Okay, so I know we’re well away from a Christmas holiday, but I still wanted to share this piece with you. So, for those that celebrate, let’s picture ourselves in the Christmas spirit as we read this post!
First, Appreciation Time
Christmas this year (2018) was different and eventful and I was grateful.
Grateful for the fact that I had a place and people to celebrate it with, even though I was half way around the world.
Grateful, that I had a house family.
A house family that acknowledged and valued the same things I did – time spent with each other, food & good vybz.
It was Christmas with friends and my own family I made along my journey and I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas so far away from home….
Story Time
I reallllyyyyyy couldn’t tell you what a New Zealand Christmas was like. But, I can tell you about a Caribbean Christmas, in the country of New Zealand…
It all started at around 8am on Christmas day. Our house family organized a gift exchange, so we woke up early and swapped our gifts accordingly. The house was full of complete characters so you know the gifts kinda followed suit. We even had people in London skype in!
Next came the party prep, ’cause from about 12pm, we’d invited guests over to partake in a Caribbean Christmas cook up. I’m not sure if they truly knew what they were in for, but they were gunna get their dose of Caribbean’ness today. Fruit cake had been soaking in rum for months!
Lemme tell yall. There was food. CARIBBEAN FOOD. A mixture and blend from the different islands. Ackee & salt fish, curry goat, curry crab, jerk chicken, rice & peas, macaroni pie and the list went on and on.
There was a blend of accents from an array of countries that filled up the room throughout the day. Majority were from Caribbean islands (Dominica, St Vincent, St Lucia, Antigua, Jamaica, Barbados), while others hailed from places like Samoa, Germany, Australia and the UK. There was such a jolly spirit all around as we introduced the ‘newbies’ to what Christmas in the Caribbean was all about. In that sense, it was a great occasion where we all got to share our culture with those we’d come to care about.
We played parang music. Rum punch flowed and dominoes played all day long. Long past the time one should leave a house if you didn’t live there, we were still limin* (*Hanging out) These occasions are marathons really – any excuse to party.
Next ting you know though, the remaining people (all Caribbean might I add) decided to pack up in a RV and go for a drive #random. Imagine you enjoying ya Christmas evening at a beautiful look out, and you see dis big bus of loud, semi intoxicated people jumping out with these ‘funny’ accents, taking photos – that was us! Clearly we were bored and lookin for excitement, but we found none.
We roamed around the lookout for a little bit then took the long, scenic route along the coastline back home. We then finally decided to call it a night – Rum punch min finally dun!
I laid in my bed with my belly full, and a day of great memories to reflect on.
Throughout the day though…
Sometimes, it would hit me that I wasn’t home. The small, unfamiliar happenings of the day combined to make me realize, I wasn’t doing the same thing I’d done for the past 25 years on Christmas. Some things that stuck out were:
1. I was surrounded by persons who weren’t my relatives. Which was perfectly fine, but odd. For me. My Christmas in Antigua is BIG on family. It was weird not seeing my mother, father, sister and 75+ aunts, uncles and cousins over 3-4 different venues on the same day. Like, it normally starts and ends with them, no questions asked. Friends, who? Strangers, what? If your blood and mine don’t match, I does see you on Boxing day!
2. I didn’t go to midnight mass church on Christmas Eve. My family back home are Christians in the Anglican religion. Since I was about 7 years old, I attended Christmas eve midnight mass (so for the past 18 years). This year, I didn’t. I wasn’t mad or anything, but it just felt odd not being there.
3. I guess (and this is weird to say), the gift opening session wasn’t all about my sister and I (she wasn’t even there lol). When opening gifts, normally we’re the ‘kids’ in the situation, so attention is directed toward us. But in this case, I was welcomed in to a family with their own traditions and their own ‘kids’ (even though we were all hard-back people). Not a big adjustment though because I was simply extremely grateful to have a family to be with in the first place 🙂
In the end…
…as much as I loved the food, the people and the new experiences, if I had to choose, it would be Christmas in Antigua. And it’s cause of my ‘immediate’ family. Full stop.
This Christmas I was thankful. Extremely thankful for the places I’d been, people I’d met and time I’d spent for that season and year. Thank you.
Yours truly,
Global Gyal
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