Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 25th, 2006We did not wake up at the crack of dawn to see if Santa came. We did not have a decorated pine tree overflowing with presents to open. We did not have cookies, pie, or bismarks. We did not have family to spend it with.
Staying in our hotel room until after noon with breakfast and pots of coffee served to us in our room was a nice change though. After we emerged, our host “family” that we’ve been staying with for the past week tried to make our Christmas as special as they could. We spent the afternoon preparing Christmas dinner with Farida and watching TV with her sons Faisal and Danish. In the evening, we feasted on Mutton Korma with Green Chickpeas, Vegetable Masala, Salad, Rice, Chapati, Gulab Jamun, and Chocolate Balls, all of the ingredients bought freshly that day at the markets. After dinner, the entire family curled up on the floor to watch the James Bond film Octopussy which was filmed in the area (one of the two English movies available – the other is Titanic). We stayed inside their home all day and felt like it was almost ours for the day.