This is my second Christmas away from my kids. I miss them so much, especially this time of year. My friends here knew how hard it was for me, so they tried to make it special. What wonderful friends...I woke up Christmas morning to sunny skies and a week of exceptionally warm weather, 25 degrees plus...
Christmas eve Mounir brought me my much awaited turkey. It was difficult to find a whole turkey in this part of the world. The butchers just get turkey pieces, because people here don't cook whole turkeys - most people don't have an oven anyway.
After asking at many shops, he convinced someone in Douz to part with one of their turkeys. After they killed it (thank you dear turkey for giving your life for my dinner), he brought it to my friend Khiria's home, where Khiria, Jamel and Mounir plucked and cleaned my Christmas bird (well, mostly Khiria!). It didn't look anything like the turkeys I have seen in Canada. It was VERY VERY free range! So he also brought me a large chicken so there would be enough meat. I was having ten (male) Bedouin friends over for 'traditional' Christmas dinner - all with healthy appetites! Remember, life is very traditional here - you can't have male and female friends over at the same time in the south, unless it is only one family - and generally women won't come for a visit in the evening anyway...
I had decorated my home for Christmas too - I have Christmas lights (that I brought from Canada) strung in my salon and up on my rooftop - even inside my bedouin tent! Last summer I had a bedouin tent made for my rooftop - and have enjoyed it so much - sitting inside drinking tea, smoking cheicha, it is one of my favourite areas of my home - much loved and much used.
We ate in my salon, it was so nice. After our delicious dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, tabouli salad, roasted squash with brown sugar and fresh local oranges we went up onto the rooftop, made a fire in my turkish kanoon, and enjoyed music played on the bendir, gasbya and dumbek, danced and had chocolate cake with tea made on the fire. A very sahara Christmas!
Enjoy the photos, remember you can double click to enlarge them! (The last photo is of my new solar panel for heating water!)
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