Merry

Merry Christmas!!! Look towards a new year always makes me excited. I love setting goals, thinking of the new things that are ahead to experience and enjoy. I hope you all have felt peace and joy in this season....but I feel like many of you have felt stress and maybe a little bit of pressure from the busy-ness of this season?

Christmas is simple here. Dancing, Singing, Eating if you have food (our kitchen was empty so we didn't feast as my stomach longed to). I took a walk and heard a chorus of smiling children echoing my Christmas greeting, "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, How are You?" A mass of hands waving in the air as I walked further down the road looking back and smiling. I walked to another house that was having a party and danced in front of too many people who enjoyed watching the M'zungu dance. I love dancing so it was fun, but I didn't realize that the song was dedicated to me, which meant I had to dance alone, in front of everyone. The day was mainly uneventful until evening when we got together with Naomi, Joe and Matthew, my favorite people here, and played UNO. We laughed a lot and had a good time. We stayed up till Midnight just to get the fullness out of the day, half-asleep on the couches until we were allowed to go to bed.

We had only arrived back in Zambia on Monday morning from a crazy adventure to Tanzania to see Dar Es Salaam and Zanzibar. We spent over four of our days on buses but made up for it by snorkeling in the Indian Ocean, riding on a boat that looked like a pirate ship, and riding the waves of the ocean as though we were born for the sea kind of life. It's the natural things that are so amazing...the ocean, looking at zebra fish and strange coral things that seemed to be breathing and swallowing salt water...that's the good stuff! :) I ate prawns and rice and drank fresh coconut milk, mangoes sprinkled with Chili, Pineapple slices with chili, fresh papaya...basically it was my kind of heaven. We walked through markets that smelled of fresh cilantro, cucumber and peppers. Spices rose in the air, cinnamon tree bark piled on tables, curry powder, ginger, cardamon pods, cloves...Spices. Another rich world that I feel sorry so many are scared to go explore. It was amazing.