A Merry Ugandan Christmas!

This is my first Christmas away from family. And I’m in another country. Needless to say, some of Christmas has been…. different. Here is a little peek into what Christmas looks like in Gulu Town.

Decorating is a family event!

Even though it is 100 degrees outside, we did our best to make our home as festive as possible. It was a family event, complete with food, music, snowflakes, and fun.

wreath-making extraordinaire's!

We had to get creative for decorations. Uganda has a limited supply of crafty-things. Brittany came out with the genius idea of using tire tubes and extra fronds from our tree. My friend Sarah at the market sold me a bunch of scrap fabric for a mere 5,000 shillings (about 2 bucks…). Throw it all together and whallah! You have a festive African-y wreath!

the fabulous SERVE:project ladies.

We celebrated much of Christmas on Christmas Eve with our extravegant dinner. The boys headed out for an extended man-date, while the ladies stayed back and whipped out our straighteners and curling irons for the first time in 3 months. I know this sounds extraordinarily girly… but it was fantastic to beautify again. 😉

the men of SERVE:project.

Our guys are just as fantastic, though they require less up-keep then the women. Luckies.

Dinner!

It was a DELICIOUS and DIVERSE Christmas dinner: moroccan stew with couscous, Tortilla soup, Cornbread (made out of posho!), lentil balls, fruit salsa, and spicy tortilla chips. All homemade. All made with limited ingredients. Props to our phenomenal party-planning committee and chefs: Brittany and Kimberley!

phenomenal leadership team.

We got into the Christmas Spirit by a wonderful candle-light Christmas-Eve service. The long-term family joined us for a beautiful night. (This is a merely a representation of the event).

All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Christmas morning was beautiful… and WARM. I think it’s pushing 100 today. Definitely one of the hottest days during our time here.

Jay was in charge of BACON... By his request.

Christmas Breakfast was prepared and served family style.

We all received stockings stuffed with encouragements and small gifts from the team.

Then we opened our personalized stockings. We had taken time to write encouragements to eachother, as well as finding small trinkets to make the morning special. My stocking included many notes, small treats, and a jar of nutella. 🙂

I ended up with a fantastic scarf.

Next we held our gift-exchange. It was a benign white elephant. I ended up with a fantastic scarf as well as an african-made pencil case. Thanks Amy!

Even though I was far away from family, home, and snow (though home may not have snow anyway…), this Christmas has been marked by joy, peace, and deeper revelations of the character of God. I am humbled by his incredible act of love this Christmas. Being away from family, in a new culture, and experiencing new things, God has been taking me deeper into his love. I remember more this year. And somehow, I love him even more.

Take a minute. Remember.

Merry Christmas.

Kim and I try to take a traditional jumping picture at every momentous occasion. This is our personal best.

A little r ‘n r.

Every Missionary needs a little rest ‘n relaxation. We took our first Pullback to a piece of Eden called Sipi Falls in eastern Uganda. It is at the base of Mt. Elgon in the Uganda-Kenya mountains.

It is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Ever. We walked around a bend from our dining room, and BAM… the most beautiful view I have ever seen: Tons of water cascading down 100 meters into the valley below. Lower Sipi Falls is breathtaking.

Sipi is made up of three levels: the first two are visible from a lodge called Sipi River Lodge. We trekked there for our Coffee Tour.

We trekked up the mountain to a coffee plantation, where they showed us the coffee plants, berries, and seedlings. It turns out that fresh coffee beans from the cherries are quite sweet. It’s only after the roasting do they become bitter.

Then we returned to Sipi River Lodge to husk the dry beans, roast, and drink them! It was delicious… and beautiful, because we were looking right at middle sipi falls while sipping the freshest brew possible.

My favorite and most exhilarating experience was rappelling down a 300 foot cliff into the base of a waterfall. Yes, we were soaked at the bottom. The force of the spray coming from the base of the waterfall was enough to soak you in a second.

Most of our time was spent in general Rest and Relaxation. I read a phenomenal book called “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. It is about the life of POW’s in Japanese camps and God’s redemptive power. Read it. I highly recommend it.

We are back in Gulu now, refreshed and ready for a new day….  Here we go!

go cranes!

Uganda has not had an opportunity to qualify for the African Cup finals for 30 years. Until yesterday. It was a huge deal. Everyone was talking about it. And when we found out we could procure tickets off the black-market, we jumped at the opportunity! Our friend Patrick (from church) brokered the ticket deal for us and obtained them for a hefty price of 45,000 shillings (originally 20,000 shillings…) Oh well. It was going to be worth it.

We woke up at 4:30 am to catch a bus to kampala by 6 am. But as we are operating in Africa time, our bus did not leave until 7am. African time is very different from Muzungu (white person) time. It is a 5 hour ride to Kampala from Uganda on a road that could only qualify as a highway in Africa… it is all relative. It was bouncy, hot, and long.

