Christmas in Soyo

Christmas in Soyo.....this is a very different celebration.....and one that has its unique times of enjoyment.  Because there are some of us that are not with our families in our home countries, we tried to make the time here even more festive.....and I believe it worked....and helped us all to have times when we weren't just feeling loss and wishing we were with family......The town is decorated with streamers made of the blue and white striped plastic bags torn in strips and coke or beer cans to keep the streamers in place  across the road.

Kris suggested we have a progressive dinner on Christmas Eve.   We  started at our home with appetizers.....Vietnamese spring rolls, baked tomatoes with herbs and cheese, artichoke and spinach dip with crackers, cheese selection and smoked salmon and Bahvna brought Pokora's and a chip called Pappendal.... and what was the most enjoyed????  The tomatoes.....because they are so difficult to find..... and the chips. 

 

Next we went to Mo and Pat's home for a fabulous mushroom cappuccino...a favorite of our daughter, AManda....see how you come back to family even in the menu?   On to Kris and Craig's for the main course of turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole as well as a garbanzo curry for those who are vegetarian.....all of the ingredients carried into Soyo for this event.....  Then on to MaryAnn and Mike's for dessert....a buffet of cakes, Christmas pudding and cookies.  It was really wonderful.....and we walked throught the neighborhood to each home....allowing us to be ready for the next course.  Each of us will remember this time very fondly in future years.

On Christmas I cooked a Christmas dinner for Bryan, our pastors that have opened an English speaking church here.....he is from Angola and she is Ugandan and several others who are alone here.  The pastors have a 28 month old VERY active and sweet little boy....and we also invited Marisa, who helps care for Ms Kitty when we are out of the country, Rosalio...one of the Angolan engineers and Gene, a single resident here.  Others had been invited....Bert and Greg....but the were unable to come.

Now I have cooked Christmas dinner many times but with two major differences and I share these just to let you know how things are here......  For many years I had a wonderful helper, Nu, who really did all the cooking...and I took some of the credit....like for setting the menu....not that this is difficult to do since we have traditions in our home.....We moved back to the USA, our daughter, Amanda, loves to cook and she would help me a lot!!!  Whatever you needed you just went to the local store....Albertsons or Safeway....and picked it up and if you forgot something.....as long as you got to the store before noon, it was available.....  Not the same here so I planned well, I thought......even taking into account the size of our "barbie" size oven ....  Care was taken to buy an appropriately sized turkey.....only $75.00 but well worth the price.....but what I forgot is the small size can only take one thing at a time to bake and that the baked sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie could not be in the oven at the same time......  Now thankfully one couple in our neighborhood is in the USA and I am watching their home for leaks if it rains.....or if the air conditioners act up.....and so I was able to bake the pie at their house and when the turkey was finished, put the sweet potatoes in at mine.  It all worked quite well..... and I gave up on rolls.....we had enough food as it was.  I also made mashed potatoes and gravy.  It was funny because the Angolans asked it this was "funge" (pronounced 'foonge') a similar looking dish made of cassava root.....but it is very sticky and has no butter or milk.....instead you put a very spicy Gindungu sauce on it for flavor.  The feeling seems to be that if you don't have Funge, you haven't really had a meal.....  

Now the pumpkin pie....I must talk about that.  I looked on Allrecipes.com and found a pie crust that you make in the pie pan....called 'easy pie crust'.  I have never in my life made a pie before Christmas so the reviews were all very positive and I tried it.  It was flaky as the reviews said but so flaky that the edge just crumbled.  Still tasted good.  Then Allrecipes had a delicious pumpkin pie recipe not made with evaporated milk as I have always put into my store bought pie crust.....but with sweetened condensed milk.....very positive reviews....so I gave that a whirl and it was fabulous.....seriously!!!  I will try that again in the future. 

After the meal we played Rock Band and enjoyed our time together.  I know that this Christmas meal helped the new pastor and his wife feel less lonely for their extended families in other places too.

As I have said before, Christmas is a time for us to remember Jesus' birth and the wonderful gift He is to us and why He was born.....and it is a time to share with family and friends.....of giving and receiving and altho we had no presents....our driver, Mafuene, met us on the road while we were going from home to home during the progressive dinner....he had noticed that we did not have a Christmas tree....so he bought us one with lights and garland.....and brought it to us......  Now remember, when I looked for Christmas lights in Luanda...the capital....I found one strand....of 96 lights for $80.00.....so I don't know where he got this tree or the lights and garland....but it was truly a sweet gift that we will cherish wherever we live in the world.

The day after Christmas Mafuene came by the house with his wife and two daughters.  The eldest is Laura and the baby is Bryana Margaret Mafuene.  It was really nice to get to finally meet the baby and to be able to greet his wife and daughter.

I hope all of you who read this blog had a Merry Christmas and will have a wonderful New Year.....