Thanksgiving, a wedding, Christmas parties, & school celebration

Thanksgiving and a wedding all in the same week

Thursday we had thanksgiving and it was one of the most amazing thanksgivings of my entire life. Let me back up to Wednesday night- the killing of the turkey. I had to sike myself up for it and prepare myself. It was super exciting and scary all at the same time. Obbo (our gate guard) was the one who agreed to do the home of killing it. He grabbed the neck and started ripping the feathers off of the neck and took a knife right to its neck and let it bleed out. One of the most interesting things I have seen since I have been here. David (a new MST who will be here for 6 months) and Obbo cleaned it up and got it spiced and all ready for our big day. Thursday was so exciting. I was up early because I new that the day was going to be jammed packed with fun and entertainment so I spent the morning giving thanks to god for everything he had done in my life. I also spent some extra time writing individual notes to everyone on staff and just thanking them for all of their hard work with EAC. I used the stickers that Tina Sherwood had sent me. Next was time to go shopping-- we first went to Quality and bought everything we needed from vegetables all the way to cake mix. Someone headed over to the local market to pick up potatoes. When we got back to the house it was time for business. Time to attempt at an American thanksgiving in Uganda & in all honesty we came pretty close. I was very proud. Scott got started on mashed and roasted potatoes and did a lot of hard work all of us Mzungus were in the kitchen even though others put a lot more effort into the cooking then I did. David made homemade stuffing and it was almost better than home in my opinion. Turkey cooked for four hours and was ready to eat. Scott also made lots of steamed veggies to go with our turkey. Jose (MST from Puerto Rico) purchased the turkey and made dessert which consisted of chocolate pudding, and vanilla cake with strawberries from a can. It was definitely a meal to remember. The turkey tasted just like home and we even had gravy for the mashers. We also played a little Christmas music while we cooked. I can't believe it is almost Christmas. We also have a new girl Amber from Iowa who works as a nanny at home and she and I are sharing a room and getting to know each other. So fun! She is only here for two weeks I feel like our short termers only get a glimpse at how amazing our time is. It is such a wonderful reminder to have that same energy and the same drive as when I first arrived in Africa. Anyway all that to say Amber was a huge help in the kitchen as well all of us worked hard to people and cut potatoes. And ended up have plenty of extra for all of our neighbors. I also ran down to the little shack store down the hill from our house that I buy my Mountain Dew from. I told her we needed 24 sodas and she was ecstatic. So excited for all of the business we give her. I often find myself returning empty bottles even if I am not going to make a purchase just so I can talk other and ask her about her day. She is a sweetheart. We turned the office into a dining room and set places for everyone we had to put a desk on the end of the table just so everyone could fit. We art lots of food and drank soda until it was all gone. The. We danced. Yes like physically moved and danced and worshipped The Lord. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to bring that home with me. After a big meal to have dance party and burn some calories. It was so fun and continued on until late at night. It was so fun and we spent all evening laughing and just moving. My movement is not so great so I mostly watched.

Friday we went to Lukemero to do letter writing with one of the primary schools that our sponsor kids go to. We get paired up with a class and then have to walk them through the process of writing a Christmas card to their sponsor and tell them how everything is going and how their school term worked. I feel like I could write them on my own without the guide because I have helped revise and re write them over over again. We presented the kids with safi drinks and chapatis. Yum! We got back home and began to rest and get prepared for the long day on Saturday

Saturday we were up early for the wedding and let me tell you it was beyond amazing! One of the best weddings I have ever been to in my whole life. Consisted of an incredible ceremony (which were of course late to running on Africa time and all) the reception followed quite a few hours later in which we all attended. Felix asked if I would take some pics for his wedding and I of course agreed. But when I got there I felt guilty being a white person with a pink dress and wanted to avoid the appearance of making a scene (especially since I had a better camera than the real photographer) so I passed it along to my sweet date Victor and he was able to get some great shots and I got to enjoy the wedding to the fullest. At the reception the bride and groom had one of the most beautiful entrances ever they danced the whole way to their table. I sat at a table with Victor, Christine, and Amber. And we had a great time. Lots of food and drinks were served. It was a lot like a wedding at home. Speeches we're given by friends and family, bouquet was caught by a young boy, and the cake was cut!!! Here is something different when cake is being served you don't get a slice of cake they cut it up into a pile and you get to just take a chunk of cake off of the platter. AND the bride and groom had several extra cakes made one for his and her family and then they also had cakes made for their employers as well-thought that was kind of different. Then we danced and danced and danced. I seriously didn't know I could dance that much. I had so much fun and was so thankful for the company I was with. :)

Fast forward two weeks:

Saturday we had the sponsor party maybe I should back up just in the slightest this week has been jammed packed with all kinds of running around with Christine looking for stuff for the Sunday school christmas party while the rest of the team carried on with projects in the village. Any way I will get to that later...Saturday we had 300 kids here and they spent time dancing and singing christmas songs getting letters and gifts from sponsors they came from all over the place even our Zirobwe kids made it out here to Kampala. Even my sweet Dora was out here-it was a huge surprise to me and I was so excited so I ran to my room when I saw her and stuffed a bunch of candies and a few shirts and a pen so she could get a gift from her sponsor(ME) so fun. We had a great time are lots of food and soda and then sent them home the party lasted all day and we had an incredible outcome.

