Friday, December 24
Since I am a procrastinator by nature, I put off buying Christmas presents until Christmas Eve. I had a fairly short list for market, so I was hoping for a painless few minutes of shopping. Wrong! It was, hands down, my worst market experience yet! I was walking up the road, lost in my own world, when I walked past a car; the driver was sitting inside, but I didn’t really pay any attention until he started talking to me. “I want to talk to you.” He told me as he pulled me aside. “I see you walking by all the time, but you always look so busy.” I shook his hand, but didn’t say anything.
“I want to see you, where do you live?” He asked.
“Uh… Around here.” I have a really hard time lying, even if they are creepy.
“Can I have your phone number?”
“Sorry, I don’t have a phone.” This lie I justified by saying that the phone wasn’t really mine, it’s Cherilyn’s. Besides, I don’t know the number.
“How will I find you then? I really want to see you.”
“I come to market, but I’m in a hurry today. My friend is cooking and I need to get food for her.”
This interested him. “Boyfriend or girlfriend?”
“My friend.” Why can’t I lie?!?
“Wait, where are you from?”
Germany was the first country that popped into my head, so that’s what I told him. I quickly left him and continued my journey to the market. Since it was the day before Christmas, everyone was selling the main entre for Christmas dinner: Chicken. There were probably ten huge baskets of live chickens on the side of the road. As a child I was attacked multiple times by angry roosters, so I am slightly afraid of chickens now. I’m already frazzled by my conversation with creepy guy, and now I have to walk past ten baskets of the most despicable bird ever to waddle the earth. Finally, I make it to my favorite vendor, where I get my dry goods. Trying to make friendly conversation, I ask if he has any plans for Christmas. From that he gets that I want to take him to Church with me, and he would love to go with me. I told him that I would probably be working all day.
Cherilyn asked me to get coconut; I looked, and looked, and looked, for it and couldn’t find it. I finally decided to go back out to the street and look there for it. When I saw it, I was so excited about finding it, that I forgot to pay attention to the cars driving by, and when I stepped onto the street I almost collided with a taxi. That was the first time I almost got hit. After getting ripped off, for one of Cherilyn’s gifts, I decided it was time to leave the market. Crossing the street, I made it safely to the median, and was standing there waiting for a break in traffic. I look down the median and see a guy walking towards me with a chicken in his hands. The median is only about two feet wide, and I knew that wasn’t nearly enough room for me to pass a chicken. I had to get off that median! That was the second time I almost got hit. However, I made it safely across the road, just in time to walk right past the ten baskets of chickens again.
Bill and Trixy hosted a fantastic Christmas Eve party. There were about twenty of us there, and tons of super fantastic food: salads, mashed potatoes and gravy, spaghetti, garlic bread, green beans, fried yams, and a whole table of cookies and cakes. Dinner was followed by hours of enjoyable visiting, and sharing of Christmas traditions. It was a great way to start Christmas.
Saturday, December 25
Since it was Christmas, two of our Peace Corps friends joined Bill, Trixy and I at church. The service was followed by a mouthwatering, Cameroonian potluck feast. It was a great meal except that Cyril sat beside me through the whole meal grilling me about my hobbies, family, and work. After lunch Ben, Ashley and I were talking about having a Christmas movie night that evening. I mentioned to them that my family’s traditional Christmas movie was Prancer, but I didn’t have it with me. Cherilyn and I decided that we would wait until 5:30 to open our gifts, but once I woke up from my nap, we couldn’t wait any longer. It took us close to an hour to open everything, and we enjoyed every minute. A huge thank you to everyone that helped make our Christmas packages so fantastic!
In the package from my parents and sister was a movie, Prancer. We had our Christmas movie night, and I got to watch Prancer. The little girl reminded me so much of my sisters, it was unreal! No wonder Sarah loved the movie so much! While watching the movie, Cherilyn and I put together a 3D puzzle that my family sent me for Christmas. Trixy looked up the puzzle online, and found rankings for it: if it takes you less than 16 minutes you are a genius, if it takes less than 60 minutes you are above average, and if it takes more than 60 minutes you are below average. It took Cherilyn and me more than 60 minutes together, so our minds combined are still below average.
Wednesday, December 29
Trixy came to my apartment to tell me that the woman at the post office was going a little crazy. Apparently, between Cherilyn and I, there were nine packages just waiting to be picked up. I was so excited, you have no idea! When I went to ask Bill if he could take me to the Campost, I tried to be nonchalant about it, but it was hard to keep the big, excited grin off my face. It took the woman quite a while to get all the packages located, and recorded in her book. After about forty-five minutes of waiting, signing papers, and packing the car full of boxes, we were off again.
I was worried that Cherilyn wouldn’t be back from her trip to Manjo, and I would have to sit in our apartment waiting, while all those boxes just begged me to open them. Thankfully, she had been back for a while, and I only had to wait a few minutes. I don’t think I would have lasted much longer. It was one of the best second Christmases I’ve had. It took us over an hour to open all of the packages, and read all the notes. We got puzzles, a homemade Christmas DVD, an album of Celtic Thunder (our new, favorite band), lotions, soaps, books, Sudoku, music, crosswords, band-aids, movies, tons of amazing food, t-shirts, pens, journals, and so much more! We appreciate everything so much! A huge thank you to all of you who made our Christmases so special!
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