Christmas presents in Musoma

Cows.  What else could you possibly want a picture of, if you're Andrew?

Village life

It's not easy to figure out Christmas presents when you live in Musoma.  I am not even sure what "normal" folks in the States do, but I'm sure it's different than what we do here.  I actually would find it very overwhelming to be somewhere with lots of options and high expectations, so I'm not writing this blog post to complain.  Neither Andrew nor I really expect the other person to come up with anything astounding, and so we work on a low budget and low expectations and are regularly thrilled with the other's creativity in not very gift-friendly circumstances.

I was really proud of what I came up with this year for Andrew - paintings!  I commissioned a young artist who lives near us to do two paintings for Andrew.  It was fun to plan the paintings with him and try to figure out where he could get paints and frames and all that.  I mean, he did most of that work, but since it was all original work made-to-order, I got to advise him however I liked.  How cool is that - I was like a patron of the arts, commissioning someone to do a personal painting!

Andrew was thrilled and would have been shocked if he hadn't sort of known what he was getting...  Yeah, we had a timing accident one day - the artist came over a lot later in the day than I'd asked him to, so Andrew happened to be at home and knew I was concocting something with him.  Oh well.  He was still pleasantly surprised with the final products, even if he wasn't totally blown over.

And if you're wondering what cool creativity Andrew whipped out on his own side, the best present he gave me was a gift certificate titled: 24 hours of Zarya - and you are free.  It has 24 empty boxes on it, each representing one hour during which Andrew will take care of Zarya.  (I clarified that these are above and beyond hours - the regular times during the week when he's already on Zarya duty don't require boxes.)  How fun is that?  I mean, I love my little sweetie, but 24 hours of no-questions-asked, just, "Honey, here's the kid?!"  There were other gifts, too (we specialize in food presents - cashews, cereal, juice, chips), but those were the best ones.

Side note: a few folks asked me what Tanzanians do for Christmas and New Years.  Well, assuming the Tanzanians in question are Christians (non-Christians don't really celebrate Christmas, as it is a religious holiday), they go to church, maybe get new clothes, eat a big meal with family, and watch TV or something afterwards.

For New Years, everyone can celebrate, and there was definitely some noise-making happening in our neighborhood during the evening hours.  I was asleep well before midnight, so I couldn't tell you what went on then.  The next morning, though, I did see burn marks in the road.  It's illegal, but still traditional, to burn stuff in the road on New Years.  Why, I don't know, but I guess it's fun to make a fire and hold up cars trying to pass and do something very out-of-the-ordinary to mark the occasion.

January to January

January 2013

January 2014

What a difference one year can make!  I suppose I don't look different, myself (I'm now minus some prego chub I still had on me last January, but that's about it, unless you want to start tracking the start of little lines around my eyes or something depressing like that), but look at the other little lady!  She went from a little dark-haired blob in my arms to this charming ham, grinning for the camera and running all over the house on her own two feet.

Someone recently asked me, "Could she possibly be any cuter?!"  My answer is, "I'd say 'No,' except that every morning when she gets up, she's even cuter than she was the day before, so experience tells me that tomorrow will be even more adorable than today!"

I guess she'll reach a downhill point someday - the middle school years rarely do anyone any favors when it comes to cuteness.  But we'll enjoy the next 10 years or so until we reach that stage.