Christmas day

My housekeeper came on Christmas morning and bought me a dress as a gift – which was very sweet of her. Thankfully I had a present for her too! Vicki, Yama and I shared the panettone that Vicki had bought out with her, drank tea and freshly squeezed orange and grapefruit juice, and then we headed to the beach to meet the others.

Like the VSO Christmas party, everyone brought something with them to share or cook, and the first huge excitement of the day was Jasmine and Graeme setting up an amazing cheese plate!

The second treat was Geraldine’s spicy crab – probably the hottest dish I have had here in the Gambia and we all had streaming eyes and red lips by the time we had finished, but they were so delicious no one could stop eating them! At least we could cool off in the sea afterwards!

The crab chef

For the ‘main course’ Vicki and I prepared sweet potatoes, and Helen cooked sausages which we dipped in cranberry sauce and ate with tapalapa! The improvised barbecue worked well, and of course the men got involved in playing with the fire!

Later on Shimoni found sticks to skewer some chicken, Helen handed around marshmallows for roasting, and Rob went and bought a ladyfish to wrap up and cook on the coals.

Xalifa’s first toasted marshmallow 
– he looks a little cautious!

Rob preparing the fish

It didn't last long...

...especially with all of this lot tucking in!

At around 9pm we started to get a bit cool, so we went up to a Peace Corps open mic night (the less said about that the better) and then to Aso Rock for some live band and dancing.

An unconventional Christmas, but a good one!