Manga!

As I was going to bed after mass last night, kitty decided to pee on my bed. It was 01:00 and got on my sleeping bags and both sheets – all of my sleeping gear (except my camping pad). I wiped it off my sleeping bag as best I could and tried to soak up any on the mattress pad. In order to not get any possible residual pee on me, I covered the post with a bandana and put my camping pad more to the other side of the bed. I have no blankets so I had to improvise and used a kitenges & kanga (pieces of cloth) to cover myself. Then I slept for a few hours but woke up around down wondering how my family was doing at the Schulz Christmas Eve celebration.

I had some time before mass so I finished baking the rest of the cookie dough (peanut butter oatmeal) and the loaf of break (wheat) because I ran out of time last night. Mass was a little longer but oh well, it’s Christmas. Sr. Valentina had invited me for lunch afterwards so I spent a couple of hours at the orphanage with her. She tried to get me to stay for dinner but I wasn’t sure if Uma had anywhere to go and I had food at home I wanted to make.

Although Uma didn’t end up being able to make it (she got my message a little late due to phone charging issues), I did have a very nice meal. With the olive oil and Italian herbs, I was able to make a proper tomato sauce that I paired with spaghetti (for some reason imported spaghetti is available in my village for only 1500Tsh, ~$1). The bread and an inherited candle completed it (thanks for the candle idea Prof. K!). The pasta was a taste of home and perfect for Christmas as I usually have some pasta on Christmas Eve (I’m part Italian). As if the cookies weren’t sufficient, I was craving a chocolate peanut butter cake – so I created one without using any eggs (used baking powder instead). Needs a little work but it came out okay and was definitely edible.

I went to mass in a nice outfit but lounged most of the day in typical Christmas fashion in my moose pajama pants; it was very comforting. There were probably a lot of people on the cell network and I think that’s why I kept getting network error messages when I tried to call my grandparents. My parents were able to get through though and had even figured out Skype! They chatted with my brother first and could see him some of the time because he has a camera in his laptop. We were surprised at the sound clarity using Skype because I could hear my parents fine and they could hear me. Compared to a calling card, it is much cheaper. Probably even cheaper if I had a computer and only had to pay for internet but oh well. I was exhausted by the time I got to talk with my parents but really glad I got to.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!