Merry (late) Christmas! I’ve finally gotten a chance to upload some photos from the All Hands Christmas party at the Streetlight construction site as well as the party at base. For those of you following the blog, we didn’t end up using the clay oven we hand-crafted because on Christmas Eve it rained so hard that the back area flooded with what we think was sewage water and giving everyone E. Coli on Christmas is not the gift we had in mind. We were still able to borrow an oven from someone in the area though, so all was well!
Believe it or not, this was my very first Christmas that I spent away from my family in the United States. Every single year, I would fly back to Southborough, Massachusetts for Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the one guaranteed trip back home to see my relatives. I did spend Thanksgiving with them for the first time in seven years, but Christmas was very much an All Hands celebration.
The thing is it still felt like Christmas. I expected Christmas in a foreign country with sunny skies and near-ninety-degree weather to make it feel like a holiday, but not Christmas. It turns out I was wrong, and this All Hands family by default has grown into an actual family for me since my arrival. We all live on base, sleep on base, shower on base, work full days on site, and over this past month I’ve gotten to know a lot of the volunteers here. Christmas with these people wasn’t Christmas with mum and dad, but it was still Christmas with family.
I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.
Local workers at the Streetlight construction site unloading the Lechon (suckling pig) on to our table
Streetlight Christmas tree!
Hello there, delicious
Mustafa can’t eat pork, but he an still take a great picture
Local Streetlight worker beginning cutting the pig
Chop, chop, chop
Laying out the cooked pork over banana leaves
Volunteers, friends, family
Crissssspy skin
By the time he was finished, this guy was covered in pork juices
Christmas feast all laid out on the table
Ready, set, go!
Christmas Eve dinner at Dream Cafe – grilled liempo (pork belly) and rice accompanied with a glass of Johnnie Walker Gold
Christmas Eve Mass at Our Lady of Fatima , a church where Mark, one of the All Hands Staff, is a Lector
After Mass, they invited us in to share a meal!
Merry Christmas Eve!
Merry Christmas written in all sorts of languages on the whiteboard
Perfect weather for Christmas Day
Prep team peeling potatoes for dinner
Head chef Mark cutting the pork
Peeling endless potatoes
Preparing peppers
Potatoes are done! Carrot time!
Frying a fish in oil over one of our four burners
The beginnings of hummus without a food processor…or tahini
N64 emulator on Rory’s computer with USB controllers
Tomato-based sauce for the fried fish
Veggies for the nut roast. Look it up.
Wrapping shrimp in bacon
Sauce for the fish and some carrots
Preparing the nut roast. Again, look it up.
“Some people frown upon cooking four whole chickens in one pan”
Frying up some pumpkin patties!
Pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin
Tables are decorated for the big meal!
Homemade base tree
Stuffed chicken and ham, leftover from the church the night before
(Left to right) Nut roast, pumpkin patties, potatoes au gratin
(Left to right) Fried fish x2, bacon wrapped shrimp, chickens, mashed potatoes
(Left to right) Church leftovers, roasted veggies, pork stew, cucumbers, hummus, deviled eggs
Volunteers, staff, local staff, and their families all gathered at the dinner table
=) Love it here
Now that I know what nut roast is, I’m hoping you’ll make it for us to try😊! I enjoyed your Christmas in photos. Even though you were not home for Christmas, glad that you were able to celebrate with lots of All Hands friends and family.
Maybe Katherine and I will make a nut roast when we cook before she leaves 🙂
WOW!!! What an amazing Christmas celebration! That roast pig with Crisssssspy skin warrants some serious drooling over:-) Brian, you have definitely become a citizen of the world — there is no looking back for the pre-All Hands Brian after this experience! As someone with neither the courage nor deep sense of “Wongderlust” as you have, I’ve been LOVING experiencing this journey vicariously through you! The Christmas tree and All Hands community is just AWESOME!!! Makes this corner of the world seem so little…and makes me want to seriously join you on your next adventure! In the meantime, hugs and wishes for all good things to you and your All Hands friends and family in the new year<3
I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface, only being gone for a month so far. I was really sad to leave base this morning, and I’d love to go back if the project extends further into the future. All Hands Philippines is a really amazing group of people making an incredible difference and it was an honor to be a part of their work for such a short amount of time. I’ve got a lot more posts to add to the blog even though I’ve left this morning, so stay tuned. Hoping to write a reflection piece afterwards too to talk about the organization and what I’ve experienced during my stay.