Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas. The holiday season here has surpassed all of my expectations. I was planning on going to Mafia Island for Christmas but then changed my plans at last minute and decided to go to my friend's village near Iringa. We had a fantastic time. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas cooking tons of food and hanging out outside in her huge courtyard. For Christmas we prepared delicious burritos and sang Christmas songs and told Christmas stories in front of the fire place, yes we had a fire place. Katie's counterpart came over and we sang her “Jingle Bells” and “I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.” It was so nice! Then Christmas morning we all opened our Secret Santa presents that Santa had left under our tree (a branch of a pine tree with battery powered Christmas lights that arrived in a Christmas package). Then we all drank coffee and hot chocolate in front of the fire and one of my friends made her famous cinnamon rolls with icing. Yum!

Then in the afternoon we put on a pot of chili for dinner and headed over to an orphanage that is in my friend's village. It was so fun to play with the kids and just hang out. The orphanage is run by Tanzanians but funded by an Italian NGO so the children have a really nice set up and they are all really well taken care of. We helped to feed ugi, or porridge, to the infants and we sang Christmas songs to some of the older ones. All in all it was a great time! And I am really excited to visit it again.

Then Christmas night we watched Love Actually on a computer. It was really great. All in all it was such a wonderful Christmas, even though it was my first Christmas away from home. Having such loving friends made it okay to be away from home.

In other news I do have some sad things to report. Raha, the dog of the previous PCV who lived in my village was hit by a car and died. And Karots, see previous post for picture, has also died. Both of these incidents happened while I was away so I cannot help but feeling extremely guilty about both of them. However, I did arrange for them to be in proper hands before I left. After a crying session I realized such is life in Africa. And I hope they both rest in peace. I am confident that they both lived full lives up until their deaths. As hard as it is to loose a pet I realize that once I get through my mourning period I must move on, as I believe both Raha and Karots would want Moshi, my remaining pet, and myself to do.

So do not consider me leaving my blog on a sad note because Moshi and I will hold our heads high and continue to live our happy lives in Ilembo.

I want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you are all listening to tons of holiday music, watching too many holiday movies, and baking delicious holiday food for me! I am looking forward to spending New Years in my village. I believe people go to church and celebrate the new year in village fashion here. 2011 is going to be a fantastic year! As usual one of my new year's resolutions is to smile and laugh more! I always think this is something I can improve on, because why not smile and laugh all day long! Especially at myself, which is pretty easy to do here since I do silly things all the time, or at least my villagers seem to think so! So I hope everyone is thinking of positive resolutions and ways to improve their lives and make the world a happier and more peaceful place!

Cheers and love,

Anna