merry christmas!

Hi Friends and Family,

We are so happy we finally once again have had the chance to get in touch with our family through some short but wonderful phone calls and also even through this blog--even though it by no means replaces seeing your faces, we hope you know we are thinking of everyone at home every day, especially at Christmas!

We have had a very unique and memorable first christmas together! We spent a few days in pre-celebration with our friends and "family" that we stay with in a small village. We knew it was up to us and the other foreign volunteers to bring on some christmas cheer- and so at the health post we threw a "christmas party" for the staff with oranges, coconut cookies and tea made from a (very stinky) kerosene stove that had to be "pumped" by hand.
On the way to buying the supplies for this party, an Australian Volunteer we've recently hit it off with was "doubling" with me (marcie) on a very rickety old bike on a very rocky road. We could not decide where to stop and when we did we fell over sideways and sent the crowds of people who happened to be around town into roars of laughter. We were both uninjured, but in tears because we were laughing so hard. I rode the bike later through the same part of town and the nepali people were still laughing at me.

The same day Carm and I decided to implement a christmas dinner at our hindu host families house. We had tasty fish curry and everyone was saying "merry christmas" to us and eachother. We told them we celebrate Jesus' (who they call Esau in Nepal) Birthday. They asked us if we have fish every year for christmas and we said no, but we should, it was so tasty.

During this time shortly before christmas we met one Canadian, one american, two new zealanders, and the australian i just mentioned. We decided that we were going to meet up on christmas day in another small town that has some western restaurants (and internet that I am writing you from, and TV with Global news that carmen is gleefully watching at the moment)

Anyways we met up with all these people for christmas and had a nice meal in a restaurant that played christmas music and had the most hilarious looking "christmas trees", mostly sagging strands of fake pine with balloons taped to them. Then we found a roaring bonfire that happened to have slabs of (we think) duck roasting over top. There were also some traditional nepali dancers nearby. We were all pining for some baking as this is very hard to come by in Nepal. Between me and the New Zealander we had some sort of a plan, we began to mix flour and water, oil and cocca, sugar and baking powder together in 6 separate dishes that we put in the fire. this resulted in some tasty and also some of the most ridiculously slimy and disgusting christmas baking we have ever tasted. we were laughing and burning our mouths and having bites of the random (we think) duck that also happened to be there. One girl spilled a cup full of sugar on the grass and a dog came and licked it all up. IT was memorable.

Christmas day Carmen, The Australian Natalie, and I woke up early to go on a beautiful canoe ride into the jungle. It was gorgeous in the morning mist. We had to be careful because the boat was very tippy and the ridge of the boat was only about 3 inches above the surface of the water. We listened to the birds and chatted for about an hour. Then we got out and walked back through the jungle for about 2.5 to 3 hours. Truthfully I was pretty scared because there are wild rhino, bears, tigers and leopards that roam freely through the space we were walking. The guides (we had two of them and they each had a bamboo stick) told us so many crazy things about the animals. He said we have to be very quiet if we want to see any. I kept on chatting because I truthfully didn't want to see any! On the walk we saw a BIG crocodile, on the other side of the creek. We saw monkeys and flying peacocks. It was a beautiful walk.

Shortly after we returned we stalked up on christmas treats and hopped on an elephant. The three of us road the elephant through the jungle and saw Rhinos, wild dear, and wild boars all from the safety of the elephant. It was SO COOL, we felt just like we were one of the members of the animal kingdom, because the animals didn't run away right away, I don't even think they knew we were there!

We stopped for a quick break but in total we had 2.5 hours on the elephant. It was amazing.

The next day we went to the elephant breeding place, which is in such a scenic spot we spent some time wading in the river with two ponies that somehow chewed their mussels off. It was wonderful until one of them turned straight around and kicked carmen in the knee, and splashed him with mud. At first we were worried about Carmen, and then about the SLR camera he was holding, and when we realized everything was fine we were able to laugh it off. Goodness knows the poor horse does not have a lot of faith in us humans. we understand.

The breeding place was amazing, we saw two one month old elephnat twins and some pretty angsty toddler elephants. Oh MY can they scream and growl. I would have expected those full blown sounds to come from a full sized elephant. I think I would wet my pants if I ever heard THAT on a jungle walk.

So, we are enjoying nature, loving the sun, having a very relaxing and amazing Christmas break. Tomorrow morning we head back to our village where we will finish off our Volunteering.

Hope your Christmas was wonderful and have a great New Year! See you in 2009!


Love
Marcie and Carmen