Merry Khorixas-mas!

You may have noticed that I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from writing here on my blog. That’s because, for the past month, I’ve been on holiday with other PCVs, traveling though Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. We were busy sorting out transport, flagging down buses and searching for accommodations. (Plus, Internet was pretty hard to come by.)

So for the next week, you can expect to find pictures, stories and retrospectives on my adventures—starting of course, with my final days in Khorixas and Christmas with the kids at Sunrise Center.

My friend Nicole was nice enough to send all the materials for making homemade ornaments—from spools of ribbon and string, to stacks of old Christmas cards, scissors, glitter and colorful pens. It arrived (along with a Pillsbury cake mix from my mom) just in time for the holidays. Both made our Christmas party at the orphanage more memorable.

The kids were excited to decorate and personalize their tiny tree. (And they loved the glitter!) Plus, it reminded me a lot of holidays growing up—which is kind of nice, especially so far away from home.

The ornaments turned out great, but I don't think the kids had ever eaten cake so soft. The little ones looked shocked when the pieces they grabbed crumbled in their tiny hands. Happy, one of the smallest, solved this problem by using his chocolate-frosted hands to shovel stray crumbs from the cement floor directly into his mouth. (Gross? Maybe to some. But I say it's resourceful.)