It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...?

Well, Christmas somewhere. Like here, for instance. It's a bit surreal sweating and listening to Christmas carols. And my snowmen look suspiciously out of place here, as do my snowflake window clings. But Christmas means a tree, don'tcha know. I could have brought my 7 foot beautiful evergreen along with me. I could run over to Shoprite and spend $8 on a crummy little fakey tree. But why would I do that? I could do this instead...

It's a baobab tree. Made from banana leaves. And shellacked. My houseworker and gardener clearly think I've gone 'round the bend. Why wouldn't I have a "real" tree?! But we all love it. We brought some ornaments from home and I bought some lights today. It took about 5 minutes to decorate the thing and the kids were very excited to see it all lit up tonight. Along with a few other Christmas tchotchkes, we're ready for the big day.

Christmas here is very...eclectic. Expats from all the different countries have their own Christmas celebrations, the wealthier Tanzanians adopt many of our traditional elements of the holidays, and most Tanzanians don't really celebrate at all except for a special church service and a maybe a bigger meal on the day. Since the new school year starts in January here, most children's gifts are shoes or clothes or a new uniform, if they get anything. Wealthier children will get fancy dresses or clothes to show off at church (like we do at Easter) or toys. Without the malls, the ads, and all the commericial reminders of Christmas, things have been very low key here. No one has asked for anything really, although Ava has asked if Santa comes to Africa and expressed some concern at the lack of a chimney and the fact that we have bars on the windows and doors. Gifts have arrived from family in the States, but we have hidden them away and not told them anything. I'm sure some people (read: Noah) will be a bit anxious as the day draws nearer and the tree is suspiciously bare underneath. Mark has tried before to get me to keep all the presents hidden until Christmas Day, but I couldn't do it. It was too much fun watching the anticipation. I think this year, though, it'll be so great because on one level the just know there'll be something, but they haven't been at all preoccupied with planning what they'll be wanting and getting. As with everything else here, we'll just have to wait and see.

Even my phone is ringing "Jingle Bells"!