Christmas Day... in as few words as possible

Courtney Family rearing to go before the present opening begins

Anabelle's baby doll and the Courtney children's new African dress

Our gifts from the Courtneys (although we said we weren't exchanging lol!) we were pleasantly surprised at the thoughtfulness of their gifts:

This is a table cloth and napkin set...

 Yummy Cashews!  All nuts are OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive here! I always savor each bite!

 John always borrows Robin's baby powder.  He has a secret trick to get the sand off his feet after a day at the beach.

 This is a coaster

And the first gift for Baby Campbell!!!

John and I agreed not to exchange gifts this year.  Mostly because we are on a tight budget, but partly because he has been naughty and probably deserves some coal in his stocking (just kidding!).   However, even though I said I didn't need anything, John still got me a couple of fun things...

A kitchen timer...

 And yes I did say I wanted this... so John is not (I repeat NOT) in trouble for getting this for me :)

As you can see in the pictures I am wearing pajamas in this pictures.  John and I are pajama kind of people on Christmas morning.  Anybody get all ready in the morning before opening presents?  Last year I was training for a 1/2 marathon and Christmas morning I woke up and did one of my long 9 mile training runs before anybody else was up.  When I returned home, I still showered and got back into my pj's because its tradition!

For Christmas we were invited over to Gabe and Sada's house for a Mexican food dinner.

7 layer dip

 Hot spicy queso

 Really spicy and delicious homemade salsa (they have a hand crank blender!)

 They found chips!  (Very rare here)

 Homemade flour tortillas (a recipe from Gabe's mom who still lives in Mexico!  Mmmmm soo good!)

 My contribution: guacamole!  It could have been a little spicier for my taste

Also included but no pictures: refried beans, taco meat, skewers of chicken/bell pepper/onion, and chocolate cake for dessert.

Here is my delicious dinner plate:

Here are the players:

Gabe and Sada (He is a dentist that runs a clinic here that I will hopefully start cleaning some teeth at next week!) Sada is 33 weeks pregnant and will be returning to the states next week to give birth there.

 Tom and Becky... they just arrived a few weeks after us and are Gabe and Sada's neighbors

Becky and Christine

Chuck and Tom

The entire dinner crew... (check out Chad's awesome face!)

A fun game of white elephant with our friends!

I scored and got a box of chocolates and John got a car shade!  I think we lucked out and got the best presents.  Other finds were an electric mosquito killer that looks like a racquet, a backstreet boys mug filled with individual nescafe packets, a brownie mix, among many other fun gifts!  Sierra Leone is a gold mine for white elephant gifts.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  John and I missed family a lot but got to talk to them via Skype Christmas night!

Happy New Years!

Christmas Eve

I know... I know... I have been such a slacker blogger lately!  I was so gung-ho in the beginning but have become quite lackadaisical and I apologize.  My New Years Resolution is to be more consistent at blogging :)

Today I will talk a little about our Christmas Eve service we attended and tomorrow (I promise!) I will post about our lovely Sierra Leonean Christmas Day because I know you are all pretty sick of Christmas by now and are anxiously awaiting a fresh start in a New Year!

The International Bible Study and Services we attend put on a "traditional service" followed by fellowship and refreshments.  We sung every relevant Christmas song known to man and then a few that nobody knew! Intermixed was some praying and bible readings.

I LOVED it because I love Christmas songs and definitely have not had my fill.  Except for some non-Christ related songs that became the Courtney kids favorite songs: Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause.  My favorite one that night was We Three Kings of Orient Are.  I don't ever remember singing that song but the lyrics and the beat are great!

On the compound where we had the service, there were a couple of puppies that excited all of the children (and myself!)

 Isn't it adorable?

 And I will end with the lyrics to a song that caught me by surprise when we sang them at church the week before and then that night.  I don't think I have ever seen or sung the words in the third stanza!  Have any of you?

Joy to the World Lyrics 

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Christmas Baking and My Mom's Famous Cinnamon Rolls

So Robin has been baking up a storm here in Sierra Leone.  In the past 24 hours she has made snicker doodles, peanut butter bars, banana bread, and a chocolate birthday cake for Jesus.  She has such a sweet heart and thinks of everybody that she is thankful for and bakes for them for Christmas.  The two guards out front, some of Chad's employees, any neighbor she can find, and other close friends.

