Joyeux Noel!

Merry Christmas everyone!
We hope you all had a great Christmas.  Because it is hot like summer here all the time, Christmas sort of snuck up on us this year.  We didn't let the eternal summer stop us from celebrating though!  Tim found a five-foot-tall fake Christmas tree, a bag of ornaments, and a string of lights in our storage shed which must have been put there by previous volunteers.  After a little assembly and arranging, the tree was looking good, but the ornaments were showing their age (and dust!) and needed a facelift.  We re-covered the ornaments in bits of colored and patterned fabrics and then created some more ornaments of our own with things we found around the house.   Our tree was our only decoration for Christmas, but we were very happy with the way it looked. Even with the weather feeling nothing like we are used to for Christmas, the palm trees, the red earth, and most of the area around us not really being decorated for Christmas, a decorated Christmas tree just has a special way of making you feel a lot more like it is Christmas all on its own.
For all of us, Christmas has always been a holiday that is very family-focused.  None of us have ever spent an entire Christmas season apart from our families before, so we wanted to try to celebrate in a similar way as we do at home.  In that spirit, we invited two families and one of our friends from the hospital who was on his own for Christmas to join us for a Christmas Eve dinner that was very similar to our Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn cakes, mixed veggies, and Leah's "sweet potato" casserole). We ate in the dining room with music playing and our Christmas tree lit,  creating a wonderful holiday atmosphere.  Ream and Leah made cookies as gifts for everyone.  Before each person left, they received a bag of cookies tied with a gold ribbon and a handmade card.
Christmas day, we had been invited to eat lunch with the sisters. Their dining room was decorated with large bows made of ribbon, brightly patterned table cloths, our Christmas card placed at the top of their tree, and every plate on the table had cookies and candy.  They served roasted goat, mixed veggies, and fufu (a local food made from large roots called ignams - pronounced in-yam - and served with many different sauces), and, as always, fresh fruit.  Like all the celebratory meals before, they also provided sodas, beer, and wine.  After lunch they served ice cream and cake, both of which are a bit of a rare treat here.  When everyone was finished eating, we helped wash the dishes and clean the dining room, and the sisters sent us home with candy, cookies, and a present for each of us (we must have been good this year; it wasn't coal!).
The rest  of the afternoon was very relaxed as we all spent time lounging, reading, writing blog posts, and Skype-ing with family.  That evening we went to Michele and Salyne's house for dinner.  Salyne prepared a couple of Togolese dishes and even taught us how to make them.  One was fufu, which we already knew how to make, but the sauce was peanut-based and we had never tried it before.  Since we all really liked it, we will try to make that one ourselves. The other dish was made from rice flour and mixed with curry and a few other spices and had a texture similar to polenta.  It was really very good, and has been one of our favorite Togolese dishes so far.  The tomato sauce that went along with the rice-polenta-dish was made with sauteed onions and peppers and a little bit of chicken, and it was also quite delectable.  After we had all toasted, eaten, drank, and were thoroughly full and happy,  Michele and Ream went to make  bananas flambe for dessert.  The bananas were very ripe and soft, so it turned out to be a little soupy, but the flavor was  excellent.  Next time, we will try to use greener bananas and maybe a little bit less butter.  After dinner and dessert were through, we sat, played cards, chatted, and generally just enjoyed each others' company for a little while before heading home for a very welcome night of sleep.
In many ways, Christmas here was nothing like what we are used to seeing and doing for Christmas at home.  However, in the most important ways, it was exactly the same.  We were fortunate to have the opportunity to celebrate this most important of holidays with people that we care about.  It was bittersweet, seeing as we were all away from family and friends, but being able to celebrate here with newfound friends was a joyous blessing in and of itself!