Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!! I got to spend Christmas with a few friends who came into Ségou. We planned to start the celebration with midnight mass (I conveniently live across the street from the Catholic mission district). My language tutor had told me that midnight mass was where it’s at as far as Christmas in Mali, so we were all excited to have the experience. Since most of us volunteers go to sleep by 9, we kept each other awake by playing charades and drinking Cokes. We got dressed up in our finest Malian clothes (or whatever we had) and walked over to the church at 11:30. We weren’t sure just how crowded it would be, so we made sure to get there early.

(From left to right: Emily, Louie, Gretchen, Yuri, Steffen, Mario (Steffen's uncle visiting from Germany), Steffen's sister also visiting (I forgot her name...something German), Danielle)

As we approached the church, we saw CROWDS of people outside the church. There literally were huge trucks packed full of Malians, and kids running around lighting off fireworks in the middle of everyone. We couldn’t believe it was already so packed that this many people were stuck outside! We made our way through the crowd and got our first glimpse inside the church – it was completely EMPTY. After talking with the priest (who was also outside), we discovered that midnight mass had started at 10:30! D’oh! We sulked back to my house and decided to try again in the morning. My mood cheered up considerably though when I got to talk to all my sisters and my parents at midnight. Then I crashed and prepared to wake up for Round 2 of church. We all woke up early and made it to church before they’d even opened the doors (we were determined). Mass lasted from 9-11, and the choir was rockin’! They had pink and white scarves that they’d wave in the air during the choruses of the songs, and at one point a bunch of kids got up and danced in a circle as everyone clapped and sang faster and faster.

(Christmas morning...Emily is opening a HUGE care package from her whole family)

After church we made pancakes at my house. We splurges and bought powdered sugar, and Yuri opened up the maple syrup that his aunt had sent him from Canada. It was a treat! I took my traditional post-holiday-feast nap after breakfast (I couldn’t help it), and everyone else went to the grand market to buy ingredients for dinner.

(Gretchen, Emily and Louie bleaching and peeling veggies for the salad)

We spent the majority of the day preparing food to bring over to Steffen’s Christmas potluck. The potluck was great – we had five chickens, spaghetti, rice, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad and veggies. There was a mix of Americans, Germans and Malians who all came and ate.

(Dinner time)

I even got to bake the cookies from the mix that Cindy had sent over (thanks again Cindy!!). We also had no-bake cheesecake and pumpkin pie (made from a mix) from other volunteer’s care packages. It was a long but very fun day!