Jingle Bells

Christmas is the event for love, family gatherings and good food. Although I first thought that Christmas might turn out to be a complete fiasco including homesickness, my worries were soon be extinguished.

The girls from Tanga invited me over a few weeks ago. They wanted to celebrate at the studenthouse in Tanga and wanted me to join them.

Sadly, I had to say goodbye to Anna on Sunday as she was flying back home before Christmas. I hate goodbyes in general especially when you got really close to that person. I was together with Anna every single day for the last few month, we actually lived together and spent most of our time with each other. That is why it was not easy to say goodbye but nevertheless, we can still meet in Germany.

As I arrived in Tanga in the evening I was really exhausted and starving. The seven-hours-drive can seem quite long considering that one can only read or sleep. Luckily the girls welcomed me heartily and took care to make some food. Although there was so much to gossip about we all went to bed early as we wanted to be fresh for the next morning.

On Monday I was invited to join Lena, Ele and Leo to go to the Comforty which is an orphanage in Tanga. The three of them had been working there for a few weeks now and because they they were supposed to take complete care of the kids for a certain time they had to think of different games every day. Together we played cards, hide and seek we romped around and finally had a game of football. I had a lot of fun to play with the kids and run around like a lunatic. Also, the kids loved it whenever someone paid them some attention and spent time with them. Unfortunately, I cannot run around with the kids in Morogoro like that or play any wild physical games because of their disabilities. After that day I was sweaty, tired and full of dust but nevertheless happy. We called Lucas to pick us up. Lucas is the personal bajaji driver of the girls. Because he is good friends with the lady who runs the studenthouse there he always has good prices. He is not only reliable and drives the girls around 24 hours a day he also has a built-in stereosystem in that little bajaji. Ele and I decided that we really wanted to try and drive a bajaji as it could not be that difficult to do so. When we arrived at the studenthouse we asked Lucas to show us how to operate the tuktuk. One might not think so but it was actually quite hard to get that thing moving! There is a clutch and the vehicle also has gears but both are located at the handlebar. People who are used to driving a car will find it difficult to coordinate both. Nevertheless, I managed to drive up the street a little.

As I mentioned it before christmas is supposed to be an event with really good food. Of course we did not want to miss out on that. That is why the girls had planned a huge dinner consisting from four different menues which needed to be cooked. On the menu there was bruschetta with salade, jacket potatoes with guacamole, tzaziki and couscous, grilled fish and vegetables and as a dessert chocolate crossies and mango-passionfruit sorbet. There should even be an alcoholic punch for the evening containing local fruit.

So on Tuesday we had to do our christmas shopping. By this time in Germany there would be pushing and shuffling as everyman and his dog was trying to get as much food in the house as possible. Luckily, we missed out on that issue this year. As a group we marched up and down the aisles of the tiny supermarket looking for stuff we had noted down on our endless shopping list. On our way home we dropped by the market to get fruits and vegetables and for the spirits we stopped at the wine shop around the corner. Now we were ready for Christmas to come!

On the 24th we all got out of bed early because we had a lot to do. Anna, Ele and Leo had agreed to go out and fetch some of the goods that needed to be fresh such as yoghurt and fish. In the meantime, Jin-Ah, Lena and I started to chop the fruits and to put them in the vodka. While we were working on tons of fruit Christmas carols were humming in the background. After we filled the huge water-canister up with punch and fruits we attended the vegetables. Soon, the others returned from their shopping so we were preparing the salads in the dining room parallel to the dessert in the kitchen.

Thankfully, Jin-Ah took care of the fish. Without hesitation she grabbed the slippery animal, gutted it, scaled it and finally cut it into pieces. In the afternoon we eventually finished the preparations for our dinner. Anna who got a parcel from her parents the other day donated a whole box full of christmas decoration. By now, we were making great progress on the skill for improvising. With plasters and pieces of string we hung up little paper stars and snowflakes, we decorated the mirror with tinsel and draped a fairy-light across the wall. We even had proper napkins with a christmas theme on them and perfumed candles! As we were finished the whole setting looked quite authentic.

Of course we all had dinner together including the women of our organisation who run the place.There was so much food I did not know where to start as everything was a pure delight. Unfortunately, the Africans did not like our food. Nevertheless, we did not let that interfere with our joy. Since I was in Tanzania I have not had such a nice dinner! It was so much fun preparing it for hours, laughing and giggling with all the girls and finally sit down and enjoying what we created.

Before we had the dessert we still had some presents to give to each other. Previously, weh ad talked about doing a secret Santa so everyone had wrapped up a little present in all sorts of material (plastic bags, newspaper, notepaper…). As I undid the package given to me I found a pretty Kanga in there which Leo had picked for me. The words on it said something like “May God blessyou“. I was so pleased about my present because I never came round of looking for a Kanga so I did not have one before. Also, this Kanga would be a nice memory for when I get home. Although we had planned to take the punch and drive to the beach we decided to do that the next day. We rather went to the football pitch up the road and relaxed. While playing games like spin-the-bottle, things-I-have-never-done or card games we drank the punch and watched shooting stars. Although this christmas was completely different to the christmas I am used to it was just perfect. Aside from the heat we had such a good time enjoying the company I hardly missed home.

We made up for our trip to the beach the next day. Lucas picked us up and dropped us offat the Yachtclub. There we relaxed, layed in the sun and played games of card. We had to be back at the studenthouse in the late-afternoon as the women had planned to prepare their christmas dinner today. As always it still took several hours for the dinner to be ready. Again there were piles of food but this time it was all african. Different souces with meat and cooking bananas was what we had that day. Nevertheless, our dinner the day before was still a thousand times better.

On the second christmas day Ele and Leo had their last day at the Comforty. Because they wanted to spent the rest of their time on Zanzibar they had told the manager of the orphanage so. She had invited the two girls and me to come to a farewell dinner at her home on Thursday. I thought it was really nice of her to ask me to come, too as she did not even know me. Of course I did not want to miss out on this so on Thursday I joined the girls on their way tot he Comforty. With the whole bunch of children we took a dalladalla tot he house of the manager. Her daughter was already preparing a big menu for us. There was meat, vegetables and potatoes baked in a crispy coat. Of course we ate only with our finger and traditionally the girls had to introduce themselves to the men present. To let the food settle we moved tot he living room after dinner to watch a film with the kids. In the end I took a last group photo and we all went back tot he Comforty. Back in the orphanage Ele and Leo gave the children little presents such as ballons, sweets and self-made folders. Every little one held a speech thanking the girls and also the manager said a few words. I thought that this small ceremony was quite moving knowing that at the Amani Centre nobody would go to those measures because of me.

The rest of the days we spent at the Yachtclub. We had lunch there, enjoyed the sun and had a swim in the water. A little of the shore there was a raft. Ever since we wanted to swim there and today that day had come. We jumped in the sea and swam to the wooden planks floating on the water. There we stayed for a little while because it was nice and quiet. As the sun was setting we kept jumping into the water at full blast trying to splash the wate ras high as possible screaming and squealing with joy.

Considering that it is still freezing cold in Germany and it is just a few days after christmas this whole scene seems rather funny. Nevertheless, I do not think I could have wished for a better christmas: I had all the girls around, we had a fantastic dinner and of course a lot of fun!