up and the shiny gifts underneath. This was something very unfamiliar to them.