Christmas

This has by far been the most unique/different/non-Christmasy Christmas we've ever had. The combination of warm weather and lack of Christmas hype in Uganda has made the whole month of December feel more like August. However, with a few special touches and efforts we have managed to have a very special couple of days.

Yesterday (Christmas Eve) our visiting men - Travis, Jared, Grady, Rob and Tyler - headed up to Kitovu Hospital with Paul after a request came from our Irish doctor friend, Una, for blood donations. The children's ward was especially short on blood, and kids were being brought from Kampala in hopes that Masaka would have more available.

Donating blood seems rather trivial until you realize that your blood is actually saving little lives.

Christmas Eve turned out to be more like home than we expected, when a heavy rain and thunderstorm rolled in. Not quite as dismal as Vancouver rain, but a bit of a reminder of home! In the evening we enjoyed appetizers at Lizabee's house (including wildebeest and zebra pate) and then a BBQ for dinner.

This morning, rather than wake up and open presents like every other Christmas morning I've experienced, we went to church where our pastor gave a great message about the Prince of Peace. Lizabee, Jenn (Paul's sister) and I sang a couple carols as "special music numbers," which went over well despite our lack of practice!

When we got home from church we enjoyed a brunch that was inspired by my own family tradition - my mom's Christmas tree cinnamon buns. Mine did not end up looking much like Christmas trees, thanks to crazy yeast.

This afternoon, while Lizabee and I stayed home to get dinner ready, the rest of the group went back to the hospital to hand out gifts and treats to the kids. They loved the chance to do something meaningful on Christmas day - and I think the kids were pretty happy to have some visitors as well.

Thanks to the Christmasy things brought from home, we were able to make our dinner table look pretty good tonight! (And we even had turkey - scrawny, but still turkey!)

And thanks to my Christmas present from Lizabee (the tray) I was able to arrange our baking to look almost as good as my mom's.

I am aware that I have posted enough pictures of baking. I can't help it - it's been my LIFE for the past few weeks. Don't worry. No more.

After dinner we played some games, opened some gifts, and now everyone has gone to bed. Another Christmas, come and gone! And now I'm going to bed too, because let's be real - I'm exhausted!

Merry Christmas to our friends and family! Love and hugs from Uganda.

Rain

Enjoying a good downpour yesterday afternoon!

Catering to a Crowd

Having a group of visitors - mostly men - makes for a whole lot of cooking. Here's a glimpse of how I've been spending some of my time recently...

Peeling potatoes...

Making "raincoast crisps" - they taste like the real thing!

Making pizza for Lizabee's birthday yesterday...

(And obviously birthday cake...)

Decorating Christmas cookies...

And doing a whole lot of dishes!!

With Christmas Eve and Christmas day ahead, there is more left to do! Tiring, yes, but worth it. It's good to have friends and family to spend time with, especially at this time of year.

One of those special people is our niece, Kyra - there she is, enjoying her time at church. The Ugandan kids were quite fascinated with the mzungu baby.

My Man

Isn't he handsome? I love this guy.

Enjoying meat from the bull - delish! (I'm happy to say no one got sick - that's a bonus).

Bull Roast

Our visitors have finally arrived! On Thursday night we picked up the group of 7 from the airport, stayed the night in Entebbe, and brought them back to Masaka where they will stay with us until the end of the month. The group arrived just in time to take part in a bull roast that Paul set up for his workers as a Christmas celebration!

The bull has been living at the Timothy Centre for the past few weeks, eating grass and fattening up for the big day. Yesterday morning at 7am the bull met his demise as the workers slaughtered him, cut him into pieces, and cooked him in several different ways (roast, boiled, stew, etc.). The guys were right in there taking pictures of the poor animal as cruel things were happening to it - meanwhile I was quite happy to stay in the house.

Having our group of visitors for the event made the day extra special for the workers - some even showed up in dress pants and ties. Paul thanked the workers for their hard work and then prayed for them before we ate. They seemed to be very proud of the work that has been accomplished so far, and they also thanked Paul for his leadership.

Good times were had by all, and the meat was surprisingly delicious!

