Christmas Day 2012

Mmmmmmmmmmm…! Swedish bulk candy. How I’ve missed it. Thanks mom, dad and brother!

After some gift exchange and lunch with my host mothers sister’s very nice family, I went on Skype to call my family back home. I got to talk to my aunt, wave to my cousins and see their little kids. That was great. After that I talked for a while with my brother and mom and opened the gifts that they had all send me. Unfortunately my aunt’s never reached me, so sad. :(

Have you seen this kind of necklace before? I got it from my cousins and their families. It’s from Edblad and not only pretty cool; with every sold necklace, four trees are planted in East Africa. It’s a great gift to someone who, unlike many people, already has lots.

It’s a Swedish NGO (non-governmental organization) called Vi-skogen, or Vi Agroforestry, that sells these “tree necklaces” to fight poverty by helping small scale farmers in Lake Victoria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. They are the most affected by the climate change, and the most in need of fuel-wood, timber, and fruits, to improve their livelihood and the environment.

Now I’ve come back from church with my host parents. Me and their son are watching Swamp People on History; a documentary about real rednecks living in Louisiana, hunting aligators. Man, it’s fascinating, and haha… Well, it’s just a bit funny too. I hate to say it- I know it’s their reality, that they’re very good at doing what they do, and that I’d totally suck on it, but you know.  I can’t hear half of what they are saying. Actually, they’ve put subtitles on it. And they speek English. :)

Well, now I’m going to share som Swedish christmas music with my sweet host family (Jul i Folkton of course, christmas carols in folk music style), and help my host mom with the salad for dinner.