Missive from the Congo 011

Originally posted on Tue, 02 Jan 2007 18:25:10 +0200

Well, it is now 2007 and I would like to wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. I hope that you had a pleasant holiday seasons.


For my part, I had a very interesting weekend. It actually started on Friday the 29th of December. Friday was a holiday for the UN. It was Eid El Adha, a Muslim holiday of sacrifice.

New Year's supper at Canada House

So Friday being a holiday I only went in to the office for two hours and spent a good part of the afternoon at the pool, relaxing and drinking beer. Not a bad job if you can get it. Saturday was a normal work day, which means 7 AM to 1 PM. We cut out early on Saturday. I spent the afternoon tidying up the house and preparing for Sunday. As with the Christmas weekend, we continued taking turns receiving and being received by different houses. Canada House had the honour of hosting the New Year’s Eve supper. On the menu we had a fairly typical French Canadian meal. It consisted of:

Appetizer
Onion soup

Main course
Sheppard’s pie
Carrots
Bread

Dessert
Shortbread cookies
Tim Horton’s coffee

I did all of the cooking, hence the very simple fare. It was well received though I suspect they would be too polite to complain even if it was awful.

There were seven of us for supper. The same five as the previous weekend plus two additions who had returned from leave in the meantime (one South African and one Dutch).

After supper we went to the all-ranks mess to ring in the New Year. It was a little underwhelming as parties go. For whatever reason the crowd, such as it was, was subdued. Perhaps the truly lousy music had something to do with it. It certainly didn’t inspire me to get up off my chair. We ended up on the upper deck playing Pigs, as game which involves rolling little rubber pigs like dice. We toasted the New Year with some South African bubbly and by 1AM were back at our pads.

Clearly Christina sets a much better table than I

On Monday we went to the second South African house. They have a small pool so we went early. Again to sit by the pool, relax and drink beer. At this point I think it is important to note that this is not my typical routine. It just worked out nicely that way.

The supper on Monday was much more elaborate owing, no doubt, to the much greater culinary skills of our host Christina. She offered us:

Appetizer
Home made vegetable soup (not like the packaged stuff I made)

Main course
Salad

Beef stew

Rice

Green beans
Eggplant in a tomato sauce with grated cheese

Dessert
Crepes with maple syrup

"Sabrering" bubbly Congo style

For the record, I ate my entire meal including the eggplant even though it is clearly food for food.

We finished the meal off with a second bottle of bubbly. I didn’t bring my sabre to the Congo but I did manage to find a local expedient for the task of opening the bottle. Which just goes to show that even in the middle of the jungle, it is possible to inject a little bit of class.

Once again I want to wish you all a very happy and fruitful 2007. Happy New Year.

John