It is funny how we all try to create a Christmas that we are used to at home, even when we are overseas in a hot exotic country. Our Antipodean friends have Christmas cards with snow on them, it is the height of their summer for goodness sake! Christmas in Africa is no different.
I have to admit that I have fallen into this category (quite happily), and in particular I remember a Christmas that I had in Zimbabwe, over 20 years ago. Nine friends of mine were coming to spend Christmas with me in the African bush. My house which could accommodate everyone and we’d all just finished an expedition for Raleigh International.
And so we all threw our heart and soul into a British Christmas in Zimbabwe. The fact that we had no Christmas decorations (let alone a Christmas tree) and the house had hardly any furniture in it, did not deter us. I had not even got enough crockery to feed 10 of us and a turkey was also rather tricky to find. But we were all adaptable people, and none of these problems were ever considered an issue.
Shopping for Christmas in Africa
On the way to my house in the African bush we had stopped off to buy our provisions for a true British Christmas. However, the shops were not that well-stocked for the items that we were searching for. The year was 1992 and the drought had hit Zimbabwe in a big way, so there were a reduced number of provisions on the shelves and items such as crackers, baubles, tinsel, turkey stuffing and Christmas pudding were nowhere to be seen. We did however manage to buy a turkey, it was one of three turkeys left in the freezer and we were now the proud owners of the largest one. Just enough to feed all 10 of us, probably 20 but we did all have large appetites.
The journey was a long one, and this was not helped with the numerous police checks along the way. We were also travelling in a vehicle designed for six and our turkey was defrosting quicker than we had anticipated. So arriving at my home in Save Valley Conservancy was a blessed relief.
We then set about getting everything sorted. Some were on Christmas decoration duty and went out in search for a suitable branch or small tree that remotely resembled a Christmas tree. Others fashioned Christmas decorations out of tinfoil, ping-pong balls, coloured bits of paper and anything else that we had accumulated on the way. Being a lover of food I set about organising our African Christmas dinner.
It was then that I realised my schoolgirl error. The turkey would not fit into my oven, it was too large. My stove was a wood-burning stove, designed for one or two people and not for an enormous turkey. I was not prepared to hack the turkey into pieces.
So the next best option was to build a big enough oven – obviously!
How to build an oven for the turkey
The hot water for my house was supplied by a Rhodesian boiler. A Rhodesian boiler is a large oil drum of water which is heated up by a log fire beneath it. This is an antiquated yet very effective system. This is all done in a small brick construction, located outside the house, and often tended by the ‘houseboy’. It only takes an hour or so for the water to reach boiling point, which then provides piping hot water in my house. My Rhodesian boiler system was relatively new, the old one still standing but no longer in use. And this is where the plan for a new oven grew from.
I decided to use the construction from the old Rhodesian boiler. The oil drum had been removed, so there was my oven. I blocked the hole where the oil drum had been, and hey presto, there was my oven. There was plenty of wood to provide to burn, I just needed to create somewhere for the turkey to sit. Simpler said than done. An hour later I had fashioned my oven and was calculating a guesstimate for the cooking time. I guessed about three hours cooking time, and the potatoes could possibly go in there as well.
Christmas Day in Africa
Christmas Day arrived and all sorts of preparations were made for our meal. We had gone to town on the foods, we had our turkey cooking in the Rhodesian oven, roast potatoes in the more conventional wood burning stove, vegetables waiting to be cooked and even stuffing had been made. We had decorated our Christmas tree, which was an old branch, with the handmade angels and paper chains. I have to say so myself, it all looked pretty good.
However, the timings of the turkey did not go quite according to plan. I’m sure you would have guessed this by now. It took longer for my ‘oven’ to heat up and although I could adjust the temperature by the number of burning logs in the fire, it still was not very accurate. We had planned to eat at around 5 o’clock, but at this time the turkey was still a little underdone – consider raw being a more applicable description. By 6 o’clock the turkey was looking more like a Christmas turkey, and by 7 o’clock I decreed that the turkey might be edible. The potatoes and vegetables certainly were! I was right, 6 hours later the turkey was delicious, albeit a bit singed on the outside.
That was a Christmas in Africa to remember, although it was slightly quirky!