Red-packaged Christmas joy

Posted by Ali

I skipped work yesterday. But I didn't feel terrible about it since I cleared it with Max a few days ago.  He (along with Davona and the girls who came along for a vacation on the ocean), Yona and Simon are all in Dar es Salaam this week to attend some meetings on food security. And since I really needed to get my SIM card registered as well as to get groceries I thought I'd catch a ride into town on Cradle's weekly supplies run. So yesterday morning Shae, Dolly, Sarah and I hopped in Max and Davona's car (which they allowed Shae to drive while they were gone) and took off for Arusha. We stopped first at immigration to take care of some visa stuff for Shae and continued on with a few more chores for Cradle and ourselves before taking a break for lunch at the restaurants near the cinema. After lunch we decided to check the nearby Village Market for extra goodies before going to our normal grocery store, Pick-and-Pay. Shae and I wandered down the candy/snacks aisle, looking for imported treats we missed from home. After some intense candy-searching and decision-making we thought we'd figured out what we wanted to buy when suddenly Shae rushed to a shelf and bent down, pointing at a pile of bright green bags. "Oh I am sooo getting some of these!" she exclaimed and pulled one packet off the shelf, holding it up for me to see. Sour Skittles! "Oh my goodness!" I rushed over, grabbing my own neon green bag. Shae crouched, at eye-level with the bags. "Man, I wish they just had the originals," she said, rummaging through the pile. A few seconds later she withdrew a unopened red box out from the back of the shelf, grinning like she had personally spoke it into existence. A few minutes later, with the permission of the cashier, the box was open and four bags of original Skittles were removed and paid for (I stuck with the sour variety) and we left Village Market with our precious purchases safely concealed in plastic bags.

Hours later, after eating supper together at the Cradle of Love apartment, Shae suggested watching A Charlie Brown Christmas to get into the Christmas spirit. After setting up her computer she returned to her room then reappeared and tossed Danielle, Anika and Kezia each a bag of Skittles. "This is my Christmas present to you guys," she explained over the loud exclamations of joy. The five of us squished onto the white leather couch, turned down the lights and munched Skittles to the scenes of the classic Christmas video.

When I was a kid every year my family started our Christmas celebration on December 1 with opening up the first door in our Christmas calendars, setting up our Christmas tree and eating the first candy cane of the season. I loved it. It was a tradition I could rely on, one that happened on the same date every year to start my second favourite holiday. Since going off to university our family tradition got pushed back to a few days before Christmas when we were all home together and this year I had thought I would miss out on the tradition all together. But, although we celebrated it in a different way and on a different date, we managed to have a very successful Tanzanian Christmas-season launching party. Thanks Shae for having a copy of A Charlie Brown Christmas. And especially for finding Christmas Skittles!