Merry Christmas from Botswana!

It is 10:00, Christmas night.  I have had a full day with my Botswana family, was blessed to be able to talk to my  family back home, and am now "patiently" waiting for Roger's internet in Iraq to work so that I can talk to my husband.  I figured that a good way to stay busy as I wait is to update my blog :)

Well, first of all, Merry Christmas!!  All of America seems to be dealing with a snow storm right now, but especially Minnesota.  I can't believe I am missing such a beautiful white Christmas!  How do you celebrate Christmas in Africa, you ask?  What a great question!  Let me tell you...

This morning, Dietra and I got together for a nice Christmas breakfast (scrambled eggs and toast! fancy!), then spent a couple of hours just catching up and playing with Olisego, the beautiful baby that is under the care of Love Botswana.  Around noon or so all of the missionaries headed out to the Tree Lodge.  We played games (I won), helped the kids decorate the approximately 5 dozen cookies that Brenda and I made, chatted for a couple of hours, and then enjoyed a delicious dinner.  We had turkey, salad, rolls, and another kind of meat.  It looked like roast beef, so when I bit into it I was confused.  It didn't taste like roast beef.  I found out shortly that I was eating kudu, which is one of the animals at the game farm and was shot last week.  Here's a picture of the animal that died so I could eat well on Christmas Day:

pretty, right?

After dinner, we opened presents.  I didn't even know that we were getting presents, so that was a wonderful surprise and treat!  Then, after I felt like I spent enough time talking with the adults, I jumped in the pool with the kids.  We had a blast playing The Game.  I don't think I have ever been swimming outdoors on Christmas before, so that's a fun memory to hold onto.  As dusk started to fall, we realized that we had forgotten to go on a game drive, so we hopped on a safari truck and took off.  We didn't see many animals (saw springbok, gemsbok, kudu, impalas, and elands), but it sure was a treat anyway.  Really, these animals are so beautiful.

We left the Lodge around 8pm, singing Christmas carols the whole way back (can anyone sing the 12 Days of Christmas off the top of their head?  It's hard!  What was the 12th day gift??).  I got to come home and call the family, which was wonderful, albeit a little difficult.  I got a little choked up while talking to some of the fam; this is a once in a lifetime experience, and I loved it, but it's still a little tough to be away from family on Christmas.

Anyway, Merry Merry Christmas!!  Hugs and Kisses from Botswana!