Christmas in Kigali

Someone rather triumphally announced yesterday that the rainy season (the short rains) had passed.  Somone was epically wrong.  It has been raining - and I mean RAINING - for several hours.  Like raining to the point that it was streaming into the kitchen from the balcony.  All of the surrounding hills have disappeared as well into the brigadoon cloud that has enveloped Kisimenti.

Rain and 82 degrees, I have to admit, does not feel like Christmas, especially for a Maine boy like me.  I definitely do not miss the cold that is the reality in Chicago and Maine this time of year, but I miss the snow - or at least the *idea* of snow. :-)  I've been working on decorating the appartment for the holidays, with the limited things that are available.  I borrowed a tree from the courtyard with large waxy leaves, actually found some lights and then have been making ornaments out of paper.  The goal was to find red and green paper, but, well, welcome to Kigali. 

Shopping here is a bit like a treasure hunt.  Strange things can be found easily and in abundance, while others are completely hit or miss.  I could go out and buy 20 maps of Rwanda, and about 700 Liters of oil without any difficulty, but finding vinegar or garlic was a never ending task today.  I tend to wander through shop after shop looking for the random items on my list for Christmas dinner.  In each shop I might find a few items, or none at all.  One store today had, literally, 30 containers of tea masala spice, and no other spices.  At another I found vast quantities (by which i mean 8 packages) of fish boullion, but finding chicken boullion took a half-dozen more shops.

Hunting for paper was the same way.  After numerous people thinking I was absolutely crazy for wanting *red!* paper, I finally settled on lime green and pink paper.  The result is that the decorations in my appartment make it lind of lokk like Christmas in Key West.  Especially since the same paper is being used for everything - the paper stars, danish woven heart baskets, as wrapping paper for presents...  But it's at least feeling a little bit like the holidays.

The day after Christmas I leave for Mombasa, to spend a week including New Year's on the beach.  Again this seems absolutely crazy to me, but is sounding like a lot of fun.

Christmas dinner is going to a bit of a fusion event of Danish, Rwandan, and Finnish dishes.  The is looking like the following::

Breakfast:
Danish Tea Ring and Local fruit salad

Diner:
Pineapple Mint Salad
Pickled Cucumber Salad
Dilled Carrots
Danish Carmelized Potatos
Sage-Apple Dressing
Chicken, Pork, and Beef Brochettes with Orange-Thyme Marinade

Dessert:
Orangesmekeager
Ris ala mande
Rhubarb Crumble

All of this is,of course, dependend upon finding a few things during my next shopping treasure hunt in the city.  We'll see how it goes...

 And yes, that is a Flying Turtle on the Christmas Tree!