Baxters in Africa: Christmas and Other Things

We have been enjoying getting ready for Christmas, and we're grateful that we decided to break down and put up a a tree. It's difficult to get the Christmas feeling with it being warm and not cold and snowy. We are actually very blessed in as much as the weather, which is usually very hot this time of the year, is unusually cool. We may have sun later in the morning, but by afternoon, it clouds up, cools off and often times rains a very good rainstorm. Every time we get a hard rain, we get water in our storage area. The room has openings with slats across them. It is covered by the garage cover on the one end, and the porch covering on the other. We thought it was coming from a gap between the ceiling and the carport cover, so Lynn put calking around the opening, thinking we had solved the problem. I just wanted to scream when I opened the door to that room to get some ice cream out of our second fridge and saw 2 inches of standing water on the floor. I grabbed an armful of towels to absorb some of the water. Later, I discovered that my bag of sugar which was in a plastic bag was wet and water had seeped in thru the bag and onto the paper bag of sugar, getting it all wet. I salvaged what I could, and had to throw the rest of it away.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went out to the Kamagugu School where we had planted grass for our Helping Hands Project. They were to have a Christmas Program, according to the Principal. These are some of the decorations hanging on the walls.

The backdrop for the manger scene.

Some of the animals outside the manger. Darling art work done by the school kids. The scenery was very cute. Too bad there wasn't a Christmas program to go with it, like we were told.

It turned out to be the awards assembly for the end of the year. January starts the new school year. The kids have a three week break over Christmas.

Some of the teachers waiting to present awards. The principal is on the far right.

These children were very proud to receive their awards. Remember, this is a special needs school. They also announced their new officers for the coming year. It was interesting to see the way they applauded the winners. Such a neat experience to see this.

So the day after Thanksgiving, our land lady's grandson brought over his portable oven from his apartment for us to use while they decided what they were going to do with our stove. It sat on our cupboard.

Nice stove, except I had to stand on my tip toes on a stool to see what was cooking in the pan.

After having a fit about the portable stove and oven, we came home from shopping to find this box on our porch. Hooray!!!!

Minutes later, the installers arrived to put it in. He is taking out the broken stove.

Glad to get rid of this headache!!

The shiney new one!!

This is the hole that was burned in the platform where the oven sat. We have no idea what caused it. It's a wonder that the whole house didn't go up in flames like another one in the comoplex did a few weeks ago. The odor from the burning wood and melamine would sting my eyes terrically every time I opened the oven door.

While they were installing the oven, we were starting to put up our tree.

This is the finished product.

My cute decoration that plays, "Let it Snow" by Bing Crosby.

You can see the snow falling in the background.

Even stockings under the tree. A Santa Bear for me and a moose for Elder Baxter.

Full view.

"It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!"

Family Home Evening with precious and her family. Elder Baxter is trying to thread his needle to help string popcorn too.

Notice what looks like the star in the east!

So proud of their finished product, ready to hang on their tree.

My Christmas table by the front door.

The wall hanging just past the front door. Notice the authentic window cover hanging. It's to keep the flies from coming in through the window.

The kitchen table with Sants and his bowl of candy canes.

(Candy canes are hard to come by over here)

The coffee table with the Thanksgiving flowers, which were later replaced by a beautiful poinsetia.

Can't be in a foreign country without a trip to the dentist for a new crown.

Glad we were able to find a great dentist!

His dental assistant

A common sight during rush hour. About 4:00, you see dozens of people waiting for the bus to take them home. These accordian buses are interesting to see go around a corner. Sometimes there are even three joined together, (they look like a giant caterpillar) and they're full to capacity as many people don't have cars. Also many of those who don't have cars, can't afford the transport, so they walk miles and miles to and from work.