Here there was no family, so it didn't feel like Christmas, but I loved it all the same.
Christmas Day started out with going to Neema House to give the babies their morning snack at 8am and then watching Christmas music videos on the TV. Then it was back home to talk to my family briefly before all of us volunteers went to church. There are six of us here at the moment - Kelly and Betsy are from the United States and Bim, Stina and Lovisa are all from Sweden.
Church was lovely, complete with carols (something I had missed about Christmas this year) and a short message about the three wise men and how it is never too late to come to Jesus.
After church we came back to Neema and fed the babies their lunch and then gave them a bath. I spent that time feeding Baby Maxine, who is three months old now and since she reached 6lbs last week, has been moved out of isolation into the small baby room. The babies had a bath earlier in the day than usual because we wanted to dress them up in Christmas outfits. They ended up looking very sweet!
Baby Maxine didn't want to be put down even though there was 18 babies that needed to be bathed!
Christmas clothes!
Photo credit: Stina Granfors
It took five people working as fast as we could to get 18 babies into place for the group photo.
Photo credit: Stina Granfors
Finally - all of them sitting down at the same time!
Photo credit: Stina Granfors
Michael, Angelous & Gloria
Photo credit: Stina Granfors
Photo credit: Stina Granfors
Sweet Maxine
Photo credit: Stina Granfors
Ebenezer
Photo credit: Stina Granfors
Once the babies were in bed it was time for Christmas lunch - buffet style which the nannies loved. Lunch was rice, chicken, beef, vegetables, cookies and soda. The chicken was very fresh - it had been given to Neema as a gift on Christmas Eve and was only killed on the morning of the lunch!
On Christmas Eve, Jackie and Rehema, two of the Neema nannies invited Kelly and I to go and visit their houses on Christmas Day. Recently we have had a lot of donations of clothes that are far too big for our babies at Neema, which we had set aside in a big box to take to Aston and his children. We picked out a couple of items for each of Jackie and Rehema's children and took them with us. It was so lovely to see how happy the children were with their new clothes and lollipops. Jackie and Rehema both said that all children are very happy on Christmas Day.
What Kelly and I didn't take into account was that at both houses they would want to feed us. We ate pilau, salad and fresh fruit and had soda at Jackie's house first. Benny, who is 4 and Jennifer, Jackie's 12-year-old house-girl put their new clothes on right away. Then they all came with us to Rehema's where we ate more pilau, had some cabbage and drank more soda.
Benny, Joyce, Freddy, Noel and Jennifer wearing their new clothes.
Jackie and Rehema with their children.
I have been to several of the nannies homes since I have been here, but it is always a sobering experience. How I live here in Arusha is nothing like how the majority of Tanzanians live. It makes me wonder if I could do it. In theory I probably would say I could, but really? Walking to get water every day, never having enough food, going to bed when it gets dark because there is no electricity? I don't know.
When we made it back to the house it was time to cook and get the house ready for our fourth, final and biggest meal of Christmas. The new directors of Neema and their children came to eat with us and we all made food that was either from our country or that we would usually eat at Christmas time. I made lamingtons - I know, Australian rather than New Zealand, but I wasn't brave enough to try to make a pav!
We decorated the table and had a lovely meal. Altogether it was a lovely Christmas day, even if we did eat four Christmas dinners within 6 hours and even though it was a lot different from any I have ever had before!
Christmas dinner.
xoxo,
-Hannah
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