Merry Christmas

26 Decembre 2010
Hello everyone! Merry belated Christmas! I hope you all are doing well and that the snow storm heading for New England doesn't hit too hard :) Here is what I've been up to for the holidays:
-Christmas Eve: I was part of the Christmas committee, so all afternoon a group of us worked in the kitchen on the training site in Hamdallye. With a lot of assistance from the cooks on site, we put together a feast of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, cooked potatoes, green beans & carrots, zuccini & eggplant, bread with garlic & butter sauce, cake and orange 'n apple 'n watermelon salad. One of the Peace Corps staff generously made us Christmas cookies and the trainees shared treats and candies that were sent from home. Post din, we sang carols and watched Love Actually. Ate a whole huge bag of twizzlers with the assistance of some friends :) thanks mama for the care package. Ellie and I slept up at the training site so we would be there for the morning festivities.
-Christmas: Ran early in the morn, it felt great to get up when it was still cool. Had pancakes and eggs for brunch, watched movies, and then had pizza for lunch. Didn't really feel like Christmas. It was about 90 degrees, lots of sand and no snow. Sad to not be home but nice to have company of my fellow trainees that I've grown close with over the past two months. We did secret santa for a gift exchange. I had Carolyn and I bought her a budda filled with candies and a Cliff bar. Andrew gave me a zani (fabric that's been tailored into a skirt). We decorated the blackboards around the training site with holiday notes and we had a little Charlie Brown tree that Dan received in a care package.
-Upcoming events: We have a biiiiiiig week. Tonight we have the family fete/festival. We are making food with our host families and having a final celebration of living with them for the past two months. Ellie and I bought the kids a soccer ball, Hinda and Zanabu earrings, and a flashlight for Loyola. It will be sad to leave them (especially petite Razaac) but I think Ellie and I are both ready for the next step in our journey in Niger. Tomorrow, we have our final language assessment ahh nerve-racking but it will be fine, insha allah. Then we spend a couple of days in Niamey discussing logistics about our sites and banking while at post. We swear-in as volunteers on the 30th (YAAAAA almost made it) and then take the bus out to Maradi on the 31st to begin the Installation to Site process. A lot is going on this week but when I get to Maradi, I anticipate that I will have internet access for a few days before I move out to my site.
I hope everyone is doing well and eating tons of great food! I've been dreaming about Christmas food lately and decided to make a dream wishlist of the desserts I miss the most this season:
5. Peanut brittle crunchy, full of protein, sweet deliciousness
4. Chocolate oranges. Do ya'll know what I'm talking about? Chocolate ball, you crack it and it's slices of orangechocolate goodness. Thank the Lord, on Christmas Eve I have an orangechocolate slice from a very-generous trainee who was sharing treats.
3. Poppyseed bread = my existence
2. chocolate + sprinkle-covered pretzels . We always made these growing up around Christmastime. Salty and sweet = yum
1. Cheesecake with strawberries on top. I'm hungry just thinking about it. Hello calcium deficiency!

Enjoy the video of Christmas caroling. Ignore Dan on the left who clearly doesn't love Silent Night as much as I do!