Kim and I on the bus to Kampala

We finally arrived in Kampala. There were people on the bus that helped us find our stop and get off at the right place. So we got off at our “bus stop.” There is no signage, nothing to indicate a bus stop… our bus stopped… and we got off.

At the "bus stop"

And the waiting began. Yeah. We didn’t blend in: 8 muzungu’s in Uganda jersey’s standing on the side of the road waiting for Patrick to meet us. We finally decided that we probably had enough time to eat lunch, seeing as we were waiting on someone who worked on African time. 🙂 CHEESEBURGERS AND FRIES were the treat of the day.

Dinner: the only real meal of the day.

When Patrick arrived, we learned that we had to stuff 9 of us, plus a driver, into a midsize sedan. Yep. A midsize sedan. we had 4 stuffed into the mini backseat of this sedan-ish vehicle and 4 stuffed into the next bench seat forward. I was in this middle seat with Tyler, Derek, and Jon. We called this ride “forced bonding.”

"forced bonding" 🙂

So we are driving towards the stadium… stuffed into a tiny vehicle… and it’s Africa. On the Equator. It’s warm. Luckily we have a moonroof. As we neared Mandela station, our driver had us close the sunroof. WHAT?! no air?! No, he wasn’t trying to smother us… just to make sure it was as dark as possible inside the car. so we wouldn’t be arrested. Even in Africa, it is very illegal to have that many people in a car.

packed like sardine's

We finally got to our destination. We were so happy to pile out of that car and finally be at the game! our first experience at an African national futbol game!

we climb the stairs to enter the stadium. And the chaos ensued. A teammate stated that in the states, when he is involved in a mosh pit or similar sized crowd, he feels safe because there is a measure of self-regulation. Not in Africa. Nope. It is a fend-for-yourself-shove-fest until you get where you want. Again, we clung tightly to each other so we wouldn’t fall down the “stands” and into the people, and to our stuff, so to hold off pick-pocketers. More bonding.

Suddenly, the Lord had favor on us, and the crowd parted. the Ugandan’s were calling for the “muzungu’s” to come to the front of the stadium. We received many many “thank you for coming”s on our way down to the place where there was room.

It was a great game. Though, I understand why most African’s watch Manchester United and Arsenal… African soccer is very very sloppy. Uganda definitely played a better game than Kenya though. Also, we have much cooler uniforms. In the end, the match ended as a draw, and there was no tie-breaker. Because Angola also won a game that night, neither Uganda or Kenya qualified. But it was an awesome experience. I don’t know if I would repeat it in the same way. I would bring very very little to the game and get there much much earlier… but it was so much fun!

go Cranes!

We then raced to catch the bus back to Gulu, rode through the night, and finally arrived home at 3 AM. Home sweet home.

it was the first time I called it home. and meant it.

Welcome to my home.

Our street. Concordia is on the left.

Some people have been requesting pictures of home *eh hem… Nadine*. So I thought I would share some. Here’s a small walking tour of our home. The picture above is our road. We live in the “senior quarter” of Gulu. Someone said that the senior quarter is the quietest part of town and it is probably why it was named the Senior Quarter 😉

Concordia Volunteers Compound

Welcome to our House. Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program is a NGO-type program that hosts groups from Canada for 3-4 months at a time. They have offices on the left side of the building, and we sometimes see some volunteers that stayed behind after the last group left in the morning.

Our view from our porch.

This is the view from our front porch. It is beautiful, quiet, and breathtaking. In the evening it is even more breathtaking.

Our small banda village.

There are 4 bandas out back. They are thatch roof, and poured concrete frames. They stay pretty darn cool. All of the interns stay in the bandas. Our leaders stay in individual rooms in the compound.

Welcome to my banda

This is my banda. I am in the big banda. There are 4 of us in a banda that sleeps 6. It is very comfortable for all of us.

My side of the banda

Welcome to our banda. I didn’t clean up for the pictures. Sorry. 🙂 As you can see, our bandas consist of a beautiful thatch roof and concrete everything else. Also, because it is rainy season, we often have to finish drying our clothes inside. We often race outside to grab the clothes off the line when we see the dark clouds rolling in. Hence, the clothes hanging off of every space on my bed.

Our "couch"

We have to get creative with comforts that we may want. So we created a couch for our banda. It is a great place to do quiet times or just to curl up with a book and cup of tea. We had some extra bunks, so we took the foam mattress off one of the extra beds, bought some fabric in the market, tossed a few of the extra pillows on for added comfort, and whallah! You have a very comfy couch. I also am still in the process of putting up pictures from home. It is the small comforts and reminders of home that make this place truly welcoming.