Happy Thanksgiving everyone! The Lord has blessed me with the most amazing family and friends. I am truly thankful for each and every one of you! And I am so thankful to know an amazing God full of grace, love and compassion!
This week has been interesting in that I attended the Teachers Appreciation Party, had a visit to the American Recreation Association, spent my first holiday in Uganda and am having my last day with the kids before they go on a two month holiday.
Teachers Appreciation Party
Last Friday, all of the teachers in the district had the day off to go an celebrate together! Every one dressed very nicely and we headed out to school instead of. The party was in a field with a few tents and a big grassy space in the middle. There was entertainment, lots of food and drinks, and dancing! One thing I've learned is all Ugandans can sing and all of them can dance! Many of them danced well into the night! (I was tired after all long day in mostly Luganda and loud music and headed home with the first group - don't worry I had been there 7 hours before I left!)
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| Dancing at the teachers party |
Probably my favorite part of the day was the fact that each of us got tickets for 4 sodas. Well, no one in an afternoon should drink 4 sodas so the teachers came prepared! Because we had to return our glass bottles (almost all soda here comes in glass bottles), the teachers brought empty glass bottles from home to exchange for new bottles or they brought empty plastic bottles to pour their sodas into! It was so funny, and I was so thankful they came prepared because I then got to bring a soda home too! I also learned that Ugandan's teeth are far stronger than mine... most of the teachers can use their teeth to remove bottle caps.... it hurt my teeth just to watch!
American Recreation Association
Sorry no pictures... they were not allowed! This is basically the equivalent to a country club in America! It is very fancy with tennis courts, a pool, play ground, and lots of other amenities. Every 3rd Saturday they have a craft sale/garage sale. I went with the Howley family (AIM missionaries -
http://howleyhouse.aimsites.org/). It was very fun, and I found a cheap "Where's Wally" book to look at with some of my neighbors children. For the record.... it should be Waldo, but it is the British version.
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| Aaron and Owen Howley on the boda boda (his wife Bobbie and their 2nd son, are stopped for gas behind us) |
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| The Howley's youngest son Cole on the boda boda with me |
Thanksgiving in Uganda
I went to stay with my lovely friend Cassandra and they were already baking and getting ready Wednesday night! Here we cannot buy canned pumpkin, so they had to cook and puree a pumpkin before we could do anything else! We started off the morning with baked pumpkin donut holes made by me... and SUPER yummy! You can find the recipe here
http://www.mixandmatchmama.blogspot.com/2012/11/baked-pumpkin-donut-holes.html.
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| These pumpkin donuts were DELICIOUS! |
Unfortunately I did not get a picture of our spread of food (only the desserts... which is the most important part anyways)
. But for those of you wondering what we had: chicken, gravy, Stove Top stuffing (brought from America), mashed potatoes, broccoli salad, homemade rolls (no easy bake ones here!), cranberry sauce (brought from America), deviled eggs, and something else that I am forgetting... so we had all the standards! (minus turkey) And for dessert we had pumpkin cookies (made me yours truly), pumpkin squares, apple bake, pecan pie, and lots of candy corn and candy pumpkins (brought from America). Cassandra's mom came last week from California and brought us all of the stuff from America. Oh and let me clarify that there were 16 of us... we did not make all of those things for just the 4 of us! All and all it was a great Thanksgiving, but I did miss my family!
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| The sign on Cassandra's door |
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| The Howley boys made the first Thanksgiving in Legos! There may be a few pirates at the table too! :) |
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| The dessert table |
Last Day with the Students
The students were suppose to stay through next week, but through a series of events, the children are leaving on Sunday. They will be on holiday through February 4th. I cannot even tell you how sad I am to see them all go. I will miss my thousand hugs a day so much!
Supporters I wanted to update you on what I will be doing during that time... I promise I will not be sitting on my hands! :) I am not entirely sure what my 2 months will hold. I know that a few of the children (not sure on the number until after the parents have come) will be staying at the school, and I am very thankful to have time to be able to see them more than once a week for therapy. Also, the school has an outreach program, and I will be visiting the homes of some children that otherwise would not receive any therapy or school services. Last week, I mentioned my friend Julie who is volunteering as a nurse at Good Shephards Fold orphanage, I am hoping to visit her in Jinja to meet some children who live there with special needs and give their care givers ideas of how to best work with their physical disabilities. I have been asked as well to help with some wheelchair distributions in villages, so we will see how that goes. Lastly, MY MOM IS COMING! I am planning on taking some time off in January to show her around!!!!
Instead of highlighting any kids today, I just have a few pictures of this week with the kids
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| My favorite child from day 1 - Sumaya. She has been hanging out in my office all week with me! |
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| Students lined up to get haircuts before they see their parents |
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| Clare (I dont think you have "officially" met her yet |
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| YES those are eyes... and YES that is a giant pot of grasshoppers cooking... and YES I did eat one... surprisingly it wasn't bad, but I am not going to go out and start buying them :) |
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying your Black Friday shopping!
