Although I have seen some turkeys wandering around Jos we relied on Danjuma the pork man to supply our Christmas dinner. He came round to the house with his plastic bags and pulled out a huge haunch of free-range pork which presumably had been running around the day before. It looked great but it wasn't until Christmas Eve that I discovered it was too big to fit into the pressure cooker. (I prefer to pressure cook meat as hygiene standards are not great and it makes me feel that any nasties should've been killed off). Suddenly a 4kg joint didn't seem such a good idea but 7 hours of long, slow cooking did the trick.
That was one problem solved. Next I wandered round the garden collecting whatever green things I could find. We're in the middle of the dry season so most things are now brown but I managed to gather enough of the surviving cabbage, leeks and beetroot. In the UK all I'd have to do next would be wash off the soil and put them away until it was time to cook. In Nigeria I wash off the soil, soak them in Milton sterilising solution for 15 minutes to kill off any typhoid or other bugs that might be lurking and then rise again in filtered water. Extra hassle but I'm not confident we've built up enough immunity to cut it out yet.
We had friends from TCNN joining us for lunch and I was praying that the power would last. Part of the (sticky toffee) pudding plan involved our newly purchased microwave and I didn't want to have to go to plan B. It's always a good morning when we wake up to electricity. Our Christmas Day in that respect was better than for some people in Britain. We had power until 6pm when it went off until Boxing Day afternoon but at least we always have our candles ready.
I hope you all had a good Christmas. It's so amazing to remember that the almighty, all-creating, all-knowing God sent his Son to be born as a human as part of the great plan to set humanity free from slavery and destruction. Good food and time with family and friends are great but that God's love for us is so overwhelming is more wonderful still.
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