Me and Lucy at the Christmas dinner.
So Christmas was a couple days ago. Very different than in the states. We went to church at 9 am on Christmas Day and the service ended at 12:30 pm. By the time we got home it was 1 pm and the women started cooking. Christmas dinner, aka lunch, was served around 2:30 pm. It was a very large spread of all sorts of Ugandan food. Lucy and I gave some gifts to the family members at the house. Normally they don’t do gifts for Christmas.
Christmas Lunch with the family!
Around 3:30 I went to a party with Prossy, a math teacher that lives with the family I’m staying with. Lucy wanted to come but she unfortunately had a migraine. The party was thrown by three daughters, for their mother, to say “thanks for still being alive”. The woman was 60, though I would have guessed that she was much older. She was a very sweet woman and she LOVES muzungos (white people) and she hugged me over and over again.
Me and the woman who’s party it was. Constancia. And a little boy who I think is her grand kid.
Then they gave me this huge meal. About 2 hours after I just had my big Christmas lunch. Matoke is the cooked, unsweet smashed banana. The yams are whitish, with purple bits. In the banana leaves are chicken and beef which were steamed. So good!!!
I had a great time at the party. There was a boy who seemed to be in his early twenties who spoke English very well, and infact spoke 4 languages total. He apparently was visiting from Rwanda. There was also lots of VERY cute little kids that liked to take pictures with me. One little girl I thought looked so much like a black version my brother’s daughter Hattie. Another little girl, Brenda, was great at English. The kids around here do learn English in school and actually most of their classes are in English. Still, I think some of them might have better teachers than others and some of course are shy to talk, let alone talk in a language that isn’t their main one. Brenda called me “Gloria”, which actually a lot of people in the states think I say when I say my name, but I didn’t want to correct
These kids were great. Brenda, the girl 2nd from the right has GREAT English. The little girl in the yellow dress, I also found insanely cute.
her. I want to be Gloria for her! And I do like Gloria better than “Rory” or “Maury” which are some other names that people call me. Laurie is apparently hard to say around here. Since Brenda was the star of the kids (that’s how the kids seemed to see her, idolizing her for her excellent English), all the kids called me Gloria. I’m very ok with being Gloria.
Some of the ladies from the party, eating in the back yard. That’s a banana farm behind them!
I gave a gift of two bracelets on behalf of Lucy and myself. The woman had seen Lucy before, who interestingly enough is my height, very similar hair to mine and green eyes like mine. But I have glasses! Anyways, I was told later that the woman LOVED the bracelets and was going on and on about them and was so excited to have bracelets from the muzungos.
Prossy (on the left) and the woman of the hour, Constancia, I believe.
Me and the kids, in the back yard, next to the banana trees, taking pictures.
We call those grey yams (with the purple specs) Dasheen! I love them! It’s my favorite ground provision… the young leaves of the plant can also be cooked for broths and soups. They look like elephant ear plant and usually grown in swampy or moist soil… I’m glad you’re having such a nice time! Thanks for sharing your experiences!