Doumas Down South: January 2013

Hello Everybody!

We trust everybody had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year. The best description for our holiday season is that it was very "different". Christmas Eve was a busy day preparing for Christmas itself. Christmas day I had to wake up at 4 am to start roasting a pig. We had a service with the kids, and then spent the rest of the day setting up for the huge dinner. The pork was incredible, but I am still not convinced it was worth waiting around a fire for over 12 hours! We had a few relaxed days after Christmas, just hanging about with the kids, until we had to move before New Years. Courtney and I are now living in the conference center, as Lily has run out of accommodation. House 17 is now been occupied by the new village manager and his wife. We have been lucky to have the conference center to ourselves, until today. It is a 9 bedroom building, so we will have to make due living amongst other people until we leave, which is now less than 5 weeks away! New Years Eve was marked by more work as we put on another dinner. Andy (another volunteer from the UK) and myself we in charge of fireworks, which most of the children really enjoyed.

This is the last week of holiday for the kids, so things have started to go back to usual. I have been working again, and Courtney has been helping with a holiday club to entertain the children. I have been tasked with building a large veranda on a building which should prove to be a fun project, so we will keep you updated on that!

Courtney's mom is coming next Monday for a couple weeks which will be quite nice. It is always great having people to share the experience with. Unfortunately we can't take to much time off while she is around because it is our final month, but we know she is coming for a certain little girl who will be happy to see her grandma!

We thank everybody for their continued support, and look forward to seeing you all in 7 weeks time!