Christmas in Doo

I’m going to start this blog a week shy of Christmas since the seasonal events have begun, even here. I attended a Carols by Candlelight last night at the NZ embassy. It gave me a really odd mix of feelings – homesickness, sadness, delight and a deep hunger for the people here to understand the real meaning of it all. I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so ‘free’ as it was, but I easily forget that the embassies lie on diplomatic soil. The NZ ambassador read from the book, most of the songs we sang were strongly rongopai related with the token “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” thrown in there for the kids. We had mulled vino and mince tarts to follow, which I was VERY happy about ☺

Apart from this event, there has been absolutely nothing to remind me of the upcoming event. There are no decorations, lights, songs on the radio (actually I haven’t even heard the radio here) nobody is talking about going on holiday or what they’re doing for the day. The only reminders I’m getting are from people writing things about it on their ‘stalkbook’ statuses!

2 weeks later: Christmas ended up being a lovely day. I was quite homesick in the week leading up to it, and really struggling with the idea that I’m living in a country that not only doesn’t celebrate it, but doesn’t allow freedom to those who wish to. I had a wonderful (intermittent skype) conversation with Jen & Brad and my godsons late on Christmas Eve here, which deepened my homesickness, but also cheered me. I spent most of the day cooking, and met with 6 other Australasian girls for dinner at 9pm that night (after some had finished day shift and others had woken up after night shift!). We ate roast chicken, roast lamb, lots of different veges including Emma’s spectacular scalloped potatoes with beef-bacon (or fake-on colloquially), Christmas pudding that I’d slaved over for 8h, pavlova etc. A true feast. It was fun, lovely and memorable, but very strange for me to celebrate with a group of people who view Christmas very differently to me. I’ve been away from my family for 5 of the last 6 Christmases, which seems awful when I write it, but I’ve never spent one without anybody of the same faith. It felt quite odd to be the minority within a minority population.