The Funniest Christmas Pageant Ever

We might not have performed "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" but I would dare to say we put on "The Funniest Christmas Pageant Ever." The soldiers who went to chapel at the American military base last night thought they were going to an extra-large Christmas Eve service but what they actually got was more like Comedy Central.

We had 11 kids from age 3-11. The 3-year olds were indescribable. People had side aches from laughing, I (as one of the directors) had tears coming down from laughing so hard and some in the audience were almost falling out of their chairs.

There were 3 microphones which was a shock to the kids when they started singing. But one three-year old, Trevor, decided he wanted his own mic and fought with anyone who stood by one. He tried to wiggle his way in but the other kids wouldn't let him. He tried to edge Lucy out but she gave him a nasty glare and stuck to Mitchell, the US Ambassador's son who was directly in front of a mic and wasn't relinquishing it for anything. Along with fighting, the little kids tripped over the mic stands, picked their noses and danced around.

Lucy had to pee half-way through and bunched her dress all up. I tried to discourage her but she looked mighty desperate and people were laughing, so Grandpa took her to the bathroom.

The kids wore antler headbands that a soldier had given them. Trevor didn't wear his and eventually decided that Lucy shouldn't wear hers either so he pulled hers off. She shoved him and then put the antlers over her belly instead.

One of the songs uses baguettes as a prop. Immediately upon receiving theirs, Lucy, Trevor and another girl began chowing (although they had just gorged themselves on delicious military food like Root Beer, fresh strawberries, pizza...). Throughout the song, Lucy bounced her bread in her arms. Behind me, people said "She's going to throw it...oh, honey, don't throw it...she's going to throw it...OH! She threw it!" Sure enough, Lucy threw her bread in the air and dropped it. She played catch for the rest of the song. When I went back to collect the bread, the other girl who had been eating hers turned her back on me and tried to hide the baguette behind her back while stuffing a huge piece in her mouth. I prevailed and got the bread away.

Another song was about a Lion. Trevor turned to the audience and said, "This is going to be a loud one." Then he stood in the middle of the kids and bawled for the whole song. He lifted his face to the sky and wept while the others sang and growled.

When the singing was over, the kids walked to the side to sit down. Trevor grabbed onto a mic and wouldn't let go. I tried to coax him away but he glared at me and said, "But I got one!"

Afterwards, many soldiers wanted to shake the kids hands, kiss their heads and thank them for coming. So many have families they are away from. Hopefully a little laughter and singing was just what they needed.

Merry Christmas!

Randa

We spent two nights in an encampment outside an Afar village called Randa. On the four-hour drive, we stopped first at Lac Assal. The salt lake is the lowest point in Africa and so salty, you can float. My dad said he even had difficulty actually putting his feet on the ground. We climbed some rocks and explored some hot springs, then headed on to Randa.

The camp is in the midst of a mountain range and consists of two squatty-potties, eight huts, a cook house and an area for eating. Thankfully it was furnished with loads of blankets because we were freezing. It got as low as 63 at night and other than Ski Dubai, I don't think I've been so cold since we left MN in 2003!

We slept on thin mattresses in the huts, covered with blankets. We played boul, the French version of bocci ball, played cards, ate fantastic food and explored the area. We hiked to a stunning view of the mountains and valley below. On the way we saw a 'famous' camel, one who apparently acted in a film a few years ago and is well-known in the region (Lauren, if you are reading this, I think it was the same movie you were in). Our guide took us to his home in the village for tea and then we headed back to camp. That afternoon he took us around Randa, which has about 500 people. He thought my parents might be interested in traditional Afar culture and took us to the largest hut in the village where we were served tea and laxoox, a type of sour pancake. Then we saw the water source for the whole village and a terraced, very fruitful garden which is quite unusual here.

The trees were some of the most amazing things I saw. There was a wild olive tree, various types of acacia, which we have all over Djibouti town but these ones had flourescent yellow bark or deep emerald green bark, both of which came off on our hands like powder. There were palm-like trees towering up from the valley with small poofs on top, our guide said they were over 600 years old. And the most fascinating was a strangling fig tree which had overtaken another tree, killed it and began possessing it. The fig tree was inside and around the other tree with its' roots hanging down. They grow down from the tree branches and when they reach the ground, they force themselves into the earth and form new trunks. So this tree was massive in size and made arches and curves between the various trunks it had sunk into the ground.

Whale Sharks

We spent the day swimming with whale sharks. This is our fourth time going, but a first for Grandma and Grandpa Pieh and what an experience! We took a boat from the beach in shifts with a group of other expats. Mom, Henry and I went in the second shift and we think we had the best time of all the others.

I have never seen so many sharks in one place before. They were everywhere around us. We would lose sight of one and within a few minutes, one or two or even three other would swim by us. Henry swam with me twice, then waited in the boat with Grandma. I broke one set of flippers so she and I had to take turns. She almost didn't go in, but in the end I convinced her to try and she was glad she did.

The best was when I spotted one away from the others and had a chance to swim along with him, just he and I and the wide, wide ocean. Another time I couldn't see any and turned around only to face two coming straight at me, so close that had I stretched out my hand, I could have touched them. I dodged one but the other swam directly beneath me and brushed me with his dorsal fin and tail! I screamed and laughed into my snorkle and mom said they could hear me back at the boat. After they passed, the four men I was with and myself surfaced and burst out laughing from the adrenaline and awe of being so close.

We were getting ready to head back and I got in the boat so mom could have a turn. She saw some and once I watched her turn around only to see one swimming right behind her. She popped to the surface and tried to back pedal while laughing. No matter how many times you tell yourself that they aren't dangerous, everytime one comes in your direction unexpectedly like that, it freaks you out.

