Merry Christmas Eve!

Today, Catriona and I were baking bread at David Family. I'm sorry for my lack of posts. We have been preparing for Christmas though it's not nearly as stressful as usual. We have had a very relaxed and warm holiday so far. Yesterday, we baked Christmas cookies with Stella, who slept over at our house for two nights. Then we went and gave some to various people at New Hope. Sharon, Biru, and Margaret from David Family joined us to sing carols and give out the cookies. Tomorrow, we will be going to church and having a meal with everyone. The next day, we're heading down to the camp. We'll be back next week. So I won't be doing any more posts until after then.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'll be back in 2013.

Ants

When you hear the word ant, what do you think of? Do you think of a crawling bug on the ground or do you think of a tasty snack? Well, on Saturday Catriona and I had the privilege of trying some ants. These are flying ants and every once in a while you see them crawling along and their wings covering the ground. The people here like to eat them. On Saturday, Catriona and I just had to taste one. So we each picked an ant off the ground, pulled the wings off (well, Catriona didn't know that part), and popped them into our mouths. Just imagine a squiggling ant, still alive in your mouth. But they were actually pretty good. They taste sort of salty. The trick is to do it fast, before you think too much about it.

Someone told us a story about the first time they saw the kids eating them. She went up to one of the kids and said in shock, "You're just eating those bugs!"
In response he said reproachfully, "They're not bugs Aunt, they're ants."

David Family Party

A couple weeks ago, David Family got together to celebrate the end of the school year for P7s and most S4s and encourage the rest of the kids for their exams. We ate matooke (a type of banana that is mashed and cooked), gnut sauce, rice, meat, cabbage, and we drank sodas. It was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it. Unfortunately, a few of the kids were sick and couldn't be there. One girl was very sick with malaria and another girl had not so bad malaria. They are doing better now. My dad read a letter from one of our IY girls who is at Kobwin Centre, teaching. She will be arriving back home very soon. It was great to be able to spend some time with one another just having fun.

Rainbow

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

Genesis 9: 12-13

16 Weeks!

16 weeks already! Time has been going very quickly. I thought I'd give a quick overview to let you know what we've been doing. (I haven't been posting as regularly as I would have liked.)

Ugandan Thanksgiving



Maize Harvest




Baking Bread




Spending Time with Zipporah and her boys





Spending time with Sam and his family




Having Fiona visit



Ugandan Jubilee




Devotions at David Family



Canadian Thanksgiving



Spending Time with Friends



Helping out at Hope Family

 

Wedding





 



Concert



Uncle Jay and Uncle Jonnes



On Saturday night, we went to a concert, organized by two boys who live here. It "started" at 6:00 but nothing really started until 7:00. I think most people who went can say that they had not laughed so hard in a long time. Lots of kids took part. There was some true African dancing. Some break dancing and rapping. The two people who were leading were hilarious and in between groups they would invite people from the audience up. The funniest part was when Uncle Jay and Uncle Jonnes, the founders of New Hope, had to go up and dance. Everyone was literally roaring with laughter. The concert was to raise money for people in the village and to go in you paid a small fee. During the concert, if you enjoyed the performance then you could go and put som extra money into a briefcase at the front. At the end they lit candles and sang some worship songs. It was very neat because one of the boys who organized the concert had composed his own songs only a couple of weeks ago. They were amazing songs. It was definitely an evening to be remembered.

Hope Family

Yesterday, Catriona and I went to Hope Family. This is the family group for babies and toddlers. The Dendys, Uncle Stu and Auntie Sarah are running it. We were helping out and it is amazing to see how much bigger some of them have gotten since last year. We went on a walk around the circle. Uncle Stu suggested that we go and get some pictures taken at A. Constance's (our current home). So down the hill we went. It was good timing because as soon as we got down it began to rain. We went onto the porch and after a little while headed back up to the house.