Now Sunday the Christmas part you have all been waiting for....was more than words could ever describe but I will do my best. I was up at 4:30am Sunday just because I was so so excited to give the kids food and gifts. I had assigned everyone roles and sent Francis to go rent a taxi because we had more people and needed space for everything. So we were able to buy 200 pairs of shoes for the children of Zirobwe. Along with. A huge cake, a Christmas tree, a blow up Santa, sodas, and food!! We ended up hosting it in the newly built cattle dashed on our property because we didn't want to distract the big church so we brought the generator out there and had 300+ people attend our party. And even was able to get our very own to DJ for us. Wilson gave a speech. I even won the dance competition- don't know how that one got rigged. Lol. It's was an incredible daft full of laughter and fun.

Tuesday was another crazy day I wanted to get a George (our first sponsored kid of EAC who is living with us and going to university) a Christmas present and asked him what he needed and he said he needs a backpack to get from Kampala to his home village so we took a taxi half way into town and had to Boda the other half. We went into the heart of downtown city which is like the armpit of Seattle area. And George and I were going to share a Boda and the driver said we couldn't so long story short we all got separated and I stood on a street corner for 45 min waiting to see George or David. Had three people grab my arm and tell me to go with them, had one guy get on his knees and beg me to talk to him and just constantly being talked to "mzungu"!!!! After 45 minutes of standing in a place I had no idea where I was or where my friends were I saw George and he was running towards me he felt so awful we ended up getting two great backpacks but man I don't ever want do this day again to top it off I thought my phone had been stolen at the supermarket Tuskys and so I spent a good hour there looking through footage in the back room and couldn't see anything...ended up being in my duffle bag under my bed. I ended the day just laughing. Such a good reminder that the things that are so important to us here on earth are going to go away one day. (:

Wednesday we were able to do a ceremony at the primary school next door-Ebenezer. We finally own the property and it officially belongs to Empower A Child. Everyone in the community was invited and we picked up sodas on the way and made a big meal for everyone. I must say that Zirobwe is my favorite place to be and I really am going to miss them. Not only was it a celebration event but it was also my last day in the village until January!!! Last day with my family. I wanted to be there to enjoy in the celebration. Of course immediately I was greeted by members of the family and enjoyed spending time with them. I tried to think of a gift that could be beneficial to their income and that would be helpful. Nina suggested I but them a goat. I have never bought or handled goats in my life is sounded like a fun challenge and I was so in! Now the thing you should know when anyone in Zirobwe has any questions about ANYTHING they always send Luka because he is always so willing and happy to run errands no matter how near or far they are. So I told uncle to keep it a secret from him because it was his gift. Anyway he ended up being the one to run the errand and find out proves for us. So when he went to show us where they were I asked mama Luka if she would walk with us and of course she said she would love to. As we walked she would point at different plants and trees and try her best to explain what it was in the little English she knows. She grabbed my hand at one point and we walked hand in hand. She didn't know why I was walking with them but all she knows is that she wants to teach me everything about the village. It is such a beautiful friendship that we have. When we got to the place it was far off from the road and there were about 10 goats in a feeding area-completely covered in the greenest jungle looking area. I immediately saw a momma and a baby goat and chose them and Christine told them there that it was their christmas gift. I have never seen anyone so thankful in my whole life. I feel so blessed to be able to give them something they will be able to continue to enjoy . My heart is so full and wish I could express this joy more. When we got back mama Luka leaned over to Christine and asked her if I like bananas (in Luganda) and I love them especially the little baby ones they are so sweet. She gave me a huge bowl of them. When it was time to go my heart began to break she leaned her forehead against mine and said, " I am missing you already my sahnanee" <3 then as I was heading to the car two of our older Sunday school boys and their moms came over to me and asked me to live with them and not go to Kenya I replied to them that I wasn't sure how my mom was going to take that and they quickly said we will love you like we are your mom! Everyone out there has adopted the fact that my new name is muwala Wamusumba (daughter of a pastor) I really feel at home there and I cannot wait to get back there in January. (: