How was Christmas? Um, memorable!

I attempted to write up a description of it in my journal this morning, but there really aren’t sufficient words to describe the past couple of days.  Thursday was dominated by our complete inability to cook spaghetti over 4 different types of fires (charcoal, paraffin, camping stove, and wood).  Christmas day was an extravaganza of stuffing ourselves silly (at Nkhotakota Pottery as well as successfully cooking chili, rice, and tortillas on a wood fire), plus entertaining modes of transportation.  Riding crowded into the back of a truck in the pouring rain, when it’s raining so hard you can’t even keep your eyes open?  Memorable.  Sitting next to trussed up livestock?  Memorable.  Watching people climb over walls and have some close calls with candles?  Memorable.  Well, I want to have plenty of time to find transportation to my site, so I’d better get going soon.

By the way, thanks for the mail and packages I’ve received from some of you!  FYI, packages tend to arrive in clumps (I just got 3 of them, even though they were sent months apart).  It’s much cheaper for you to send (and easier for me to transport back to my site) the big envelopes rather than the big boxes.  I think it’s about $15 versus $50.  Especially since I’m so close to Lilongwe, there’s nothing that I absolutely need from America, but anything you choose to send will make me smile.  Hope you all have had a fantastic Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

So I had a beautful post all written up and ready to post, but then I forgot to put it on my flash drive.  Guess you’ll just have to wait until next time.  The brief version is I’m settling it at site and things are going pretty well so far.  No chicken issues.  I’m off to Nkhotakota (near the lake) to spend Christmas with some friends.  With any luck, I’ll be able to post again in a few days.  If not, next month!  Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!