Christmas Season in Manado

Being that Manado is a predominantly Christian city, Christmas is BIG here…

There are a few things that really struck me that are commonplace in Manado in this Festive Season; the Manadonese people seem to think these things are normal and ok… Kids playing with fire being the big one! Talk about an un-Merry Christmas /Accident waiting to happen! At any given time of day, there are children in the streets with fireworks - everything from fairly innocent sparklers (believe me they don’t look so innocent in the hands of a 2 year old!), to cheap fireworks (on sale in every street stand for Christmas), to home-made coke bottle bombs! The snap-crackle-pop, sizzle-simmer-bang, oohs-and-aaahhhs are a daily event beginning about the middle of December on through the New Year.

Another Christmas Commonality is food… and WAYYYY too much of it. Martin and I were invited to a workmate’s family home for Christmas lunch, which was a scrump-diliicious buffet of Manadonese food… they then invited us to continue on with them. Not knowing what this meant, and having no other prior-engagements, we agreed. It ended up being a culinary tour of ALL of their friends and families’ homes around the city! In Manadonese tradition, people make the rounds for Christmas…. Stopping by and eating and visiting, and eating, and drinking, and eating again… oh MY goodness… I was soooo over-stuffed when we got home, Martin had to roll me in the door sideways!!! Because you see, you can’t refuse… everyone insists that you try their spread… they are even more adamant when you’re a foreigner… they want you to try ALL their dishes, their specialties, their secret family recipe; main courses of beef, bat, fish, pork, dog, and chicken cooked in every style, some veggies, fruits, and all kinds of cookies, puddings and nibblies.

Manoeuvring around the street in town is a little trickier than normal… the city is PACKED! One day the headliner of the city newspaper read “Orang Gunung Turun Gunung” (Mountain People come down the Mountains)! The streets are also crazy with "Sinterpits", teen gangs dressed in santa costumes with black face paint on the hunt for 'naughty' children.

So… for the sad news… I’m afraid I can’t share any of the above with you in picture form, and alas, it will be a long time before I can upload new pics to my blog… my purse (and everything in it, including my camera!) was stolen from our house while we slept on the eve of Christmas eve day! Big Bummer... Could have been worse, I suppose.