Shija

Dotto has been saying all week that it will rain on Christmas day, and, sure enough, when I woke up in the night the rain had started. I made sure that Santa had left a note for Elsie and Hannah about the safari which is going to be their Christmas present, and went back to sleep. Elsie and Hannah are very good about not getting presents - no one does, so they don't feel too hard done by, but Elsie in particular has been a bit tearful this morning. She is missing home, missing everybody, missing the cats. She wouldn't speak to her granny on the phone, said it woudl upset her too much.

It rained all morning, but at about 11 it dried up. Cooking is going on in about four different locations - I am cooking my goat legs over charcoal, chicken is being fried and casseroled, a family friend is in the kitchen making vegetable curry. Most of the cooking is still done on firewood or charcoal, although the family do now have a twin burner gas cooker. The family live on a largish plot, there is the small house we are living in, an even smaller house that actually belongs to Emma but is used by his sister-in-law and her family, and the old, orginal family house which is pretty much derelict, but is still used by some of the older boys for sleeping in. At a rough count there are 15 adults and children living here most of the time (19 including us), and most of them have to be fed 3 times a day.

I digress. We finally sat down to food at around 4. We had: goat, barbecued, fried, casseroled: chicken, ditto: pilau rice with beef; plain rice: beans: veg curry: Kisamfu, which is casava leaves and pulverised peanuts: katchumbari, which is tomato and onion salad - made by me, 12 onions, 60 tomatoes, 12 lemons, all finely sliced. It took me hours. We must have numbered at least 40, but I never actually rememember to count. The food was delicious.

I have a multitude of picture from the day, but this one struck a chord. It just seemed appropriate for Christmas. It is Shija, Emma's sister, and her nephew Blair.