Christmas in Paradise

The whole team at the Christmas party. I love that one person, and one person only, dressed in traditional Swazi wear.

Our last day at Guba was by far the most fun. Swazis take almost a month off for summer (which coincides with Christmas), and Guba celebrated the end of a good year with a party at the rock lodge. We packed two trucks, somewhat miraculously, with meat, greens from the farm, booze, all the staff members, day laborers, volunteers, dogs and baby.





The rock lodge resembles a treehouse built onto the side of a mountain, with incredible views of the Ezulwini valley below.

We scattered to explore the different rooms, ledges, and crevices, inevitably convening around the crates of beer and cider. As we expected, about half of the group declined to drink at all and the rest were drunk by lunch time.

Enjoying the sun with Gabsile and Lilly

David and Wawa, happy to find a room with beds to nap on.

Cooked up beef, pork, chicken and boerewors on the braii down below.

As if seeing our co-workers drunk wasn't entertaining enough, we also played Twister.

All in all, a lovely last hurrah with a great team.

Our makeshift stockings

The next day we moved out of our tool shed and felt a bit glum about being homeless and unemployed. Luckily a neighbor asked us to house-sit while he took his family to England for the holiday. So we only meandered aimlessly for a few days before moving into his nice big house with four sweet dogs. Lewis & Ruby and several other Peace Corps friends came over for a very civilized Christmas.

Christmas dinner

Then on TK’s birthday we boarded a plane to Tanzania!