On a completely different note, we bought a new camera (sent from home by Paul's brother) which takes amazing pictures, but the pictures take 17 million years to upload. This one literally took all day. (Fine, not 17 million years, but close). So until I figure out how to upload without spending the rest of my life doing it, I'll have to hold off on the pictures. If you use your imagination I'm sure you can picture for yourself what a dead bull looks like...

Stuff I Like

A few things that I currently enjoy about Uganda include:

Gas stoves

Jalapeno flavoured Pringles

UHT milk (why refrigerate if you don't have to?)

Banana Boat

Fresh vegetables from the garden (no, that's not mine, it's Arleen's - mine sucks)

Treats

I have been doing a whole lot of Christmas baking recently, for several reasons:

1. We have 7 guests arriving next week who will be here for Christmas.

2. My mom's not here to do it for me this year, so I have to pretend to be her.

3. It's delicious.

4. I don't have anything better to do.

5. I have a brand new kitchen that is fun to be in.

6. I want to rapidly gain as much weight as possible.

*Note: Number 6 is not true.

Tonight we're going to this fancy dinner party (okay...next door to Lizabee's house) so I'm bringing this little plate of Christmas goodies for dessert. (Notice the extreme green on the trees and stars - I scored with some super powerful food colouring powder).

I've decided I will be eating Christmas goodies up until December 31st (which is the day the team goes home, and it also happens to be New Years Eve - interesting coincidence), at which point I will drop all treat-eating habits and revert to my beautifully healthy regular eating patterns.

*Note: 'Beautifully healthy regular eating patterns' is an over-exaggeration, aside from the firm decision I made a couple weeks ago to stop drinking 'soda' (as we call it in Uganda). So far so good, haven't caved. Drinking it everyday can only lead to bad things. Unless you're Paul, who claims he has recently LOST WEIGHT. What?!

Workers Galore

Now that we live at the Timothy Centre, I get to see a variety of things out my window everyday as I go about my business: birds in the trees, dogs frolicking in the dirt, Paul walking by...and workers. Many, many workers. Forty of them to be exact. And right now, since they are working on a path leading up to the front door and a step outside the back door, the house is literally surrounded by men all day. If I sit in the living room, there they are. If I'm cooking in the kitchen, there they are. If I go to the bathroom I have to make sure the bedroom curtains are shut because there is no door to the bathroom yet - only a clear line of vision from the bedroom window to the toilet. But the best part of all is the sound of the extremely loud radio right outside (something about loudness really appeals to Ugandans). You never know what you might hear coming out of that radio - Mariah Carey remix Christmas songs...Ugandan pop music...announcers that sing along with the songs while they're playing...and phone conversations that I can't understand because they're in Luganda (but somehow all sound the same, like "Blahdeblah...mmmm...blah blah....mmmmm...blah...mmmm"). (Something about "mmm" also really appeals to Ugandans). It's never quiet when the workers are around, but it always makes for some good entertainment - and I'm sure they say the same about me as they look inside the house and see me sweep 15 times a day, pull things out of the oven, and read on the couch. If only I could understand what they're saying...

Paul is Getting Old

Yesterday we celebrated Paul's 28th birthday! Due to a power outage for most of the evening (as a result of a "small" mistake whereby the electrician used the wrong colours for the wires, which then got even more mixed up when it was time for the generator to be hooked up - long story, ask Paul) we have no photos to prove that he even had a birthday at all. But the three of us (Paul, Lizabee and I) celebrated with dinner that included Paul's favourite ingredient - pesto, found by Lizabee in South Africa - cake, coffee, and good times. In the end, the power problem was fixed, which was a nice touch considering the outside lights are a big security component at night!

Paul received a gift from one of his workers - a clock. It was a generous gesture from someone who may not have a lot to give, but obviously respects and appreciates Paul as a coworker and friend.

It's already the 9th here, but it's still the 8th at home...which means I can still say Happy Birthday to my amazing husband!

