Another Christmas Eve Update

MacDella was never able to get her money transfer to go through, so Tammy and I leant her some money to buy everything for her party tomorrow. The bank had assured her before she left that the money would go through, and she had to make so many phone calls today to try to explain that she was in a third-world country and couldn’t just use her debit card. We ran a lot of errands today, so we spent a lot of time in the car driving in traffic. It was exciting though because we had to go in the market, and I brought the camera! Most of the children I saw would smile at me and Tammy whenever we walked by. A few people in one store asked me why I was filming people and said that they wanted to be in the show. One guy said something to me, and I think he was telling me to turn it off before he walked into the store because he didn’t want to be on camera. Everyone speaks English here, but it’s still hard to understand because of the accents. I’m getting more used to it now. I can understand Belle sometimes, with the combination of her accent and her baby talk. I can understand Leila and Marcie, too. Hajal doesn’t talk to us much.

We went to the super market today again. It’s surprising how much stuff they have in a little store. They have almost everything that we can find it Shop Rite or Stop & Shop. They have fewer varieties, but they have the main ones that I recognize. They actually have a Stop & Shop here, but we went to a store called Abi Jaoudi (or Jawdi, like the employees have written on their shirts). MacDella dropped us off at the apartment and then went to get some pots and pans and deliver the food to the cooks. I thought she’d be back to get us to run more errands eventually, but she’s still not home. It’s about 9:30 already. Apparently everyone will get up at 4am tomorrow to start all of the cooking.

Tammy and I took a much needed nap at the apartment and then visited with the girls on the balcony. I took out my tropical trail mix as a snack, and the girls loved it. I think I’ll leave it here with them if we don’t finish it by the end of the week. I was going to take it on the plane with me as a snack, but they’ll appreciate it more. We read some of our books until it was too dark outside to read. Once the electricity came on at 7, we came inside to color in the coloring books. Tammy was showing Belle how to play Miss Mary Mack, and then Leila was showing us some of the hand games that she plays here with her friends at school. A lot of them were similar to ones that we knew. She knew conversation where she said you name schools, songs, or cars that you know until someone can’t think of something. She sang another one about music to the tune of a song that we knew. Tammy says it’s the New Year’s song, Auld Lang Syne.

And tomorrow is the big Christmas party! It will be fun. I’m charging all of my camera batteries and taking lots of tapes. Tammy’s going to ask MacDella to pull aside certain children that she knows work hard in school and have a lot of potential, and we’re going to get them on camera. Maybe we can get some of them people to sponsor their education. It will be good footage for the documentary, too. I’m so excited that I got to walk around with the camera today in the market. Hopefully I can get more footage like that after Christmas.

It’s sad to think that in a few hours my family will be having their Christmas Eve dinner and I’m not there to share it with them. I could be having mushrooms and barley and homemade pierogies. I hope Alex remembers to save me a container of pierogies. Maybe I should call and remind them. And tomorrow morning I won’t have a stocking to open or a “Santa sack” or pile waiting under the tree. I got my presents when I bought my camera for this trip. But I’ll be able to help all of the children have a nice Christmas, so that’s a good present for me. They’ll have a nice meal of chicken, sausage, and rice. And, of course, they can all be on the camera. I’m sure they’ll love that. And I’ll love it, too. :)

Merry Christmas!