So I had a lovely Christmas here in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas, because of my splendid new friends who are quickly becoming family.
On Christmas eve, the mother of my roommate (who is here to visit for two weeks :) made an American feast with pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, chicken. It was wonderful!
So naturally, we invited over some of our closest Djiboutian friends and made them eat it!
Djiboutian friends will invite you over and then stuff you to the brim with foods that are normal for them but strange to us. We invited friends who we thought would be interested in seeing our culture, but sometimes curiosity isn't enough for your palate. They were all gracious and willing to taste. It was great fun!
After that dinner, we had an American feast at the military base on Christmas day...this was down right overwhelming. ESPN and FOX news were playing, while hoards of Filipinos in shining shepherd/wise men costumes served 5,000 troops via 6 buffet lines. Needless to say, I brought home a box of strawberries, mini-wheats and a few extra pounds.
For these extra pounds I have decided that if extreme measures become necessary, I will follow the example of Uncle Nematollah, who after massive amounts of fast food in America gained some unacceptable weight before his return to Iran to find a wife. His full story can be found in the book "Funny in Farsi" which is a memoir of an Iranian woman who grew up in America during the Iranian revolution. It is absolutely hilarious, if you like to laugh, you MUST read it.
So here is a snippet of Uncle Nematollah's story:
"Uncle Nematollah's next shortcut to sveltness consisted of a specially constructed exercise outfit, advertised during The Newlywed Game,that promised to help sweat away those pesky pounds. The outfit was constructed of a thick silver material, a cross between aluminum foil and vinyl, something perhaps left over from a failed space mission and purchased at a NASA garage sale. The instructions stated that the outfit had to be worn for twenty minutes before each meal, during which the wearer was supposed to engage in some form of exercise. My uncle decided to speed the weight-loss process by wearing his moon suit all day. He thought nothing of circling the block endlessly, leaving neighbors wondering whether perhaps he was looking for the mother ship. Dressed for a jaunt on Venus he strolled to the supermarket, the hardware store, and everywhere else he needed to go. Unable to understand English, he had apparently forgotten the international meaning of stares as well. Kids at school asked me about the strange guy who was staying with us. In terms of weirdness, my family and I were now off the charts."