Snakes

Yesterday I was so pleased to hear that these 4 beauties had been found down by the guardhouse. The awesome part is that the guardhouse is really not that far from our house. The best part of all, though, was the result: decapitation. (Almost as gross as a dead stork. Probably on par with a live stork). If anything even slightly resembling a snake ever happens to make it's way to the front yard, the front porch, or heaven forbid inside the house, there will be a whole lot more than decapitation going on is all I can say.

Our Home: Pictures

Not the greatest photos in the world (due to failing camera and poor photographer), but here's an idea of what our home looks like!

The Living Room

My Banana Fiber Ugandan Nativity

The Kitchen - where the oven has been pumping out Christmas cookies in full swing

The Dining Room

The Bedroom

The Bathroom

The Unfinished Outside (Front) - and my garden growing in the brown bucket

The Front Yard

OUR NEW HOUSE!

I am in love with my new house. I am in love with my husband. The best part is that my lovely new house is a result of my lovely husband's hard work. We've now been in our new place for 3 days, and aside from having to trek out to the pit latrine for the first day because the septic tank wasn't ready yet, everything is perfect! The power works, the toilet flushes, and we have hot water. Things are a bit dusty and dirty, and when it rains that turns into a whole lot of mud that comes in on the bottom of our shoes, but that's nothing a daily sweet and mop can't fix!

Having Lizabee right next door is very handy, especially when she can call out her back door, "Want to come over for tea?" Or when it's dinner time and I can say, "You make the pasta, I'll make the sauce." The benefits of community! It's also great that when it's time for Paul to go to work he just has to step out the front door. And I don't have to wonder when he'll be home for lunch.

Max and Joey are also loving the Timothy Centre, with endless space to run around, birds to chase, and mud to get very, very dirty in. We feel safe with them here - them and the security guard that paces back and forth in front of our houses all night with a gun strapped over his shoulder. We're in good hands!

One of my first activities after moving in, unpacking, and cleaning, was setting up the Christmas tree and nativity! It felt strange setting it up with Christmas music playing and the 30 degree sunshine beaming through the window. I think a palm tree may have been more fitting. But I do love our little 4-foot artificial tree!

Waiting for our house to be ready was worthwhile. I keep looking around and asking myself, Am I really in Africa? Then I look out the window and see Ugandan men digging in the front yard. Oh yes. I am still in Africa.

Now, time to go enjoy the fruits of Paul's labour. Photos coming soon...

Solar

One of the big, important jobs to be done before we could move to the Timothy Centre was the solar panel and tank installation for electricity and hot water.

Clearly not at easy job!

So far we know that the hot water works, and right now Paul is over there testing the power. Tomorrow is the big moving day, so we're praying that everything is running smoothly and ready for our arrival!

Church

This morning when we were sitting in church, enjoying the slightly off-key but very heartfelt worship (accompanied by a drum set, a keyboard, and some synthesized drums), one of the worship team ladies came and sat beside me and asked me if I could present a "special music number" next. As in, today. I told her I hadn't practiced anything, but she looked at me as if that didn't have anything to do with it.

The great thing, though, is that the Ugandans don't care if it sounds terrible, or if the pianist screws up, or if the power goes out mid-service. Often, the singers will start a song before the keyboard joins in, so the keyboard player is left searching for the right key for the whole first verse of the song. Nobody bats an eyelash. Nobody seems to care, either, when it's pouring rain outside so outdoor Sunday school classes are canceled and everyone has to stay as one big class in the sanctuary. Improvise is everyone's middle name.

Except, unfortunately, it's not my middle name. So in order to get out of being put on the spot, I promised her I'd prepare a couple "special music numbers" for next month. Time to start practicing!

Rachel's Blog

A good Timothy Centre overview from our friend Rachel over in Kibaale. :)

4 Days and Counting

Nothing exciting and entirely worth talking about has happened in the last week, except for the following:

1. I baked a bunch of Christmas cookie dough in preparation for our guests.

2. I cooked up some dog food - made out of mystery meat - and it stunk. Ew.

3. Last night was the loudest, heaviest rainstorm I've heard since we got here. Still raining.

4. Apparently there are leaks in the kitchen, because everything in it is now soaking wet.

5. We are moving to the Timothy Centre in FOUR DAYS! Countdown is on.

That's all.

