December 24th

Well, I did not wake up early enough for us to get out to the beach!  🙁  So we readied for breakfast. Our hosts served us noodles in a formed disc shape with a bean (shaped like a chickpea, but colored like a red bean, and tasted starchy like a kidney bean) soup; white sandwich bread, not toasted; and finger bananas. We both enjoyed the bean soup and our host (finally found out his name, Francis) gave us a second serving of it! They keep feeding us too much!! Our hostess left – she is a Sunday School teacher.  We asked if we could go to their service tonight (at ten!). They said it was okay. We'll sit in the back. They are Catholic and go to St Francis of Assisi Church. He said we can not take their communion. We nodded understanding. 

As we were finishing, a young lady came in. Francis introduced her as his sister. We talked a bit. She is in school for nursing! We talked about Indian state of medical care. She mentioned she thought it is not as advanced as America's. We talked about getting our medical checkups and we were impressed with their system. And that we could not have gotten all accomplished that we did in the U.S. It was interesting to converse with her.

We left and went on a walkabout now. We had a specific destination in mind – we are going to the mall! We saw it last night. We have items we have not been able to find around here. So we were hoping to find them there. It was 6.4 km (4 miles). But on our way we did side track at the attraction I had mentioned before. We went to the Acrylic Under Water Tunnel  Aquarium! Entrance fee was only 120 rupees (a buck fifty)!!! We were pleasantly surprised. There were large tanks of fish, and then there was actually a tunnel with fish swimming around us! Pretty impressive for a temporary  setup! Anyway we left and back on task, we made it to the mall. Arriving the first thing to do was get a juice each. Well, I strayed and got an iced tea, but I won't be doing this again!! It was super-duper sugar saturated! Jeff got a mint one. Jeff gave me his tart lime and mint leaves. This enabled me to finish the sugar drink that looked like tea. We found the big store and were able to get some of our stuff. We also found a chocolate shop and bought some chocolates and sparkling grape juice for a Christmas gift for our hosts.

Finished shopping Jeff hired us a tuk-tuk to get back to place. We showered off the residual “pound” of salt from sweating so much. We also ate a few almonds, raisins, and banana chips. We relaxed and had a siesta. Then I caught up on blogging. Jeff read and edited the blogs. Our hosts returned and we gave our Christmas gift to her.

At five we went back out and to Catamaran's for supper and sunset.The sunset did not pan out, but supper was great! Our usual waiter came over and wished us “Happy Christmas” (They all say 'happy' not 'merry',and this just takes getting used to!) Anyway, we returned the greeting. Then someone else waited on us. We had chicken fajita pasta; cheese naan; watermelon cheese salad; and Jeff had a lemonana, I had a yellow smoothie – papaya, banana, honey, yogurt and pineapple (and we split an orange mojito). It was very good. The pasta was zingy (chili powder zingy only) from the sauce and had green bell peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. We paid and tipped our waitress, very nicely – wishing her Merry Christmas. We went slowly back to our place, full. It's crazy how full we are seeming to get. We are sure it is due to the heat of the day. It just zapps you, making one tired and not hungry. 

At our place we hung out til ten pm. (Jeff took a serious nap – he's caught a cold, lots of head congestion.) We went out to go to our hosts service at St Francis of Assisi Church. When we were getting close, we mixed with others walking there also. Many ladies were dressed up in traditional Indian style. All the colors and flow of fabric was picturesque. When we arrived around 1020 there was still last minute touches being tended to. People kept coming, trickling in. In five minutes the people were flowing in. Service started, and people were still coming in, finally lessened and stopped. The church inside was full; outside were parking would be was full; and people were standing in the street. The service itself was conducted in their local language and latin. We understood about four words: Christos, Christmas, Bethlehem, Joseph. There was some singing; much speaking – sermon; waving of incense – blessing the elements; and communion – we could not participate, since not Catholic. More singing and then service completed. It was midnight.

We left quickly, to beat the crowds leaving. There were some fireworks that had been going off some during the service, and a few more at midnight. We walked back. It was still pretty warm out, so when we arrived at our place… we turned on A.C. did a quick rinse off and to bed! It was a good day, a long day.

Christmas Eve into Christmas! Thanks be to our God!!!  AMEN!