This year's Salone Stocking...

Christmas in Salone is a bit different than Christmas at home. It’s hot and sweaty for one. Streets and houses are for the most part not decked out with decorations. People aren’t going crazy buying Christmas gifts. Nope, it’s not quite the same. I think I like it more though without the Christmas Craze. And I think I ended up doing more Christmas-like things here than I would have at home…visiting orphanages, the Children’s play, feeding center, etc.

Memorable times; a perfect Christmas except for the fact that I wasn’t with my whole family. Fortunately we could still do some of our family traditions: stocking, Christmas brunch, presents after brunch. Of course, even the stocking was a little different in Salone. I had a pillowcase for a stocking this year, wedged into a drawer. It served its purpose however. And in the morning it was fun finding gifts from my fellow expats in there.

The most extraordinary gift this year was the gift of “24 hour power” (green card above stocking). Since we don’t usually have power during the day, one of my house mates offered to cover the cost for some extra generator hours, so that all of us at the house could enjoy electricity (i.e. internet, ACs) during the day. We made use of the offer this afternoon which was GREAT. Sitting in the gazebo on a Sunday afternoon enjoying the luxury of internet!