Happy Tropical Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family, friends, good food, and lots of counted blessings despite the difficult times many are facing.

Here in Maputo, it simply didn't feel like Christmas at all. It was unseasonably cold, but still, it is summer. No matter how many decorations are out, and how much holiday music is playing, tropical Christmas just doesn't feel like the real thing. Also, we weren't with family, and since Rico and I aren't really into holidays in general, we didn't do that much celebrating.

We did go out for a nice dinner with friends on the 24th. Not much was open in Maputo, but we managed to have appetizers and cocktails at M and K's house, then go for dinner at Hotel Rovuma, and later out for drinks at Dolce Vita. It's certainly the first time I've spent a good part of Christmas Eve having mojitos in a bar!




Christmas Day was spent quite lazily. Rico and I stayed in our pajamas all day and watched reruns on the Style Channel and ate leftovers. I cleaned out my closet while he napped. We played with the kittens and the big cat. It was a very relaxing day - that is, until around 3am when our upstairs neighbor had the fabulous idea to turn his stereo on full volume blasting hip-hop, then leave the house. Our ceiling was vibrating with the bass, and the music was so loud it woke me up. We ended up switching his electricity off with the support of another neighbor when we finally realized what the situation was. The disrespectful neighbor is the son of our landlady, so good old Dona Flávia will be getting a phone call later today...not only is this the second time this guy has blasted the stero then left the house, we found out he is stealing water from our tank. Grrrrrrrrrr. I'm trying to remember the Christmas message and love my neighbor, but it's hard!