A Culturally Mixed-Up Christmas

I am enjoying a winter Christmas after two years of summer Christmases. There's something about warm jerseys , brightly-coloured scarves, cosy fires and drinking hot cocoa after coming in from the cold. Christmas carols make more sense when you live in the Northern Hemisphere, as most of them are about snow and cold winter nights. BUT...

South Africa gets into your blood, and when I close my eyes at night it is not visions of sugarplums that fill my head but visions of the African sun setting over the highveld, of summer thunderstorms and the smell of wors on the braai. It is visions of children playing soccer in dusty fields, of hadedas flying overhead early in the morning, of red bishops and weaver birds and mossies in my garden. It is visions of a resilient people, of joyful smiles, of a country bursting with potential.

I love my family, friends and reconnecting with my home culture. I am so grateful that we could come home for Christmas, but I also can't wait to go home to my Africa.