One of my dreams coming on the Race was to learn about and celebrate many new holidays abroad (foreign holidays, but also American holidays)!
I believe celebrating holidays within a new culture is such a special way to connect with people and immerse yourself! It is a way to build relationship and show respect, while opening up deeper conversation! So far on the Race, I have celebrated five holidays! And praying there are many more to come 🙂
In this blog, I am going to take you through the journey of these 5 holidays!
Diwali in India
Diwali is an ancient Hindu festival celebrated in India! It is the celebration of light overcoming darkness or good overcoming evil. During the holiday, Hindus prepare by cleaning their homes and workplaces and by illuminating the outside and inside of their homes. On the exterior, they put up what we would think of as “Christmas lights”, while on the inside, they light many candles or oil lamps (called “diyas”).
These are some of our friends from the hostel that we celebrated with! We all went all out, wearing saris and tunics! We all received a “bindi”, the red dot on our foreheads, as this is part of the tradition.
During Diwali, it is tradition to give gifts to your friends and neighbors! Our favorite hostel manager, Avi, gave us these boxes of chocolate. Eric and I were a little excited, lol! Our team fasted the weekend of Diwali to prepare our hearts and our focus (so we were very hungry the night Diwali came) and were VERY excited to partake in the traditional Indian dinner with our friends!
I even got to go shopping and help Avi get all the Diwali presents! We cleared the shelves! It was quite an adventure; we rode there on his motorcycle… on the way back, I carried two huge bags full of chocolate boxes on my arms and a backpack full as well! It was a sight to see! 🙂
To begin Diwali celebrations, they shared some of their traditions with us. They start the evening passing the candles. Since we were guests, they let us start! 🙂
We even had a full photoshoot with our favorite photographer, Kati Simpson!
Christmas In October: India Style
Because of celebrating Diwali, one of the biggest Hindu holidays with all of our hostel friends, we thought it was a wonderful idea to continue the cultural exchange by having a Christmas celebration 🙂
I LOVE CHRISTMAS. Like, A LOT. One of my life goals is to set up the Christmas tree one day earlier than I did the year before. I think there is NEVER a bad time to celebrate Christmas because we are celebrating the coming of the Savior. God incarnate. Christmas should be in our hearts every day of the year.
For our purposes in India in October, though, my team believed it was also a perfect opportunity to share the good news of Jesus in a very relaxed setting (at a fun party celebrating Him)!
Just a few days after Diwali, our team put on a full Christmas party and invited all of the hostel guests and staff to come.
Our dear friend, Avi even found a Christmas tree for the party!
We greeted our party guests and served them Christmas chai and cookies! Then we told the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke!
After, we played a white elephant gift exchange game with small trinkets we found at a local market! We explained that one of the reasons we give presents at Christmas is because of the gifts that Jesus was given at His birth: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Our friends loved the game and the whole evening. Denise, our team leader, even sang a Christmas song for the guests! It was a very special evening!
Halloween at Mini Debrief!
At the end of our time in India, we came together as a whole squad! We celebrated Halloween and even had a costume contest!
Haha so…my team and I went as the “Sonz”! Because our team name was “Daughters”! LOL. We had a little too much fun putting our costumes together! Below is the full gang together.
“Daughters” or “the Sonz” won the team competition later at Mini Debrief! We had a blast, and it was such a bittersweet time of sending our amazing team leader off as she returned to the States! WE LOVE YOU, DENISE (the furthest on the right).
Thanksgiving in Ethiopia!
For the month of November, my new team,”Mariposas” was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!
As Americans, we definitely still wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving. So we came together and fundraised money to be able to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner! Thank you again to all of you who donated to Thanksgiving dinner! We could not have done it without your support! 🙂
I had many opportunities to cook in Ethiopia! I even got to make a few peach cobblers for Thanksgiving! The cobbler was a HUGE hit; our Ethiopian friends and American friends both loved it! Thanks for sending the recipe, Mom! 🙂
Victoria cooking in our second kitchen (in the basement of the house)! We were so blessed to have space to cook for Thanksgiving.
