A trip to Maureen's place

Due to my internet speed, I think that I'm not able to post the videos that would really express the culture of childhood and Uganda as well as these photos or my words.  

Yesterday, we went up to visit a preschool that my friend has started in her village.  I've known Maureen for almost ten years.  We first met her as a secondary school student studying in a school where our friends (MCC volunteers) were teaching.  She then attended university at UCU, and has been here for many years as a teacher in Writing and Study skills.  She is working on her Masters in Literature.   She spends half her time working in higher education and half her time devoted to the people in her village; specifically the young children who inspire her to pour her time and energy into their brighter future.  

Maureen is special and I was glad to visit and see the work of her hands in her village.  But she also represents many Ugandan friends of ours who use their time and talents for those who are less privileged--especially their friends and family and community in the villages they come from. 

A  serious strength of Ugandan childcare/education---singing and dancing

I brought a craft-- we're blowing paint for designs

Becky (our tutor for Daniel) and I are with Maureen and her the teacher 

Daniel and Steven Boyy with the kids "posing"

Getting all files and uniforms sorted out before the kids long vacation (in Uganda, the long vacation in December and January not June and July)

Posing--this little girls kept following me around for poses! This is their classroom for now-- they are renting from the district headquarters.

Maureen has several small business that are helping her get money for starting the school--this is the shoe shop!

This is the saloon (they call it saloon not salon here)--Women prioritize hair and fashion even with small budgets!

Thanksgiving: a work day! :)

First a funny: (this really just cracks me up)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmXfWqaJevg&feature=relmfu

But on to a description of a Thanksgiving in Uganda with American college students...

I'm very curious to have Thanksgiving as a family one day as the whole time we've lived in Uganda, thanksgiving is a "work" day-- a day to host the students and give them a small taste of the homeland.

Football match; Mark is quarterback, Daniel ready to run!

Corn Hole: a student made these last year and the game and its universal appeal has won me over

A lawn set-up...not glamorous but it works! And there were no speeches ala Ugandan-event-protocol!

Students make dessert for thanksgiving which is its own process-- and now the finishing process!

Boys and girls and art therapy

Pretty excited that I now get portraits done of me-- self-portraits never seem capture this expression!

Won't go into an anaylsis of boys and girls.  Won't go into an analysis of whether we should be letting Daniel watch Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones.  I'll just let the viewer ponder a bit.

"I don't feel that different"--Mary the day after her 5th birthday

A little ode to the past helps one appreciate the present a bit more!

She started out cute!

On her 5th birthday, i came in from a walk and found Mary cuddling with Mark.   I said, I don't know who is getting the gift here.  And she said, "This is Dad's best present."  And this photo documents the origins of it all.

Daniel, despite some impishness, does have a loyalty to his sisters.  This birthday, Daniel was so excited to give Mary her present, he begged and succeeded in giving it to her the night before.

The love between Dorothy and Mary also began early!

A winning smile and bright eyes

Birthday cake with sister and friends!

I had designed the icing, but Mary added the real rose in the middle!

Some images for the mystery

2 Corinthians 4:8-11

we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

I do and I don't  understand this bible verse.  But I think I was drawn to the small watercolor that I got from both sets of my parents last year because it expresses a sort of overwhelming thing that can overtake us but also expresses a sort of simple standing with light behind and around us that is also assuring.  Its both scary and reassuring at the same time.  

Our tree in a rain storm

Martha Stewart comes to Mukono?

The following is a very-loose description of how to prepare a "stuffed" pumpkin-- seems the perfect "tweener" recipe between Halloween and Thanksgiving

First: Scoop out the pumpkin

Second: scoop out sides according to how much "stuff" you want in the pumpkin

Layering: pasta, beef, tomato, garlic, onion, salt, olive oil

And another layer

Toothpicks to keep the lid on while steaming

Banana stalks and leaves on the bottom to prevent burning

Edith with the banana gear around her

Covering the pumpkin with layers of banana leaves

The pumpkin at the end of 2 hours, with banana leaves removed

The scooped out pumpkin and pasta stew

Now a few more details:

1.  We cooked this on top of the stove.  If you were in the US, what would replace banana leaves? Foil? A proper steamer? Can we ask for banana leaves at our local grocery stores?

2. Ugandans also try stuffed pumpkins with pasta and ground nut sauce

3. Usually you would use broken up spaghetti--i think the bow-tie noodles took longer to cook--at one point, we opened the pumpkin and added some water to the pasta mixture.

4. Because the pasta was taking long, the pumpkin over-cooked.  It tasted good, but i think normally you would scoop the pasta out and then serve a wedge of pumpkin.  This pumpkin was so soft that I had to scoop the pumpkin out with the pasta. 

5. I'm definitely going to try this again with some different fillings inside as I do love local pumpkins.  

6. When I told my friend about this "project," she told me about a recipe from Barbara Kingsolver for pumpkin soup in a pumpkin.  I am adding the link because I think it is perhaps designed for American cooks and ingredients and realities (i.e. if banana leaves not available): http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/recipes-fall-pumpkin-soup-in-its-shell.htm

Halloween in Uganda

So, as you can imagine, there is no "fall" and therefore, no "fall" holidays in the equatorial land of Uganda. 

But never fear, the kids still trick-or-treated with the best of them!

Sadly, I don't have a picture of Daniel but he decided to be the headless horseman which basically worked out well.  A couple wrinkles-- he wanted our dog to be the "horse" which after the first house (at our immediate neighbors) proved to be difficult.   So, Mark had to become part of the costume--the headed father of the headless horseman who walks the dog/horse.  Our friend Brian joined us on the path and he'd just returned from leading his law students towards another trophy for Moot court competitions agains the oldest, biggest University in Uganda.  Somehow, this picture seemed to capture some of the disjointed, odd, good, real parts of our lives--- two dads, a dog, a trophy,-- in the middle of Uganda following a pack of costumed children up the hill to trick or treat. 

Daniel's line at the end of the night, "i think I won't ever be anything that means you have to wear a box on your head for the whole evening." (He had a box with a cut-out and a men's suitcase on top so it appeared that he had no head)

And our friends still hosted an after-party which included Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin.  It was one of those movie moments when you do become a child again as the youngest viewers popped up and danced at the appropriate times and laughed like Snoopy at other times.  

As with many aspects of life in Uganda, there was the moment of cognitive dissonance as we passed our friend Olivia on the path.  She is the head of theology, helped open the daycare on center on campus; as a person she is lovely and wise and compassionate.  She invites us to her kids birthday parties at her house, has a great laugh and generally is the salt of the earth.  As we troop by their house, she laughingly said, what is this?  I said, "trick or treat" and she said, oh, yes, I can see.  She has lived in Scotland where she did her Phd, she has kids the ages of our kids and we are marching by to collect candy from her neighbor.  Sigh, as Mark says, i don't think Ugandans are thinking about us much at all--their lives are full, they have commitments, and schools, and family functions, etc, etc.  But, nonetheless, in my visions of a better self, a more integrated life, all campus kids could be part of the fun.  In reality, how many kids is that, are they at boarding school, how expensive would it be for those families to buy hundreds of candies, etc, etc...  For now, I live with the tension, try to tell myself that whatever small traditions helps keep the expatriate staff content and endure in a foreign land is a net-good for all.  And yet, I confess that I live with some of the "free-floating" guilt as my mom calls it and I don't need to rationalize it away.