December was a busy month so I wanted to share an update about where I spent the holidays!

The last week of school before Christmas vacation was a pretty slow week. Attendance was low as many students (and teachers as well unfortunately) decided to begin their breaks early. But the students who were there kept asking me, “Miss S, where my Christmas?” Here in Liberia that’s a way of asking “where’s my Christmas present” or “what’d you get me for Christmas?” As the holidays got closer I heard more and more people around town jokingly asking each other that. So when my students asked me, I’d point to the blackboard and tell them I brought their Christmas notes!

School closed for the Christmas break the Friday before Christmas and I spent the weekend in my community. As I wouldn’t be there on Christmas day, my friend made me my Christmas meal a few days early: Liberian barbecue and a cabbage salad. The barbecue was delicious: chicken and cow meat in a sauce made of country peanut butter and, of course, Liberian peppeh (peppers). And the salad was a treat as finding any fresh vegetables (besides cucumbers when they’re in season) is not easy in my town!

On Christmas Eve, I headed into Monrovia to spend a few days with some fellow PC volunteers. I was bummed to miss Christmas at site, when all the children would be running around in their fine new Christmas clothes playing with balloons and noise makers–though I’d already heard plenty of noise makers in the weeks leading up to the holidays!

What’s usually a quick trip into the capital was a bit crazier than usual: from my community into town, I first take a car to an area called red light and get a different car from there into town. Red Light is a big parking hub where you can get taxis to many different parts of the country. It’s also a huge market and being the day before Christmas it was packed–like the equivalent of going to the mall on Christmas Eve! On top of that craziness, I was in a car with not only 7 human passengers, but 7 goats in the trunk along with my suitcase!

After the trip into Monrovia, I was able to spend a couple relaxing days there with Peace Corps friends. We went out to dinner on Christmas Eve at one of the fancy hotels in town, where we took bluffing photos in front of the Christmas tree! And we spent Christmas day hanging out by the pool.

Then the day after Christmas, I headed to the airport to catch my flight… I met my mom in Rome for a week! It was a great trip: we visited the Colosseum and Roman Forum, took a tour of the Vatican and saw the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain.

We took a couple of day trips to see the ruins at Pompeii and Ostia Antica.

One of my favorite things we did was taking a cooking class where we learned to make homemade pasta–it was delicious! Plus, of course, we ate plenty of pizza and more pasta, drank some wine and got gelato even though it was wintertime!

After a great trip, I’m back in Liberia and have been getting back into the routine of things at school, as we’re getting close to the end of the first semester!