Buddies

This is Max and Joey, my new buddies. They are Karl and Arleen's dogs, and they'll be moving out to the Timothy Centre with us for security. As friendly and cute as they look here, they sure know the difference between us and strangers. (Poor little kid next door was peeking in the gate one day and got a big fright when the dogs charged at him!) Ugandans are terrified of dogs. When people come to visit we have to lock the dogs in the back or else the visitors refuse to come through the gate. But they also act as cute little companions for a girl who is at home all day while her friends are in South Africa and her husband is at work. (Me.) How can I resist those adorable faces?!

Moving, Part 1

Move #1 is complete. Meaning we no longer live on Jonmohamed Road across from the cemetery, in the house with 4 bedrooms. We now live on the road to Kibaale (actual road name, I don't know), in Karl and Arleen's house. Half of our belongings are at the Timothy Centre (unpacked into their nice brand new drawers), and the other half are crammed into our bedroom here. Karl and Arleen leave tomorrow for South Africa, so as they leave, we settle in, and hope that within the next week or so we will be able to finish the move and put our cutlery into our new kitchen rather than have it sitting beside our bed...beside the olive oil and the chocolate chips. Bedrooms are a weird spot for things like cutlery, dishes, and baking ingredients. But on the bright side I can get up and make cookie dough in the middle of the night without having to get out of bed. (No, I don't do that. That would be weird).

Before we moved to Uganda I packed up our kitchen about 2 weeks too soon, so we mooched off our friends and family until we left. Mooching is not really an option here, but we DO have 10 Tables and the Danish Cafe. I have a feeling we'll be taking advantage of those places a bit more than usual over the next 8 days as we continue to live in limbo!

Camel in Kyabakuza

The other day as I was on my way home from Kibaale in the evening, I got a text message from Paul that said, "I just saw a camel on the road." Apparently this camel and its rider had been traveling down from Kampala, making money off interested passers by who wanted photos with the out-of-place animal. For some reason the combination of the camel, the rider, and the sweet crown on the rider's head remind me of Christmas...in a strange Uganda-meets-Middle-East sort of way.

Gross Things

What’s worse than a marabou stork?

A dead marabou stork. Yes, that’s right. Unfortunately, (or maybe thankfully), I didn’t have my camera on me so I couldn’t take a picture, but the other day just outside the post office I spotted a dead stork in the grass. As I’ve mentioned in the past, storks are the ugliest and grosses birds alive, and now I will add that they are even uglier and grosser when they’re dead. The sickest part about the whole situation was when Arleen commented that “the rest of the storks will probably come down and eat the dead one.” And after doing some research of my own, I discovered that it's true: they eat just about any animal, dead or alive. Ew. As if eating garbage and looking disgusting wasn’t bad enough.

Interesting stork facts:

• they stand up to 1.5 m tall
• they weigh up to 9 kg
• wingspan up to 2.9 m
• often found in fishing villages, slaughterhouses, and rubbish dumps

Okay, that's enough. If you want more gruesome details, look here. I dare you.

But I suppose storks are part of what give Uganda its character and charm…along with cockroaches, snakes, and exploding lizards.

Dangerous Creatures

Rumour has it that these bad boys, which frequent the Timothy Centre property, are fiesty rascals. Apparently they attack by sinking their teeth into your flesh, clamping down, and not letting go. To top it all off, their bodies then puff up like a balloon until they explode. Interesting defense mechanism. I'm not quite convinced of the explosion part, but I don't think the biting part is worth enduring to find out how it all ends. Whoever severed this guy's tail from his body had the right idea. Whether the rumour is true or not, I don't want to encounter one of these!

The Amazon

Camera sucks, but the view is sweet!

November is Hot in Uganda

I thought I'd be able to hold off on an update until we were moved into our new house at the Timothy Centre. I'd call the entry, "Our New House!" and post pictures of us all settled in, with smiles on our faces, clothes in their drawers, and curtains hung. But then I realized that if I waited that long people would either think we're dead or get bored of our blog's lack of activity and never read it again. I don't like either of these options, mostly because a) we're not dead, and b) I thrive on writing blog entries. So you will get to read the "Our New House!" entry when we actually move in, which Paul predicts will be in two weeks. In the meantime, the final touches are really coming together now - solar power, water heaters, and septic tank. Then comes a massive clean-out, and finally we can start putting furniture in! It's been quite a process, especially for Paul, but it'll be worth it all when we're settled in.