For about two hours, a large group of them swam back and forth in our area, eating and meandering around. Amazing.

And no, I'm not comparing a camel or my mother to a whale shark. Back at the beach, mom, Maggie and Henry took camel rides.

Christmas Program

Our Monday school group did a Christmas program yesterday. It was our first try doing a musical with speaking parts and solos. I wrote up the speaking parts and we fit them around a bunch of songs. I guess I'm walking in my mother's footsteps. And she is thrilled!

The kids did great. There are about 18 kids of all shapes, sizes, colors and nationalities. I love watching my children grow up so color-blind. The sweetest picture I have in my mind is of Lucy at school one day walking hand in hand with two other American girls. Lucy was in the middle and on her right is a Korean girl and on her left is an Ethiopian girl and they have no idea that any of them are a certain color.

Anyway, that was a tangent...back to the musical. Henry was a shepherd, Maggie was an angel and Lucy was a lion. The kids range from 3 years old to 8, with a few older boys doing some readings during the show.

In the beginning every had their heads bowed and a little boy in the front shouted at everyone: "Wake up! This is not the time for sleeping! Wake up everyone!"

For the song "Bread of Life" the kids held baguettes and that was the end of the performance for Lucy. She spent the next few songs chowing on her bread.

We had about 25 guests, including workers, neighbors, parents and three soldiers from the base. The kids will perform again on Christmas Eve at the American military base.

Good Advice

Tom went to buy screws in the market and got talking with the shopkeeper. He was convinced that Tom had sown his seed in every country we've lived in.

"Surely you left at least one child behind in each city!"

When Tom denied this and suggested that that wasn't the greatest practice for a married man (or a single man) to engage in, the man said,

"No problem! Just do it 'in the name of God/Allah' and there won't be any troubles."

We might buy tools from him, but I don't think we'll be taking this shopkeeper's advice.

Race with Soldiers

My faithful fans

Just before the finish line, I'm tired and my hip is hurting big time.

But I still managed to pass the woman in the green shirt, much to her dismay. As I limped by, she whispered, "Sh**"

Lorraine with her medal

Me by a short-shorted French man

I survived (barely) the 15K race on Thursday. It was in the Grand Bara desert (photos later). The Grand Bara is one of the flattest pieces of land in the world. In fact, it is one of three emergency space shuttle landing sites because there are no rocks, no trees, no hills, no rivers, nothing but flat, cracked and dry clay for miles and miles.

We woke up at 3:00 a.m. in order to get to the starting line by 5:30. The race began at 6:00. There were 1762 participants, 90% French military. Also US military, Djiboutian military, German and Chinese military and a handful of civilians. This year I'm guessing there were about 200 women, almost double last year.

I won't bore you with details of every footfall, just a few memorable moments. Again, the fighter jets swooping low overhead signaled the start and we took off with ears ringing. Again, my training partner lost me in her dust as she tore up the road ahead of me. Two American soldiers were running behind me the entire race. Both of them wore IPODs and talked to each other. Since they couldn't hear each other, they had to shout so I was party to all of their aches and joys as we ran.

I've been having hip pain so I had taken some meds pre-race and about 10K in, started to feel it. My pace slowed down and I almost pulled off to the side but pressed on to a PR (3 1/2 minutes better than my time last year) but was disappointed with the result, which was just a little over 9 minute/mile pace. I had hoped for and trained to do two minutes faster than what I finished in. I was on pace to do that until those last 5 kilometers when my leg hurt and the muscles were quitting on me. After finishing, my toes cramped and my leg grew more and more sore. I have now spent the last two days limping, wincing and taking medication. I know it was a bad idea to race on an already injured leg but with so few opportunities here, I couldn't pass it by. Hopefully things will heal quickly.

The best part of the day was watching Lorraine receive second place in her age group with a time 6 minutes faster than last year's! Way to go Lorraine!

Race Time

Tomorrow is the first race of the (very short) season here in Djibouti. 15K, or 9.3 miles, in the middle of Nowhere with the French military. This was my first official race ever last year and I'm even more nervous this time around because my hip has been bothering me again. I'm hoping to finish and maybe pass some soldiers in short shorts on the way.

Running Times

Check out my next article about running my first race ever on Thanksgiving last year: http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15168 or click on the link above.

I Kissed a Girl

I'm not one to advocate kissing on first dates but I confess that yesterday I not only got the phone number of a person I was introduced to that very afternoon but I also got some lip action.

Oh, did I mention it was a Muslim woman?

Yesterday we went to a pool party at the US Embassy. There were about nine families there and four families had twins and every single set of twins was boy/girl. I met one of the Djiboutian women who had two-year old twins and we got to speaking Somali with one another. She was so thrilled that she couldn't contain herself and gave me a big smack! right on the lips. I wasn't too shocked as that is sort of the 'bush' or traditional way of greeting between two close female friends.

And then she did it again! When I went to say goodbye to her, she gave me the two kisses on my cheeks that is normal, although each of the two were within a hair's distance from my mouth and then ended with a big wet juicy one right on the lips again.

We exchanged phone numbers and promised to get together.

I better get used to kissing her.

Grandparents!

We are having visitors! This Saturday my mom and dad arrive to spend three whole weeks with us, including Christmas! That will be the first time since 2002 that we have spent Christmas with people we are physcially related to. Maybe they'll bring some Minnesota snow in their suitcases.

Mom and dad came out in 2004 for two weeks and mom came again, for five weeks, when Lucy was born.

Here is dad at the beach with Henry and Maggie when they were 4 and mom in our front yard stirring a pot of goat heads for a feast on their first visit.