What month is it?

I seem to be daily confusing myself when I think about the date – how DO you tell without a calendar exactly what month you are in when there is no difference in the weather except sometimes a little more rain? If I was surprised to be in November with Christmas music beginning to be heard from Rachel’s room, I am even more surprised to be almost in December, and the Christmas decorations already hung in the main room. Ok, we have an excuse for that, we decorated early while Rachel’s parents were here with us, and because we will leave our house in 2 weeks so want to enjoy it as much as possible! Still, as we prepare to go to an American Thanksgiving tonight with our colleagues and other missionaries in Musoma, it does feel a little strange.

So, I guess this update should bring momentous news of some kind, but apart from Rachel’s parents visiting there is little news since last time. Oh, I did manage to break my chair at work, but apart from that little has changed. Having Rachel’s parents with us was great fun though, despite the fact I was working as normal through their visit. They did all that Musoma has to offer (not much – Serengeti, a trip to Locuba Island on Lake Victoria and a trip to the village) and were quite content to read when they weren’t being entertained – very easy guests to look after! We even had a “barbeque” over a little jiko (coal stove) and ate burgers one night, yummmmm. The trip to the village was a little bit of a disaster in planning on my part, as we ended up doing the visits backwards and keeping one family waiting quite a long time... but it was good fun, and I finally had a chance to visit my language helper’s (Rukia’s) house in Nyamuswa after many months of promising to do so.

(Rachel and her parents at our burger feast meal, and our main room decorated for Christmas, complete with mini Christmas tree!)