Day 328 - Christmas Around the World, Part II

I wondered if my first Christmas in Germany was going to my loneliest because I had only arrived a few months before, I didn't have my Christmas things around me, and it seemed as though everyone else had somewhere to go for Christmas. Since no one invited me to join them, I decided I should invite a few to join me. But I didn't really want to learn that everyone else had plans to confirm that I was left out. So I came up with a back-up plan. I called a friend from my German class, Janice, who was in Bonn, and asked her if I could spend Christmas with her if it turned out that those I invited had plans already. She agreed, so I issued invitations. It turned out that several people agreed to come to my house for an early dinner on Christmas Day even though they had other plans for later, so I didn't travel to Bonn until New Year's Eve.

The loneliest Christmas I ever spent overseas turned out to be our first year in paradise, Barbados. I had arrived in Barbados right after Thanksgiving, and Alex and his son arrived the week before Christmas. Because Barbados did not have leased housing, we were stuck in a hotel room until I could find a house to rent. That is where we were for Christmas.

No one invited us to spend Christmas with them. I think it was because landing in Barbados is such a shock to most Americans that the tendency is to withdraw. The people I worked with had either just arrived (and were in shock) or were close to leaving (and were busy getting ready to leave). I suppose there were some who knew Alex and his son would be arriving and they thought we would like some alone time.

But on Christmas?

by  smcgee 

We joined the other guests at the hotel, all of them tourists, for a festive Christmas buffet on Christmas Eve. That, and the fact that the TV reported that President Nicolai Ceaucescu and his wife Elena of Romania were shot by firing squad that morning, is all I remember from that Christmas.

Our second Christmas was much better. One of the secretaries, Brenda*, invited Alex and me along with her boss and his family to her house for Christmas Day. She had picked up a large piece of driftwood from the beach in front of her house, painted it white, stuck it in a bucket and hung her ornaments on it as a Caribbean Christmas tree. The only black mark on the day was when Brenda's boss' wife said something about the embassy needing some good admin people. I felt compelled to counter that the embassy needed some more good admin people. Conversation died at that point for a few minutes.

Christmas in Moldova rivaled Christmas in Iran for discomfort as our Codru Hotel apartment in Chisinau was on the city's, not something so small as a building's, central heating plant. Most office and apartment buildings relied on steam heat which was never turned on before October 1 and was turned off in March. The year we moved to Moldova, however, the entire steam delivery system had to be repaired, delaying the start of the plant by a month or more. Again, the laws of physics didn't seem to apply as the heat never rose to our level. We used to go to work on the weekend to keep warm. In the evening, I went to bed very early so I could warm up under the covers.

Christmas tree in our Hotel Codru
apartment

Our second Christmas in Moldova, we were living again at the Hotel Codru, but by this time we had filled the apartment with furniture which helped warm it up. And we also invited lots of people over all the time. Body heat, as well as conversation, added a lot to our comfort.

That year, we also celebrated with the local employees. It turned out not to be such a good idea, but we Americans all brought in many wrapped gifts for a New England gift exchange - the kind where everyone has a number and when your number is drawn from the hat, you pick out a present from the pile unless someone has already opened a present you would like instead, in which case you can take that one and the person who had it gets to pick again. It probably has a few other names, too. It wasn't such a good idea because the local employees had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to take away a gift from them. It was fun for the Americans, but mystifying or even cruel in the eyes of the local employees.

While I was in Yemen, I got away twice to spend time with Alex. The first time was after the travel conference I attended in Budapest, and the second was at Christmas when I joined him in England where we stayed with his mom. Alex's son was still living in England at that time, so it was a great opportunity to spend the holiday with Alex's family - Mom, son Simon, brother Wayne, sister-in-law June, their son Steven and his wife Shelly.

Alex at the embassy Christmas party

Alex and I were able to spend Christmas together while I was in Africa as well. I was in Madagascar, the first of my three African countries. Alex flew in just before Christmas, in time for the embassy part at the ambassador's residence. After that party, Alex and I drove with Gary and Kathy, my next door neighbors, to a nature reserve where we had separate cabins, spent the days wandering the reserve to watch and interact with the lemurs, and explore the other unique plants and animals on the island, the fourth largest in the world.

*a name, not necessarily the right one