I wish I would have taken pictures of her many treats.  They all seem to quickly disappear in her gifts, and in my the children's hungry fingers. :)

Today after making the snicker doodles and chocolate cake, Robin set out to make some delicious flour tortillas for our dinner tonight and tomorrow night.  Tonight we are having breakfast burritos with the homemade tortillas, eggs, BACON (do you see they do have this here dad?), and some delicious salsa that I found here for only 12,800 Le (which is like 3 bucks) Most salsas are 1/3 of the size of these and cost at least 15,000 Le

One is a spicy red salsa and the other is a limey green salsa.

Here are Robin and Anabelle making the tortillas.

However, the thing I am most excited about is the cinnamon rolls.  It is my mom's (secret) recipe so I can't tell you but I was really excited to carry on the tradition.  She makes them every year for neighbors, family members, and me :) 

It was a bit more difficult because I had to knead the dough by hand.  They turned out quite delicious... the dough probably wasn't quite as good as my mom's but it was the first time I've ever done them by myself (at least that's what I tell myself.  Here are some delicious pictures for you!

These are a pan of cinnamon rolls pre-frosting...

And post-frosting...

Are you hungry yet?

Merry Christmas everyone!  I will post in the next couple of days to let you know what we did for Christmas (both John and I's first Christmas away from our families) 

Christmas Caroling- Sierra Leonean Style

One of the guys who works security for our compound, named Alli, came to us one night knocking on the door and said "the police are here."

I think Chad was one the one who answered the door and talked with the policeman who gave us a flyer announcing the upcoming performance of the Sierra Leonean Police Band that would be coming later that week to play some Christmas Carols for us.

Lo and behold, they arrived a few nights later to our door and played about 3 or 4 songs.  The Courtney kids loved it and they were quite good.  Here are some pictures from their serenading:

Hope everybody is having a wonderful Christmas season.  John and I finished up getting the Courtney kids something small for Christmas.  There is just not a lot of selection here for toys but I know the kids will be so thankful for whatever is under the tree.  Plus, I think they realize the true reason for the season, even the youngest Owen.  He told me the other night "Every present I give to someone else is like I am giving it to Jesus because it is his birthday."  I told him I didn't know if that was quite the case but I thought it was a sweet thought coming from a 4 year-old anyways.

Merry Christmas!

Fried Prawns

What is that a picture of you may ask?

Why its a prawn cracker, or what they call fried prawns here.

Ingredient list:  Starch, dehydrated shrimp powder, sugar, salt, other additives including coloring, artificial flavorings and probably a good dosing of MSG

Awutor was over last week to fry some of these up for the Kids Club's Christmas Party.  Kids Club is ministry that Robin and Awutor had adopted.  35-40 kids each week gather to listen to bible stories, have snacks, and do crafts.  The kids LOVE it... many kids from different faiths attend just because of the attention they receive.  Often, Robin has to turn the kids away due to the limited space of the room.  How unfortunate :(

But those silver dollar shaped prawn pucks fry up into something quite neat...

I tasted one and it pretty much tasted like a crunch, fried, salty chip.  Most people that like potato chips would like these prawn crackers.  The seafood taste is minimally present if not absent.

I made the mistake of putting them in a ziploc bag for the few leftovers.  When John got home to try them it was rubbery and quite inedible.  oops! 

Apparently is quite a 'special treat' for local children.  Robin said they were very excited! 

Next post:  a Christmas Serenading by Sierra Leone's finest!  (And I promise I will post about it sooner than later :)  )

Morthaim Part II

So we got the community of Morthaim working on diverting the water of the spring so that we would be able to dig a trench... and put pipes in it to collect the water in order to shuttle down the mountain to the village.   We met with them on a Friday and by Tuesday they had diverted the water!  Hard workers!

That Tuesday John, Chad, and Joseph held a community meeting.

This kind of development work is NOTHING if the community is not involved.  With the community's help and support, when we are done, they feel more like they've accomplished something and it is their hard work that has paid off rather than ours. 

Chad explained to the community the buy-in necessary to make this project successful, considering there are limited funds.  Basically, it amounts to this, every family in the community gives a little.  It can be in manual labor, or providing a lunch meal for the laborers.

 
The community agreed and were excited about having better access to clean water.  John and Chad are in the process of buying the equipment needed to do the job and the community is working hard to dig 2 trenches that come together at a Y.  They are 15' in each direction, 3' wide, and 6' deep.  Clearly, they've got their work  dug    cut out for them  :) 

Here are a few more pictures of them talking with the community

Next up:  fried prawns... have you tried them?  They may not be what you think they are!

Have a great day!