The girls worked hard to put together the whole grocery/ingredient list and went to multiple stores/markets to get all the items needed for cooking Thanksgiving dinner!
Our lovely friend, Birkti brought us all flowers to Thanksgiving dinner! We met Birkti during our first week in Addis Abba. She is a dear friend to us 🙂
Kati and Aspen used their creativity to decorate for Thanksgiving! Every guest received a name plate. On the inside of the card was words of encouragement for that individual!
Here is the lovely group of ladies we got to celebrate Thanksgiving with! We even got to share some history of Thanksgiving and went around the table sharing reasons why we are all thankful! This was many of the ladies’ first time celebrating Thanksgiving; they were very excited!
Here is one good looking picture of my Thanksgiving plate; this was a BIG day for me because it was one of the first real meals I ate in a long time (because of the sickness)! My favorite dishes were for sure the mashed potatoes, veggie casserole, and zesty chicken!
Some of our sweet friends even brought a Thanksgiving cake with them! We had plenty of dessert to go around! 🙂
Christmas in Oman!
Tamara, Jewel, and I decorated the apartment before the rest of the team showed up! We completed our “Christmas Mission” and found a tree and lights! 🙂
On Christmas Eve, Kati and I woke up at 5am to watch the football game back home! It is one of Kati’s family’s traditions to watch the game every Christmas. So we streamed the video at the cafe next to our apartment; the cafe manager, Mohammed (on the right) even joined us and bought us some delicious Middle Eastern food to enjoy!
“GO FOOTBALL”! If you know me, you know I don’t care for watching sports very much, but the experience was a blast! I even got some fresh lemon-mint juice, which is easily becoming one of my favorite drinks!
For Christmas Eve night, our whole team went to a Christmas Eve service at a Catholic church. There were easily 2000+ people there! At the church, there were mostly Indians and other ex-pats! I’m not sure if I saw any Omanis there.
WALKING TACOS! This was our Christmas Eve dinner! Tortilla chips were too expensive, so the boys adapted and got some Omani Pizza flavored chips. We loaded the chips up with some ground beef, refried beans, homemade salsa, and homemade queso (with Labneh- a Middle Eastern creamy yogurt).
My lovely, Squad Leader, Tamara enjoyed her Walking Taco by the Christmas Tree!
CHRISTMAS MORNING: A few of us woke up early to set up the living room and set all the stockings up (like the little Christmas Elves we are)! 🙂 Everyone contributed their own sock the night before! Then Santa came and filled them overnight; it was a blast!
Our lovely Christmas morning brunch! Jewel and I made her famous french toast, an egg scramble, fried potatoes, and fruit!
Our apartment was unfurnished, so that means zero furniture lol. So we all piled our sleeping bags and circled up to sing carols, read the Christmas story from Matthew (don’t worry, we read Luke 2 multiple times in the few days leading up to Christmas), and exchanged our Secret Santa gifts!
The boys with their new toys!!! As soon as Christmas morning festivities ended, the boys set up a hallway race with their new vehicles and planes haha!
You would have never known that I was abroad and away from my family for Christmas; I still had several cards to open from my family (they had me pack Christmas cards from them when I launched in August). I was even given new underwear from some friends before I left to open halfway through the year, so you better believe I unwrapped those during Christmas morning too! LOL
And our whole team showered each other with gifts; new socks, jewelry, tea, coffee, and lots of candy! It was a wonderful morning together!
I even got to FaceTime with my family during Christmas morning (their time)! My dad even had me read scripture with them before they opened presents. I felt very loved and included! 🙂
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It was a very Merry Christmas. What a year it has been. What a five months it has been. Oh my goodness.
I never would have dreamed that these five months were possible.
Wow. I’m so in awe and so thankful to be here. To be able to get up everyday with the intention of loving others and spreading the good news!
And now, we will be celebrating New Years tonight (ANOTHER HOLIDAY…ending this year and this decade in the Middle East. That blows me away.
We will be leaving Oman for Istanbul tomorrow!
Please pray for safe travels and for the Spirit to lead us as we go into Turkey!
