West Africa Journal

Santigie, Alex, Kadi S and Isatu were helping sort the strings of outdoor Christmas lights to hang in place. The kids faces were shiny with sweat as the temperature peaked just over 100F. Inside the house Silver Bells was blaring out of an IPOD. While the boys hammer nails in place to hold the wire, the girls use rags to dust off the lights. We are quite certain Dove has the only outdoor Christmas lights in Sierra Leone and we want them to look just right for the people who climb over the mountain to gaze in awe. Keep in mind, the lights are only on from 7-10pm when we run the generator.

Harmattan always arrives during the Christmas season. Harmattan is an overwhelming fog of red dust that creeps right across the continent of Africa from the Sahara desert. It invades every nook and cranny. I have never been sure what a cranny is but I do know there is dust there. It hides the mountains opposite Dove and the villages around us. In fact, on heavy days, we can’t see from one side of our compound to the other – everything is completely hidden in the red dust fog. It invades every single space inside the houses as well. It’s a common occurrence to get dressed in the morning, then have one of the kids comment about a dust line down my back from the clothes hanger. Sheets, towels, and even toilet paper all gain a reddish hue. Poor Brima, our housekeeper- 15 minutes after dusting the furniture, I come along and write my name in the dust again. This does not amuse him. In fact, I have to be careful not to hurt his feelings. He takes it as a personal criticism when he sees my shopping list scrawled across the tv cabinet in the dust.

Last year I neglected to dust off the Christmas decorations before I put them away so the girls help me dust candles, bows, and tree ornaments. We all cough a little as we begin setting up the tree and find ourselves caught in a cloud of dust from the branches. We stop frequently for a glass of lukewarm iced tea (no ice here, it’s the thought that counts) in the sweltering dry-season temperature and Celine belts out I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas. I think she should sing – I’m Dreaming of a Dust Free Christmas. We have to wash our hands often so the sweat on our hands and arms don’t turn the dust to mud. We open one Rubbermaid to find the rats have tasted our velvet bows and foil wrapping paper. I apologize to all the Tupperware ladies out there but, in spite of claims to the opposite, rats and mice DO eat through plastic, even Rubbermaid and Tupperware. The containers do, however, help keep the dust out. I can’t decide which is more annoying, having a rat bite in the middle of a poinsettia in my center piece or having ornaments leave a puff of dust behind when we pick them up.

You have to understand that out here in Sierra Leone you aren’t going to find a Walmart where you can purchase Christmas supplies. Everything has to be sent out from Canada or England. I beg my friends to buy up at Christmas sales and send me supplies. Therefore, we don’t waste anything in spite of the dust or bite marks. At the ‘big house’ as the kids call our staff house, we go all out with Christmas decorating. We have a 3 foot high snowman that the Canadian Military gave us a few years ago. Instead of being pure white, he has a reddish glow from the harmattan dust. The snowman has two hands sticking out from his body so he looks like he is waving and he has black eyes and nose and a big red smile. We thought it would be a great idea to set it on top of the guard house this year so it looks like it is smiling and waving at people down on the road that passes near our gate. What we didn’t know is that this friendly fellow would be perceived as ju-ju – devil business. People are afraid of him. They think he is guarding the compound. SO, we figured we would leave him up there for awhile, makes our security guard’s job a bit easier knowing no one will be climbing over our gate this Christmas season. Its working like a charm – so to speak.

Dove invites in a lot of people who are homesick and unable to go home to be with their families for this season (Christmas, not harmattan). We have skits by the kids, sing Christmas carols, eat a great dinner and have a wonderful time of being with others. It is a challenge for us to find turkey for our dinner so we try to make chicken extra special. One year we bought some live ducks, with the plan to have them for Christmas dinner. That is a whole other story in itself, for another time.

The Dove kids are learning how to host a dinner properly and they are looking forward to serving and being served. This year we will have mostly British people with us so we look forward to a varied menu and entertainment this year. We never know exactly who will turn up, or what we will end up eating – but its always a pleasant surprise. One thing that we know we WILL have for certain is dust……
JN

Filed under: Uncategorized on December 1st, 2009