Well, first of all, I’d like to ask how on earth it got to be Christmas time already? When did that happen? One minute we were arriving in Kenya in July, hung over, confused, excited and overwhelmed – and the next there were Christmas lights flashing from Nairobi’s shopping malls and Jingle Bells was playing on the radio. Yeesh. That sorta passed me by. Perhaps not surprising as I sit here in my shorts and teeshirt sweltering in our apartment in one of the coolest parts of the country…
It’s quite bizarre to find that Christmas still exists even here. We half-thought we might escape it this year, but nope, it seems Kenyans are well up for a bit of Santa Claus. Apparently the man himself will be at The Junction Mall in the Nairobi suburbs this very weekend. Not since I was a kid have I been so impressed with Santa’s ability to overcome the seemingly impossible logistical task of being in Nairobi, London, St.Albans, Winsford, Lancaster and Edinburgh all at the same time, catering for all our festive wishes!
Other similarities here are that all kinds of Nairobians travel “up-country” to their villages for the festive period, much like us all travelling home to see family in the UK. But in Kenya, Christmas is the end of the school year and often the only time Kenyans take any break from work. This might be the only time they can afford a bus fare hundreds of miles home, to check on their land and crops, and see both the extended family, and even the wives and children they live apart from. Kenyan families are BIG (at least 4 children in normal) and the more wives you have, the more it grows so there’s lots of people to see. From the Kenyan folks we know here, Christmas day seems much like any other Kenyan celebration (a wedding for example) in that Christian worship plays a leading role, and animals are slaughtered for roasting (the Kenyan national dish of nyama choma). The decorations, presents and rich food we see advertised here are only for the small, urban percentage of middle class Kenyans who can afford it.
Here in Nairobi, it’s emptying fast as everyone heads up-country; less traffic and shorter queues (hooray!). We confess to having no tinsel, no tree, no chocolate advent calendar…. but don’t feel sorry for us, because this year, our Christmas present is:
Dr Matthew Ball!
Our great friend arrived this week to spend Christmas with us, and much like Santa (but with a PhD), he came loaded with presents from back home:
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| Here it all is! Including shoes for Helen's pavement-less commute, risotto rice, sweets, and a whole lot of cheese... |
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| Such. Good. Cheese! |
Right now we are feeling massively lucky and loved, what with everything Matt’s brought (including an epic amount of cheese and risotto rice – he’s a legend!), and all the things Jake brought us too (including a hard-drive full of films and our beloved West Wing – awesome). Last night turned into a huge Christmas-fest as we unwrapped a massive parcel from my Mum and Dad containing everything required to recreate a xmas dinner – including tinned turkey breast and mini Christmas puds! We were overwhelmed – thanks M&D! (and thanks Jake for dragging all 2.9kgs all the way from the UK!) :o)
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| Ready to unwrap Mum & Dad's parcel, G&T in hand... |
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| Detailed instructions for unwrapping our "Do it yourself Jones Christmas Dinner" |
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| Christmas turkey in a can! |
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| Mini Christmas puds! |
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| Happy with all our awesome Christmas presents! |
And our good fortune continues, as we’ll all be spending
Christmas day on a dhow boat on the Indian ocean with some other volunteers we
know. Delicious fish BBQ and swimming
have been promised, so we’ll report back in the new year. I can almost smell the jealous rage that that
plan will have provoked… but I comfort myself with the thought that we are
supporting Kenya’s struggling economy and tourist industry. Which is of course
the only reason we’re going. We’re taking one for the team.
It has to be said that as UK friends tell us about the
recent snowfalls, the cold British winter nights seem very very far away. As we enter this, our only Kenyan festive
season, I thought I’d tell you what we’ll miss, and what we won’t, about
Christmas this year:
What we won’t
miss:
· Working
hard up to the final day, and Christmas Day becoming just the Day of
Recovery in which your Christmas cold starts.
This year we have a lovely long break (sorry!)
· Trying to
be everywhere at once. Christmas for
us is normally a tight schedule of visits to all those we love. And while we miss you all, we don’t miss the
mad dash through Christmas traffic jams round the M25, up the M1, and up the
M6. Although now we realise these are NOTHING compared to an average daily
commute in Nairobi.
· Christmas
TV (apart from the occasional good film)
· The strangeness
of spending so much money on presents, decorations, other Christmas
things. We can report that even if you take
that all away, it’s still Christmas, folks.
· The cold. Helen, in particular, won’t miss cold, grey,
rainy days stuck indoors.
And what we will
miss:
· Seeing
our family.
· Seeing
our favourite small children, including our beautiful goddaughter Erin
Arbuthnnot – we’re terrified you’ll all be grown-ups by the time we’ve blinked
and spent a year abroad.
· Walks. I’ll miss winter walks in forest and
countryside a la The Jones Family.
· Eating my
Mum’s food.
· Cheese. Helen is gutted that the Christmas cheese
boards are so far away. [But wait –
thanks to Matt and M&D, there’s cheese in our kitchen right now! Woohoo!]
· Seeing
lots of our good friends, you know who you are chaps. We wish we could pour you all a glass of
mulled wine and tell you how awesome you are, and how much it means to feel
your support from back home. Love and
big warm Christmas hugs to you all.
Thanks to our loyal readers – we’ll be back for more Jonchard
shenanigans as the adventure continues in 2012…
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