Hello my dears,
Heri ya krismasi na heri ya mwaka mpya! Natumai nyote hamjambo na mlikuwa na siku nzuri za bure!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope you are all well and had a few nice days off!
Once again, there is a lot to tell!
Christmas without traditions
Christmas and New Year’s Eve are usually one of the most intense family times for me, but this year that didn’t happen. The pre-Christmas period was also completely different. No Christmas markets, no cookies, no Sunday coffee with punch, no wrapping up warm, no open fire, no snuggling up with a blanket and tea on the sofa. All these traditions were not here this year.
But what we really wanted was an Advent wreath in our home, just to get a little Christmas spirit. So we made a very improvised wreath.
This year, everything was different. It was the first time I hadn’t spent Christmas with my family. The first time without bells, without a marathon of church services as an altar girl, and without presents within the family.
I have now been over 10,000 kilometres away from home for four months. And yet I am still as excited and happy as I was on day one. That is precisely why this Christmas was incredibly wonderful, even though I did not feel in the Christmas spirit at all. Because I celebrated it with my new family in Rulenge💛
Christmas Eve in Tanzania
The 24th was quite stressful and hectic. Shopping, cooking, cleaning and preparing were on the agenda. During this time, we had visitors from Muleba, Leni and Jason. In the morning, I baked cinnamon rolls and cake with a sister, which I took to Angels Home in the afternoon to give the children a little treat.
On this day, a large family also visited the orphanage, who donate money, food and pampers every year on the 24th. I got to meet them and it was really lovely.
In the evening, we had a delicious Christmas dinner which also took us the whole day to cook, before going to midnight mass at 8 pm.
The mass was very beautiful and contemplative, but even during the Gloria, I didn’t feel any Christmas spirit. I sat in the church wearing a dress and open-toed shoes, which just didn’t seem quite right.
It was a great gift for me to become the godmother of a baby from Angels Home, with whom I have spent a lot of time in recent weeks due to a hospital stay. When the sisters asked me, I was incredibly moved, grateful and overjoyed.
Christmas days full of encounters
After mass, we celebrated with the seminarians before falling into bed late and exhausted. The next morning, we went to mass again early. This was also very special, with wonderful music, beautiful prayers and even more beautiful encounters afterwards.
At lunchtime, I was invited to Angels Home to have lunch with the sisters. It is soo lovely to feel like a part of the family. In the afternoon, I played with the children. In the evening, Philippa and I went to Barikiwa for dinner. There, too, we met lots of people and had a great chat with them.
On the 26th, I had the opportunity to experience something very special again. Over 20 sisters from the Bernadette Order (also the sisters from Angels Home) provided musical accompaniment for the church service. They sang and danced, and I was right in the middle of it all. It was an incredibly beautiful experience and it showed me once again why I love life here so much. Everything is so easy; you just do things without thinking too much about it.
At lunchtime, we had a visit from two friends. It’s really nice to see how much is now possible in Kiswahili. I can hold most conversations and if I don’t know a word, I can use my hands, feet or my best friend „Google Translator“ to help me.
The days that followed were still very busy. Meeting friends, spending time with the seminarians, baking, cleaning, cooking, visiting markets, lunch at the bishops house and spending a lot of time with the sisters and children.
The seminarians have been on holiday since the 29th, which feels quite unusual and quiet. Normally, I am woken up every day at 6:30am by the seminarians singing, I leave the house and am greeted by loud voices. It’s always fun with them, and suddenly everything was quiet around the house. Saying goodbye was really hard for me as well, because everyone has grown so close to my heart, and we truly are one big family.
New year’s eve in Rulenge
On the 31st, I was at work in the morning, spent the evening with friends at Barikiwa and then went to the mass. This New Year’s Eve was also very different, but still incredibly beautiful. It was simply good, relaxed, cheerful, fun and full of great conversations. Very much in the Tanzanian way. It was a totally amazing experience, because the mass started at 10:30pm and went on until after midnight. Shortly before midnight, everyone started singing, dancing and clapping, and at the stroke of midnight, everyone went wild, shouting loudly and celebrating together. Everyone ran around wishing each other a Happy New Year. Totally unfamiliar, but really, really nice! It was also really strange to wish my family a Happy New Year when I was already in 2026 and they still had to wait two hours.
We spent the 1st in a very relaxed manner. We had a long breakfast, of course with „New Year’s pretzels“, which I had baked the day before, and mango jam, which I also made myself. Afterwards, we went for a long walk and at lunchtime and in the evening I met up with some friends again.
Another big highlight was the Tanzanian cooking session with my friend. We cooked bananas, meat with a tomato/carrot sauce. Soo delicious. I invited my mentor for lunch as well and he was really happy about the food😅
My personal thoughts
You know how important transparency is to me, so I would like to conclude by sharing a few very personal thoughts with you.
I can only say it again, time is flying. I experience so much here every day that I often can’t keep up. 89 unread WhatsApp chats, no free slots for phone calls and hardly any time to just do nothing. Even though I enjoy every single visit, encounter and I am happy about every message/question from my friends some germany but sometimes it all gets to be too much. Still. I can’t remember a single or half day when I just stayed at home and lazed around.
Then there’s the language learning process. I learned Kiswahili quite quickly, but of course I’m still learning so much, new stuff every day. My brain only processes a lot of it at night. On the one hand, that’s really cool and wonderful, but on the other hand, it’s also exhausting because I don’t always get a good night’s sleep. But some good news: I dreamed for the first time in Kiswahili a few days ago😍
And then there is something else that has been on my mind a lot in recent weeks and that I find difficult to put into words. I feel incredibly comfortable here and hardly feel homesick at all, not even for my family, even though I am actually a big family person. At the same time, my home in Germany sometimes feels strangely far away, almost foreign.
I feel like I am changing a lot right now and getting to know a new side of myself. That I can live out sides of myself here that I couldn’t live out in Germany in this way. Not in a negative sense, but rather in a way that is unfamiliar and very unsettling. I always thought this realisation would only come at the end of my year here, but it’s already here. And that’s exactly what’s so intense about my time and experience here right now, which is why it was important for me to share it.
Currently I wish, I could hold on the time a bit. The time is flying and going back to germany is coming closer and closer and i don’t want to go. I am having the best time of my life here and I want that this stays longer, as long as possible!!! Extending my time here is definitely not out of the question😅
Right then, I’ve been chatting away again, and now for some really good news to finish with: my family is coming in two days. I’m so incredibly excited to show them everything, introducing them to my friends and just see them again. But it’s so crazy how quickly time has flown by. Only 2 days to go!!!🥳🥳
After a long trip with my family, I will continue on to the mid-term seminar in Bagamoyo.
That’s why I won’t be in touch for a while. But it was important to me to write again now.💛
All the best to you, stay healthy and cheerful.
Hugs to you all.😘❤️
Love you and best wishes from Tanzania
Kommentar verfassen