You will either find my post amusing or depressing. Let’s go with amusing.

But first, you can’t tell it’s December here, so we need to set the scene:

Hanukkah began at sunset on the first of the month, and we celebrated Tabaski in November (well, the rest of the Muslim world did, I kind of sat in and recovered from a 10 mile run before flying to Budapest).  So now it’s time to drag out what few Christmas decos I brought with me to Dakar.  I really don’t have that much, but I decided that I would do my best to strew them about my place haphazardly. 

Check out my 30 minute efforts:

 It was more a matter of me finding places to put things that belong on a tree (which I didn’t ship to Dakar). My “Christmas Star” for example, ended up sitting in the middle of my hallway table.

So I’ve got no fake tree, but I do have a broken Ikea floor lamp that didn’t survive the move to Dakar (the glass lampshades broke). It weighs about 40 pounds and has been sitting next to my front door since I moved in. I’ve actually never liked this lamp, and someday (maybe before the movers come back) I will bring it down to the trash room.

It wasn’t until yesterday that I came up with an idea to give this eyesore some actual utility. Here’s the part where you will either pity or laugh with me:

Behold my Christmas tree! Is it pretty? Well, no. But check it out: no pine needles to clean up, no remembering to feed it or worrying about whether it will one day go up like a match and burn my apartment down.

It does look better in the dark, although I’m not sure you’ll be convinced:

Hey, at least I put some effort into Christmas while living out here by myself. 

One thing’s for sure, I already know that I am not cut out for a Dakar Christmas. How do I know this if I haven’t even been here for a December 25th? I lived in Hawaii for three years and three months, and was never able to wrap my brain around a winter season that wasn’t cold and red nose-inducing. Mele Kalikimaka my ass. I just can’t do it. 

So once again, I am grateful that I’ll be able to spend this Christmas at home on Cape Cod.  I’ve put forth my best effort to make things a little more cheery while here in my little corner of the world, but I’ll never be able to compete with the likes of this:

This is the view of my backyard at the Hatchville Shipyard. 

I think it’s time for me to travel again, and to look at a follow-on set of orders that has me in the northern latitudes.