While Paul had an ultra-busy week, I had a semi-busy week. I made a couple trips to Kibaale, led an English workshop for the Kibaale teachers, visited a babies' home, attended a Christian Schools Association meeting, and made a trip to Kampala with Paul.

While in Kampala I was browsing through our favourite store, Banana Boat, while I waited for Paul to run some errands. Just as I was deciding which scent of soap I preferred (lemongrass? basil?), Paul phoned to tell me the police were taking him to court for answering his cell phone while driving. AH! I panicked and had visions of Paul being dragged away to Ugandan prison while I was stuck at Banana Boat for the rest of my life. Thankfully they let him go rather than take him to court - it could have made for a dramatic story, but I'll settle for mundane over dramatic any day, especially while in Uganda.

Although this all sounds very busy and exciting, I seem to have a surprising amount of downtime! But I'm learning that the plus side of that is the chance to slow down - something that doesn't happen often enough at home - and do things that I always wished I would do more of at home but never had the time. (E.g. Spend time with God...grow a garden...learn how to cook things...hang out with my hubby...read books...write a blog...sew a dress!) On the downside, I will admit to feeling a bit homesick recently, but all the more reason to depend on God whatever the circumstances! I guess that's a worthwhile lesson to learn. :)

Stay tuned for upcoming entries on our new house, my new job, our new Christmas tree, Christmas baking festivities, and other exciting living-in-Uganda topics.

Now please go have a tall half-sweet non-fat extra-hot with whip peppermint mocha for me.

Work & Play

Work:

Things are progressing at the Timothy Centre, and our goal is still to move in by mid-November. Paul is enjoying his role as he organizes all the finishing details that need to be completed, but at times he also finds it overwhelming to have to stay on top of things. Pray for him over the next couple weeks!

The water tanks have arrived! With all the rain we've been having recently we want to start catching it now so save up for dry season.

The wall around the guesthouses is almost complete.

Just two days ago the cabinets looked like this...but as of today, they are finished! One step closer to moving in!

Play:

Last weekend the Timothy Centre staff met up with the Kibaale Community Centre staff for a picnic at the Timothy Centre. We held it in Lizabee's soon-to-be house, and had a great time hanging out with our co-workers and also celebrating Arleen's birthday.

AND, because I know you're wondering...this is what my garden looks like right now!

A Taste of the Real Uganda

Last weekend Paul, Lizabee and I went up to Kampala to run some errands. While waiting at the mall, Garden City (which we have affectionately nicknamed GC), for Paul to come pick us up, Lizabee and I browsed through the bookstore, Aristoc, which is really just a small version of Chapters. (Hannah Montana books in the kid's section...Jamie Oliver books in the cooking section...Sophie Kinsella books in the fiction section). As we browsed we realized that many of the books about Uganda only show a glimpse of what it is really like. For example, if you pick up a Ugandan wildlife book, you might think that we see leopards, lions, zebras and baboons in our backyard everyday. We don't.

What we DO see are funny slogans that don't make any sense...

"Hunt what you can kill" - whatever that means. Also note that this truck is carrying human AND cow passengers in a very safety-conscious fashion.

Markets that sell a mesh of the most random items of clothing you can imagine...

Businesses that don't realize how silly their names sound to mzungus (foreigners)...

"Speedo Brokers" - in a very inviting area of town

Large trucks and busses that hog the road (and I'm pretty sure are out to kill whoever gets in their way)...

That's us in the reflection!

Boda bodas that carry the most ridiculous loads (see A Good Find)...

And adorable little kids that you just want to scoop up and take home, but you don't, because that would be kidnapping.

If you come to Uganda (which you should) you won't be disappointed - you may not see any leopards or zebras, but I guarantee you will easily be able to find all of the above sites and attractions with little to no effort.