Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! For the past couple weeks, I've been entertaining volunteers in my village acting as the pit stop for their holiday travel. Despite being busy and sometimes exhausted, I've been delighted to host my friends and let them use my place as a 'staycation'. Monday was Christmas Eve and also the last day of my reading club for the week. In honor of the holiday spirit, I read to my 25 children the Christmas story around the tree outside the library. Back in the states, my pastor had always done the same thing—that is, gather all the children of the church on Christmas Eve and read to them that same story. As a treat, I gave the kids candy canes. They had no idea what they were, so I had to explain to them that they were a holiday candy. Christmas I was joined by one volunteer as well as my host family from PST; the 5 of them stayed at my place for two days. We enjoyed my Christmas decorations, put together my Christmas puzzle, listened to Christmas music, and shared our holiday stories. Christmas Eve, Sybil the volunteer and I cooked for the family by making them spaghetti and homemade meat sauce. We sat cozied up together on my floor telling them about American Christmas—I'm not sure if that made me any more or less homesick.
Christmas morning came and so did Santa Clause. I had gotten the two children some gifts and left them under my 17" tree. The presents may have been nothing much but I loved seeing Similo rip open his stocking. As the children ate the oatmeal I made for them, my sisi so nicely cleaned my house. Later that morning, my son Solomon dropped and met my family. It was cooling seeing my two "families" meet and play with each other. Eventually we made it to the club for Christmas dinner. The afternoon was filled with Skype dates from family back home. The highlight of the day was seeing Similo enjoy his first time in a swimming pool. Around 4 PM we had a Christmas buffet. It was delicious—far better than any meal I could have ever cooked that's for sure. By 7 PM it started raining and the holiday was over. As much as I had tried to make it feel like Christmas, must admit, it was hard not being in the states for this day. However, I am glad that I got to celebrate it with people I love.
New Years was such a blast! I went with 10 other volunteers to Mozambique. As I have mentioned before in previous posts, the boarder is only 15 minutes away and Maputo (the capital city) is about 1.5 hours away. Once you cross the border, it is like night and day. In case you didn't know, Mozambique was colonized by the Portuguese, and evidence is shown immediately through their architecture. Maputo is a coastal tropical city; it's hard to believe that a world like this exists so close to Swaziland—the city alone is double the size of Swaziland alone! We stayed at Fatima's Backpackers right in the middle of town. The two nights we stayed there, we toured the city looking at all the monuments, museums, and exploring the local markets. We came across the large gorgeous shopping mall; I was the first to run right in. The group I was with and as well as the remaining volunteers who went out later that day, all said they immediately thought of me and said I had found my home. They know me oh so well.
On the 28th we made an 8 hour journey up the coast to Tofo Beach. Apparently it is acclaimed as the best place in the world for scuba diving. The waters have these whale sharks which is arguably the largest fish in the sea. The whale sharks, despite their scary appearance and name are harmless to humans; divers can swim right next to the beasts. Due to the number of people visiting the secluded beach and the lack of planning, we were unable to schedule a boat to take us out for a snorkeling session. I guess this just means I have to make my way back there. We even met a RPCV who served in Mozambique in 2002. He said that when he came here 10 years ago, this place was deserted; now it is becoming quite the spot.
I absolutely loved Tofo. All I could say for the first few hours was Oh My Gosh! Oh My Gosh! The small beach village is still fairly new to tourists, aside from the scuba divers. That's what makes it so unique—though it was the high season; the beach was still clear and not polluted with people. The ocean was crystal clear; even when I stood chest deep in water, I could see my feet plain as day. Unlike the beaches that I am use to in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, this beach was 100 times more beautiful. The sand was white and hot as can be. When you had to run from the cabana to the ocean, your feet would make the squeaking sound through the sand. I have never been one to enjoy the ocean, I was more a fan of it from a distance; this ocean was phenomenal. I spent the next three days diving through the waves. While in Tofo, we stayed at Fatima's Backpackers again; this time we camped on the beach. The weather so great, you needed no blanket or pillow, the sand was plenty comfortable. Whilst lying on the beach we had local vendors walking by selling the local crafts and fruit. I can't say enough good things about this place.
For New Year's Eve, we danced the night away. Fatima's was actually having an music festival call Ocean Fest, so being that we were staying there, we had free entrance to the event. The Rasta band was cool, but once it came closer to midnight I ditched the band and headed to the beach. When the clock stroke 12, I took off into the ocean. Since I unfortunately had no one to kiss at midnight this year, I approached the New Year head on by diving through waves…. I may or may not have had clothes on. =) Minutes later, other people had the same idea and dove in with me.
This by far has been the best New Years of my life, and I am pretty sure I set the bar pretty high for the years to come.
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